Some background: A while back, a guildie started saying another guildie's character, Andriana, looked decidedly pregnant. Everyone was amazed - they had know of nothing The first guildie then started a contest, to see who would figure out who the baby's father might be. He might be anyone, except Andriana's alt characters, because in her background story, they are her adopted fathers. So, I set to the challenge and the following story is what I came up with. A little background on Andriana - she's a nice Woodelf, orphaned young but placed in a family in Qeynos, together with her sister, by her adopted fathers, who were from Freeport. She started out as a Mystic, but betrayed to Defiler to be able to live in Freeport with her fathers. She left her sister behind in Qeynos. **** Andriana sat on a big rock overlooking the island of Coldwind Point in Antonica, half-hoping to catch a glimpse of her little sister, but mostly enjoying the greeny quiet of the Antonican countryside. She had her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms circling them and her chin resting on her knees. All of a sudden, she heard sounds of a scuffle from somewhere along the bottom of her rock. Annoyed with the interruption of her daydreams, she sighed and tried to ignore the heavy foot-falls and gnollish yelps. However, among these were also increasingly heavy human breathing, and increasingly panicy mutterings and half-heard exclamations. A heartfelt "Oh, someone DO help!" apparently aimed at noone at last made Andriana rise and tiptoe over to the edge of the rock, to look down on the scene below. A Dark Elf stood with his back against the wall, severly impairing his ability to swing his sword, facing a pack of gnolls. One gnoll lay dead on the ground, but four others were still surrounding him, sticking him with their spears or snaking out their heads to bite him. The dark elf appeared to suffer a number of serious injuries, one of his arms hanging limp at his side, a large bloody wound on his right thigh and blood running from a deep gash along his forehead. For a split second Andriana considered leaving the Dark Elf to the mercy of the gnolls, but kindness had been too deeply bred into her. She jumped down off the rock, casting a healing spell on the dark elf even as she jumped. Instantly the blood in his wounds started to clot and the flesh began knitting itself back together. Landing softly on the grass just in front of the dark elf, Andriana freed her battle hammer and swung at the gnolls. The first one went down at the first swing, it's head bashed in. A couple of swings more easily dispatched the other three gnolls. Then she turned around to face the Elf. She could see he was quite young, for an Elf anyway. His hair was not bound up in one of the elaborate styles she used to see on the Dark Elfs in Freeport, but rather cut fairly short and hanging around his face in rakish locks. There was a short beard on his jaw and a mustache on his upper lip, but they couldn't hide the curve of his smiling mouth. There was a sparkle of humour in the Elf's eyes that Andriana had never seen in any Dark Elf before. She felt an unexpected flutter in her stomach when the Elf smiled at her even more broadly. "Och, she is beautiful as well as skilled with a weapon!" The Elf swept forward, raising his now uninjured arm to take her hand, raise it to his mouth, and gently kiss it. Then he raised his eyes to hers again, the corners of them crinkling as her smiled at her again. "Allow me to introduce myself, Lady saviour - my name is Vanye, previously of the T'var's of Freeport." Andriana thought she saw something like a frown cross his face, but it was gone so soon she wasn't sure she had acctually seen it before he smiled at her again. "Thank you ever so much for saving my life just there, Lady... ah, dare I ask you name, Lady?" Andriana couldn't help smiling back at Vanye. "It's Andriana, master Vanye. And it was nothing, really. I'm a healer, after all." "Andriana." He almost seemed to taste her name as he said it. "A lovely name." He looked her over quickly, taking in her chain armour and the battlehammer hanging at her side, glowing softly. "You'll be a mystic?" Andriana shook her head, slowly. "No mystic. A defiler, in fact." Vanye's face fell slightly, and Andriana felt her stomach fall with it. "You'll live in Freeport then." It was no question, but rather a statement. "I only went to live there because my family is from Freeport. I used to live in Qeynos." Andriana hurried to say. Vanye gave her a lopsided grin at that, that made her stomach make a slight jump up again. "So here I am, running away from Freeport and my family, to reach the shining freedom of Qeynos, and there you are, having left that very place to be with your family." He chuckled softly to himself. His eyes roamed the surrounding country and he checked if his sword was free in it's scabbard, appearing to Andriana to be on the verge of setting off again, leaving her what suddely seemed alone on the Antonican coast. "Please," she said, "it sounds as if you have a story to tell." She gave Vanye one of her best smiles. "Would you care to join me up on the rock and tell me?" To her deep relief, Vanye smiled at her, nodded and followed her up the rock. They shared lunch up on the big rock, as well as stories. To Andriana's surprise, Vanye appeared to have belonged to wealthy family with high social status in Freeport. He had left all his family and most of his belongings behind to come to Qeynos, the shining beacon of freedom that had kept him going through the hard time of his flight from Freeport and his time in exile. This day he had first approached Gil McMartin, the man he was told could help him get into good graces with Qeynos, and it was one of the tasks he had been doing for him that had led him into the predicament with the gnolls that Andriana had found him in. "I never was much of a fighter, I'm afraid." He'd said. "Sure I got some very basic fencing, but nothing like fighting acctual beasts in the wilds. My limited fighting skills made it hard for me to get around Nektulos Forest and even the Commonlands. Alas, you saw how those gnolls got at me." Andriana in turn told Vanye about her past, how her adopted fathers had found her and her sister abandoned, how they had fostered them in Qeynos, and how she had eventually left her sister to go to Freeport to live beside her adventuring fathers. Without them really noticing, midday turned to afternoon, and afternoon into dusk. Talk slid into silence as they watched the sun turn red and slowly sink below the far off horizon. Vanye sighed as the last slice of sun disappeared, casting the land into night's gloom. "I suppose it's time to find a place to sleep. I'll have to be up early tomorrow to work on those tasks for Qeynos." He rose, then started collecting the few things he had set about on the rock. Andriana hesitated, watching him pick up things and stuffing them into his bag, then retrieving his sword and scabbard and afixing them to his belt. "I..." She hesitated again, not wanting to force her company upon him if he didn't wish it. She shrugged. He was well able to refuse her offer if he wanted to. "I know a good sleeping place not too far off I could take you to. And if you want to, I'd be happy to help you kill a couple of gnolls for the good of Qeynos tomorrow." Andriana might have imagined it, but she thought she saw a happy flush on Vanye's face as he smiled at her and nodded. "Sleeping place sounds grand. And I would love to have you around for a while longer." Andriana and Vanye spend three days together, hunting the beasts Gil McMartin told Vanye to hunt, improving Vanye's fighting technique ever so slightly and visiting places in Antonica that Vanye would probably never see again. He fully intended not to leave Qeynos again, once he had gained acceptance with the city. "However much I would like to be like you, Andriana, going to dangerous places, meeting new people and see exotic sights, I know that's not for me. I can hardly fight to save my life, don't know an ore node from a badger and wouldn't recognise a unicorn from a centaur." He had smiled sadly over his own attempted joke. "I'll never make an adventurer. Once I am allowed into Qeynos, I'll buy a small house somewhere and try to set up as an artisan. Or maybe the local stables will hire me, I've always been good with horses." Andriana, sitting closely beside him at their campfire, stared into the flames quietly. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to staying inside the city for their whole lives, not wanting to explore the world that had changed so much in the last decades. Then one of the things he had said hit home, and she giggled. "Not know an ore node from a badger?" Vanye nodded seriously. "Oh yes. I tried to mine my share of badgers when I started harvesting." The corners of his mouth trembled, however, before he could contain his mirth no longer and started to laugh. Andriana found him pleasant company, considerating, entertaining and with an odd streak of humour she found matched her own. They had some serious talks, lots of good laughs, and a couple of flirty conversations that made Andriana's face flush and her her stomach flutter. The same flutterings were there when their hands or legs touched in passing. And yet she felt herself wanting to touch Vanye more, and more. The evening of the third day found them sitting together on the same big rock overlooking Coldwind point they had met. Again, they watched the sun slowly slide below the far western horizon. Andriana picked up her courage and laid her hand on Vanye's. Her voice was soft as she spoke. "Would you tell me why you left Freeport? It seems to me, from your tales at least, you could have lived an easy and comfortable life with them." Vanye nodded slowly, intertwining his fingers with Andriana's and softly squeezing her hand. "I know." he said. "It would have been an easy and comfortable life. But I couldn't, not with my family." He sighed, the humourous glint in his eyes gone for the moment. "They were okay when I was little, never affectionate, but kind enough. I got everything I could wish for, if it was for sale. But they never understood how I longed for beauty, or simple prettiness, things to appreciate and love for what they were. And then Innoruuk returned." Vanye sighed again, his eyes fixed on the towers of Qeynos' Castle, visible in the distance. "They revelled in the worship of Innoruuk. They wallowed in Hate, infected by it and doing their everything to spread it for the further glory of Innoruuk." He shuddered, and Andriana slipped her arm around his shoulders. "I was there, I walked the streets of Freeport to escape the house, and still I saw what Hate did to people, good people." He smiled a lopsided smile. "As good as they come in an evil city, anyway. When I saw the people fighting in the streets, killing each other over nothing, I knew the time had come. I discreetly inquired and found a Ratonga willing to help me get out of the city and into exile. In the Haven I learned the name of the man that would sponsor people that wanted to get into Qeynos, provided they prove their worth and dedication." Vanye shrugged. "You know where that got me." He smiled at Andriana now, a tender look in his eyes. "That reminds me. Gil said that he had send word to Qeynos about me, and that he would give me the name of the man to look for inside when I was ready for it." "Oh." It was all Andriana could say. She had know it wouldn't be long before Vanye would be accepted into Qeynos, but somehow it seemed all too soon. She slowly let her arm drop from around Vanye's shoulders, drew up her knees protectively to her chest and put her arms around them. Vanye didn't seem to notice. Instead, he got up and rummaged in his pack, then gave her a quick, distracted smile as he let himself drop off the rock. "I'll be right back." Andriana felt a knot in her stomach and a lump in her thoat as she looked out of the distant towers of Qeynos, ruddy with the light of the setting sun. He was leaving her, as it seemed without a backward glance. Had she been wrong in thinking she'd seen him flush as she did in their teasing, thinking he'd been feeling the same fluttery feelings when they sat so close together their legs touched? She shut her eyes tightly, trying to ignore the pricking of tears behind her eyelids. "Hey." The word was soft, as was the touch of Vanye's hand on her cheek. His fingers ran down her face, cupped her chin. "Don't cry, Andriana." She opened her eyes, and opened them wider when she saw Vanye's face. "What... What did you do?" He smiled at her, his kindest smile so far. "It's called shaving, dear." His smile turned slightly teasing with that. His hand left Andriana's face, his fingers caressing her jaw as he let go. He brushed his hand over his own jaw and upper lip, now cleanly shaved. "I felt it was time to let go of the last thing of Freeport I had kept." Eyes locked with Vanye's, Andriana extended her hand to his face, slowly, hesitantly. When her fingers touched his smooth jaw, it almost seemed an electric current ran between them, and Andriana gasped softly. Vanye's hand shot up and caught her wrist. "I might never see you again after tonight." he whispered. Andriana could only nod. Vanye's hand let go of her wrist, his other hand now rising to her own face. Andriana's fingers traced the line of his jaw down to his chin, then up again, leaving only to smooth back a stray lock of blue-black hair. "I could never forget you." she said softly, her eyes shyly flicking downward for a moment, before looking into his again. Vanye smiled at her, a tender and caring smile. His fingers caressed her cheek, down to her neck as he bend his face closer to hers. Just before his lips touched hers, and his hand slid under the soft fabric of her shirt on her shoulders, whispering, "Let's make it a night to always remember then, shall we?"
