Dakinia's story

[Celera]

I played Vanguard for a couple of months, and even in that whole new world, with characters I liked, there were no stories. I made Dakinia, just because I wanted to see the Dranei area, and ... well here she is.


As Dakinia stepped out into the sunshine, she felt a sudden searing pain and put her hand over her eyes. The brightness of this place was like nothing she had seen before -- not the cloudy grey light of her homeland, nor the soft, diffuse glow of the crystals in the Exodar. Slowly she spread her fingers apart, just a bit, peeking through them at the brilliant new world. It was strange, but not as strange as she had expected. There was ground and sky and trees and creatures, although the trees and the creatures were like none she knew from home. A short distance away, she saw a number of people bustling about, so she walked over toward the activity.

"You there!" a voice called out. She looked toward the sound, surprised. Hardly anyone had even spoken to her for days. "Yes, you," said the voice, and Dakinia saw that the voice came from some sort of medic, standing among a crowd of injured people, looking weary and tense. "Come here, child," the woman continued. "I could use some help, if your parents don't need you for anything right now."

Of course, her parents didn't need her, but she didn't want to talk about that. She just nodded. "Excellent. You see those large moths flying around between here and the lake?" Dakinia nodded. The moths were almost as big as she was, with great furry-looking wings. "I can make a type of bandages from the wings of those moths. I need you to kill some of them and bring me the wings. Can you do that?"

Dakinia nodded again. "Here, you can use this," the woman said, handing her a heavy staff, taller than the young girl by half. "OK," was all she said to the woman. She turned and walked toward a cluster of moths a few yards away.

She had gone hunting before with her parents and other Dranei, so she knew what to do, more or less, and the moths didn't seem to be dangerous. She picked up the staff and with one swing the nearest moth fell to the ground. A second swing smashed its head.

Pull off the wings, she told herself, but as she looked closely at the crushed form, a wave of nausea came over her, and tears came to her eyes. It's only a moth, she said under her breath, but it was no use. She sat down next to the creature and closed her eyes. That was worse. Better to look at a crushed moth than see what came to her mind otherwise.

"Are you all right?" the voice was suddenly right behind her. She looked up and saw the woman, her expression a little kinder than before, although after days of treating desperate injuries, she had little kindness left. "Yes," Dakinia said quietly. "You pull them off like this," the woman continued, gripping the wing at the base and tugging it free with a twisting motion. "That way there is less damage."

Dakinia nodded again and stood, trying to look as if she was fine. The woman walked back to her patients. Dakinia raised the staff again, but realized she was not going to be able to use it. She thought for a moment, and then set the club down, and raised one hand, palm outward, toward another of the moths.

After those long days of hunting in the marshes, there were campfires, warming them after the cold dampness of the fens and the mud. She stretched her hand out to the warm fire in her mind's eye, and suddenly a flash of heat rippled through her arm, the force of it knocking the moth, now lifeless, to the ground. She looked around furtively to see if anyone was watching. Her mother had told her not to use this power yet, that she would need to be older and have much more training. But nobody seemed to notice her, as indeed nobody had noticed her for days. She pulled the wings off the dead moth, and went on to the next one.

[Celera]

I had to make a couple of changes here, because Dak is a mage, and not a priest, after all. Also, I would like this to be an open story, but give me an installment or two for everyone (including me) to get to know her better. I'll change the subject line when it's open.

[Robbyn Jonathan]

((Thank you Celera. The passage is great; I really look forward to more.))

[Celera]

Dakinia loved the early morning in this new country. The light was softer, more like home. She had been managing quite well for several days now. Everything was so chaotic after the crash, with tending the injured and trying to set up the regular necessities of day to day life for a small community -- food had to be found, clothing repaired, guards trained -- for there were enemies about even on this tranquil island. Nobody had time for a girl who seemed too young for duty but old enough to look after herself.

She walked along, over a small hill, and saw one of the strange blue flowers that she was looking for. They were rare, and useful in some sort of healing elixir. An old fellow paid her a few coppers for each one she brought him -- enough for such food and drink as she had needed. He had warned her to stay close to the road, because there were panthers in the woods, but the flowers were too rare for her to find them from the path. Besides, she wasn't afraid of the panthers anymore.

At first, she had just kept her distance from them, waiting until they moved out of her way. But one day she had been distracted, and by the time she heard the growl, the great cat was barely more than an arm's length away. She swung the staff, (the medic had said it wasn't worth much and had let her keep it) and hit the cat hard against one ear. This was enough to startle him, but not enough to stop him, and he batted her with a heavy paw that almost knocked her over, toying with her, she realized, like a housecat will play with a mouse before killing it.

Desperately she reached out her hand, but fear had left her cold and clammy and she knew there was no fire in her. But there was no other choice, and she chanted the words she had learned anyway. And something strange happened. She felt the energy ripple through her, but not fire. Ice. And in an instant, the great cat seemed to have been struck by a wave of winter itself. It shivered, and tiny particles of frost clung to its whiskers.

There was no time to think or plan. Flushed with excitement now, she chanted again, and the fire was there. Once, twice and the big cat was dead. She sank to the ground, feeling relieved and terrified and exhilerated all at once.

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After that, she still kept an eye out for the panthers, but she no longer avoided them. When she saw one, she would quietly move within a few yards of it, and chant her spell, sending first a wave of cold and then a ball of fire, and dropping the creatures before they could even reach her. It was perhaps the real reason she wandered these woods now. It was nice to get some change for collecting flowers, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of being more powerful than the great cats.

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One day she had wandered farther than usual -- all the way to the other side of the island. And there was a dock, stretching out over the sand into the water. A lady by the creek near the crash had given her a fishing pole and showed her how to use it -- but this was the sea, not just a creek, so she thought perhaps there would be some new, interesting sort of fish here. She pulled out the simple rod and dropped the hook into the water and waited.

But she didn't have time to catch any fish. Silent, and seemingly empty, a boat pulled up to the dock.

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I picture Dak as maybe 14 or so from a human perspective, and not a worldly 14. She has been through a traumatic experience, and is in a strange new world with powers she doesn't really understand. And there is nobody yet to teach her. That's all I really know right now. I don't know for sure what happens next, although she probably gets on the boat to see where it takes her. She's probably never sailed on the sea before. So...feel free to add on. Maybe you are one of your regular characters, maybe someone new, maybe you just want to tell more of the story as Dak. Just jump in.