Leonescu grew up on a small farm in the village of Ashford where the soil was poor, the Baron's demands were harsh and the family often struggled to make it through the winter, resorting to foraging in the woods or taking deer from the Baron's estate . "Fair's fair", Leonescu's father would always say, "The Baron can spare the deer more easily than we can spare the turnips he takes". Leonescu learned from his father how to shoot well and make every shot count, for the family could ill afford wasted arrows.

Leonescu took to archery like a natural, but less so to evading the Baron's rangers. When he was sixteen a ranger found him in the midst of dressing a deer and Leonescu was soon carted in chains to Melfesh for sentencing and almost certain hanging. Fate had other plans: The Melfesh nobility were planning an incursion into Cheliax and the magistrate offered military service as a means to escape the noose.

The training was brutal and unrelenting with instructors who saw it as their duty to get the recruits used to the level of mercy they could expect from the enemy. One day, the word got around that the army was looking for anyone with archery experience to come forward, and Leonard went with a great number of his fellow hoping for an opportunity to escape the front lines. During the archery tryouts, Leonescu was noticed by Sergeant Zindollo, a grizzled veteran of many capaings who saw his potential and became his mentor from then on.

Eventually the time came to march on Cheliax. For the first few weeks, the Varisian forces encountered no resistance, and Leonescu's companions laughed every night about the apparent cowardice of their foe. Then Leonescu was awakened in the night by the sounds of horns and screaming as a surprise attack fell upon his camp. He ran and hid, overcome by the chaos and brutality of the attack, eventually taking a bow and some supplies and escaping into the hills.

The next morning, Leonescu came upon a ragged band of other survivors, one of whom had a plan to make their way across country to a town where he knew caravan guards were hired with few questions asked. Knowing that as a poacher and a deserter he could not return home, Leonescu made his way as a caravan guard, learning to imitate the brash swagger of the more experienced mercenaries as a way to get hired. After several long journeys, some quiet, some tense, he finds himself heading into Sandpoint with a caravan bound for the inauguration of the temple.