It’s been a while since I interviewed a character from my books, so I decided to track down Fero and ask him a few questions.

Me: Thank you for agreeing to talk a bit about yourself,

Fero. I know you don’t talk much about where you came
from, but please fill me in. You were born beyond the
Three Seas, I believe.

Fero: Yes. I was born in the land of Beridon. That is not only
beyond the Three Seas, but also beyond the Great Desert.

Me: Tell me about your family.

Fero: My father was a sandalmaker in the village where I
was born and grew up. I was the eldest son. I have three
sisters older than me. My parents were delighted to have
a son at last as in Beridon, girls are deemed to be of little
worth.

Me: That is shocking.

Fero: Yes. I now realize how bad that is. How much talent
is being wasted in that country I can hardly begin to
contemplate. It wasn’t until I came to Grosmer that I really
learned the value of women.

Me: I suppose, growing up with that way of thought you
wouldn’t think it unusual.

Fero: No, but I am ashamed now for my past, my family and my countrymen.

Me: What was life like in Beridon?

Fero: It was hard. We were not actually in the Great Desert, but in the summer there was usually a drought. Frequently our animals and crops died and we went hungry. However, in the past, we had learned about irrigation and so it was not as bad as it had once been. Only in really bad drought years were we in very bad conditions.

Me: Tell me about your family.

Fero: I haven’t seen them for many years. I hated sandal making but my father thought that,  as the eldest son, I should follow him and take over the family business. I would then marry a girl of their choice and look after them in their old age. I hated that idea and was something of a rebel. I took every opportunity to go out into the wilds and it was on one of those forrays that I met an old druid.

Me: Did you decide to bevome a druid yourself?

Fero: Oh, no. I am not a very religeous man, although I do revere Grillon, the god of nature and wild things. The old man taught me much, but even he could see that I was not cut out to be a druid, so he sent me to a ranger friend of his.

Me: What did your family think of this?

Fero: My mother would have been quite happy with this. I had two brothers now and they were both happy to go into sandalmaking. My father was completely opposed and forbade me from going. Mother couldn’yt go against him as he would have beaten her and it would still have made no difference to his thoughts. He beat me too, and tried to lock me in my room.

Here Fero laughs.

Fero: He should have realized that he couldn’t really do that as my brothers had to come in and out!

Me: What did you do?

Fero: Well, I escaped, of course. I gathered my things and went to tell mother that I was going. Father came in at that moment, just as I was going out of the door. Mother called ‘Goodbye Fero. Don’t forget us.’ Father pushed her back indoors and I heard him say ‘Go in, woman, we have no son called Fero.’

Me: That must have been very hard. What did you do then?

Fero: I went to join my new master. She was very good and understanding and taught me well, until one day she deemed my apprenticehip was ended and I was to go out and make my own way in the world.

Me: Where did you go?

Fero: Firstly I wandered Beridon, then decided to go and look at the Great Desert. I almost died of thirst then. I was completely lost, but a tribe of nomads found me and saved me. I was sunburned, blisters all over me. They tended me and then took me travelling with them. I learned to wear the long enveloping robes they wear and to keep out of the direct sun as much as possible. They wandered eventually to the seaport of Candor on the Inner Sea. I had never seen a large expanse of water and it fascinated me. I got passage on a ship crossing to Grosmer. I worked my passage, of course, and eventually came to Bluehaven. Here I abandoned my new career as a seaman and wandered around the south of Grosmer for many years, doing jobs here and there. Sometimes I would pick fruit, grapes or peaches or oranges. At other times I was scouting for caravans. Then one day I was with a group of young men who decided to go to Eribore. I joined them, intending to cross the Western Mountains and see the Horselords on the plains.

Me: Did you see them? The are supposed to be quite a sight when they ride their horses.

Fero: No. I have wondered and wondered why I took that path towards Hambara, but I can’t tell you why. Just a sudden impulse came upon me and I left my companions and turned east instead of west. If I had not done that, I would not have met Carthinal and the others. I wonder what the outcome of their quest would have been if they were not 8 questors as the prophecy had said? Would they still have found the Sword or would the quest have failed? Also, I would not have met Randa either.

Me: Thank you for your time.