Image Credits: Doll Divine Pirate Maker

Name: Epelia

Gender/Pref: Female, she/her, pan/aromantic

Age: 22

Hair: dark red, reaching mid-back in thick locks, kept up with bandana

Eyes: brown, nearly red, almond-shaped, under thin and snarky eyebrows

Appearance: creamy skin, somehow without much in the way of scarring given how much she loves knives, blades, and sparring; she likes snug boots, poofy pants, snug vests, and poofy pirate shirts! Quite stylish looking, even if she's definitely not a real pirate; thick lips and a broad and flat, low nose; she is always in motion; she's quite tall, almost 6' and higher with boots having heels like those shown, though she is only of an average build she's got sleek and strong muscles; loud when she wants to be loud, and strangely silent when stealth is needed

Family: unknown, she was brought into the fencer's guild as a child, and anyone who might know who her family actually was has long since forgotten or vanished, themselves. She enjoys a good romp in the bedfurs with whoever, but so far has avoided pregnancy and will not make a particularly good mother should she have children anyway

Aspirant At: Wilgen Castle

Skills: Epelia is... a bit sharp in almost every way. She loves knives, blades, swords, spears, anything with an edge or a point. She has always loved the work of a fencer, and has worked her way up to being the chief fencer's assistant in their school. Epelia enjoys researching tactics, reinforcing her physical skills with sparring, and even developing new styles with different blades. She is also quite fashionable, enjoying looking like she could spring into action in a fancy swordfight, or down mugs of ale equally at any time. Sometimes, both at once! Epelia's climbing and stealth skill is formidable and she can sneak up on even very keen-eared prey, though she isn't much for hunting, if she's in your group for the outing she will certainly stand in if another hunter isn't present.

Personality: bold and sure, quite gregarious and loves meeting new people. She appraises them on first glance but believes that you can't know someone until you've fought a few rounds. While this works for fencing-guild meetings, it definitely has hindered her in more formal or noncombat settings. She was brought up in a castle environment near a lush forest and wide busy harbor, there are always people to meet in either location, but she feels very out of place and quite uncomfortable in broad empty spaces such as 'on the ocean' or 'in the middle of an empty field'. She likes the trees, stone buildings, and ship docks, best.

Background: Her parents apparently abandoned her or she was orphaned at a toddler's age, and she has no recollection of the circumstances. It's possible that her fear of the open spaces is due to this abandonment. As she was brought to the castle where she grew up, she immediately latched on to a small knife at the side of one of her rescuers, and wouldn't let it go. Surprisingly she didn't cut herself or anyone else with it, but she tested it and realized it was sharp. The care she took in handling that small blade meant she was moved over to the fencing guild. Several people in it had small families, and one more among the brood wasn't going to break them! So she took easily to the guild life, watching with intense eyes as people sparred, or down in the forge where the blades themselves were made. The moment she was big enough to help run the bellows, she would gleefully push on them to provide a gout of flame, then squint and wince with each hammer fall onto a fresh-cooled blade being made. Epelia knows all the blade types, how to assemble a sword from pommel to sharp tip, wrapping a spear for holding, or chipping a piece of obsidian for an arrowhead. Only her fingers really have any evidence of cuts and scarring, but she has always been quite handy with the sharp tools and edges.

When she was only 9 she started sparring with the slightly-older apprentices with full sized weapons. Graceful and strong limbed, she could easily dodge or roll out of the way of any heavier blows, but wasn't afraid to feint and take people off guard with a quick wrist and sword swept right out of their hand. Over time she mastered quite a few different styles with each size and configuration of blades: sai-like pointed hand weapons, daggers, large block-style kitchen knives, on through slender epees and cutlasses, and finally with broadswords and great swords, bigger than she was!

By the time she was 16, she was taller than most of the other teens in the groups learning their forms, but she was also far more adept. The Fencer Chief nominated her to become his assistant, learning side by side with a much older student. He was also a great influence on her, showing her how to repair or present blades that weren't good for fighting any more, sometimes taking her to the local tavern and watching as she won a fair few coins in sparring matches with locals. Eventually people would start to recognize the tall red-head and bow out of any combat with her!

When the older assistant went to another castle to help train their fencing guild, Epelia was promoted to the full time assistant. Her ways of instructing might leave a little to be desired, but she never tries to shame anyone who hasn't grown skillful - she wants to help them learn, try it again!

And now, she was Judged as an Aspirant to a castle, Wilgen by name. This would be entirely new to her, and Epelia has felt the first tingles of excitement that weren't because of a new blade or a fighting style she had yet to master. She has no trouble riding a drak, similar enough to the ground beasts everywhere used as transportation, but wonders... being up there in the middle of the sky, that's a little intimidating.

And will she need to be of use at a castle for fighting? For real? That - that - excites her tremendously. She knows how to spar and how to fight, she's no stranger to injuring or even killing an enemy when that is the only option left. But she also knows that not everyone can even stand in front of a simple apprentice to the Fencing guild, let alone someone with her life-long experience. She wouldn't use that without care. If someone needs to be rounded up, she'd certainly want to intimidate or incapacitate, rather than make a mistake and kill. But it's obvious that she would be of tremendous use to a Castle's knight roster, able to train others in swordsmanship as well as help maintain their gear in the forges.

**

They'd heard the draks below, hissing and snarling at one another. It wasn't atypical, apparently, at least for this pair. But at last, several weeks after arriving to Wilgen Castle, the snippy dam of the clutch finally screeched for the Aspirants to be summoned. Even if she wasn't the closest in proximity to the Deep Caverns, Epelia was on the scene first. Her long legged stride and the confidence with which she moved around the halls said volumes. She took those last few stairs toward the cavern floor three at a time, and she'd have slid down a banister if there had been one, maybe even twisted her arm around a tapestry and swung...

There were others arriving by the time she found a good spot, a green-haired man, and a musician who seemed a little older than most to be standing as an Aspirant. But what did she know, she'd never been tasked to stand at a mind pairing! There was another woman, calm and smart, and a young man who was among the only people in the place taller than Epelia! And ... a fire drak, a different breed than those found here, so he was pretty clearly from another castle. Epelia didn't know which one, she was tempted to ask. But then the sire of the draklings spoke, "Giando," and attracted Epelia's attention toward a gorgeous fire drakling.

He moved with the same confidence as Epelia had, though with slightly less coordination. He moved his nose around the young woman and nibbled at the sash at her hip, "I like your chlothess!"

"Oh, and you're stylish yourself," Epelia said, as a warmth grew in the back of her mind, "Giando," she said, formalizing their pairing with a bow... one that took the sash a little farther away, so the drakling scooted around and tied his head into it... "Let's not strangle you with this," Epelia suggested, as they moved away from the main area to watch he rest of the pairings.

A bit later in the evening, after the draklings were more settled in and the Aspirants, now Knights or at least Pairs, were getting to know the feeling of their gentle bond, a local knight, Arthur, and his own fire drak appeared nearby. "I'll be handling your specialized training," he told her, "I've seen you in action down on the sparring field, though I think I could probably stand to learn a few things from you..."

**

The wild mane and lovely tail of her drak ... always needed combing, and what a better activity than setting out a bunch of brushes and burr-combs and having other people help? The drak was vain, that was certain! But it was never to a complaining crowd, there were always people wanting to get to know this fire up close and personal. Epelia indulged the parents of some of the local kids, as the children busied themselves getting all the snarls out and making sure that the knotty mane down Giando's back was in perfect condition.

"We have seen several battles, yes! With both the Nex as well as mobs here and there." Epelia took note of a couple onlookers' strange expressions but continued to regale with descriptions of their work, more than exaggerations of their deeds. They were better with fighting the mobs than the animals, but could do both in a pinch. And had done both, at the same time, that one time a year ago? And still, Epelia and her drak were neither scarred nor battered.

"Giando is far too vain to let himself get cut or bitten," Epelia chuckled, and the drak fluffed his neck mane a little just to prove that fact. "But he's also quick on the wing, we can dodge Nex even close to the ground. He lets me get in a couple hits and cuts, and then picks me back up so we can aim at another." She illustrated this with her hands, one forming a dangerous 'nex shape' and the other, her bold drak swooping down and back up, down and up, badgering like a magpie or a fairy drak might pester a bigger bird. But with the stakes being much larger than merely defending a nest, Epelia described how hard it was to stay out of range of those dangerous Nex arms. "Their claws could easily pierce three of me," she admitted, "the ones we've found anyway - I think they're supposed to come smaller than that, but we've only seen such large examples I have to wonder why they're so big around here."

She heard others muttering a little, before looking where they all gazed. The children were still working on the drak's fur, but Epelia turned and saw two remarkably disparate men. She knew the one by his description and the fancy painted statue that sat in the courtyard: Almiron, the High Prince of Dun Keiba. The other, apparently, was a man named Izzy, who looked a little concerned to hear her speech.

"How close are those extra-large Nex? To here?" He asked, his voice was deep and smooth, but cold, icy cold.

"By flight, at least a full day. To the east," she clarified. That clarification didn't seem to sit well with the man. "Is... there a problem then?"

"Aside from there being Nex at all," Almiron gently tried to add, but Izzy was not having it.

"The problem is that they've been bred to be larger and more dangerous, and they've... apparently, been doing that for generations enough to be, how big?"

He strode over, still taller than the fencer knight, but not by much (a fact which apparently even he noticed and appreciated). "A normal Nex's main body would be here," he held his hand at a height around his hip.

Epelia took a moment to judge and then moved his hand up - up to the middle of his chest. More than five feet tall at the back, it appeared. Even Almiron lost a little color and he was already pale as moonlight.

"That's... significantly bigger than I expected after this much time," Izzy said.

Baffled, Epelia turned first to the parents standing near, and encouraged them to gather their children, to the distress of her drak, but they each had their own comb full of lush red mane hair to keep as a memento. Then she looked back at the High Prince and his dangerously lean companion. Her drak also caught the serious nature of this hush, and brought himself to his feet, then sat nearer the trio - subsequently noticing that there were two pale shaded draks nearby, Lauvakil and Cephari, and he joined them momentarily.

"He hasn't been stopped, but I don't genuinely think he's moved away from his home, it's not like him. He has other locations but none closer to the Castle's domain than that one."

"Then he has been letting them go?" Almiron hissed, his reply sparking a bit of concern in Epelia. In Izzy's face too, since he nodded with his strange black-colored eyes narrowed in angry thought.

"Doubtless, and encouraged them to breed freely. Even at their original size they were hard to manage, but..." Izzy blinked a couple times and then returned his attention to Epelia. "Do you... remember anything else about them, beyond their size? What... colors were they? Any unusual bits?" The way he said it, and... how he was holding his hand in a way that Epelia could see his dark, strong looking nails, gave her pause.

"Now that you say it that way, their claws," she glanced up to where Giando was softly communicating with those other draks, and then he caught her stray but strong thought. Though their mind pair was not as advanced as some different types out there, she still conveyed the urgency and question without having to shout. Getting a confirmation, she nodded again. "Yes, yes I do remember their claws. They were black, where other breeds or Nex nests that I have seen, they were more brown or yellowed, sometimes red." She significantly glanced between Izzy's eyes and his hand, "like your nails."

The man sucked in a slow, measured breath, and held it. She saw his jaw tightening, and glanced at the High Prince for any kind of edification. The faint shake of the beautiful man's head meant Epelia would wait for any more information. But given her discovery and the fact that she'd killed not just one of those massive strange black-clawed Nex, but numerous ones?

"I hate to say this, but I'm going to need you to join a specific Armada wing," Almiron said, when Izzy was lost in thought. "I'll need you, probably, to lead it."

"As-" Epelia sputtered, "As a knight?" That brought a chirp out of her drak nearby. "I mean I am a Knight but--"

"But you have training that is obviously well used," Izzy finally returned to attend to them, "and," he gave what seemed to be a cursory but satisfactory appraisal, "you're uninjured. If you're able to assess others skills, I want you to find a small group of knight pairs, or ... well, any pairs, who will be willing to learn how to do what you do, before those Nex get any closer to our land."

"Our land," Almiron jibed very quietly and at least this time, Izzy let himself chuckle and break the ice of his demeanor a little. "But yes, you seem like you're well suited to the task of a very specific fighting wing. I'm sure that while there might be a few complaints from older or more experienced High Knights, when they learn why you're being given your own Armada at such a young age and without much tenure here in Dun Keiba, they won't argue."

"They would rather be fighting small battles with smaller enemies," Epelia said. "I... kind of would too, I'm a fencer, not an animal wrangler."

"That's fine, we'll make sure that everyone knows where your specialty is, so others might shore it up with their own skill." Izzy said. He then suggested that they retire to the Castle's halls, rather than standing out in the mosquito-filled summer night...

**

"They'll need to be trained enough to get out of the way of the added distance, but I think they'll do." Epelia nodded mostly to herself, while looking at their recruits.

Of most obvious benefit was the experienced deputy, Kuvod, who had recently been paired as an adult to the formerly-solo drak Verichliaw. Both of them were good on their own, but as a team they were very sound. Kuvod's skills with tactics and group functions were where he was going to be heavily relied upon. There was the pair of draks, all but wild on their own, but now thoroughly invested in this rooting out of Nex, Benngena and Iriarty, living on the outskirts of the territory and quite clearly able and willing to tackle this threat with or without human Knights being involved. Izzy served as an advisor, but Cephari was not of the fighting mindset, and wanted to make sure her rider was safe - knowing that his history with these beasts was... problematic. So they would be consulted only if needed. Iamei and her Forest Omniri proved to be apt at both learning new skills and focusing their existing abilities of hand to hand combat and abrupt flight techniques.

It wasn't the biggest Armada yet, but it would do, certainly, as the threat wasn't going to rid itself!