Deyja

Description

Deyja
dey1.jpg
Gender Female
Current Home Half Moon Bay Weyr
Place of Birth Sattle Hold
Occupation Harper Apprentice
Hair Brown
Eyes Brown

Tall and slender, this young woman stands nearly eye-to-eye with most men of average height. Wide brown eyes peek from under a fringe of dark lashes, and while a rosebud mouth and gently defined cheekbones give her features a delicate look, they make her nose and eyebrows seem almost too large in comparison. Glossy brown hair falls in layers around her shoulders when free, though at the moment has been caught up into a simple braid, secured by a ribbon.

Currently she is clad in a rather simple tunic of dusty rose, designed for practicality. A simple knot adorns one shoulder, indicating her new status as a Harper Senior Apprentice at Half Moon Bay Weyr. Tightly fitting trousers of dark cream hug over long legs, before tucking into klah hued boots.


History

If you want someone to help you, it’s generally a good idea not to steal from them first, but then again it was the first time Deyja was lucky.

Declared to be wild at an early age, she fell quite quickly into a life of crime. Firstly through boredom, and latterly for survival. Her parents washed their hands of her at age 11 and she was packed off towards High Reaches where an aunt was to take care of her. She never made it there. When the wagons stopped to rest the runners she hid, waiting until they had gone before making her way back to the previous hold they passed. Halfway through the walk she decided it’d been a bad plan. By the end she was limping, she was hungry, and she was grouchy.

Her bed that night was a stable, her dinner a couple of redfruit she’d stolen from the runners. The next day she would steal something better, and she went to sleep with her stomach grumbling and her head filled with dreams of cakes.

There was no cake the next day. Or the one that followed that.

She quickly learned which of the cooks could be wooed with a sad eyed look and a well practised ‘please’, and more importantly the schedules of the guards so that she didn’t have to keep hiding in, frankly, smelly straw. It never occurred to her to simply present herself to the headwoman and ask for help.

The day she was lucky was the best, and the worst, of her life to that date. She had woken up hungry and barely had time to hide before someone added a new runner to the stable she had been hiding in. It was a lovely beast, very well cared for, and exceptionally friendly. It barely made a noise as she crept out of hiding, only going so far as to stamp a hoof when she began to search through the saddle-bags. Inside were many things, though few caught her attention as much as the wheel of cheese and the book. The cheese could keep her fed for a seven at least, maybe a month if she was very careful, and the book… she couldn’t resist snatching it out of the bags and opening it with a view to selling it on.

The first page captivated her, not with the text but with the pictures that were splashed brightly across it. She almost didn’t hear the man returning for his belongings, but had just enough time to burrow out of sight taking the book with her. Or so she thought. Unseen by her the man weighed the saddlebags in his hands and could tell immediately that something was missing. A few tense minutes passed before a voice declared, “The cheese I will not begrudge you, but I must insist on the return of the book.” The man turned and left, Deyja waited scared to even breathe.

She’d heard enough stories about what happened to thieves to know that she was in trouble. But the man didn’t know she was there. He couldn’t have! He must’ve been guessing. She had to leave. Carefully she emerged from her lair, book clutched to her chest, cheese left lying in the straw. She was alone, just her and the runners. She left the stall, turned and ran, straight into the man with the saddlebags.

Quite to her astonishment he didn’t scold her, he didn’t hit her, he didn’t even stop smiling (damn him). He simply took the book from her hands and said “Thank you.” When he added, “Come along.” it was as if her feet just decided on their own to go. She expected to be handed to the guards, she did not expect to be taken into the main hall for her first proper meal in quite some time.

As she stuffed herself full of every food on offer he talked. He turned out to be a Harper master on his way to another of the Holds for some important meeting. His voice was soft and warm and she found herself quite easily trusting him right up until the point he told her what her punishment was going to be. A servant! She was to go with him and be his servant. Okay he described it as being his assistant but she knew what he really meant. That was the second time that day she’d been wrong about him.

The clothes he provided were old but comfortable, and though she kept expecting him to order her about (and had even planned how to escape when it happened) she eventually had to admit that she was enjoying her ‘servitude’. By the time his meetings were finished it seemed only natural that she should return to the Hall with him and continue in her new job.

At 13 she apprenticed, the next natural step in her life. Her talents didn’t lie in music or artistry, though she was competent in flute and played a mean triangle. As she aged and moved more towards specialising it was diplomacy and conflict resolution that most intrigued her, and she had her dear friend Master Ethric to blame for that. He’d changed her life, and given her direction, and as she eventually left for a posting at Half Moon Bay he gave her one last thing to treasure - the book she stole from him all those turns ago.


Family

Name Relation Location Position
Athria Mother Sattle Hold Cook
Terek Father Sattle Hold Groundskeeper
Tatalia Aunt High Reaches Weyr Bluerider
Ethric Mentor Harper Hall Master

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Logs

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