Legends of Belariath
Nowlyn
Unlike so many that find themselves in Nanthanlion; this elf didn’t have a traumatic upbringing or an unsavory past. Her childhood home had been a loving one, parents that had doted on her, provided her with everything that could have made any child happy. She was quick to give a hug or a kiss to those she called family or friends. And like any typical elf, she grew up hearing tails of the terrible monsters the lurked in the forest just waiting for naughty young elves to wander too far from home.
As she grew older, the tales of childhood became just that, tales just meant to scare a little one into good behavior. As she grew into adulthood she decided to follow the path of a healer, and to learn her craft she was told to venture out into the world, join a healing house and study under those that could teach her the arts of healing. Not all was as it seemed at home however, a cousin that was the same age was jealous of the elf, secretly hated her and wished to be rid of her. So when it came time for Nowlyn to leave for her training, her cousin volunteered to go with her. The girl didn’t know what her cousin had planned for her, plotting to sell her to slavers instead of taking her to the healing house as she was supposed to.
Her cousin however didn’t expect to be betrayed by the humans she had made her bargain with. They saw a chance to double their money without any effort. The night the pair of elves made a camp in the woods they were attacked. The slavers raided them as they slept, the girls too naive to set up a night watch. Nowlyn was awakened by the sounds of her cousin’s screams. They found her first, were too greedy or arrogant to think the other slave would escape them. But they underestimated her fear and the terror her cousin’s screams called her. Nowlyn ran, as hard and as far as she could, becoming lost after so many days of blindly fleeing from the slavers that had given up that first night.
She was lost, wandering around with only the cloths on her back, no money and no idea where she was going. The fates brought her to the forest surrounding Nanthanlion and she found herself falling into a comfortable life, living off of what nature provided. It could have been days or weeks of this peaceful life, until the weather carried forth a thunderous rumble from the sky. Rain began to fall and her nest at the trunk of that thick tree was no longer an ample shelter. Lighting struck and the heavens cried, perhaps the fates knew what was soon to befall upon the elf.
Stalking in the night was the very creature that the tales of her childhood were made of, the thing that would cause nightmares in even the most stout of beings. The elf was huddled under the tree, shivering, the rain falling down, soaking the thin dress she wore, masking the footfalls of the catling’s boots. There was a flash of lightening and the kitten was suddenly there….looming over her, his eyes seemed to glow even in the black of the night. She lets out a startled scream, a sound she didn’t even recognize as her own as she scrambled away from the tree. There was an insidious laugh that followed her, her feet splashing in puddles as she ran, but even she knew it was useless. He let her run into the middle of a close by meadow, the grass brushing at her hips as she glanced freedom across the field….and she had no way of knowing that small flicker of freedom was the last she would ever see. The weight of his body was suddenly upon her, his frame sickenly thing, but there was enough force in that tackle to send her to the ground with a gush of air forced out of her lungs. Screams again filled the night, mixing in with the falling rain and the crashing lightening and thunder. Claws tore at her dress, sliced at her tender flesh with little care; the rain washed away the red of her blood. The nightmare was bound in leather armor, only a flap was opened to allow his flesh free and before she knew what he was about to do he thrusted into her, rutting into her virgin body, stealing that innocence from her.
When he was finished with her, he tangled those claws into her hair and pulled her behind him, dragging her when she couldn’t crawl, taking her to a worn down cabin deep in the woods….it was months before she was seen again, allowed out of the prison of his basement. In that time she had become a changed girl….truly a slave molded into a creature whims and desires of the one she called master.