Drusilla had never known her mother. She had never known her father for that matter either.
Her earliest memory was a simple one, but also the most vivid, and one she would often come
back to in dreams for years to come.
She was lying on the ground, cold and shivering, looking up at a canopy of leaves, tall dark trees over her, just a wisp of cloud peeking through and the barest sliver of the moon casting a fragment of light down upon her face.
Then she heard a singsong noise, a pale face with large light eyes...then another...and another...and she was not longer cold. She was warm in the arms of the gnomes that would come to raise her.
In truth, it was luck that saved her, for she was born of a hag who had ensorceled a human man, as they do. Unfortunately, she was born still, and disappointed, rather than giving her the respect of consuming the child (as hags were wont to do) she left the babe where it fell and moved on.
It had happened that a group of gnomes, stricken by the Bleaching had taken up residence in the forest, and from their burrow, watched as the Hag gave birth to two babes and discarded the still one.
At first they approached the babe more out of curiosity.
But as the child surprizingly opened its mismatched eyes; the right brown and left blue, they felt an almost immediate draw to her, feeling that she was important in some forgotten way.
Taking her to their burrow, they raised her in wild way, for the Bleach had taken most of their sanity, and a good part of their actions (save for their compassion towards Drusilla) were left only to instinct. It was among these Bleached gnomes, grigs and a dryad that she grew up. Mostly in silence, she learned to live off the land, though it was often hard for her, as her instincts, even her very spirit was somewhat dull. Perhaps it was this kinship that drew the gnomes to her. She did not know.
Keeping to the trees and staying in the forest, she would sometimes watch the occasional traveler or hunter, but rarely would she approach them.
One day, just before her 14th winter, she had been watching a man take a cart down the road. She was uneasy because she was so far from the safety of the trees, but the cart was laden with shiny things, bottles and trinkets, and her curiosity got the better of her. Professor Lorrimor had been travelling with the intent of attending a lecture, but fate had other ideas. It was not only she that found these things of interest, as bandits came upon the professor's cart with the intent of slaying him and making off with his goods.
Drusilla's blood stirred and, more out of instinct, leapt from her hiding place in the bushes to the professor's aid.
She slew the bandits with tooth and nail, coldl and emotionless as she tore them to pieces. When it was over, she calmed quickly and with a puzzled look fell onto the road.
Thankful for the rescue, Professor Lorrimor stayed with her for a short time, asking about herself and her life in the forest. She answered his many questions as best she could, but with each answer, the professor found himself more puzzled.
In the end, he left, giving her a small book (her first, from which she learned the Common tongue) and asked if she would visit him some day. She was puzzled by the request, but agreed.
As she grew older, Drusilla became evermore curious about the world outside the forest, her encounter with the old man sticking in her mind. Her mind also wondered about the other babe – the one her hag mother had kept – and what had become of her twin sister. She would often wake from a dream where she saw a haze of books, and heard a crying child. She would feel several sharp strikes on her back, and then would wake.
Just after her 17th birthday, energized by what she assumed was excitement, she ventured into the city for the first time. She wandered for a while, getting the occasional odd look, but little else. Finally she approached a nearby stable-boy, venturing the courage to ask about the Professor, but found that he had passed on.
Discouraged, she was ready to leave, but something pulled at her. Dead or no, she had to see him one last time. She would attend his funeral.
Valeria Thrune
Gareeth Ravenmar
