Today's blog post is about one of the main protagonist: Learé. Learé's introduction was an interesting one. Originally, Éadra was the only protagonist. I had just changed her name from Lightfoot to Swiftfoot (I had a different naming scheme at the time, obviously). Then one night I had a crazy dream where my story crossed over with Lord of the Rings, and instead of Swiftfoot being Lightfoot's new name, she was her twin. (She was also dating Treebeard, but that;s a whole other story!) I liked the idea so much I kept it when I woke up, and they've been sisters ever since.
From her beginning, Learé has been a foil for her twin. Where Éadra is a gentle healer, Learé is a fierce warrior. Éadra is openly emotional, but Learé buries her feelings inside. This does not mean that she is unkind or doesn't feel; she's just afraid of being hurt--a side effect of her mother's death so many years ago. She's definitely the more prone of the two to being sarcastic.
Her mother's death also affected her in another way: she feels a strong need for control. Her helplessness to prevent her mom from dying has led her to do everything she can to prevent tragedy in any other aspect of her life. Letting Éadra get herself captured is probably the hardest thing she's ever done. Deep down, though, she still cares about people. Her trouble is that she shows it in an over-protective way to those she loves most; she tries to prevent situations from putting them in danger, and will argue with them if they want to do something she sees as dangerous. In the end though, she will back down, especially if they point out that she's being too much. Part of her character arc in the story is learning to let go, and not be a control freak.
Name: Learé (pronounced Leer-ay)
Species: Elf
Hair color: BlackEye color: green
Height: 5'4"Favorite color: Blue
Favorite Food: All kinds of soups (She also harbors a secret passion for chocolate, but she won't admit it!)
Least favorite food: Onions
Likes: Archery, sword fighting, horse-back riding, trying new things; in general, keeping active and busy
Hates: sitting around, waiting, losing control
Deepest wish: not something she even quite admits to herself, but to settle down with someone and find peace in her life.
Excerpt: (Learé and two other elves (Phen and Tasu) are riding griffins back from a journey) (Sorry it isn't broken into paragraphs. I am having issues with blogger today.)
It was just after dawn one spring morning when they reached the mountains again. They came in nearer to the pass than they’d intended and discovered that Erron had soldiers waiting not only at the pass, but for some distance to the west as well, as though he’d been anticipating that they might try to go around. And those soldiers had crossbows. An arrow came whizzing toward Learé, and her griffin panicked. It dodged the bolt and took off, out of control. It was all Learé could do to hang on, let alone reach for her bow and arrows. She yelled at her griffin and glanced back at the other two. Phen was still in the air, barely, but Tasu and the two pack griffins had been taken down. She called to Phen to escape while he could, and he obeyed, but not without shouting a command at her griffin. Her griffin wheeled to follow his as he flew up in front of the rising sun, making it difficult for the soldiers below to take aim. Learé used that moment of weakness to string her bow as quickly as she could, and not a moment too soon; there were now six griffin riders flying at them. Her own griffin panicked again, and Learé called out to Phen as she fumbled for an arrow. There was no way she could fire arrows accurately while trying to keep her seat on a terrified griffin. Phen yelled another command, and the griffin stopped and hovered long enough for her to fire off a couple arrows, but before she could even make sure they hit the creature was off again. There was no stopping it this time. It had never moved so fast, and it was all Learé could do to not fall off. She accidentally dropped her bow as she grabbed instinctively at the griffin’s neck feathers for a handhold. She’d never felt it fly so fast before; soon she was burying her head in its neck to keep from vomiting. Her heart pounded as the creature flew on and on; she could hear the other griffin riders shouting, but their voices were growing more distant. After what could have been a few minutes or over an hour, it finally slowed, circled, and landed. She could feel its heavy breathing as she sat there trying to catch her own breath. She slid carefully off the griffin’s back, then leaned against its side as she tried to steady her feet. When she raised her head, she saw Phen standing next to his own griffin a few feet away. “Are you alright?” he asked her.“No, I’m not alright,” she said. “I misjudged where we were and brought us too close to the pass. My griffin went crazy and took me goodness-knows-where. Tasu fell and I have no idea if she even survived. And Erron’s soldiers are probably still after us.”“Okay, first off, you weren’t the one leading us. We were following Tasu,” Phen said.“But I should have realized where we were,” said Learé.“No, you shouldn’t have. We were traveling in unfamiliar territory. We were all doing the best we could, and you can’t blame yourself.” “Well at any rate, I need to go back and see if Tasu’s okay. Just tell me how to keep this stupid griffin from panicking again.”“That griffin saved your life,” Phen said. You won’t be able to keep him from panicking; he’s not been trained for war like your horses. But he came from a line of racing griffins, so he’s a whole lot faster than Erron’s beasts.”“Great, maybe I can dodge around them then.”“Learé,” Phen said in his gentlest voice yet, “Tasu didn’t survive. And even if she did, they would have taken her to interrogate her by now. It’s too dangerous for you to go back, and it would all be for nothing.”Learé felt desperate. “Maybe not,” she said. “Maybe she was knocked unconscious and they mistook her for dead.”“Erron’s men are far too thorough for that. And how will you fight them? I saw you drop your bow.”Learé slumped to the ground, defeated. She put her head in her hands. Phen walked up and put his hand on her back, but she leaned away from his touch.“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know it’s hard. I didn’t want to leave her behind either.”“Nothing is working right,” she said. “I can’t keep anyone safe or alive.”“Yes, you can,” said Phen. “Sometimes things happen that are out of our control, but you can’t let that stop you. And look at what you have managed. You got the ilei; that could potentially save hundreds of lives and help us end this war.”“If we can find our way back.”“We aren’t lost; I know where we are.”“You do?” Learé looked up at him. “Sure. I had better control of my griffin than you did. I just followed you when yours took off to make sure you were okay. Unless I’m mistaken, all we need to do is head north and a little east and we will hit the beginnings of the flarefox desert, near where we left the mountain when looking for dragons.”“Let’s get going then,” said Learé, standing up. “Are you sure you’ll be okay?” asked Phen.“I’ll be fine,” Learé snapped. She just wanted to get going, to have something to do. And she wanted to put as much distance between her and the tragedy as possible. So she and Phen remounted their griffins and took off flying.
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