A Tender Moment

I woke up with this scene playing through my head this morning.

If you read my "Status Updates" you'll already know this but the other day I was helping a friend on the RPGMakerVXAce.net forums brainstorm for a character design for an NPC in his game. As a side-effect of that brainstorming I came up with this new character for my stories. It was as though her character emerged from the shadows already declaring that Theran was hers and hers alone before she even bothered introducing herself.

As I was returning from town yesterday I was still trying to come up with an appropriate name for her. I started thinking along the lines of "Ellisa? Sandra? Ellisandra? Ellisandra Fairehorn!"

"Ellisandra Fairehorn", or as her boyfriend Theran calls her, "Ellie"(I still haven't figured out where the "Fairehorn" came from, it just seemed to appear out of nowhere.) is pale skinned with dark-red hair that is wound up in tight braids around her head to cushion her helmet, coming down to her mid-back when un-braided. Her eyes are a brilliant emerald green. She has slightly wind-burnt cheeks and a scar running from her right cheekbone down to the point of her chin, just nicking the corner of her mouth on the way past. Her smile is tight lipped, never quite relaxing except when alone with Theran. One of the few people who can hold their own in the sparring ring against Theran.

Lacking connections, she earned her place as Captain of the Corran Royal Guard through hard work, fighting skill, and a commanding presence.

Theran attended the University of Corran when he was 19, at that time she was a 24 year old Lieutenant in the Royal Guard. They met because Theran would frequently come to the barracks to help train the recruits in swordsmanship and spar with those further along. Over the course of his time there they became good friends, a few years later their relationship developed further and they became a couple. Through much of this time however Theran was away from Corran, living with his sister and her husband as he trained his sister in Elemental Magic and as he performed his duties as a Phoenix Warrior. Because of this their relationship was slow to develop as they could only communicate by letter most of the time.

Wind-burnt cheeks, callused hands, scars, and everything else, it is just part of who Ellisandra is. She is no pampered hot house lily, that's for sure!

Ellisandra Fairehorn - character background"Ellisandra Fairehorn" aka "Ellie" is Theran's girlfriend.
She is pale skinned with dark-red hair that is wound up in tight braids around her head to cushion her helmet, coming down to her mid-back when un-braided. Her eyes are a brilliant emerald green. She has slightly wind-burnt cheeks and a scar running from her right cheekbone down to the point of her chin, just nicking the corner of her mouth on the way past. She has a tight lipped smile that only truly relaxes when alone with Theran. She is also one of the very few people who can old their own in the sparring ring against Theran.
She started out as a street urchin. While her parents had a home for her, it was poor and her clothes, while clean, were ragged. But she learned to fight on those streets and as soon as she got old enough she emulated the guards patrolling the area who had always been kind but stern. They never assumed a kid or poor adult was up to no good and jumped the gun, but they never let anyone get away with a cr

© Charles Hillman - December 2014