Charlize
| Charlize Dejacque | |
|---|---|
| Status | Active |
| Race | Elf |
| Gender | Female |
| Guild | Ranger |
| Instance | Prime |
| Relatives | Church of Aldauth, Contraire family, Maxwelinski, Annieka |
Kindling
A lone raven passes over an expanse of dense forestry. Her last memory was an Elven one and she certainly could not fly. "I must have died" she thought as she soared higher, "I suppose if this is death it isn't so bad". By the time she finished her thought, an arrow had let fly from the trees below, piercing her through the heart. She spun violently towards the ground, losing consciousness before disappearing among the evergreen trees. A lone wolf howls in the distance.
"Wake up", a voice whispered. A tiny female Elf opens her eyes slowly, taking note of her surroundings. Dirt caked her face and dried leaves fell from her long blonde hair as she sat up. Was that a dream? How long had she been here? She started picking the remaining debris from her clothes and hair.
As she did so she noticed a fresh mound of disturbed soil nearby. Curious, she began digging with her hands. Her fingers finally reached something solid and she pulled it out of the shallow hole, blowing the dust off the top. It was her old chestnut lunchbox. The paint was peeled but the detailed carvings remained, revealing the faces of her old family members.
She thought she had buried the lunchbox forever. Still not sure how she got here, or why, something moved behind her. Out of the corner of her eye was something at first resembled a hummingbird. The buzzing of small fast moving wings passed her ear until floating in front of her was a tiny fae. An image of Huldah flashed in her mind, causing her to start and blink. The fae was already gone. She felt like she could lay down and go back to sleep.
A loud crash and branches breaking snapped her out the trance she was in. She turned around and walked towards it, feeling like she had nothing left to lose if she found something dangerous. She came upon a small bonfire in a familiar grove. Two people, and Elf and a Rakash, were dragging a dying tree towards a stump where they'd been chopping wood with an axe. Suddenly aware of the fact that she had weapons on her, but hadn't used them in years, she felt uneasy... until a voice called out "Hey! It's Charlize!".
A sigh of relief escaped her when she realized it was her old friends Maxwelinski and Jalika. They came running towards her with hugs and Jalika quickly produced some sort of tea out of thin air and handed it to her. "Come warm up by the fire", Jalika said. Charlize sat down on a log and crossed her legs in front of her. Before she knew it Max was next to her, with his head on her shoulder, his own cup of tea in hand. "I've missed you", she said. "I've missed you too", he replied.
Sitting around the fire and catching up, they heard a commotion on the main road. The festival was starting. Everyone stood up to go, and she realized she felt lightheaded. Perhaps something was in the tea and she shot Jalika an inquisitive look, who just smiled and shrugged, not giving an answer either way.
Maxwelinski offered to show Charlize around the spider. She said as long as it wasn't a date, and he made a quip about making her fall in love with him. The magical frost that formed on her arms while drawing on life mana felt present now in her heart, and she told him that would be doubtful.
When they arrived in the spider, they stood there in silence, quickly realizing the air was pungeunt anytime they weren't inside a shop or vendor's stall. Light-headed and high on the noxious fumes, caught up in a whirlwind of shopping and games all while encouraging each other's bad life decisions, little did she know they would end up eloping by the end of the week.
While browsing, the two friends had purchased a small black diary that they started to fill with memories and little notes, writing back and forth when they could not be together. Amorous musings led to deeper conversations about philosophy and life, revealing a shared passion for the liberation of Siksraja.
They decided to honeymoon in Mer'Kresh where they spent a week lounging together on the library balcony, watching the sunrise and set over the Reshalian sea as they studied the history of a culture that freed itself from oppression and racial tensions. Contradicting her vegan ways, she made him his favorite type of eggs every morning, a secret recipe from their days with the church and enhanced by her lessons from the Handbook of Hygienic Housekeeping by Maudie Prudynce.
She also learned how to keep bedding fresh and springy using beech leaves, properly cure a hangover with little more than salt and fresh air, and plump her eyelashes plump by crushing burnt cloves into a fine powder.
Eager to get back and share the manifesto they were creating with friends and family, they boarded the airship and headed home. The next morning, over his daily breakfast of unusual looking eggs, she noticed he had a small bottle sitting next to him and asked what was in it. He only had to wink and she went to grab her old lunchbox, now covered in dried soapy rings where some bubbles had landed and popped the night before.