She smiles at you in the way that she has; her teeth
are all perfectly straight with canines that have grown slightly elongated
behind a purse of full off-rose lips. “I come ‘ere when I need
du get back to my roots.” She states quite plainly and gestures around
her. Everywhere beside the falls, pumas gaze up at you, their sleek backs
slightly arched. It is an eerie feeling. -A warm home-coming on a crisp day
coupled with a scene befitting of an ancient tome of Andelas, though it is
well-known that Kiera herself worships Leya.
“Zey will not harm you.” She nods toward
the animals and speaks something in a dialect you have heard her use before.
The pumas crouch low in the grass, stretching their massive front limbs before
them. Kiera sits, gesturing that you should follow suit.
“Zey get nervous when people stand above zem.”
About this time, you’re thinking, I get nervous
around snarling animals with flesh-ripping canines. I’m glad I brought
my sword, But you smile politely, and listen as your friend slowly begins
to tell her tale.
“When I was a very small girl,” she mutters,
then stops. The wind rustles the reeds beside the pond, and that smile appears
again as Kiera tilts her head back, gazing up at the sky, the ends of her
long sunlit-spun tresses just barely floating in the water. There is something
unhurried about her, something beautiful and leisurely in her posture and
drawl that even the warrior guild trainers have tried vainly to immitate.
“When I was a child,” she repeats, I was found in zis pool by the
pumas. Ze last zing I remember was zere was fire and people screaming...
-a war. I was knocked indu ze river and washed downstream for what felt like
an eternity. Ze water was cold.”
Her voice couples with the lilt of the falls beside
you, and you lean closer an eyebrow etching up. “I was raised by ze
pumas. I learned du stalk and chase. I also learned zeir language and etiquette.
I ate what ze pumas ate, drank what ze pumas drank... Hunters were rare in
zese lands then.” Kiera picks a blade of grass from the others and draws
in the water with it as she speaks, glancing back over her shoulder at you.
“...And life was good for me ‘ere.”
The obvious question- “What changed these things?
How did you end up in Wehnimers?”
Slim flesh-reeds of chorded ivory stretch and retract
as Kiera slowly moves her neck in circles, scratching the ears of a puma
that has come to rest its head on her lap. “A hunting party came zrough
one day, a massive hunting party. Zey mortally wounded my mother puma, and
I put myself between them and her, snarling as any puma-daughterling would
and etching my face up in a mournful cry. Lady Kiora was in zat hunting party.
A mage with her cast a spell on me, and immediately I fell asleep, my head
resting on my mother, her blood tangling in my hair.”
“When I woke, I was in ze town I now know as
Wehnimers Landing. Zey ‘ad skinned my mother, and in a desperate attempt
du keep her with me, I coveted the skin, refusing to let Kiora or any of
her friends near me. Perhaps it was better zat way, as eons past, I ‘ad
long outgrown ze mortal clothes I fell indu ze stream with, and was walking
about naked.” Kiera’s cheeks turn a faint glow under their usual
alabaster pallor, but it is gone almost before recognition. “I did not
know common, but had its knowledge imparted in me by Kux, my mother’s
lover at ze time.” Those off-rose lips turn again, in something near
a malicious smirk, yet one that more borders on mischievous. “I will
forego ze pleasure of telling you what my first words were exactly. I will
simply say, zey made ze angels cry...
Kiora, always being fair and responsible took me as
her daughter and began teaching me ze ways of Leya. People whispered she
must ‘ave caught ze craziness of Fash’lo’nae to attempt such
a feat as raising a feral child. Perhaps zey were correct as my first days
in Wehnimers were fraught with dramatic mood swings and disrespectful tangents.
However, I grew out of zis, and Kiora surprised me many eons later with a
veniom-bound puma sheath made from ze hide of my mother, so I might always
carry her with me.” A faint moisture pools in Kiera’s eyes, whether
from the mist of the falls or other origins, you cannot tell, and a gentle
smile curls the tiers of her flesh. -A smile that makes it quite simple to
see why she’s reputed as one of the biggest flirts in Elanthia.
“And that my Lady Jypsie is ‘ow I came du
Wehnimers. I will honestly attach my flirting skills du running about ze
town naked for a good portion of my life.” Mirth reflects in her human
features as she gestures and calls what you imagine to be a farewell greeting
to her first surrogate family, the pumas. Kiera stands, her form straightening
as elegantly as a ripple of water. For a woman in her eighties, that may
be considered quite a feat (thank the Arkati for mages!). She offers you
a cool alabaster hand up, then brushes away her slightly-damp golden tresses.
“Shall we go ‘ave a drink at Wayside? I
hear zey ‘ave some lovely orange juice zis morning.”
