Character Profile: Éadra

So I realize that it's been a while since I last posted, and I need to remedy that. I'd been hoping to have my next blog post be announcing fundraising for my book on Kickstarter, but I decided to make some changes to the Kickstarter project to make it better, and it's taking a while. Still, I hope to at least have it up by the end of the month and the book out by the end of the year. This is all taking longer than I would have liked, but I really think it's for the best and my book will be better for it.

In the meantime, I would like to introduce Éadra, the healer twin and the character who's been with me for the longest time :) .

Name: Éadra
Species: elf
Hair Color: black
Eye color: green
Height: 5'4"
Likes: exploring, climbing trees, hiking, reading, riding griffins
Dislikes: competition, large dogs
random character trait: highly impulsive, to the point of idiotic at times. This impulsiveness can stem from either curiosity or desperation.

Excerpt (from her servitude in Erron's fortress):

“Oh, my,” she said when she saw the flood in the room. She rushed to create a barricade in the doorway with her towels in the doorway to prevent the water from spreading any further.

“Yes,” said a small man with graying hair. He was sitting in front of a strange contraption with lots of stone tubes. “I'm afraid that experiment didn't go quite as planned.”

Éadra chuckled in spite of her irritation at having to clean such a huge mess. “I should say not,” she muttered. This is going to take a lot of towels to clean, she thought. Then an idea struck her. She knew that water was a good conductor of magic, and she'd had to direct the flow of blood a few times in her healing, like when she'd healed the soldier's concussion. Could she control the water like she'd controlled the blood?

The man had a few empty pails in one corner of the room, most likely what he'd used to bring the water in. She grabbed one of them and took it to the center of the room, and then knelt down, shut her eyes, and put her hands in the water.

Directing her magic into the water was easy; she'd done it thousands of times before. But this time, instead of letting it flow through the water into something else, she restrained it and tried to make it attach to the water itself. It was easier than she'd expected; blood must be more like water than she'd thought. She pulled back on the magic, and the water followed. She opened her eyes again and managed to direct some of the water into the pail beside her. She felt a strange sense of exhilaration. This was fun! She realized just how much she'd missed using magic this past while. She stuck her hands back in the water and tried again. Soon she found that she could get a steady flow going by smoothly alternating which hand she was putting in the water and which one she was pulling out. It was a simple task, much easier than healing, but she was hungry and had little energy. After filling the first pail, she stopped and wiped sweat off of her forehead. She felt eyes on her, and turned around to see the human staring at her.

“How are you doing that?” he asked.

“Magic,” she said, touching one of her pointed ears.

“Oh, right, you're an elf,” he said with a nervous chuckle. “I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing you people work magic like that.”

She gave him a half-smile and grabbed another pail from the corner. “You probably shouldn't be talking to me,” she said.

“Oh I'm sorry, I don't mean to disturb your work.” He shuffled back to his strange machine and started muttering to himself over it.

Éadra immediately felt bad. “You aren't disturbing me,” she said. “I just don't want you to get caught. Erron says he'll kill anyone who talks to me.”

Understanding dawned in his eyes. “That's you? I didn't realize...I'll just get back to my work. It never happened.” He winked at her, making her smile.

She filled a second bucket, then plopped down on her bottom and put her head in her hands. Her belly rumbled. The man looked at her and left the room, returning moments later with towels in his hands. He wordlessly started laying them down to soak up the remaining water, pausing for a moment when he reached the last towel. He unfolded it to reveal a hidden apple, which he allowed to roll to the floor.

“Oops,” he said to no one in particular. “I seem to have dropped my apple. I don't like them bruised. I'll pick it up later.” He gave her a small smile and jerked his head towards the apple. She smiled back, grateful, and grabbed one of the towels he'd laid down and started drying, working her way over to the apple. When she reached it, she scooped it up along with the now-soaked towel. She then picked up the rest of his towels, as well as the ones in the doorway, and took them out to the laundry. It was evening now, and by sticking to the shadows on her way back to the castle she was able to eat the gift without being caught.  Even here, it seemed, she was never without a friend.

Another picture by my awesome artrist. This one's of the twins!