Post by Aryela Jade Secray on Feb 14, 2009 0:53:46 GMT -5
Name: Aryela Jade Secray
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Species: Timber Wolf
Appearance/Attire:
Fur color: Her fur is the soft brown of a timber wolf. Her face and stomach are softer hazel.
Headfur color: Her headfur is a darker brown than the rest of her fur. She has copper and golden natural highlights in it. Typically, she wears her headfur in a loose braid down her back with the bangs sticking out around her face.
Eye color: Jade
Garb: She typically wears clothing that’s such a dark green that it almost looks black. An ebony tied vest adorns her chest, making it look somewhat like a corset but it isn’t nearly as restricting. She usually wears ebony or white gloves on her paws (tip less) that go up to her elbows, regardless of what she’s wearing. Her favorite style is a black sleeveless shirt. Over that, a pine green shirt, then another ebony vest tied in front. On her arms, black gloves and her pants are a mixture of black or pine. For the sake of the Twilight Trackers, she’ll wear blue.
Jewelry: A wedding ring on her paw that’s beneath the glove and a par of simple silver earrings.
Scars: A deep scar beneath her left eye that curves down her face, her neck, chest, and to her stomach. Numerous other scars on her back, arms (which is why she normally keeps them covered), and legs.
Weapon(s): Bow and Arrows, Twin Daggers, Throwing Dagger(s), Cutlass, Claws and Teeth. She's gifted with other weapons, but she can't use a sling to save her life.
Interests: She is talented with the lyre and the flute and has been known for making songs about her journey or others. When she’s not working, some have wondered if she’s a bard but she says she’s far from it. The music actually helps when she dances, forcing her to keep a beat with each step. She has a small gift with healing that she uses when necessary. Most think she just carries around poisons but she finds them somewhat dishonorable.
Personality: If one word could be used to describe Aryela’s personality, it’s ‘cool’. She is not crude and coldhearted, but she’s not overly cheerful or happy either. She’s at a comfortable medium where she can show pleasure at some things and disdain at others. After spending part of her life as a mercenary, she has yet to break the mask that normally covers her features when she’s in a large crowd. A smile is normally seen as a sneer, and a look of annoyance could be mistaken for uncontrollable rage. She knows what her emotions are but others find it difficult to read her. Unlike the previous general, she’s soft spoken, though raises her voice when she finds it necessary, like leading a group. What frustrates most others is when someone tries to anger her or get on her bad side, she’ll reply in such a calm voice that it just makes the other creature furious. Half the time her antagonists will walk away but when they stay, that’s when the weapon comes out along with the threat. She’s not a mercenary that will be pushed far and when her calm nature disappears, there’s a deadly personality just beneath the surface. Things do make her happy, but others have to look deep to see what those things are.
Code of the mercenary: Aryela’s code is different from others. She refuses to take jobs that involve assassination. She fights to defend herself but will not use poisons. When she takes a job, she completes it no matter what the cost. When hired, half of the money has to be paid up front or she won’t take the job. She primarily takes jobs involved in protection, spying, and gathering information. With the somewhat lighter personality, it’s easier for her to go in and out of taverns without question.
History: Aryela was born in a large village up to the northeast. The town consisted mainly of wolves and foxes but other species roamed around, like wolverines, mice, otters, and others. She normally stayed in the district with the canines however, since that was where her most immediately family resided. Her family started out large with her mother and father, Asila and Nofalin, her grandmother Jade (her middle namesake), her aunt and uncle Betris and Osin, cousins Vin, Tawsy, and Jerick, and her siblings Dosen, Ponera, and Ricster. They all lived in a moderately sized home with few enough bedrooms that the children all had to stay together. Fortunately, Aryela was one of the younger ones so she didn’t take up much room.
Aryela wasn’t anything special when she was born. She was smaller than her siblings, especially Dosen who was the eldest, and her cousins and sibs would often pick on her when they had the chance. Whenever something bad happened, like a vase broke or work got destroyed, Aryela was the one everyone blamed, and the one who always received the scolding. At first, she had trouble speaking when she was little so she wasn’t able to stand up for herself. Part of the problem was she had hearing difficulties for the first three years of her life and her parents just concluded that she was either slow or deaf. Flustered, Jade had taken her granddaughter to a healer, but even he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. So Aryela stayed in her silent world for awhile, until she was four when her hearing finally came back to her. Her sibs and cousins made fun of her when she tried to learn to speak and read. Though an avid learner, their rather crude nature put doubt in her and she would throw books away or refuse to speak.
Jade intervened once again and decided perhaps it was a good idea to send her granddaughter to a mentor not only to learn how to speak and read, but other skills. The problem with the family was that they all worked for a weaving and sewing business and with all the deadlines that they needed to get done, they needed an extra paw. Unfortunately, since Aryela couldn’t hear or speak, she was more of a burden than help and her cousins and siblings were jealous because she didn’t have to work. That led to bad blood between the family and Jade wanted to get her away from that before it was too late.
She was brought to the house of a mouse gypsy named Varin, a fox healer named Morece, and a wolverine mercenary simply named Red, her favorite teacher of all. Since Jade didn’t know the talents of her granddaughter, she left it up to the trio to not only help her learn, but give her a well rounded education in the arts of music, healing, and blade work. The moment Aryela was away from home, she was able to really start learning the written and spoken language. Varin was the teacher of this and the mouse started out with teaching her songs to help her open up her vocals. The mouse was kind and very energetic, almost to the point that Aryela wanted to hide with Morece, the mild tempered one of the group. In a short time, Aryela knew how to speak in a proper fashion, could read words and music, and had even been taught to play the lyre and the flute. At first she thought her skills were with music, but that changed when Morece took over.
Morece brought her repeatedly to the greenhouse in the back of the tavern, one only he could enter. They would sit for hours in there, going over herbs while Morece taught her what could heal, and what could hurt her. He instilled in her the feelings he had towards poison and she began to hate the deadly herbs. On several occasions, she went with him on night visits to the home of creatures who were sick and ailing. She’d help him with the herbs and watch him earnestly as he taught her. Aryela again began to develop the desire to heal but those dreams died when Jade fell ill. She did her best to try and heal her grandmother, Morece right at her side, but herbs cannot stop old age. After a month of care, her grandmother passed away, leaving a rather broken Aryela. Her family wasn’t exactly sympathetic for they hid their grief by complaining that they’d lost another person to work with them. Asila tried to get her daughter to come home and help but Varin and Morece stubbornly refused to let their pupil go. It was a week later that Morece found Aryela huddled in the corner of his greenhouse, still dressed in black from the funeral. When he asked her if she wanted to continue learning with him, she said she didn’t want to ever see death again.
Red was her last teacher, a tall and deadly wolverine that rarely ever spoke, or looked at anyone without them running. She was often feared in the town and Aryela pondered why her grandmother would leave her with such a vicious beast. Within the first week, she understood. Red began teaching her the finer points to using a blade. She forced Aryela to learn all weapons, be they bow, sling, blade, or javelin (though she never could master the sling. After the fifth broken window, Red finally made her give up on it). However, Red also taught her how to use the music she’d learned to fight. She often said “think of fighting as a dance. Every step or note is very important and if you miss it, it could mean death or the destruction of something beautiful. When you fight, imagine that you are playing your lyre. Use your knowledge of your weapon the same way you use your ease and understanding of the lyre.” Aryela understood this and she became and apt pupil.
When Aryela was about fourteen, Red was given a contract and told her young protégé she had leave for a time to fulfill it. Aryela didn’t want to be without her mentor, so she followed Red and watched her work. Unfortunately, this was an assassination mission and Aryela watched in horror as her mentor went into a tavern, then came out dragging the body of a limp ferret. Red had known she was there and she held out her bloody blade, showing it to Aryela. “Mercenaries sell their blades to the highest price, be it for assassination missions, slavery guidance, protection, information, and many others. Death is my calling but yours doesn’t have to be the same, Aryela.” Aryela had stared at the body in disgust and left for home, pondering her mentor’s words.
As her studies continued, another pupil, Caysin was handed over to the three teachers. He was wolf like herself, one with fur as bright as spun gold. Unlike her, he started out with Red’s teachings since his parents wanted him to focus more on the skill of blade and protection. While Red taught both of them, she also had them spar together to see what they had learned. Aryela was typically the better student and beat him 8 times out of 10. Impressed by her skill and her beauty, he soon began courting Aryela, though she played hard to get at first. It was at age 17 (young for a maid) that Aryela was ready to take on her name as a mercenary, and it was the same age that Caysin proposed to her. She agreed and though their families didn’t like them being wed, Aryela and Caysin eloped and kept their marriage in secret.
There was a problem in their relationship from the start. As much as they loved each other, they both knew they had to fulfill contracts that would be quite different from their mate. Aryela dedicated her mercenary code to protection and life while Caysin had a similar view as Red’s and took on assassin work. In both cases, it put them in danger and each time one of them received a contract, they feared for the other’s life. Aryela managed to collect money on quite a few missions and would keep half of it, while the other half was split between her mentors and her family. At age twenty, Varin passed away from a heart attack. Without her there, Morece asked for Aryela to act as a teacher until they were able to find another. While Caysin went off to fulfill another mission, Aryela stayed safe in the village…or so he thought.
Aryela had chosen a path that a family would have been proud of, but hers’ wasn’t, or at least her siblings and cousins weren’t. She was making more money than the six of them combined and while they toiled away, all she had to do was take one contract, and she made quite a handsome amount of money. Even though she gave a portion of it to her family, they still didn’t like her because she became the favorite of her sibling’s parents. So, Vin, Jerick, Dosen, and Ponera devised a plan. Jerick and Dosen had taken up side jobs as spies for some of rift raft of the streets and had also learned dark arts. They knew all there was to know about the dark market, along with the slave routes that traveled outside of their village. So, enlisting Vin and Ponera’s help, they confronted Aryela one night while she was alone teaching a student. They waited outside until the girl was gone then attacked Aryela, knocking her unconscious with a single blow to the head. Why would she expect fowl play from family after all?
Bitter, her two siblings and two cousins sold her over to one of the merchants in the streets for a hefty sum. What was to be done with her, they didn’t know, and they frankly didn’t care. The merchant had a terrible plan though and when Aryela awoke, she found herself stripped of her weapons, instruments, and bound to a slave line. She knew who had betrayed her since she had seen her family’s faces before she was put under. Angry and grieved, she spent a full year as a slave, doing everything she knew possible to get away. Unfortunately, the slavers kept a close watch on their property and every time she tried to resist, well, the whip markings on her back would be enough to give testimony to her treatment.
Someway, somehow, she managed to steal a blade from a sleeping slaver and used the weapon to pick at the lock on her wrists. She wanted to free the others but with the condition she was in, she knew it was best if she just went back home and regrouped. Besides, Caysin would be worried about her. It took a month for her to find her village again and when she did, disaster awaited her. Many huts had been emptied and the once prosperous village looked smoked, old, and broken. Aryela was shocked to find it in such a condition and she went looking for her family. Her home lay in nothing but smoldering ash on the ground, burnt down five months prior. Familiar faces were gone, replaced by the broken spirits of old friends.
Aryela went back to her home but she didn’t find Caysin there, nor anyone else. The only one she could find was Red. The old wolverine sat upon the porch of a tavern, smoking from a pipe, and supporting a bandaged, severed leg. Aryela nearly collapsed at the sight and she insisted her mentor tell her what happened. After Aryela had been taken, a great feud had broken out between Caysin’s family and hers to start off with. Her family blamed Caysin for their daughter’s disappearance while Caysin himself insisted he had nothing to do with Aryela’s kidnapping and he swore he would do everything possible to find and save her. Bad blood grew between them and it soon led into a fight over companies. While Aryela’s family worked for a weaving industry, Caysin’s worked more for weapon building. Well, once the two companies got at each others throats, other business began starting fights. The town broke out in riots and it caused many places to close down.
“And while they were bickering,” Red muttered around the pipe, “they never realized that there were other spies lurking around, waiting for the right time to attack.” With the town in disarray, it was only a matter of time before a group of cutthroats and vermin attacked to take control of what was left of the villagers. The town was unprepared and many died under the first attack. Over and over the vermin came until several creatures grew so desperate, they began to burn their homes just so the vermin wouldn’t have them. That had caused a village wide fire and nearly took out everything.
“My parents? My family?” Aryela had insisted but Red only shook her head.
“All gone except for two. The ones that didn’t die in the attacks, perished in the fire.”
Aryela asked who had survived and, with a sinking heart, Red told her Jerick and Dosen, the two who had not only betrayed her, but had been the spies for the vermin themselves. It was then that Aryelas asked for Caysin’s whereabouts. The lowered head told her all and Red informed her that once she went missing, Caysin went looking for her. Four months into the search he returned weak, weary, and uncertain. He refused to come to any more lessons and wouldn’t even take on jobs to support himself. When the vermin came, he fought, but he was murdered in the first wave of attacks by Dosen. Aryela crumbled at Red’s side after that and didn’t leave her mentor for several days. It took a month at least for the maid to build herself back up, mentally and physically so she could face the world again. By then, Red was ready to move on as well, despite her leg. Morece had perished in one of the fires, in his green house no less. Aryela had insisted that Red travel with her but the wolverine just laughed.
“Mercenaries don’t travel together…there are less contracts to fill then. Find your life, and find your path. We will meet again.”
The two parted after that, Red going back to her former life and Aryela traveling to become a much more apt mercenary. In her travels, she managed to run across Dosen, the murderer of her family and her husband. She caught him unawares during one of her contracts and, for the first time, she fought to kill. Dosen didn’t stand a chance against her blade skills, but he managed to score a deep slash on her body that ran from beneath her eye, down her face, neck, and chest. Aryela killed him with a single blow to the stomach and had left to tend to herself. The wound was deep and she might have joined her dead family had Red not popped up and tended to her. As the wolverine had said, their paths would meet again.
After that, Aryela’s path led her all around the land. Whenever she visited new villages, she’d collect maps and information so she knew what she was getting herself into during her contracted missions. She never found Jerick and she only assumed that he had either perished, or he was out there with the same group that had killed her family and friends. Aryela had found her satisfaction in revenge with Dosen’s death but she swore that if she ever found Jerick again, she would break her code and kill him.
Now, Aryela is making her way to Emerald Bay to take the place of a current General. Her mind is calm with her husband avenged but her personality is cool and collective with the mask of the mercenary to protect her.
Horse Black Friesian stallion named Tybalt.
Faction: Foot Troops
Faction Name: Twilight Trackers
Desire to join the Black Knights: Yes
Gender: Female
Age: 35
Species: Timber Wolf
Appearance/Attire:
Fur color: Her fur is the soft brown of a timber wolf. Her face and stomach are softer hazel.
Headfur color: Her headfur is a darker brown than the rest of her fur. She has copper and golden natural highlights in it. Typically, she wears her headfur in a loose braid down her back with the bangs sticking out around her face.
Eye color: Jade
Garb: She typically wears clothing that’s such a dark green that it almost looks black. An ebony tied vest adorns her chest, making it look somewhat like a corset but it isn’t nearly as restricting. She usually wears ebony or white gloves on her paws (tip less) that go up to her elbows, regardless of what she’s wearing. Her favorite style is a black sleeveless shirt. Over that, a pine green shirt, then another ebony vest tied in front. On her arms, black gloves and her pants are a mixture of black or pine. For the sake of the Twilight Trackers, she’ll wear blue.
Jewelry: A wedding ring on her paw that’s beneath the glove and a par of simple silver earrings.
Scars: A deep scar beneath her left eye that curves down her face, her neck, chest, and to her stomach. Numerous other scars on her back, arms (which is why she normally keeps them covered), and legs.
Weapon(s): Bow and Arrows, Twin Daggers, Throwing Dagger(s), Cutlass, Claws and Teeth. She's gifted with other weapons, but she can't use a sling to save her life.
Interests: She is talented with the lyre and the flute and has been known for making songs about her journey or others. When she’s not working, some have wondered if she’s a bard but she says she’s far from it. The music actually helps when she dances, forcing her to keep a beat with each step. She has a small gift with healing that she uses when necessary. Most think she just carries around poisons but she finds them somewhat dishonorable.
Personality: If one word could be used to describe Aryela’s personality, it’s ‘cool’. She is not crude and coldhearted, but she’s not overly cheerful or happy either. She’s at a comfortable medium where she can show pleasure at some things and disdain at others. After spending part of her life as a mercenary, she has yet to break the mask that normally covers her features when she’s in a large crowd. A smile is normally seen as a sneer, and a look of annoyance could be mistaken for uncontrollable rage. She knows what her emotions are but others find it difficult to read her. Unlike the previous general, she’s soft spoken, though raises her voice when she finds it necessary, like leading a group. What frustrates most others is when someone tries to anger her or get on her bad side, she’ll reply in such a calm voice that it just makes the other creature furious. Half the time her antagonists will walk away but when they stay, that’s when the weapon comes out along with the threat. She’s not a mercenary that will be pushed far and when her calm nature disappears, there’s a deadly personality just beneath the surface. Things do make her happy, but others have to look deep to see what those things are.
Code of the mercenary: Aryela’s code is different from others. She refuses to take jobs that involve assassination. She fights to defend herself but will not use poisons. When she takes a job, she completes it no matter what the cost. When hired, half of the money has to be paid up front or she won’t take the job. She primarily takes jobs involved in protection, spying, and gathering information. With the somewhat lighter personality, it’s easier for her to go in and out of taverns without question.
History: Aryela was born in a large village up to the northeast. The town consisted mainly of wolves and foxes but other species roamed around, like wolverines, mice, otters, and others. She normally stayed in the district with the canines however, since that was where her most immediately family resided. Her family started out large with her mother and father, Asila and Nofalin, her grandmother Jade (her middle namesake), her aunt and uncle Betris and Osin, cousins Vin, Tawsy, and Jerick, and her siblings Dosen, Ponera, and Ricster. They all lived in a moderately sized home with few enough bedrooms that the children all had to stay together. Fortunately, Aryela was one of the younger ones so she didn’t take up much room.
Aryela wasn’t anything special when she was born. She was smaller than her siblings, especially Dosen who was the eldest, and her cousins and sibs would often pick on her when they had the chance. Whenever something bad happened, like a vase broke or work got destroyed, Aryela was the one everyone blamed, and the one who always received the scolding. At first, she had trouble speaking when she was little so she wasn’t able to stand up for herself. Part of the problem was she had hearing difficulties for the first three years of her life and her parents just concluded that she was either slow or deaf. Flustered, Jade had taken her granddaughter to a healer, but even he couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. So Aryela stayed in her silent world for awhile, until she was four when her hearing finally came back to her. Her sibs and cousins made fun of her when she tried to learn to speak and read. Though an avid learner, their rather crude nature put doubt in her and she would throw books away or refuse to speak.
Jade intervened once again and decided perhaps it was a good idea to send her granddaughter to a mentor not only to learn how to speak and read, but other skills. The problem with the family was that they all worked for a weaving and sewing business and with all the deadlines that they needed to get done, they needed an extra paw. Unfortunately, since Aryela couldn’t hear or speak, she was more of a burden than help and her cousins and siblings were jealous because she didn’t have to work. That led to bad blood between the family and Jade wanted to get her away from that before it was too late.
She was brought to the house of a mouse gypsy named Varin, a fox healer named Morece, and a wolverine mercenary simply named Red, her favorite teacher of all. Since Jade didn’t know the talents of her granddaughter, she left it up to the trio to not only help her learn, but give her a well rounded education in the arts of music, healing, and blade work. The moment Aryela was away from home, she was able to really start learning the written and spoken language. Varin was the teacher of this and the mouse started out with teaching her songs to help her open up her vocals. The mouse was kind and very energetic, almost to the point that Aryela wanted to hide with Morece, the mild tempered one of the group. In a short time, Aryela knew how to speak in a proper fashion, could read words and music, and had even been taught to play the lyre and the flute. At first she thought her skills were with music, but that changed when Morece took over.
Morece brought her repeatedly to the greenhouse in the back of the tavern, one only he could enter. They would sit for hours in there, going over herbs while Morece taught her what could heal, and what could hurt her. He instilled in her the feelings he had towards poison and she began to hate the deadly herbs. On several occasions, she went with him on night visits to the home of creatures who were sick and ailing. She’d help him with the herbs and watch him earnestly as he taught her. Aryela again began to develop the desire to heal but those dreams died when Jade fell ill. She did her best to try and heal her grandmother, Morece right at her side, but herbs cannot stop old age. After a month of care, her grandmother passed away, leaving a rather broken Aryela. Her family wasn’t exactly sympathetic for they hid their grief by complaining that they’d lost another person to work with them. Asila tried to get her daughter to come home and help but Varin and Morece stubbornly refused to let their pupil go. It was a week later that Morece found Aryela huddled in the corner of his greenhouse, still dressed in black from the funeral. When he asked her if she wanted to continue learning with him, she said she didn’t want to ever see death again.
Red was her last teacher, a tall and deadly wolverine that rarely ever spoke, or looked at anyone without them running. She was often feared in the town and Aryela pondered why her grandmother would leave her with such a vicious beast. Within the first week, she understood. Red began teaching her the finer points to using a blade. She forced Aryela to learn all weapons, be they bow, sling, blade, or javelin (though she never could master the sling. After the fifth broken window, Red finally made her give up on it). However, Red also taught her how to use the music she’d learned to fight. She often said “think of fighting as a dance. Every step or note is very important and if you miss it, it could mean death or the destruction of something beautiful. When you fight, imagine that you are playing your lyre. Use your knowledge of your weapon the same way you use your ease and understanding of the lyre.” Aryela understood this and she became and apt pupil.
When Aryela was about fourteen, Red was given a contract and told her young protégé she had leave for a time to fulfill it. Aryela didn’t want to be without her mentor, so she followed Red and watched her work. Unfortunately, this was an assassination mission and Aryela watched in horror as her mentor went into a tavern, then came out dragging the body of a limp ferret. Red had known she was there and she held out her bloody blade, showing it to Aryela. “Mercenaries sell their blades to the highest price, be it for assassination missions, slavery guidance, protection, information, and many others. Death is my calling but yours doesn’t have to be the same, Aryela.” Aryela had stared at the body in disgust and left for home, pondering her mentor’s words.
As her studies continued, another pupil, Caysin was handed over to the three teachers. He was wolf like herself, one with fur as bright as spun gold. Unlike her, he started out with Red’s teachings since his parents wanted him to focus more on the skill of blade and protection. While Red taught both of them, she also had them spar together to see what they had learned. Aryela was typically the better student and beat him 8 times out of 10. Impressed by her skill and her beauty, he soon began courting Aryela, though she played hard to get at first. It was at age 17 (young for a maid) that Aryela was ready to take on her name as a mercenary, and it was the same age that Caysin proposed to her. She agreed and though their families didn’t like them being wed, Aryela and Caysin eloped and kept their marriage in secret.
There was a problem in their relationship from the start. As much as they loved each other, they both knew they had to fulfill contracts that would be quite different from their mate. Aryela dedicated her mercenary code to protection and life while Caysin had a similar view as Red’s and took on assassin work. In both cases, it put them in danger and each time one of them received a contract, they feared for the other’s life. Aryela managed to collect money on quite a few missions and would keep half of it, while the other half was split between her mentors and her family. At age twenty, Varin passed away from a heart attack. Without her there, Morece asked for Aryela to act as a teacher until they were able to find another. While Caysin went off to fulfill another mission, Aryela stayed safe in the village…or so he thought.
Aryela had chosen a path that a family would have been proud of, but hers’ wasn’t, or at least her siblings and cousins weren’t. She was making more money than the six of them combined and while they toiled away, all she had to do was take one contract, and she made quite a handsome amount of money. Even though she gave a portion of it to her family, they still didn’t like her because she became the favorite of her sibling’s parents. So, Vin, Jerick, Dosen, and Ponera devised a plan. Jerick and Dosen had taken up side jobs as spies for some of rift raft of the streets and had also learned dark arts. They knew all there was to know about the dark market, along with the slave routes that traveled outside of their village. So, enlisting Vin and Ponera’s help, they confronted Aryela one night while she was alone teaching a student. They waited outside until the girl was gone then attacked Aryela, knocking her unconscious with a single blow to the head. Why would she expect fowl play from family after all?
Bitter, her two siblings and two cousins sold her over to one of the merchants in the streets for a hefty sum. What was to be done with her, they didn’t know, and they frankly didn’t care. The merchant had a terrible plan though and when Aryela awoke, she found herself stripped of her weapons, instruments, and bound to a slave line. She knew who had betrayed her since she had seen her family’s faces before she was put under. Angry and grieved, she spent a full year as a slave, doing everything she knew possible to get away. Unfortunately, the slavers kept a close watch on their property and every time she tried to resist, well, the whip markings on her back would be enough to give testimony to her treatment.
Someway, somehow, she managed to steal a blade from a sleeping slaver and used the weapon to pick at the lock on her wrists. She wanted to free the others but with the condition she was in, she knew it was best if she just went back home and regrouped. Besides, Caysin would be worried about her. It took a month for her to find her village again and when she did, disaster awaited her. Many huts had been emptied and the once prosperous village looked smoked, old, and broken. Aryela was shocked to find it in such a condition and she went looking for her family. Her home lay in nothing but smoldering ash on the ground, burnt down five months prior. Familiar faces were gone, replaced by the broken spirits of old friends.
Aryela went back to her home but she didn’t find Caysin there, nor anyone else. The only one she could find was Red. The old wolverine sat upon the porch of a tavern, smoking from a pipe, and supporting a bandaged, severed leg. Aryela nearly collapsed at the sight and she insisted her mentor tell her what happened. After Aryela had been taken, a great feud had broken out between Caysin’s family and hers to start off with. Her family blamed Caysin for their daughter’s disappearance while Caysin himself insisted he had nothing to do with Aryela’s kidnapping and he swore he would do everything possible to find and save her. Bad blood grew between them and it soon led into a fight over companies. While Aryela’s family worked for a weaving industry, Caysin’s worked more for weapon building. Well, once the two companies got at each others throats, other business began starting fights. The town broke out in riots and it caused many places to close down.
“And while they were bickering,” Red muttered around the pipe, “they never realized that there were other spies lurking around, waiting for the right time to attack.” With the town in disarray, it was only a matter of time before a group of cutthroats and vermin attacked to take control of what was left of the villagers. The town was unprepared and many died under the first attack. Over and over the vermin came until several creatures grew so desperate, they began to burn their homes just so the vermin wouldn’t have them. That had caused a village wide fire and nearly took out everything.
“My parents? My family?” Aryela had insisted but Red only shook her head.
“All gone except for two. The ones that didn’t die in the attacks, perished in the fire.”
Aryela asked who had survived and, with a sinking heart, Red told her Jerick and Dosen, the two who had not only betrayed her, but had been the spies for the vermin themselves. It was then that Aryelas asked for Caysin’s whereabouts. The lowered head told her all and Red informed her that once she went missing, Caysin went looking for her. Four months into the search he returned weak, weary, and uncertain. He refused to come to any more lessons and wouldn’t even take on jobs to support himself. When the vermin came, he fought, but he was murdered in the first wave of attacks by Dosen. Aryela crumbled at Red’s side after that and didn’t leave her mentor for several days. It took a month at least for the maid to build herself back up, mentally and physically so she could face the world again. By then, Red was ready to move on as well, despite her leg. Morece had perished in one of the fires, in his green house no less. Aryela had insisted that Red travel with her but the wolverine just laughed.
“Mercenaries don’t travel together…there are less contracts to fill then. Find your life, and find your path. We will meet again.”
The two parted after that, Red going back to her former life and Aryela traveling to become a much more apt mercenary. In her travels, she managed to run across Dosen, the murderer of her family and her husband. She caught him unawares during one of her contracts and, for the first time, she fought to kill. Dosen didn’t stand a chance against her blade skills, but he managed to score a deep slash on her body that ran from beneath her eye, down her face, neck, and chest. Aryela killed him with a single blow to the stomach and had left to tend to herself. The wound was deep and she might have joined her dead family had Red not popped up and tended to her. As the wolverine had said, their paths would meet again.
After that, Aryela’s path led her all around the land. Whenever she visited new villages, she’d collect maps and information so she knew what she was getting herself into during her contracted missions. She never found Jerick and she only assumed that he had either perished, or he was out there with the same group that had killed her family and friends. Aryela had found her satisfaction in revenge with Dosen’s death but she swore that if she ever found Jerick again, she would break her code and kill him.
Now, Aryela is making her way to Emerald Bay to take the place of a current General. Her mind is calm with her husband avenged but her personality is cool and collective with the mask of the mercenary to protect her.
Horse Black Friesian stallion named Tybalt.
Faction: Foot Troops
Faction Name: Twilight Trackers
Desire to join the Black Knights: Yes