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| - INTRODUCTION: Daughter of Rovanion Whitemoon and Serayna Leafskin, two adventurers moon elves that stablished in the woods near Swordwhistle Creek when Zherlidra was born. She was their first daughter and decided they should stick in one place raising their child. There was a small town of moon elves, that was the reason they got there, but they passed as many time there as in Swordwhistle Creek, where they got many friends. Short time after the area suffered raids from orc tribes and a tribe of wandering Uthgarts made an alliance with Swordwhistle Creek and the elves in the help against those orcs. Zherlidra parents met again with Gograth the Bold, a good friend met in old adventurers and Elandra the Maiden, his new wife. The war was tough for the alliance, for the orcs were well armed and numerous. Rovanion declined to join the army, there were many good soldiers and he wasn't needed to win that war, but when the orcs assaulted the elven city Serayna was killed and Zherlidra escaped miracolously. Then Rovanion decided to join the army and avenge his wife. After many months of war, it ended when the orc settlement was found and the allies joined their full force. It was a great battle where all that orc tribe was annihilated, Rovanion was killed in the battle and Gograth was commited by Rovanion to take care of her daughter, so Zherlidra, now sixteen years old, was moved to the Uthgardt tribe and raised by Gograth and Elandra. She was trained in the ways of the Uthgardts, while Gograth did his best to teach her all he had learned about moon elven culture and wisdom by his treats with Rovanion. PART 1 So Gograth the Bold and Elandra the Maiden, after forty years raising their friends's daughter, died full of days, wisdom and arthrosis. They put all what they could in teaching the elven child all about the elven culture, Gograth had learned some about it in the old days of adventuring with Zherlidra's parents. It was hard, for there was so much to teach her and so few time to do so, but during fifteen years they could do it well. Since that time had passed it become quite hard for them to raise her, for the other members of the tribe didn't understand elven life spawn, pretending that elf had to be already an adult. The pressure over them become stronger and stronger each year, many of the tribe members started to grow ill-will against her, though they tolerated it in behalf of the couple great deeds and services to the tribe, in they absence they started to mock Zherlidra ("the pansy bitch", "the airhead pet") and look her badly, later they started to isolate them. With time Zherlidra adoptive parents became old and weak, and a new generation of people who didn't know personally the couple, in that moment the pressure was overwhelming and they commanded the elf to leave the tribe in fear of what could happen, but she refused to leave them, she had to help them in their elderly. When twenty years passed since her adoption, a point was reached when refusing make the rites of womanhood she was forced to take the path of the warriors. One day two warriors at command of the trainer entered Zherlidra's hut and took her by force to training grounds. That was a very tough time, the instructors demanded her a bit more than the others, since "Yar much olda!!", pushing her beyond her limits and causing her frequent exhaustion problems, including a couple of delirium crisis in the first year, during which she was separated form Elandra and Gorgath. After that hellish year and a final crisis of exhaustion and delirium that intructor had hoped would end with her death, her stamina began to improve and the third year she could stand the training well; but the next seven years were hard as well, she still was pushed to her limits. After those ten years had passed Gograth died, two years after Elandra, and ordered Zherlidra to leave the tribe, assuming she would go back to the elven city near Swordwhistle Creek, where she was born. But in her life, she had met a few elves, who used to act quite despective to the men of the tribe, and always added shows of disgust when they spotted Zher, treating her even worse. So she didn't felt willing to go there, instead she chose to journey around the world and try to be an adventurer, like her both sets of parents. Tribe migration from the end of the (minor) war with orcs and Gograth's death: They moved to the east,, between the Oxbow lake (Akanmen) and the Bay of Chessenta, stablishing south of Gheldaneth, where they stayed for one year. They moved North to Sultin, where they spent another year. Next they moved to the eastern shore of the lake Thaylamber, another year, from there they went to the Ashane, far North of Surthay.From there they moved again to Kront and last back southwest near Phsalt. PART 2 At that time the tribe was in Phsalt She took all the gold they had and what she considered needed and then she followed the Golden Way westwards, to Telflamn. There she stopped to spend the winter as the autumn had been hard and probably the roads to the North would be hard to pass. And as the city was small and seemed nice, she decided it was a good place to be. However, it was one of the most traffic years in Telflamn and many had her same idea, so all inns where full and the only one with free rooms asked over-inflated prices which Zherlidra could not afford, plus the city area was far from being the best of the city. - This is outrageous!! You can't pretend to charge so much for those stinky rooms. - This is the only inn in the city with free rooms, so you either to sleep in the cold or pay that *the man shrugs with a dismissive gesutre and a short pause* ...if getting someone who want you in his bed is what you prefer... She grunted and walked out. Then a tall and hooded man talked behind her "I can't permit this. Lady, may I offer you my hospitality?" Zherlidra looked back and saw that hooded man, and shouting an angry NO!. "But you can't travel with this weather, let me at least pay you the stance here. I'll pay a room anyway, so it would be fool if nobody uses it" Zherlidra sent him an unfriendly look "Oh, I don't live here, I was waiting a friend, I promise you that you won't see me around" Then he quickly left. Zherlidra sighed and accepted the room, she walked upstairs, entered the room and locked the door with some extra measures for safety. One month later she found that man again in the street, he was hooded and face covered, but it was evident he was the same. The man waved to Zherlidra, who this time didn't frowned at him "I wish you luck, my child" was the only he said when they passed near each other. Two months passed and the winter was getting softer, Zherlidra started to prepare her trip, buying some supplies and repairing her backpack. She was having lunch in a cheap inn she found, which had better food than the one she lived in, when she saw again that man. He rushed in, the movements making clear he was in a distress situation, he stopped right after entering and closed the door cautiously, then slowly walked to the opposite corner and sat in a chair, cringing in it, just beside Zherlidra. She looked at him in surprise, asking with the look and a whisper what was the problem. Shortly after some guards entered the inn, and the leader pointed to the man "There he is". Zherlidra looked at him as he aproached the man and removed his hood, revealing a black skinned mid aged drow. People around gasped in surprise and the man grabbed his arm. - Eh! What are you doing? - Zherlidra protested - Nothing you can't see, we're getting this drow to meet what he deserves. - But... has he done something? - This is a drow, lassie, I don't know what you know, but they're no good. - But, this drow is my servant! The man looked at her, puzzled. - Don't try to save him from justice, young lady, or you may get his same fate. - But I'm telling you the truth! He has served my family well, since we captured him. And I need him, I can't return home without him. - Zherlidra feigned the start of crying. - Then he shall know your name, tell to my ear. - Zherlidra Whitemoon - she slowly said to his ear, as she wrote her name with a finger in her back to the drow. - Drow, tell me what's her name - Zerlidra Witmon, sir. The guard raised his eyebrows in surprise. - Uhm, well, then I guess I have to trust your word, miss, but much against my will. I shall, however, that you stay no longer in this peaceful city, we don't want such aberrations. They left mutterin "these rubbish should be removed from the face of the world". Zherlidra took the hood from the floor and offered it to the drow, who wore it again. And he sat again beside her, as her loyal servant. - I'm grateful to you, I owe you my life. I don't know how to compensate you. - Don't worry, it was my duty, I can't let them hurt you because of what you are. - But you took a big risk, you could have been accused of helping underdark... I'd like to compensate you, some way.... - Can I know your name? - Fheltur Kor'reamer. - What are you doing here? I didn't know drows lived in towns like this. - *The drow smirked* More comfortable than a rock underground... What about you? It's true that part about the travel? - Yep. - Alone? Ways are dangerous, it is not wise. Something happened, huh? Zherlidra lowered her head - I had to leave the tribe where I was raised. Fheltur widened his eyes - A tribe? - Yes, an Uthgardt tribe... My parents, my true parents died in a war with orcs, and their friends adopted me, they were a really nice Uthgardt pair, they were kind, nice and wise, but the others weren't, they hated me, I had to leave... I decided to explore the world. - Returning to your elven home? - No *she shakes her head*, the few I've met were not better to my comrades of the tribe. I'm so tired... and here they want to kill you for being drow! - Well, I can't blame them for the last, in the end we're still a few drows who are good, the majority follows Lolth and her evil ways. - He sighed. - I heard, Lolth is your goddes, she betrayed Corellon or something like that. - No, that's the main goddess of evil drows, we, the good ones, worship Eilistraee. - Eilistraee? - Yes, she's the daughter to Corellon and Lolth. She's goddess of dance, song and beauty. She speaks drows have not to be evil, they can return to the surface, it was our ancestors who chose the evils ways and retiring to the Underdark, she wants harmony between races. - That sounds so good god, I'd love to learn about her - Unfortunately, we are few, most of drows are still under those horrible beliefs... - He seemed almost not having heard her They remained silent or some time. - Uhm,,, I know, I can accompany you in your trips... I can take care of you, it's not good children leaving by their own. At least I can look for you. Let me show you some of my friends, some other Eilistreeans, if it's not bad for you... they are in Kuth, it's North of here, we could teach you something about Eilistraee, and pay my debt. - I was going North. - Good! So we can go that way together. If you accept my offer I'll be very glad of it. - I accept! PART 3 The way to Kuth was pleasant, with Fheltur telling Zherlidra some local stories of heroes and gods, riding donkeys. That surprised Zherlidra, who had never saw donkeys except for farming works. But Fheltur told her she prefered donkeys to horses, they weren't worse, plus he finds them very cute, which Zherlidra definitely agreed to. Kuth was not as big as Telflamn was, not that Telflamn seemed big to Zherlidra, but Kuth was clearly smaller. Clearly not every city would be as big as she heard about Silverymoon. They rode their donkeys though the streets and after some zigzags they found a big house, light brown colors in it. "Here it is. We chose this because this is not a very frequented part of the city, and considering the slavery traits of some Thayans with drows, besides the general hostile reactions against drows as in any other city, it's better to pass unnoticed, that's why we didn't stablished at Telflamn, we are preparing the way for a larger group of eilistreeans, we have plenty of work to do in this area". They entered into the big and humblily furnished hall. A tall elven woman welcomed them, with her soft voice. "Wellcome home, Fheltur, who is this young girl?" Zherlidra smiled at the elf, resting her hand in Fheltur's hand "She's Zherlidra, she saved my life in Telflamn" "Really!?" "Yes, she's a very kind kid. She's also interested in Eilistraee, I thought we could teach her and give her a home" "Oh..." the elven woman looked at Zherlidra with saddened eyes "You have no home, then?" Zherlidra shook her head, with amazed expression. "She was travelling alone by the ways, I'd hate to leave her to that fate" "Indeed, we can shelter her and teach her Eilistraee's ways" "I don't need sheltering, but I thank your hospitality, mylady" Zherlidra frowned a bit before giving a complete smile. "Call me Naera. Don't look at me like that, I was preparing for a ritual, we make it naked, just come from one of them. Come with me I'll show you your room" Zherlidra saw her small room, which she liked much, upstairs in an extreme of the corridor, she had a tournee around the home and was introduced the other ten members of the eilistreean group: the elves (most of them moon elves), Feanora (a good friend), Leganor (our best archer), Drea'van'ath (skilled magic, you can always seek his advice, for his wisdom is legendary between his friends), Linnemar (his head is as powerful as his muscles) and the sun elves Lienna (Hiya, Zher I'd love you to come with me to some special part of the woods I'm sure you'll love almost as me) and Gor'endel (the other sun elf of our group), plus the drows Kaer'novel (a great leader, one of our strategists), Lun'neth (an ex-lolthist, we saved her from death and converted her), Lorkael (this is a misterious man, he's of few words and shy, but we trust him) and Krymna (she's very nice, I'm sure you'll be great friends). Unfortunately, the group was so busy in those days they couldn't pay attention to Zherlidra, who spent her time between the books of the library and tagging along with Fheltur whenever she was allowed to. Leganor told her the story how him was a drow hunter in the past, until finding Naera, who showed him he was converting in what he was finding, a beast full of hatred. Fheltur, Feanora, Lorkael and Krymna were eilistreeans since childhood. Linnemar and Drea'van'ath had an spontaneous conversion and joined the group long ago. Lorkael always refused to tell how did he become an eilistreean, while Lun'neth told she has been harshly punished because a failed mission and left dying in some caves when Gor'endel and Krymna found her and then she saw all the error in Lolth's worshipping. She showed enthusiastic about it. Kaer'novel was already eilistreean who joined from a group near Silverymoon.. Weeks passed, Zherlidra could watch some of the group rituals, like the moondance and a hunt festival, meanwhile she helped with the house works. She also tried to follow their habits and join in their rituals, though the fewer dressing was a bit hard for her at first, always feeling the urge to run to her room to dress each time she tried to join the rituals in such fashion. She was a bit too much trying to stick to what she saw in rituals and was told. During her life ther she was happy, because everyone seemed so nice and were kind to her, except for Lorkael, who was a bit brusque. She got a special friendship to Krymna and Lienna, who could tell her some things about their worship. And time continued passing. PART 4 The situation had a slight turn when cleaning Kaer'novel room Zherlidra noticed a pack of paper sheets fallen under the bed, written in elven symbols that she couldn't understand. She took them and watched around, some maps and annotations they had around, surely some plans for some small commando mission. She ran out of the room to the nearby library where she knew Kaer'novel was reading some tomes. - Hi, Kaer, I found these sheets fallen under your bed. Where shall I leave them? Is this drow? - What?! - Kaer'novel stood up quick and looked at Zherlidra frowning. He took the sheets from Zherlidra's hands and walked to his room with a "you can clean another room now", Zherlidra looked at him bemused. She continued with her work, but things got worse when in the night, during the supper, Leganor lectured her about the need not to play with important documents and the need to not be so nosey as she had been. When she protested she had not being nosey, just had taken some fallen papers her neighbours of seat, Lienna and Fheltur smoothed out the scolding as they would to a tantrum child. Fromt that day she could not avoid the feeling of the others watching at her to ensure she was not spying. That was obviously true with Kaer'novel, Leganor and Lun'neth. Krymna had to drag Naere to insist Zherlidra to accept join the next mission briefing to show her they all trusted her and she had to ignore those looks, "Kaer'novel is known by his tick to keep his developing plans very secretive and Leganor still has tendency to overreact to some kind of things, you know" She could watch the not so long briefing, preparing a exploring expedition to the western woods. No big deal, almost the whole group would cover a definite area in search of some entries to the underdark, beside the couple they already knew about, Krymna, Lun'neth, and Kaer'novel would stay home. Zherlidra went with Krymna to the high plains where Lienna liked to go and the other couple stayed at the house "Doing some important work". The pair of young elven ladies were having a good way to the plains, but in mid of it Zherlidra decided that a small archery competition in there would be fun, plus she had almost forgotten to train her fighting skills since she arrived Kuth. "It will take only a couple of minutes to catch up with you, go on I'll be back in a moment", said in increasing volume as she started her race to the house. Once there she found the room with the weaponry was locked at the moment, so she went to Kaer'novel's room, and there she found him, taking some notes in a paper beside a map. Zherlidra approached him and asked him the keys for the weaponry room while looking the table. Kaer'novel glared at her. - What are you looking at?!! - Huh? Wha- am not looking anything! - Zling!!!- Kaer'novel unsheathed the sword from his belt and raised it over Zherlidra, who seeing the next move rolled to a side and threw a chair to him, sending him to the ground. - W-What are you doing?! - Zherlidra jumped again to a side as Kaer'novel raised to his feet and prepared a new blow. - Aaaiieeee!!! - She ran downstairs, and she saw Lun'neth there. She ran to her, but when she was to cry for her help, Kaer'novel shouted her to stop Zherlidra. She then turned to the kitchen. There was no doubts, Kaer was going to kill her, why? she didn't understand, but it was a fact she couldn't deny. There she got a knife and threw it sticking it in the flowers pot's sand of the corridor, but a second one was sent directly between Kaer'novel's eyebrows, causing his immediate death. -Kaeeeeer!!!!! Lun'neth jumped over Zherlidra with eyes full of hate, but the attack was evaded, and in the way Zherlidra took Kaer'novel's sword. She almost stumbled as together with the hilt she got the chain of his necklace, breaking it and taking it together with the sword. She was covered in cold sweat, but ignored it. - ... he tried to kill me - Shut up, bitch! You'll know what's for murderers! She jumped to Zherlidra and shoved her, almost causing her to fall, but she miraculously stood and managed to stumbled to a side, and after one successful defense, Zherlidra pierced Lun'neth's heart. Zherlidra stayed quiet as a exhausted statue for some minutes until the adrenaline got lower. - Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no........ Leganor won't believe me, he won't believe me, they'll hang me, they'll do, yes, they'll do... I... I... I... She started to sob and ran to her room, packing all she saw immediately, just a few things and the collar she took from Kaer'novel, some round piece of metal, with a black circle, some short kind of wide rays going outwards, eight of them and some face in the centre of the circle. She then ran away full of fear. She ran north and west, through what would have been the travels she originally planned. (Kuth: Krymna arrived to the plains, already a bit worried by the time it was taking for Zherlidra, far more than announced, but she guessed Zherlidra was boasting too much about her speed running. But it got too much time waiting and she headed back to the house, where she found both corpses and no Zherlidra, and a chaotic Zherlidra's room. She broke the armory door open and taking a sword and a shield run out searching for tracks, she found the marks of an elf running away, but soon she lost them in the road and returned. Later in the night the rest of the group arrived, finding Krymna sobbing and finishing the burial of the two dead drows. She told them all what she knew, that Zherlidra had gone back to the house and a couple of hours later, she arrived back and found them death and no sign from Zherlidra, only some small footsteps of someone running out, that she lost in the road, and that Kaer'novel had not the chain of that pendant he wore, though they never got an eye on it, reason why it was so noticeable it was missing. It looked clear, despite how Zherlidra showed to be, she had gone back and murdered Kaer'novel and Lun'neth. Only Krymna refused to believe it, while Felthur expressed serious doubts. Lienna did not take sides. The rest knew Zherlidra had killed them both, only thing left was to catch her and question her, then decide.) Zherlidra continued what would have been the original trip, she reached Uthmerg, went to Tantras then, and as she was being always looked at ill by humans in those towns for being an elf, she moved on. Until she ran out of money, near New Haven. There she found a man asking an easy jobhelping him with some works in his farm, assisting him with some muscle work. He introduced himself as Gart Krows, and paid her well, he noticed one collar she had around her neck and offered some hundreds for it, she accepted and sold it to him, that was the collar Kaer'novel wore around his neck and she took in the heat of the battle. He praised specially the symbol of the back, a golden opened book. with a lightning ray piercing it. She got the money and went to the next town of the way, where she was told she would have more chances to find some well paid work, Harrowdale.
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