You walk through the main courtyard of the Keep, the stables visible at your right, a high, round tower to your left. You approach the huge double doors of the main house, climbing the steps to examine the iron-bound oaken doors a moment. As you consider whether to knock or to depart before you are noticed, the dragon makes the choice for you, hooking a talon in the crack of the door and pulling it open. Having come this far, you step across the threshold.
Entering the Great Hall, you see a fire crackling on the huge hearth directly across from you. Two high-backed chairs stand before the fire, a small table next to each. You begin to walk around the large trestle table that fills the center of the hall. Just as you reach the hearth, a door opens to your right and a tall woman walks in, followed by the baby dragon. The woman is clad in a flowing gown of richly brown satin, her pale golden hair coiled on top of her head. She moves gracefully toward you.
"Greetings, fair traveller. I welcome thee to my humble home. I pray thee forgive the clutter. The workmen have not yet completed all the construction."
She sits in the nearer chair, motioning for you to join her.
"Before I let Alandra (she pauses to smile at the dragon which is now curled like a dog at her feet) show thee the Keep, I would tell thee a bit about myself."
"My name is Lady Joiya Wolfsinger Helton. My husband is Colonel Dean Helton. My titles include Druidess, Starfire Paladin Knight, and Ward of the Watchers. Dean and I are members of ShadowClan, and I am the Mistress of Wolfsinger Keep. My father was the Lord Justar Wolfsinger, and my mother the Lady Hasla Lightsong. Along with my ten brothers and sisters, I was raised in my father's hall, taught to read and to write, to sing and to play. Along with my brothers, I learned the great arts of war. My father's mage was well pleased with my progress, and took me apart from my siblings to study more. While my sisters toiled over their sewing and needlework, preparing themselves to marry powerful lords and bring our father strong alliances, I worked alone in the mage's tower day after day, studying the arts of healing and the uses of herbs. He taught me to know the stirrings of spirit and power in earth and tree, rock and stream."
"I was already becoming a powerful Druid, though I was barely 100 years old, when my father decided to marry me away. He chose not a young lord but an elderly merchant. Elderly when seen by a young Elven lass such as I was then, at any rate. He was at least three times my own age, and possesssed no physical beauty. I could have tolerated the age, and even the appearance, but his soul was as ugly as his face, and he was possessed of a deep anger. Rather than allow myself to be chained to such a man, I packed up my belongings, my clothes, my herbs, my weapons, and fled my father's Keep in the dark of night."
"I travelled alone for nearly a score of years, studying at every opportunity. In time, I fell in with a band of young wizards, priests, and warriors. More and more it fell to me to seek the side of good, to defend the innocent, to avenge the afflicted. In time, goodness and right became my passion. I turned my skills with herbs and plants, my skills with bow and sword, to the cause of good. In so doing, I became a true Paladin."
Seeing the question in your eyes, she smiles softly. "Yes, I know what thou art thinking. Thou art thinking that a Druid may not wield a sword, that I could not possess the skills I speak of. I tell thee only that it is so, and that I do not question the gifts I have been given. Instead, I give thanks for all that I have learned, all that I have received."
She rises then, rousing the baby dragon. "My dear, please show our guest whatever part of the Keep may be of interest. Go not into the unfinished wings, though. I shouldn't like to lose thee. Be sure our guest signs the guest book before departing"
Turning to you once more as she goes out the same door she came in by, "One last thought, fair traveller. The baby has only recently come to live with me here. I have yet to find a name that suits him. If thou has a thought of what he should be called, I bid thee leave it in the guest book when you sign it, or he can give thee pen and parchment if thou shouldst desire to leave a note for me. I bid thee farewell."
With that, she walks through the door, closing it softly behind her.
You rise, looking about the hall, deciding where to go.
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