Celandine had started to settle into the life she was carving for herself in Elyona. She preferred a simple existence, but sometimes that meant wrangling things hard until she found some kind of… peaceful simplicity.
Her home under the hill suited her well, and she had made it feel warm and safe. That had been helped by tree roots piercing her ceilings, drinking up the positive warmth of the fairy living with them. Moss crept along the walls and bloomed. Both of these signs brought Celadine much joy as she could once again see the effect she could have on plants, almost without trying.
She knew how it felt to be alone, so found that often the time she spent watching over the woods meant that she also was sensitive to the creatures there. Sometimes her help was needed if something ailed them, but also at times they had awoken from hibernation too soon and appeared disorientated and starving. Over time Cel found that she built up friendships with some, which also brought her joy as often her time in the woodland would be spent with a companion. It also offered her protection as they would watch over her, just as she did them.
After a little while in the land Celandine decided it was time to become a little braver. She ventured up into the city, but only at quieter times to begin with. She found the bustle and sheer numbers of bodies quite an assault to her senses. The sheer noise and scents alone were quite disorientating at first. Gradually the fairy explored the city further. She sneaked between buildings easily, slipping past eyes that she didn’t wish to alert.
A chance meeting with a ranger leader meant that Cel found out about open Senate meetings. She had decided to attend, slipping silently to sit at the back and simply listen. It was in watching those assembled, and listening to the grave tales of troubles affecting the land that she realised she wished to help in any way that she could. Sure, she had her ranger skills to offer, but she found she also wished to be able to move freely in the city too, to be able to keep an eye and ear on whatever might be happening in the busy streets.
She had heard tales of ‘magic’ from Taeghen the elf and she knew he studied and learned things from the books and scrolls that he kept. Celandine would say she knew nothing of magic, which was true. Her skills were simply as much part of her as breathing or flying. She had learned all she knew. through trial and error, as she grew into the fae she had become. Her skills had been honed over time and even now she let not one day go by without her practising all. Her existence depended on it.
Cel had always had the ability to give some of her energy to plants. She could boost them and salvage those which might be struggling. It was a symbiotic relationship, flora and fae linked in well-being. At times in her past when exhausted from battle, Cel had fallen in a heap at the base of trees and found moss cushion her and give her succour, whilst the trees and shrubs afforded her protection.
Her other talent, which she didn’t see in all other beings in Elyona, was the ability to change how she might appear. It would never change who she was, or how she would act and react to things, but she was able to change her appearance, and had found that others would react differently to her depending on how she looked in their eyes. It was true that she felt most at home in the woodlands, but if she were to be able to pass as nobody of note in the city she would need to change a little.
Standing in her small home Cel closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and calmed her thoughts. Her colouring started to fade. The mottled pigment in her skin grew pale, the slightest flush of blossom appearing on her body. The green of her hair brightened and changed in hue till a mixture of blonde with pink touches here and there. Running her hands through her hair, her horns seemed to melt back to the hair of which they were made. Cel would never hide her wings, they were too much of what made her who she was, but she shook them out and turned this way and that as the feathers took on the same hues as her hair and skin. The last change was much easier on her energies. She rummaged in the chest which contained all her belongings and pulled out a patched, but pretty skirt and a simple top, in preference for the leather she had been used to wearing as a ranger.
She walked from her home to the river and looked at her reflection. She grinned, the same sharp-toothed smile at the changed fae she saw there, and dropped a curtsy to herself. ” Yes, this will do well to allow me to pass ignored in the city” she chuckled softly to herself.
