Aleuralisaen
Commander
Joined: 11 Mar 2007
Posts: 51
Location: Scryer's Terrace, Shattrath City
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 Posted:
Mon Mar 19, 2007 5:28 pm |
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Our tale begins deep in Krynn's dark Kagonesti forest, on the brink of war. There lies a natural metropolis perched in the branches of eldrich trees. There lies Kagonost, the capital city of the Wild Elves. It is a place unknown by Dwarves or Men. It is wild place never visited by the other races of Elves.
Beneath the ancient jade canopy was born a young Kagonesti girl to a house of soldiers. She was named Aleuralisaen, and played among the roots of the great trees with other children. She had an early gift for the bow, and an uncanny affinity for animals. That empathic bond saved her young life. At barely the age of seventy, she noted odd behavior and feelings from the animals of the wood. Curiosity pulled her away from the city just moments before a legion of the Blue Dragon Flight descended upon it, reducing the great jewel of the forest to smouldering ashes and blood. She fled blindly from the carnage, and stumbled into a great river that washed her far out to sea.
Two days later, a dense and rolling silvery fog arose around her. The raging seas had become suddenly tranquil, and red-rimmed hazel eyes rose to the hint of a distant light.
Silvery curtains of the Aeraean Myst roled back to reveal a sylvan latern hanging from the beak of a silver gryphon. As the Myst began to clear, the gracefuly sloping white-laquered hull of a small Aeraean fishing vessel was revealed behind the figurehead. Sweeping triangular sails bearing the crest of the Sovereign billowed in a gentle breeze, and she noticed suddenly that the Myst had vanished as if it had never been. Blue skies and calm seas of a pure crystal blue had suddenly replaced the grey-green fury.
She was so strartled at this that she completely forgot to scream as the talons of a real gryphon wrapped gently about her dehydrated body to carry her gently to the deck. She looked around upon smiling Elven fishermen in perfectly clean white breeches and azure silk shirts. She wondered then, and not for the first time, if she had drowned or been eaten by the dragons. Fishing boats were supposed to be old and dirty, or at least roughly assembled. This looked like the private vessel of a Qualinesti prince. Fishermen wore cheap burlap, and reeked of fish entrails. They waded through whatever scum accumulated in dirty bare feet, and certainly not fine bleached doe skin. No water could possibly be that blue, and if this were not a delirious fancy, it must be an afterworld that was never touched by pain or fear. Nonetheless, she gladly accepted fresh crystal water and warm spiced foods. She was bathed and dressed in fresh white silks, her scratches and ills gently mended by a cleric of Gaia. With a fleeting hope that her family had found such a pleasant place to spend their afterlie as she, young Aleuralisaen fell into a deep dreamless slumber.
Three days later...
Her eyes opened slowly upon a small, airy room with a warm and gentle breeze drifting across her body. She felt completely serene, yet refreshed and full of energy. There was another young elven maid in the room with her, sitting next to the open window at an easel while painting an intricate landscape. Her name was Azurille'aldresine, and she was charged with acclimating the wayward orpan to Aeraea and it's ways. The two became fast friends almost immediately, and she took Aleu to Ihraed, the Dryad of a nearby great poplar for her aid in growing Aleura a small house. The three of them spent a great deal of time together beneath Ihraed's modified branches over the next few decades as Aleuralisaen came to know the profound peace of the land, and to hunt as a part of the natural cycle.
Nearly fifty years after their first meeting, with Aleuralisaen well into her adolescence, Azurille confronted her. "You have grown much, but there is a hatred and fear in you that will never allow you to find your inner peace. Not lest you cast it from your heart. You have modeled the dragons that destoyed your old home as the focus of all that was evil in that world. You must learn that their evil was in disrupting Nature's harmony, and that all dragons are not so. There are those who live in the Aeraean peaks, and those of the lakes. I see you jump when one passes over even at great distance. I have arranged a meeting for you with a blue wyrm that you can trust with your very life, as you trust me. With that trust in me, I bid you to go alone to the lake this night."
Aleuralisaen had been too surprised and shocked that long ago night to know the true terror of what was happening until it had passed. This night she went to face her greatest terror, and she knew it was coming. She whiled the time away trying to find tasks that weren't hampered by trembling hands, and dwelling on the idea that somehow the time that had been flying lazily past since her arrival had suddenly dropped to a sluggish crawl. Even the omnipresent tranquility of this enchanted realm could not dispel her rising terror. When at long last the time approached, she pulled on her favorite silk gown and soft boots. She took no weapons, for of what use would they be? Taking a last deep breath, she stepped out into the darkness.
The fledgeling ranger crept silently through great trees made ghostly by the blue-silver luminesence of the gibbous moon. She slowed as the lake grew near, it's calm waters casting minute rippled of silver light across the trunks of trees, and illuminating patches of sapphire blue scale. The beast was barely adult itself, yet in her terror it seemed to tower above the trees. The unseen teeth leaped in her imagination as jagged swords dripping bloody froth. The regal repose was made over as a threatening crouch, as if the dragon were prepared to pounce. Though facing her direction, it had made no sign yet of detecting her approach. Perhaps she could still get away before...
"Do not try to sneak away Aleuralisaen." Came the low, rumbling tones of the beast's voice. Like a frightened deer, she tried to bolt. She jumped a foot in the air, and hit her head on a branch. He senses scrambled, she tried to run blindly away from the scaled terror. One foot tangled in a weave of vines, and she went sprawling through a berry bush. Helpless and hopelessly tangled, she was unable to even pick herself up. She could do little more than listen to the horrid rumbling in the dragon's throat as it approached, and pray for Luna to send her a quick death.
She whimpered as there was a tug at her ankle, and she felt a talon brush her ankle. And then, nothing more. As her panic began to fade, she began to suspect that the off-beat rumbling coming from the dragon was laughter. She replayed the last few moments in her head, pictured herself with twigs stincking out of her hair and berry stains spotting her face, and flushed beat red. Terror gave way quickly to indignation, and she scrambled to her feet. Being eaten was one thing, but humiliation was entirely another! She stepped out of the thicket in a rage, prepared to take the uncouth lizard apart with her bare hands... and stopped dead with her mouth hanging open. The rumbling had turned nearly unnoticed into musical laugher, and Azurille was sprawled against a tree next to the lake giggling so hard tears were streaming down her cheeks.
The only logical thing to was step up to her friend, and give her a mighty shove into the lake.
The next few months were decidedly awkward. Aleu's most trusted friend and greatest enemy had colesced into a single being, and neither had really changed much for her. Azurille left her mostly alone with her thoughts, and alone she stayed. There was little need to hunt or gather, as the Aeraean fruits trees and berry bushed replaced their bounty as fast it could be eaten. She ceased jumping every time a dragon flew past, and began watching them closely. Apprehension still arose every time one came close, but the fear was transitioning into faint hope that her friend was visiting.
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Lady Aleuralisaen Kriana Willowheart
Commander of Aeraean Forces (Azeroth)
Matriarch of House Willowheart |
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