Legends of Belariath

Jasmin

She possesses the kind of beauty only youth could bestow, toned supple curves, a flawless face, drawing you in, to learn what is alive behind those bright, expressive emerald eyes. Her touch is warm and inviting, silken fingers lure you closer, to brush against her ever feminine body, ripe and ready to share the passionate nature eluded to in the graceful sway of her hips as she moves. Just eighteen years old, she is a girl eager to slip further into womanhood and all its promise, exploring her sensuality to engage in the primal mating dance between man and woman.

Take the time to look past the pleasing exterior and you will discover the treasures that lay beneath, complicated, beautiful, intricate pieces of a unique puzzle that make Jasmin the woman she is today. She holds her past close to her heart, saving the most intimate parts of an often difficult past to herself.

She hails from the thriving town of Windmere, a little town nestled amongst rolling fertile hills back dropped by the ocean. Close to the mouth of a major river, a prosperous trade route inland for both military vessels and traders alike, just about anyone who worked hard could make a good life for themselves there. Windmere’s temperate climate, rich soil and slower pace attracted many travelers, quite a few deciding to make Windmere their home once they discovered just how good life could be outside the hustle and bustle of the more formal and frantic big towns.

One such visitor was Jasmin’s father, who was passing through town on his way back to his homeland of Nanalthion. Jasmin’s mother Gina was on her way to the fields and forests on the outskirts of town to gather herbs to replenish her supplies she used for cooking at her parent’s pub. The blonde haired green-eyed beauty had caught the eye of the traveling knight as she came across him on the road out of town. Their attraction was instantaneous, she to his air of strength and regality and dark handsome looks, he to her free spirit and sensual body. It would be years later before Jasmin was told the tale of their union by her mother when she was twelve, of how they had given into their consuming passion on a warm summer’s day in a field ablaze in brightly colored wildflowers, amongst them, jasmine, lingering in the air as they made love for hours. It was how Gina had decided on her daughter’s name, months later, when that magical afternoon was just a beautiful memory, her lover gone, never to be seen or heard from again.

The word bastard was a word Jasmin knew well, having heard it in whispers even before she was old enough to know what it meant. Later on, children at the town school pointed and laughed at her behind her back, taunting Jasmin, asking her why her father was never present at social events along with the other parents. For a long time she told them that she did have a father, her mother’s husband, Garret Blake. But it was a lie. Even before she knew different, Jasmin felt nothing, no connection for the man who lived as her mother’s husband. Blake was distant, demanding and downright mean at times and soon the little girl stopping searching for any hint of a resemblance to him, physically or in terms of personality.

Her mother verified what the cruel children and townsfolk had claimed one night when she was twelve, after a particularly heated argument with Garret when he had hurled ugly words at Jasmin, knowing it was the best way to get to his wife, calling her a bastard, the product of a sinful union, out of wedlock, a dark taint on her mother Gina’s reputation. So much so in fact, he went on, that it had cost her grandparents both their lives as well as their livelihoods the night the pub burned down.

Keith Strom was a striking man, used to getting his way with the women, expecting to get the same when he made sexual advances towards Gina. He assumed her to be a whore, willing to lay with any man who approached her. Gina had turned him away believing it was enough to deter Strom, but it wasn’t, it only fueled a rage inside him, after countless nights of appearing at the pub to try and woo Gina into his bed only to be turned away. Ribbing at the hand of other drunk patrons at his failings with the pretty Gina pushed him over the edge, rage spilling over in the form of a torch, setting the pub alight in an attempt to take Gina’s life. But the pregnant Gina had miraculously lived, having gone to the farmer’s market unexpectedly to buy some vegetables, arriving back to the horror of the pub ablaze, her parents trapped inside.

Gina was approached again, this time after her parent’s funeral by the third life changing man in her life, Garret Blake, the man who was to be part of her life while Jasmin was still in her womb. The oldest son of the pub’s biggest competitor, The Black Dragon Tavern, Blake appreciated two things about Gina. One, she was beautiful and from what the rumor mill said was good enough in bed to land herself a knight as a lover. His second reason was purely practical – Gina was experienced in the running of a bar/restaurant and once he married the pregnant and penniless girl he’d have the best of both worlds.

But what Garret Blake hadn’t counted on was her daughter. A brunette version of her mother, with keen emerald eyes that saw everything, Jasmin had a spirit that proved hard to rein in. Blake had the first years of his marriage to Gina to mold and work his wife into what he wanted, someone who would work at the tavern cooking and serving, only to come home and do the same at home, as well as keep him satisfied in bed. It took some doing, even some violence to get her in line, but Blake had managed.. until Jasmin. For as soon as his temper and acid tongue was aimed at her daughter, Gina showed some of the spirit she had as a girl, fighting Blake and defending Jasmin. She in turn raised hell each time her mother’s arguments with Blake grew heated.

Blake’s new goal was to wear Jasmin down, working the sorest spot he knew her to have, reminding her of her sinful existence since birth, pitting mother and daughter against one another, questioning each on their duties and failings as wife and daughter respectively. Gina was the first to break, preferring peace and sparing her daughter Blake’s fists over fueling his temper by fighting him. Though well meaning, Jasmin looked upon what she perceived as her mother’s meekness with disdain, inadvertently deepening the negative roots of discord Blake had planted more firmly into place between mother and daughter.

Many questions kept the bright young girl awake at night like how different her life would be if her real father came back and freed them from their difficult existence under Garret Blake’s roof. Jasmin tried to envision what he was like, if she looked like him. She must, her mind reasoned for she was brunette while her mother was fair. Did he even know she existed and if so did he ever think about her too? One day she dreamed of leaving town and going in search of him, finding out the answers for herself. But her mother refused to name him, let alone where he was from and soon Jasmin pushed the dream of finding her real father back into the recesses of her mind.

Jasmin sought refuge in the more free spirited patrons of the tavern, the artists and musicians who came to tip a tankard there, getting to know them, often following them to their homes in the less fancy parts of town, to feed her desire to learn, absorbing all that was offered her by her teachers, many of whom knew her grandparents who had participated in many a fair and festival, her grandmother selling hand made goods as a side income to help get them through winter, the town’s slowest season. Jasmin learned to dance and sing, to play the guitar, make clay pots good enough to sell along with her grandmother’s things at the fairs, to sew and knit, realizing that she was creatively inclined and able to pick up most creative endeavors easily. As her talent increased, Jasmin was able to stash away more money, above and beyond what tips she made working at the tavern, for a rainy day.

It was at one such fair that Jasmin met a girl who was to become her best friend, Emma, the daughter of a noble who had purchased vast amounts of land in the area, possessing the forethought to see the prosperous future of the town. The noble and his family had attended the fair, the two girls no more than thirteen at the time, drawn to each other, as the kindred spirits they were, both dissatisfied with their lives at home. It was then and only then that there was a reprieve on the warring front at home, since Jasmin had found an outlet, a caring ear to hear all her dreams and help carry her away from her troubles.

Each girl taught the other about their world, Emma learned the value of hard work and an independent spirit, of how good it felt to make your own way, while Jasmin heard of the often stifling existence of nobility that made her friend so unhappy, watching as Emma’s family tried to make her conform to the strongly demarcated lines of propriety. But Jasmin also picked up some of the good, sharing in Emma’s daily lessons at the hands of a tutor, fostering the somewhat simplistic education offered at the town’s school.

The friends flourished in their shared universe of understanding and companionship until the age of sixteen when both felt that they had outgrown Windmere, confiding in each other the desire to spread their wings and see what the rest of the world had to offer. Their afternoons went from discussing boys to planning how they would accomplish their common mission to leave Windmere, tallying their funds and discussing where they would go first. Daydreaming soon became reality, when Emma came to Jasmin one day announcing that her father planned to marry her off to an older nobleman, pawning her off as a sacrificial lamb for the monetary good of both families. This spurred the two friends into action, the girls packing their essential belongings and leaving town at dawn without much more than a note saying goodbye to Jasmin’s mother.

They traveled North West into Nanalthion, drawn there by stories of adventure and the many people magical beings there, their first year on the road being the most difficult, as their money ran out and they were forced to find work doing whatever they could find. Through the kindness of a stranger, a cook named Sheila, the girls found work in a kitchen of a boarding house, even managed by pooling their wages to rent a small room offering some semblance of normalcy. Until fate dealt them both a bad hand. Walking home to their room one night, the two friends were assaulted from behind by two thieves, who were not only intent on stealing their money as they pulled them into an abandoned stable, but on taking their virginity as well.

Both girls fought hard, the leader of the two thieves grabbing Emma and trying to have his way with her as the other held Jasmin at bay, making her watch. Emma managed to knee her attacker in the groin, sending him into a frenzy of rage, brutally raping Jasmin’s friend and slitting her throat to silence her screams. Seeing what his accomplice had done the other thief panicked, sparing Jasmin, her own hysterical screams filling the stable as she cradled Emma in her arms trying to stem the torrents of blood, flinging the blood soaked Jasmin head first into a wall to silence her before fleeing into the night.

Fate leveled the scales by allowing Jasmin the good fortune of being found by a kindly farmer named George Sanders, who brought Jasmin home to his wife Mary. For many months after they buried Emma, it was a battle just for Jasmin to regain the will to live, emotionally scarred by what she had experienced. But through the patience and care of the middle aged couple, Jasmin slowly started to become herself again, going back to work in the kitchen of the boarding house, lingering there only long enough to repay the farmer and his wife for their kindness before moving on.

On her last visit to Emma’s grave Jasmin swore never to forget her, making a vow never to allow a man to hurt anyone she loved ever again. This vow, her memories and few belongings were all she brought with her as she arrived in Belariath, hoping that this town would bring better fortune..

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