Avari, Child of the Heavens
Race: Ghaele
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Hair: Black
Eyes: Opal
Height: 6’1”
Weight: 152 lbs.
Age: 15?
Handedness: Right
Whispers in the dark inside the haze of her mind…
“Do not forget to remember, child of the heavens…” A strong yet musical female’s voice, but what was her name again?
“The Court of Stars will watch, as you learn.” An equally strong male voice, and she knew who he was, but she did not know.
“It is experience that makes even our kind truly live.” A quiet, almost sad voice of a female, the word mother floated to the surface then evaporated.
“We do not abandon you, but set you free…” Strong hands, and strong voice and she saw briefly opal eyes…and almost another word floated to her mind.
“Watching…always…love…learn…live…passion…mortality…”
Avari blinked in the hazy fog of the morning sun filtering through tree branches. Where was she? She remembered…wait…she could not remember why she was not with the others. There was a reason, but it had escaped from her grasp. She simply lay there on the grass and stared at the sky and the patterns the light played. It was beautiful, but not as beautiful as where she had come from…wherever that was. Fleeting memories escaped as she touched them. They fled away. All she could remember was she came from the heavens, a child of the heavens, and she had been sent down for a reason of some sort. Her heart was sure that reason was true, and she knew that she had done so willingly.
She heard a gasp and turned her head to see a human man, his arms loaded with wood, drop his wood at his face, his face contorted in astonishment. He must have thought her dead, as she had lain perfectly still upon the floor of the forest.
She sat up, realizing that she was nude whereas the man wore clothes. She looked down and then back up.
“Please, I’m not sure where I am, could you help me?” she said.
The man, a simple woodcutter, could understand nothing of what she spoke. It was achingly beautiful, but he had no idea what she said. She was small, about the size of his twelve-summer-old daughter, and her form was that of an adolescent still. She herself carried an otherworldly presence, and her eyes were solid opals. Her hair was rich black, and extremely long. But she looked like an elf, save her eyes. He approached her cautiously and she kept trying to speak, but he still did not know what she said.
“Come, child,” he said knowing no fear of this creature, and took his cloak and wrapped it around her. She took it, now she did not know what he was saying. He seemed gently, so she stood up as he led her away from the glade where she’d awakened to his small cottage not far away. His home was near the edge of town.
He took her to his home, where his wife and four children lived. The woman lifted Avari’s chin and stared into her eyes. Then she smiled and called to one of the children, who returned with some clothes for her to wear. She dressed, still not knowing what they spoke. They gave her a bed to sleep on, and food to eat. She was grateful, but frustrated at not being able to speak to them, or know what they said. That night, she slept under their sheets and dreamed of stars.
That night also, the woodcutter, Marem, sat with his wife, Surame, at their meager table.
“What is she, Surame?” he asked.
The kindly woman sighed and ran a hand through her golden hair. “She’s fallen from the heavens. She is not of our world. I was only an acolyte at the temple for a short time, but I do recognize her for what she is. Though the exact details I’m not sure of.”
The man rubbed his brows over his vivid green eyes. “What do we do? Do we turn her out or take care of her? She may be from the heavens but she looks to still be a child…”
“She is a child. A young one, and she needs caring for like any other child,” she answered, her deep blue eyes reflecting the candlelight around them. “There are many in this world that would take advantage of her. A creature like that is rare in this world, and even rarer to find one that cannot fend for itself. However, we haven’t enough for ourselves to eat, let alone another mouth to feed. Therefore, we have no choice.”
The woodcutter nodded and looked up when he heard noise to see all four of his children staring into the room. He beaconed them in. “Do you have anything to say, children?” he asked.
The oldest, Evrem, was nearly sixteen winters now. Evrem was a kind young man. His eyes were that of his mother’s, deep blue, and his hair like flax.
“Other people might hurt her?” he asked.
Marem shrugged. “I do not know. I only know what your mother has said, which I’m assuming you have heard.”
The youngest, Sarshe, held her father’s vivid green eyes and wild red hair. She was only seven winters this year. She was a storm in a child’s body. “But if others will hurt her, how can we send her away?”
Anya was the child that was twelve summers, who looked to be the same age as the strange creature they had brought home. She had brooding brows, and her mother’s blue eyes, yet had gained her father’s red hair, making her a striking child. “We could say she is a cousin from a great city who’s parent’s died, if anyone asked where she came from…”
His younger brother Thomes nodded, his own flaxen hair bobbing. “Yes, we could tell them that her eyes are just a result of some accident, but she doesn’t remember it. Otherwise she looks normal…well almost…”
“She looks like an elf, Thomes,” Evrem said. “We can’t say she’s a cousin…unless, we could say that she was the child of a widow that our cousin married, and the widow was an elf, because her father had died when she was young!”
Marem and Surame looked at their children in wonder. It seemed that the strange creature would be staying after all. They smiles at each other. What was one more mouth? It was also another pair of hands to do work.
Surame nodded. “Alright, then she will stay. But we have one problem, she does not speak our language, so we must teach her. And we will tell others that she was hurt and cannot speak again yet.”
And so it was that she came to stay with the woodcutter’s family. It took some time, but eventually, she learned to speak their language. She learned their ways and came to love them greatly. They took care of her and taught her all she needed to know of the world. She listened to stories and played with the children. They would ask her to speak in her strange and beautiful language for them, and to sing songs that somehow, she knew. Beautiful songs of the Court of Stars, that she knew but she did not know.
Still, in the town, there were those that stared. Avari wore a cloak of blue most the time, the cowl pulled down to shield her eyes. As time passed, she grew and matured, her body filling out more slowly than Anya’s. They excused it to others that she was an elf after all, and elves did age more slowly. However, they also tried to keep her from the company of any elves, so that her identity would not be contested. Then, her height began to increase, until she stood a full six feet in height, towering over many she would meet. She heard the mutterings. Comments about the tallest elf anyone had ever seen, and other such things she heard while running errands for her family.
Avari knew that it was coming time to change things, but she knew it would hurt her family greatly if she left. Yet, she knew that she must venture out in the world, and gain experiences…for that was what she was sent here for. | 
