Backstory: Eve Beilee

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This story begins on the vast pathways across Aveos, in the colder north of the continent. A married elven couple rides along the paths, the wife crying in pain as her pregnant belly threatens to burst. The husband is driving the cart to Haense, a northern kingdom of humans. As the two get to the bridge of the kingdom, the baby is soon to be born. The next few days the wife laid in a clinic bed, tiredly holding her child as hazel eyes gazed upwards at her. Eve Beilee was born and ready to see the world.

 

As the elven family stayed in Haense for a few years till Eve was 5 years old, leaving to go about their trading gypsy-like ways. With each town and city the family stopped in Eve grew in awe of the mass amounts of books to read, and the beautiful scenery around her. As her parents sold, bartered, and traded items they had, Eve ran off to whatever local library there was, sitting against the bookcases for hours learning to read from books for children. By nightfall Eve’s parents would find their child slumped asleep with piles of books around her, some open to pictures of maps or designs of fair maidens being rescued. Her father would pick her up and bring her back to their campsite while her mother put all the books back in place. When the family gathered under the night sky, cuddled with one another for warmth even on summer nights, Eve would wearily wake up and watch the stars and how they twinkled before falling back to sleep.

 

Years passed by as Eve turned 16, now having viewed most notable cities and kingdoms, she was helping her parents sell and trade items. Yet she longed to find a spot in a library to read, or to run through the woods and climb the trees. While her parents were putting their makeshift stall away Eve would run out the front gates to the wilderness, grinning with laughter as the wind pushed her dark hair out behind her and her tanned dress looked like a banner in flight. At a peace once more Eve relished in the sounds of the animals, sitting on the floor as squirrels ran across the floor, birds sang songs for a hopeful mate, and deer pranced between trees. 

 

When Eve returned to her family's temporary campsite she found it turned upside down. The family’s cart was burning and all the things they had were torn through, crates smashed near the burning wreckage. Eve cried out for her parents, rushing forward to look through the campsite for any signs of them. She nearly tripped over the wreckage as she found her parents a few feet away from the burning cart, blood staining the grass under them a dark ichor. Eve’s eyes filled with tears as she shook their bodies, hoping for any kind of reaction. Yet no reaction was given, the air had long been stolen from their lungs and the light in their eyes burned no more. Eve cried in anguish over her parent’s bodies, begging for forgiveness, for running off instead of staying with them to return to the campsite. She let the cart burn overnight, passing out next to her parent’s bodies.

 

As dawn broke Eve slowly rumbled to wake, forgetting momentarily that her parent’s laid dead next to her. She suffered through another round of crying before wiping at her tears to stand up. Gathering what materials weren’t burned or looted, Eve started to dig a large hole for her parents. The sun sat high in the sky as she finished the hole, taking a moment to rest her aching limbs. Being as gentle as she could with her parent’s corpses she laid them both to rest in the hole, doing her best to intertwine their arms together. Placing what was left of a fur pelt over their bodies she started to dump dirt back into the hole. Her voice was weak as she repeated the cannonist prayers for the dead, tears streaming down her face till she was finished. The tossed dirt left the impression of the grave, marking it clearly for all to see. So she gathered fallen oak seeds and buried them together in the soil above her parents. Sun started to set again as she collected what she could from the campsite before leaving the remains of her childhood behind.

 

As the months passed on Eve took it upon herself to learn how to fight with daggers and a bow, inspired by the tales of the Scyfling Wars in Haense’s history. Even with no mentor besides the occasional guard teaching her small tricks, her aim and accuracy with a bow grew to be almost on par with any nation’s army man. Each time she drew the notched arrow back she thought of the bandits that killed her parents. As the arrow released forward it would pierce the practice target always near the center, making a satisfying thunk each time. Though she never found out who or what group killed her family, she vowed to fight off bandits and bring them to justice, even if that justice was at the tip of her arrows.

 

Haense’s long bridge greeted Eve as she entered the nation’s territory, a small sense of belonging jolted her veins. Quietly she crossed the bridge, looking over into the icy rivers below before standing at the gate waiting to be let in. After exchanging the usual name, allegiance and reason for visiting, Eve was allowed inside. Almost immediately she was met by a man who overheard that she wanted to join the Brotherhood of Saint Karl, the nation's army. She explained she did, but only after learning a bit more about the kingdom’s history. It had been over a decade since she had been in Haense, so Eve asked if he could show her where the library was. She thanked him as she went to study the history of Haense.