yseulte*

As soon as she saw the two children lingering ahead of her, she very nearly turned right around on her tail.

Too late.

They've spotted her. Sighing softly, Yseulte braced herself for the onslaught of the unknown. Children were such bizarre, curious creatures. She hoped they weren't as unpleasant as the pegasus filly she had met on the shores of the Endless Blue in the company of the rugged pirate, Corsair. Yseulte had never met such a dreadful child in all her life!

Now, Dawn, on the other hand, she didn't mind Dawn. But then again, Dawn was different from other children. Such serious eyes for such a young face. Not so much a boy, any longer, but a man in a boy's body. It makes her shoulders sag with a sad sort of weariness, thinking of the boy. She wonders how life has been treating him of late, and if the Edge is any sort of consolidation for what he has lost. Probably not. It certainly doesn't fill the holes in Yseulte's heart, but then again, she hasn't given the Edge much of a chance.

It just wasn't the same. Though the forest was soft and lovely and dark, it simply wasn't the burning sands of a desert in bloom with cactus flowers and filled with the wild shrieks of coyotes in the night, and the inhabitants were a far cry from the warrior women who had trained and loved her as their own daughter and sister, when truly, she was the child of a monster.

Shifting her ears in an uncharacteristically nervous manner, Yseulte finally drags herself into the company of the two youngsters, noting their likeness with a curious gaze. They aren't as young as she initially thought, and are on the threshold of the dreadfully awkward teenage years. They look strangely familiar, but she cannot quite place their faces. And now that she's in their presence, she isn't quite sure what to do, like a child discovering a new pair of bugs—uncertain whether to prod or squish them. She decides the parents would probably not appreciate their children being squished.

"Do tell, who is your father?" She forces a smile and the tremendous effort required to keep it in place feels as though it's about to crack her face in half.

apprentice craftsman of the edge,