You’d come upon him by chance on your way home one night after having a drink at the Blushing Mermaid and had been close to tripping over your own feet to avoid crushing the small creature under your boots. Having always had an affinity for animals, you’d gingerly scooped him into your hands and examined him more closely: a small bat with delicate, silky wings and sleek, white, velvety fur that covered his chest and curled around his large, pointed ears. You’d thought he was dead at first but could faintly make out the shallow rise and fall of his tiny chest. He was clearly injured somehow, but you’d known there was little to be done for him with just what you had on your person, so you’d tucked him safely in your front pocket and took him with you back to your modest apartment in the Heapside district of Baldur’s Gate.

You’d sat by your fireplace with the unconscious little beast in your lap, inspecting him for injuries. There had to be something that had put him in such a state.

But then there it was - a splinter. But no ordinary splinter. Sussur bark. You’d recognize that stifling aura anywhere, even from a piece so small. But why would sussur be incapacitating to a bat? You’d shrugged and tenderly removed the splinter, then dressed the tiny wound.

The bat had remained unconscious, but - exhausted from your day (and your libations at the Mermaid) - you’d made a little nest for your new patient and slipped into bed, easily falling into a deep sleep.

But when your eyelids flutter open the next day, the first thing you see isn’t the warm glow of the morning sunlight across your ceiling. It’s a pair of garnet colored eyes with a scrutinizing gaze belonging to a strange but oddly familiar elven man standing over you. He has pale, almost opalescent skin and sharp, handsome features framed by short, silvery white hair curling around his pointed ears. You notice he’s wearing nothing but one of your blankets wrapped around his waist.

“Ah,” he says with a disarming smirk. “My noble savior awakens…”