Today is my 18th birthday, and I’m so excited. Well, excited, but also nervous. I’ve been planning today for over a year now, after all.

My Father, Goldric, follows a tradition that has been handed down to him from my Grandfather. On his 18th birthday, he left home and traveled to Northshire, where he works as an armorer and shield maker, to this day. My brother, Avery, was next. He’s three years older than me, and he left home on his 18th birthday, as well. He went into training with the Knighthood, and now he’s Kalimdor, serving the Alliance.

My Mom hates it! If it were up to her, Avery would still be home and I wouldn’t be going anywhere, either. But as sad as it makes her, I know she’s proud of us. Father, too.

When I woke up this morning, Mom was just setting breakfast on the table. She had been up since just before dawn, as usual. We had warm buttermilk biscuits with churned honey-butter, and fresh strawberries from the garden. I told her that she was spoiling me, and then gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek when I saw her grey eyes getting all misty, again. She is being silly, but she knows it. I’m hardly leaving home, at all. Just down Stormwind, down the road. I’ll most likely be coming home every weekend to visit them, anyway.

Keen just interrupted my musings in this journal with his insistent pawing, just now- determined to get a bit of cream in his saucer, before he’d allow me to write any further. I’m going to miss waking up with him curled around my feet in the mornings. Maybe in a few weeks, once I get settled, I’ll come get him and bring him back to Stormwind with me. Or… maybe not. He’s an outdoor cat, and Stormwind is such a big city. I just can’t picture him not being able to chase grasshoppers in the garden, or hunt squirrels and mice in the woodpile behind the house. Maybe I’ll adopt a new cat when I’m there.

I’m still trying to decide what kind of work I want to do in Stormwind. I can definitely pick up a job at the inn or even at the infirmary. I want to meet people, and do something to help the travelers and Alliance army when they come through the city. I’m thinking about an apprenticeship with one of the local alchemists or tailors. I suppose I don’t need to decide, just yet. I can work at the inn until I figure it out.

I’ll be leaving after lunch, today. For my birthday, Mom and Father gave me a new pair of leather traveling boots, some writing paper for my journal, and enough gold to get me by for a couple of weeks while I’m looking for work. Mom is ridiculously worried about me, especially during the walk to Stormwind. There have been a lot of reports of those Defias bandits robbing people along the roads near Goldshire and Stormwind. I keep reassuring her that I’ll be fine. I know how to keep an eye on my surroundings. Besides, Father started teaching Avery and I basic self defense at a young age. Not to mention how to evade things like that, altogether.

When it was time to go, Mom and I exchanged tearful goodbye’s. I felt rather foolish, being that I’ll still be seeing them every weekend. But still.. it’s a big change. Father was stoic was usual, but I could tell from his eyes that he was sad, also. I hit the road at last, excited and looking forward to the journey, and seeing Stormwind again. My family travels there from time to time, to do some shopping when Father needs to pick up new supplies for his work. I was not surprised to see one of the Northshire guards along the road as well, ‘conveniently’ running an errand in Goldshire. I’m pretty sure Father paid him to keep an eye on me. I had some errands to run in Goldshire as well- once people had heard about my trip, a few had asked me to deliver various letters and packages for them. I made my stop brief, however.. it was starting to get to be dusk out, and I was anxious to get to Stormwind before it got much darker. It wasn’t that I was worried.. but why tempt fate?