Kaylai Riverwynd
From EFWiki
| Kaylai Riverwynd | |
| |
| Title | Druid of the Grove |
| Gender | Female |
| Age | 287 |
| Race | Kaldorei |
| Class | Druid |
| Specialization | Balance / Restoration |
| Affiliation | Cenarion Circle / 'Druids of the Wild' / OFDS |
| Occupation | Skinner / Leatherworker |
| Relatives | See section 'family' |
Relic Hunter & Biscuit Addict
Gah! Aralia! Stop it! I'll go bald!
Background
"I was born in Ashenvale near enough three centuries ago. My mother was – is, I should say, as she’s still lingering on – a Sentinel, while my father spent – spends – his days trying to catch the fabled ‘one that got away’ and prove it really was as big as he claimed. Myself, I had two main loves; being under the water, and finding old and precious things – archaeology, I think it’s called."
The young druid shifts slights - fidgeting with some trinket from her bulging pack, nibbling on a biscuit, always in motion. Her bucket of a hat is pulled down too far to know for sure, but it’s a safe bet her eyes are darting around equally frenetically. By contrast her common is slow, ponderous – you get the impression she picked it up more from books than conversation, and that said books were weighty tomes with too many syllables per word.
"Of course, back then girls couldn’t become druids, something which disappointed me greatly as I so envied the boys from our village who had the honour to be selected; I’d have liked nothing better than to transform into a seal and swim deeper and further than anyone else. My father thought it… what’s the word? “Cute”, I think the humans say. My mother, on the other hand, would hold no truck with such delusions and fully expected I would follow her onto the field of war and die gloriously in some conflict or other."
She sighs –
"Nothing stays the same, though, does it?"
– and tugs a stray strand of shaggy purple hair back behind her ear, before smiling softly.
"It soon became clear I had no stomach for fighting, at least, not the stomach my mother and her Sisters needed, and I found myself relegated to the role of Combat Medic. There is enough written about this time, I think, for me to skip forward."
It is clear she feels uncomfortable talking about the tragedies which have befallen her race. A moment's pause, and she pushes the conversation forwards, her smile a little too bright to be genuine
"Apparently I had enough aptitude to arouse some sort of interest in the Cenarion Circle, and with the ... changes I was offered the opportunity to train. Of course, my mother wouldn't hear of it, and the locals thought it... what's the term? 'A riot'. A female druid? Ridiculous, and shame on the family who supported such an outlandish idea."
"I had almost given up hope, and relegated myself to a lifetime staunching blood flows and stitching flesh. Had it not been for the encouragement of a childhood friend, himself something of, shall we say, an oddball, I doubt I would have followed the path I'm on now."
"Of course, fate is not without a sense of irony; in my attempts to escape my mother's dreams for her only child I have found myself posted to most everywhere a conflict line is drawn. I have served my time in Silithus -"
- River shudders at the memory -
" - and beyond the Dark Portal, battled against Scourge invasions in Ashenvale and Tanaris, and of late set sail North, though most of my time, as with the majority of Grove druids, has been in the bloodied snow of Alterac"
"The reality of working for the Cenarion Circle has often proved a little more… restrictive than I anticipated, and so I take every opportunity I can wrangle to head out away from my duties with Archruid Renferral and the Druids of the Grove and ‘into the field’ as it were. By the grace of Malorne I have spent time within Princess Kyleen’s retinue on the expedition to Azuremyst – though in truth said time was spent haranguing our dwarven allies and not tending to her welfare – where I learned the arts of skinning and leatherworking from the local furbolg tribe, and dragged protesting friends and allies through ruined cities and dark towers. They, in return, seem to have taken it upon themselves to steal as many of my feathers as possible."
Family
River's birth-mother is a Sentinel, currently posted at Silverwing Grove in Ashenvale. Her birth-father is a fisherman, whereabouts currently unknown - River received word that he was in Outlands trying to catch some new exotic breed of fish, along with a new rod for herself, when she completed her druidic training, and suspects he's since moved on to Northrend.
One of the peculiarities of Kali'dorei society is its familial structure - couples 'pair bond', usually for life, rather than 'marry', and children are raised communally. Therefore, although River is by blood an only child she has taken to referring to a hunter by the name of Dawnsabre as her brother, as they were raised together in this 'creche', with River's mother taking specific responsibility for the youngster when his mother, a Sentinel under her command, was killed in Warsong Gulch.
Mention should also be made of the warrior Reheim En-Al, more commonly known as Stormshield; the pair were for some time inseparable, though never 'an item' (or anything like it - while River positively worships the young warrior Storm's loyalties are to his deceased wife and his battles before anything else), and it was he who talked her into following the path of the druid. They were reunited for a spell around the time the Alliance started sending adventurers through the Dark Portal. Stormshield departed for places unknown in the summer previous to the Northrend campaign, promising to be gone only a month...
