Bea

Béa l'Orpheline ((WIP - yeah the lore is not done yet. why do I do this to myself))

- keplie guise?????
- opalesque accent

Béa was born in a small loving clan and shared her parents' attention with many older and younger siblings. Playful and optimistic, although a little shy, Béa got along with everyone. Growing up, she was often complimented on her appearance, having inherited a lot from her mother - and while she pretended to be undeserving of the attention, she loved every second of it. She grew up listening to her father's heroic tales and began idolizing him, hoping to one day have incredible stories of her own to tell. But her parents, being very protective over their sweet and kind daughter, rarely gave her the opportunity to accomplish anything.

Imagine her joy when, after months of pleading, she was assigned her first mission! Well, it wasn't anything extraordinary; all she had to do was collect plants for dinner. It was a simple and safe task, and most adults deemed it a waste of their skills and time, but Béa was thrilled. She hurried to the closest field and got to harvesting only the finest herbs. Engrossed in her work, hoping to do the best work she could, Béa didn't see the time pass. When she was done, the sun was setting and dinner's preparation had already begun. She hurried back, pride making her feel lighter and faster as she went.

She realized something was wrong before she even made it to her clan. There was no sound - no chatter, no music, no movement. The lanterns hadn't been lit and she couldn't smell the dinner that was supposed to be cooking. She tried not to overthink and to convince herself there was an explanation to the lack of activity, but she could feel her insides twist in worry. She had a really, really bad feeling about this.

When finally got up the cliff, she was greeted with a vision of destruction. The place had been completely trashed. She could see clothes, food and weapons scattered all over the place, and among them the corpses of a few of her clan mates' familiars. She finally identified the weird smell that had been bothering her as that of ashes and blood.

She began shaking. She gagged, hiccuped, vomited; her thoughts spiraled in her head, making her feel dizzy. She didn't know what to do, what to think, there was so much to take in all at once. She wandered through the remains of her home, not daring to break the overwhelming silence following the tragedy. Luckily for her, it the culprits had long been gone; in her state, Béa would've been incapable of putting up any sort of fight.

As she slowly took in her surrounding, she realized that while many of the familiars had been ruthlessly killed, she could not find a single dragon. Had they had a chance to flee? Were they maybe chasing after their attackers? Hope swell in her chest. If she couldn't find them, they had to be alive! Surely, if she waited for them, they would eventually come back to home. Now the best she could do was tidy up to the best of her abilities - her parents in particular would be proud to see she had guarded and maintained the place in their absence. They wouldn't be gone long - one, maybe two days? Her father was such a passionate hero, he would probably insist on catching the bandits. She felt a wave of pride and love wash over her. He would have such amazing stories to tell her!

She diligently watched over the lair. She arranged the decoration the best she could. She lit up candles and spread perfume to cover the smell of blood. She put away the furniture and other belongings which had been destroyed beyond repair. She stayed as far away from the place of the massacre as she could. Unable to cook, she ate whatever was edible in its raw state from the pantry.

After 2 days, the stanch of rotten corpses and spoiled food became to much; not only that, but it attracted flies and vermin. Convincing herself it was for the best, Béa gathered the food and disposed of it far away from the lair. She buried the familiars in one big grave and drove the vermin away. No one had come back yet, or even sent a message, but it didn't bother her and she did not lose faith.

After 5 days, Béa began rationalizing the food she had. She spent her days busying herself with cleaning that didn't need to be done or bathing in the sun, looking in the distance, waiting. More than once she confused rocks, birds and passing dragons for clan members - each time, she felt her heart speed up, before realizing her mistake and going back to patiently waiting.

She stopped counting the days. She grew hungry, but she couldn't bring herself to leave in case her clan came back. Dragonhome wasn't known to be a particularly giving land, and Béa had to resolve herself to eating small bugs and the rare plants growing in the rock desert. She got weaker and weaker, but the hope of her clan's return was all that kept her going. To entertain herself, she wore her mother's clothes, slept in her father's bed, talked to herself as to fight off the loneliness. She didn't, couldn't even imagine that maybe, just maybe, no one was coming back.

After some time, someone finally came around. It was a dragon from a neighboring clan, and they were surprised to notice Béa was alone. Apparently, Béa's father had promised to visit them a few days ago, and since he hadn't come, they had sent someone to fetch him. Béa got a chance to explain that she, too, was waiting for her father, and her mother, and everyone else. Worried by Béa's attitude, the vising dragon offered for her to join him and his clan for a while, so that she could tell her story and eat proper food. It didn't take much to convince her.

She told her story once more. She ate. The clan's leader listened. "How long have you been waiting out there, by yourself?" They asked once she was done.

"... I'm not sure."

"I see. How would you feel about joining us for a while?"

"Oh no! Thank you for the invitation, but I would feel terribly guilty if my parents came back to a dirty pl-..."

"How naive," another one interrupted. "They're not coming back."

"You don't know that. I should get back and-..."

"Béa. Your clan was most likely captured by slave traders. They're already far, far away - some probably perished, others might already have been sold; regardless of their fate, you have to understand that they're not coming back."

Béa froze. This was the reality she had been trying to avoid for weeks now, and now that it was right in front of her, she had no other option than to face it. She was alone.

She took the dragon's invitation and stayed with this new clan to recover both emotionally and physically. It took some time - months of going from anger to regret and guilt, of insisting on leaving to begging to stay - before she was stable again. She hadn't moved on, she hadn't healed, but she was ready to hunt down the ones that had taken her life away from her. She left one night, quietly, leaving only a thank you note as her goodbyes.