Theme: "Spring Rain" by Yiruma
Role: The Misfit
Gender: Female
Nickname(s): Neta (a name her mother used to call her, meaning her "little shrub")
Age: 18
Race: Half-Dryad [Epimelides], Half-human
Appearance:
Abilene is a petite girl with an average sized figure. At full height she stands only just above 5'1'', and weighs in at only around 118 lbs. Her heritage is clearly a part of her appearance, as her mothers Dryad side shows itself in the girls fiercely white hair, and her sharp pink-red eyes. Some think her to be an albino, but in all reality, she simply resembles the blossoms of an apple tree. She inherited a mix of her father and mothers pale skin, and while her mother had a rounder face, she finds her own to be more sharp in its features; reminiscent of her father. Her hair appears rather smooth to the touch, but has a rather oddly smooth feel to it - its soft, almost like the petals of a flower, and has basically the same consistency and texture. It is also rather long and is varying in layer length. A very definitive feature happens to be a small patch of skin that has the same texture as the bark of an apple tree - this patch of skin starts just under her hairline at the nape of her neck, and only goes down about two inches, it winds around the front of her neck though, following in a line that gets progressively thinner, on the line of her collar bone. It never meets in the middle of her neck, and stops when its only just separated - as her collar bones are. Those around her may notice that she gives of a light smell of apples.
To say that she is pretty is definitely justified, though some find her to be just a little too odd for their taste, and so she tends to be watched from afar a lot.
Preferred Clothing:
Abilene likes to stick with paled colors; whites, pinks, washed out greens, and washed out browns are her favorites. She loves earthen tones, and wooded tones, and prefers light dresses to heavier material. She likes to feel free and not confined by her clothing, and though she is clothed so as to cover up everything necessary and a little more, her clothes provide her comfortable moving room.
Height: 5'1''
Weight: 118 lbs.
Hair Color: A white, that almost has a pink-ish hue to it in certain lights.
Eye Color: A strange mix between dark red and light pink.
Personality:
Abilene is definitely interesting, to say the least. As she wasn't raised around "normal" human children, or even those of other races, she has a rather hard time relating to them. While many find her to be kind, she is just odd enough that many of them avoid her or will talk to her when they're mostly alone or rather infrequently. Abilene hasn't really seemed to notice this, and if she has, she hasn't given it much thought. She just tries to live her life for the world around her, and give back to her Mother Nature whenever she can.
She is an overall kind hearted girl, and she has many good intentions. Most of the time she simply doesn't openly express them, which can put people off. She tends to be quiet in larger groups, and if at all possible, she will avoid those groups to begin with. She wants others to accept her, but at the same time doesn't really realize that they haven't.
She definitely doesn't experience the same range of emotions as other full humans do, which is apparent to some. She is more or less in a blissful or content state more often than not, though she does show distress when she thinks of her mother or her family. It is not often that she shows anger; Abilene cannot remember a time when she actually felt angry, other than towards the group of humans who destroyed her home.
Quirks:
Others view her has odd for talking with trees - in reality, many do not realize that there are spirits dwelling with and within those trees
Abilene is a bit withdrawn from society as she was raised out of it. She doesn't understand many practices of society.
Likes: The outdoors and nature, trees, her flute, her father, music, dance, sweet tasting treats, rain
Dislikes: Fire, those who wish to destroy the forests, illness, watching others in pain, bitter foods
Hobbies: People watching, growing flowers and trees, playing music
Phobia(s):
Pyrophobia --- Fear of fire
Weapon:
A small silver dagger necklace her father has given to her and insisted she keep with her at all times while in the city.
Fighting Style:
Abilene has never found herself in the need to use her fists or weapons. But her father has insisted that while she resides in the city with him, she is to carry a small dagger necklace with her at all times; she doesn't understand the need, but listens anyway. She would be hesitant to use it.
Her idea is to avoid the situation. She is very quick on her feet, swift and agile, and has learned how to climb tall trees quickly and efficiently from a very young age.
Abilities:
She has found that plants seem to grow better in soil that she has touched, whether it be intentionally or simply soil she has walked barefoot on.
She has a small influence on plants around her, and can manipulate wood in very small ways - like influencing the growth pattern of plants, and the ability to seemingly "breathe new life" into otherwise wilting trees [this probably relates more to her ability with minerals, as anything she touches, especially living plants, absorbs these minerals].
She has a calming demeanor, and finds that those around on avarage her tend to be in better moods.
She is quick on her feet, and can run quickly - shoes or not. She is used to moving about without shoes and has calloused feet from traveling barefoot over underbrush and loose stones.
She can recognize a tree or plant that is home to many different types of magical creatures; her strength, of course, is recognizing Dryad's.
Personal History:
There was a human man of Versali who had taken it upon himself to become more learned in the ways of the world. His name was Salus Caen, and at the age of 20, he set out into the world around him to find a place of his own calling to make his home. He was tired with the dislike and distrust between nations, and so he wished to settle into a home that was far removed from the rest of civilization. A two month long search lead him to a small wood far from his home, where he felt distanced enough from those he had come to dislike so much. It was in this wood that he planned his small home, just large enough to provide ample shelter and a bit of living space without disturbing the trees around it. He grew his own crop and only used what wood he had to in order to survive; yet each time he had to cut a tree down, he thanked the tree for its life and asked its permission to be used. Of course, they never answered and he never expected they would, but he continued to show his thankfulness to his Mother Nature, and his respect towards the spirits who he believed inhabited all living things.
Of course, Salus Caen was not taught much in the ways of the magical folk, and so he didn't know that the wood he resided in was in fact guarded by spirits of the Dryad. And though he cut down a tree or two in his stay, he never took more than he needed, and always tried to use the least amount he could. His respect and love for the forest around him and the shelter and food it provided him sparked an interest in a young Dryad - an Epimelides who guarded and watched over the lone apple tree that grew nearby Salus' home. She watched him live in the forest by his lonesome for a few months before she made the decision to reveal herself to him. As he did everyday, he would come to her tree to thank her for producing fruit for which he would eat. It was at that time she made herself known to him. Of course, he was surprised - she startled him to the point that he passed out the first time he saw her. But their relationship grew, and she found herself falling in love with the human male.
Salus eventually asked the Dryad - who came to call herself Xylia - to live as his wife. She gladly accepted, and soon bore him a daughter. The other Dryads of the small forest were joyed with the birth of Abilene Sylva, who grew to love the woods just as much as her own parents. Her mother gave her the loving nickname of Neta, in which she basically referred to her daughter as her "little shrub". She understood from a young age what her heritage consisted of, and though she had never met any other human children while living so far from her fathers first home, she did grow up with many companions - the Dryads of the woods always kept her company, and taught her the ways of the wood and the respect that should always be shown towards those of their kind and her own. She also learned from them her light influence over the wood, and while she couldn't shift from tree form to human form as her mother and aunts did, she did inherit her mothers long white hair and reddish eyes, all clear markers that she was related to a Dryad who protected the Apple Trees. She also inherited the ability to renew land with minerals, as she found that places she walked had an easier time growing plants than those around them. For 16 years, Abilene and her parents were able to live in harmony as a mixed family.
The next stage in Abilene's life is what she has dubbed her "uprooting". Her father had always wanted to stay far from civilization and protect his daughter from it, but civilization found its way to him and the woods he resided in. And civilization brought with it axes and fire. The Dryads residing further out in the wood warned Abilene of the approach of humans, but the young girl did not understand the implications. Those who moved in to the wood began to destroy trees and clear out the land for cultivation purposes - the soil was rich and had such a strong ability to grow crop with a higher yield. Many trees and their spirits and protectors were killed during this time, without the humans realizing exactly what they were doing. And soon, Abilene found her father pulling her from their small home in the middle of the night, dragging her as quickly through the forest as he could as the trees around her burned - some sort of mass renewal of the land, and an easy way to clear out the trees.
Abilene cried for her mother, but her father could only helplessly take his daughter to safety, as Xylia had screamed for him to take her little Neta as far away as possible; to save her from the same fate she knew she would soon endure, as Xylia could not physically leave her forest behind; she had to try to save the trees somehow, to preserve the lives of her sisters. Abilene struggled against her father the whole way, begging him not to leave her mother behind. But Salus could do nothing to fix the situation, and took his daughter farther from her home. This was Abilene's first true experience with the feelings of anguish and despair.
Abilene shut down to the world around her. Upon first coming in contact with "civilized" people, she was stunned to silence. But upon her father finding them somewhere to stay, she sat in silence for a few weeks, barely eating and sleeping most of the day away. Salus was distraught on how to help save his daughter from her first experience with loss - he too was grieving, but tried his best to hide it for the sake of Abilene. It was pure chance that he stumbled upon a small park in the center of the city they resided in - he took Abilene there immediately. The others in the city found it odd that the young girl sat and talked with the trees for hours, but the experience helped her open back up to her usual happy self. She never fully recovered from the loss - she is still dealing with it now, two years later - but she had made it her duty to find the family she left behind. Somewhere deep within her, she believes that her mother is still alive, and that maybe some of her aunts are too.
Other:
No one has called her Neta since she lost her mother.
Abilene has a wooden flute she carved from the tree of a "great aunt" cheery tree.
She has a habit of saying "We thank our Mother and the Spirits for their sacrifice" before she picks fruit from a tree, or uses any part of a tree (this applies to her use of all living things).
Optional Picture:
As I could not find exactly what I was looking for, I'd say that Abilene definitely is a combination of the picture given above and the one given below.
