3. Catherine, A Wanderer

Catherine, A Wanderer


  • Login: Katebush
    Character: Dryad-Kin Catherine

    Catherine glared across the room at her Tutor. This was thoroughly unlike her, almost nothing usually penetrated her calm exterior, but the man had gone too far. She was being educated at home by a half-elven wizard of minor talent and when she had succeeded at first try on the spell he had decided to teach her that day had applauded and said “Well, Fey blood will out. With such blood in your veins you will soon outpace me”
    Fey blood. Dryad blood is what he meant. Rumour and speculation had followed Catherine since birth. Her parents were both clearly rich human nobles. When she emerged from the womb however Catherine did not cry, and regarded the world through pure green eyes, matching the shock of hair on the young babies head. Her mother had been mortified. Her father furious. And the rumours had begun. “Well her mother –did- spend a lot of time on the country Estate out near the Wealdath and everyone –knows- that place is teeming with dryads, maybe she had an assignation with a male one” “Don’t be ridiculous there’s no such thing as a male dryad, if she’s born a dryad girl then the babes father must be half dryad, you know, male born of a dryad”
    It was endless and ultimately meaningless. Catherine grew slowly for a human, aging at almost elven speed, but otherwise seemed quite normal if you discounted her hair and the fact that as she reached maturity her eyes became mottles with brown.
    To Catherine it was not the thought of being associated with Dryads that infuriated her, it was the assumption that the talent she displayed, the study she put in and the work she did could so easily be dismissed as ‘Fey Blood’. Magic did not come naturally to her, she was no mere sorceress, she worked hard for every spell and incantation. Enough was enough. Tomorrow was to be her Coming Out Ball. Her parents by now were elderly and had already signed papers saying that upon their deaths the estates were to go to Catherine immediately. However society demanded she be ‘of age’ for such. Of course her age was a moot point, she was old enough to be the grandmother of most of the other girls Coming Out, what was at issue was that she finally looked close enough to 16 to be allowed to appear at a ball.
    And once she had legally ‘come of age’ she was leaving. Of course no-one knew that. No-one knew she had spent a great deal of time in the woods lately, finding a peace there she found nowhere else and railing against it in her Noble trained heart. She was raised to love Cities and stone, but found solace in walking the woods barefoot.
    Tomorrow though would be the start of a journey. She would walk the world a while, seeking power and knowledge. Losing the rumours of her birth with distance. The money from her parents meant nothing. At the end of the day she could survive on her wits and her brains.
    There were other secrets of course. She had found friends one night in the deep woods. They were hunting there, training their combat skills. She had watched and when they stopped to feast and to pray she joined them with a youthful curiosity belying her true age. They assumed her human, which pleased her greatly, and respected her power as her own, not some gift of birth but a hard fought right.
    They had provided her the few things she needed, including a way out of the region without her parents guards finding her again.
    Tomorrow, her real life could begin.


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