The Immolation of White Feather

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Turn 1

A Memory of White Feather.

You remember this scene from several years ago. The Winter Wolves had just left Master Thomas to become squires. Your first mission was to kill Grotneg, the ogre that was threatening Rosewood Circle several miles south of the High Home. You were victorious, bringing Grotneg's head to High Home and letting it rot in the summer sun on the blade of a tall pike. The fame of the Winter Wolves spread, and you were invited to complete a mission for King Sparrowhawk II. You remember going to the Palace Tree. You are now in King Sparrowhawk's antechamber waiting for an audience with him...

Scene: The room is made of the living wood of the trees that support the High Home, as are all the other structures here. Even the furniture is of living wood. The walls are high and the ceiling is now open unto a bright summer day. The ceiling will close in the event of a storm. The portal of the King's inner chamber is directly in front of you and the portal that you used to enter the room is behind. The King's Portal opens and an incredibly beautiful she-elf steps through. She is wearing a wispy white gauze gown and a tight black undergarment. Her hair is long and raven black. Her skin is supple, smooth and milk white. She is barefoot. About her head is a wreath of multi-colored flowers woven around a thin circlet of gold, and she is wearing a thin leather belt about her thinner waist. A red hyacinth hangs from the belt over her loins. A single white feather hangs from a leather thong attached to the golden circlet about her head. She is buxom with wide, round hips. She is wearing rosewater on her wrists. You know this beautiful creature. Her name is White Feather, the youngest daughter of the King. A plain looking human abigail (female servant) enters the antechamber after her.

White Feather [to her abigail]:
Who is this ragamuffin motley band?
I've not the like of these right clods beheld
Since five long year a'fore this very now.

[to the party]

Why art thou here, spurious blackened knaves?

[as a party member begins to respond]

Quiet now, listen I've import to speak!
Who art thou? and what is thy godly call?
Why dost thou sit the doorstep of the king?
Thou art the sorest bawdy colored rogues
A comely she-prince likely is to see.
Now if thou wilt, please answer unto me.

[The party answers.]

Turn 1 Character Reactions

Winsome Hawk
Ah, I remember that day fondly. We were all heady with our recent fame, and then being invited to the Palace Tree, O it was a wondrous thing indeed. My friends entered the room bold and brash. We were full of ourselves at the time. Call it training, call it a personality quirk... perhaps a tad of both but I never have been comfortable in the center of an open room so I stood near the walls and hid in the safety of the shadows. It was my way then -- still is. Then she walked in.... I have never been so taken aback by a person before in my entire life. It took all of my training to keep from leaping from the shadows and ravaging her... That smell, I still remember that smell, her smell... roses... intoxicating, alluring... of all the things about her that ignited my passion into flame, it was her scent that was the most maddening. Whether it was my training, I would like to think so, or my shyness I staid my ground in the shadows, but I could not take my eyes from her. I knew that my more charismatic fellows would do the work of repartee, and I wished they would hurry. I did what I always do, what I am trained to do... lurk, watch, wait and listen... but it was hard, the fire within me was ravenously hot.

 

Korian Windsong
With the hood of my fine, gray cloak pulled low over my eyes, I step forward and kneel before my Princess. As I kneel, with my head low to the ground, I remove my hood and raise my head. I look directly into White Feather's eyes, with a small quirky expression on my lips.

"Your Highness,"I say, "It's been a long time since our last...acquaintance
. You look even more radiant than I remember."

I lean close to White Feather's round breasts, and I catch the smell of her sweet perfume. [under my breath] "Perhaps later we can get...reacquainted?" Thoughts of Korian Windsong. As I marvel at White Feather's beauty, I wonder how on the earth of the gods this woman was created with such utter beauty. I also wonder how I bedded White Feather in the first place and how I can bed her again. I become lost in White Feather's deep green eyes, as if the palace had vanished. There is no world, nothing except those deep pools of emerald green. I forget the reason I am here, my mission. Mission? Ah, yes. White Feather is my mission. My conquest. My lust. My love....

 

Camille
Camille stands fidgeting in the antechamber, unable, as usual, to hold still for very long. She starts with a minute inspection of her fingernails, frowning a bit as she remembers how long and perfectly lacquered they were before her training began. They are short now, as short as any commoner's, and ragged, with bitten tips and gritty dirt caked beneath their edges. Camille sighs, then raises a slender hand to touch the wealth of coppery ringlets that spill over her shoulders. Her wandering attention is immediately drawn to an object found poking out from between her curls - a dirty twig! Biting her lip in agitation, Camille plucks the small stick from her hair and throws it to the floor. She tosses her fiery mane, longing for the days when she had the leisure time to comb and arrange it as was proper for a young noblewoman. At last, she sweeps it all back over her shoulders, where it flows down to brush the top of her small waist. With eyes as hard as frosty emeralds, she casts another angry glance at the offending twig, which now lies next to the toe of her very scuffed and tattered boot. When she notices the condition of her footwear, her ivory face begins to flush an angry red.

At that very moment, White Feather makes her entrance, so Camille does not immediately notice the young she-elf. She leans forward to brush the dust from her leggings, then stiffens noticeably when White Feather refers to her group as bawdy rogues. Camille straightens herself quickly, an angry retort on her soft lips and many more forming in her mind... but the words die before ever reaching vocalization.

Camille's eyes meet White Feather's, and all of their fire seems to dissipate with that first contact. With her mouth still half-open as if about to speak, Camille slowly drags her gaze from the she-elf's exquisite face to her generous, sheerly-veiled endowments, then down further to her ample hips and pale, slender legs. Her gaze lingers momentarily on the red hyacinth hanging from White Feather's belt, and she takes an involuntary step forward, as if fighting the desire to kneel before the beautiful princess and inhale deeply the aroma of her fragrant flower. She stops herself with visible difficulty, wrings her hands nervously, and clears her throat twice before any sound comes out. When at last she finds her words, they are spoken in a soft, somewhat awestruck voice quite unlike her usual saucy tone.

"Most beautiful lady," she addresses the princess with much more respect than she normally shows anyone, "your grace not only outshines the sun, but completely transcends this world." She runs the tip of her tongue over her full, sculpted lips to moisten them before continuing. "I came to this chamber with some purpose in mind, but that purpose escaped me the moment I saw you." She approaches the young she-elf, stopping at a respectful distance, then drops to one knee and lowers her head in supplication. "My only purpose is to serve you, which I will do until my dying day. I beg of you, tell me what I can do to please you, for your smile's radiance will surely chase the gloom from my soul. I will do anything at all," her gaze rises once again to the princess's hips and the flower that rests above them, "to bring you pleasure."

As she awaits White Feather's reply, Camille's gaze grows warm and luminous with a heat to replace the chill of her previous anger. Her long-lashed, verdant eyes, which sparkled with gentle awe until now, have caught afire with unabashed, smoldering lust.

Enchandra
Enchandra sat in the living chair, her left hand stroking the wood as if it were a new-born child in need of calming. Her right hand stroking her thigh where the ghastly wound from the Ogre's barbed spear once was. Now healed, the memory of the pain of shattered bone and slashed tendon was still seared in Enchandra's memory, and hung in her flesh like an unbearable itch, not easily scratched away.

She held her face high to the sun, allowing its rays to strike her firm skin, covering her almost handsome face. Closing her eyes to the light, her mind left her body for a moment, and swept across the trees to her small home, and she wanted to return there more than anything. Almost anything...

The call to serve had been sudden for Enchandra, but the need to protect and serve the natural domain of the Wood Elf was ingrained in her nature, and she cared not to ponder the situation. Rather, Enchandra relies on her instincts to guide her in the proper rhythms of nature. The other Winter Wolves were an interesting lot, but only in their sometimes unnatural reactions, otherwise she was uninterested in them.

White Feather enters the Kings anteroom, and Enchandra opens her eyes slowly, not really wanting to let go of her vision. The beautiful Elven woman is appraised quickly by the Priestess and the only thought that comes to mind is, "Why waste flowers to cover ones head? They will die, and no longer be able to swell with pollen and bring new life to the wood. Tsk." If she was one to reflect on physical beauty, Enchandra would have felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of pure loveliness, like so many others, but again her thoughts were more practical as she glanced at White Feathers wide hips, "She will bear many children, this one, and make her parents proud."

Enchandra rises from her seat, slowly, as if not wanting to leave the comfort of the vibrant, growing, wood beneath her skin. She does not smile. Her arms are straight down, and her hands are clasped in front of her. Social graces not being natural for her, she says, "My name is Enchandra, and a Priestess of Acorn The Oak am I. A devout follower of The All, that which shelters us, that which feeds us, and that which Loves us all. Acorn has willed my presence here and that is the Only Reason. I serve The Oak, the Father of the Wood, and he has brought me here to the King, to serve and to protect the Wood Elves. The Will of All be done."

Enchandra tugs at her leather vest because the garment never seems to quite set properly on her shoulders. Once satisfied, she pulls on her dark grey, knee length, cloth skirt, tugging on it not out of modesty, instead perhaps absentmindedness, a habit the Winter Wolves were accustomed to by now...

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