Mort (Discworld)

Warning: Wikipedia contains spoilers

He's a teenager as we would call him now, his family is not so rich so one day his father decides to take him to the market, where, like in Bible, people came to take on some staff to help in work. When everybody was gone, except him, his father wanted to go back and come the following day, but Mort resisted, for he wanted to stay until 12 p.m. Just before the clock-bell rang for the 12th time, a guy, in a cloak, on a black horse arrived. He said he was looking for a young man to assist him in work and picked up Mort. The guy came to be The Death... latter we can read about the hard work of Mort's and troubles concerned with "killing" [I know it's not the most appropriate term for _this_ kind of work].

It is believed that Death chose Mort partly because Death himself had the nickname Mort (he is called this by the other members of the 4 horsemen), Mort being the French word for death, and the origin of several English words (e.g. mortal, post mortem).

The pressure of the job forces Mort to make a few mistakes, but like all good heroes, he grows some spine, gains some self control, challenges death to a duel and waltzes away with the girl...

He marries Death's adopted daughter Ysabell and they live relatively happily ever after as the duke and duchess of Sto Helit.

Pity "happily ever after" is only about another 15 years...

They are however survived by a daughter, Susan Sto-Helit who should really be named Susan Death. But that's another book... Soul Music[?] to be precise.

See also : Terry Pratchett