Rakel's page

Rakel Stotva had been always a playful girl. Daughter of a lumberjack, Jeff, and a Herbalist, Mara, she learned to love the woods at a very young age. She used to go into a nearby forest almost every day. Life was easy at Gesthil, and she grew up pretty happy. Her parents were a real source of inspiration, and up to this day they still are. But fate usually gets what it wanted, and nature requested the girls services.
Well, not nature herself, but a noble, slender man, wearing a fine set of lined dark green armor. She found him in the woods one day, and they become friends instantly. The man was humble but determinate, and he taught the girl many things about the wild, magic, nature, imps and feys and treants and much more. He was clever, you see. The man, which name was Raiko, wanted the girl to share his lifestyle, becoming a druid. So he used the girl’s curiosity in his favor. For every information he granted he left a important part up to her imagination, that demanded answers and complained and charmed and cried but to no avail. Clever girl… he thought.
And so the mysteries were partially solved, but partially hidden, and when the question finally came a couple of years later, she knew for a long time her answer:
”Do you want to be my apprentice, Rakel?”
She was delighted with the possibility, and answered ”Yes” before anyone could blink. But she would wander into the wilds and was about to leave her parents.
She requested the man to explain what they were going to do, and he did his best to convince Jeff and Mara to let her go.
She wants to enjoy the primal magic, and if you say no the girl will never be the same again.
And this is how everything started. A Druid and an apprentice, walking deep into the Uncharted Forest.

Oh yes, please let’s skip those boring years of learning Rakel passed through. What's important is that Rakel learned that she should not be a fanatic, learning to balance one action with others, exactly like nature do. Also, she learned that Druids had councils, and that she and Raiko were from the one name the Spring council. In this councils, that gathered once in a while, she got to know many of the region druids, and the elders made long-term plans for the society to progress. To the young and inexperienced was left only watching, since they had no right of speech in that.
She was somehow frustrated with that, but it passes and she planned to get stronger and earn the respect of the members so she could take part on the important things that were talked about. Make no mistake, this were serious subjects, but the consequences could be felt immediately or in a millennium, depending on the chosen approach.
Anyway, she learned a lot from the meetings, and considered them as her most important appointment. That may give you a glimpse of her personality, but the woman you’re going to meet has changed. A lot. And that's partially because of her desire for respect.
You see, if she manage to do something meaningful, the elders would respect that and her rank would probably increase. As a `Leaf`, the first rank of Druid, you could not speak in the council if the elders did not requested you to. She watched and wondered what would be the reasons behind that choice, as she thought, like many others, that two heads think better than one. A point of view could be important, and one`s experiences were supposed to make every individual unique, allowing him to see something several others didn't.
But there was not much to do, until one day the opportunity showed up. Several days ago, Raiko met her and said that she needed to take some extra care, but did not quite explained it. There's some leaking in the forest roof, Rakel. I'll be out of the woods for a couple of weeks, but don`t worry. She still remembers him saying that as if it happened yesterday. Have someone ever told you something weird, and then added a "don't worry" at the end? I'll bet they did, and instead of doing as asked you became really worried about it. The power of suggestion. Anyway, she started to worry more about it every day, getting closer to the woods border and into the land of Brumik, to investigate. And she indeed found someone she had not met before. Rakel took a moment to identify what she saw, consequence of her training time. He was wearing a light green cloth, battered and dirty, unlike other druids. But he identified himself as one, and said he came from the extreme north, from the Winter council. He was looking for a representative of the region, but Leaf agents were not supposed to represent the Spring Council. But she remembered Raiko said something about leaking, and the metaphor cleared up when she realized the man could be an infiltrator of some other faction, trying to pass for a druid. To his demmand she answered in druidic, and her alarm gave her a tremenduous beep when he replied in a simple, short phrase, on the same language. There's one things druids are not. Brief. Any of the druids she know would have given her a strong, long and complex answer, probably mixing some metaphors in it. They like to move away from the subject before achieving it. She should run, as the man was dangerous and that probably she was not able to fight him. But she wanted to capture him somehow, in order to earn points with the Council. She decided to take the spy to a Branch-ranked druid she knew, a dwarf powerfull enough to be a Root already, but she would try to gather info from the man without letting him know her intentions and without granting more information do the spy. With that in mind she spoke once again in common, and that was her mistake. We may confabulate, but not here. Follow me. She was almost 50 feet away from the stranger, so he would not pose any threat, if she kept the distance, but as soon as she turned some spell hit her, and that's the last Rakel remembers from the woods.
Next thing she knows was that she was underground, in a cave that smelled like fresh blood applied on rotten corpses. There was only the faint light of a lantern, and someone had just thrown a cask of water on her face, to awaken her. Her capturers were looking down on her with mean faces, showing rotten teeth in the dim light. She was about to turn her head to look around when someone punched her.
No one told you to move! It was a thin voice, but she was somehow scared anyway. So my lady, you're a pretty one aren't you? How much do we need to hurt you before you spilling out your secrets?
What do you want? - asked Rakel.
The man repplied smiling to her - We want to know some of the things you do, and if you talk it all we will not be hurted. But if you are stupid enough to keep your tongue from working, well - He lifted a pliers in front of her - I guess this thing will come into work, and it don't like to be kind... Let's start with you teaching us the druid language, shall we?
Do you know why the druid language is so relevant to druids? It is basically their main secret, and it serves to many purposes, first of all being a key to showing up at council meetings and to talk with other druids, gathering information that could only be achieved inside the druidic society. The language is such a main secret that once you learn it and take the other training stages, you just put it above everything else. There are several cases of confessed druids, mostly evil, that before the training belonged to organizations trying to learn druidic subjects. But once these spies manage to get into the druid class they realize their previous organization is not supreme as the druid councils are. Their spying mission ceased to be important for them, since they found a more powerful society. Beside, someone could cast divine spells and pretend to be a druid, but without knowing the language he would fool no one. The language is the key keeping it all together.
And being so important, there are several methods to protect it, some of which being training that strengthen the druid's will, in order to resist torture. And just by smelling the place it was clear that her captors were not kidding. They had done some torture here, but her chat with the first infiltrator gave her the information that they don't know much, yet. But they would learn nothing from her.
And so the bloodshed started. She didn't say a word for the first day, and she was missing several nails and two foot fingers. They were good, and although her will was strong, she knew that her body would not take much more, and by then her willpower would be all spent. The druid tried as best as she could to die, but her captors did not let her.
In the second day she recognized the voice awaking her. It was Raiko. Desperation hit her when she realized he could also be taken by her captors, but she saw a bloody corpse on the floor and relaxed a little, letting the man free her to get out of the place. He healed her using magic, so she could walk again (although there were still two toes missing). But somehow there were enemies when the pair left the cave. In a brief speech Raiko said to her: Move now, child. Get out of here and find the others. Tell them what you know. I'll meet you after I deal with them.
She wanted to help him, but how? She was not a full trained druid, yet. She did not know how to transform into fighting animals, as the others. She was too tired to use even her usual spells. There was not much to do aside from doing what she was asked. And she did. Bandits tried to come after her, but the mighty cat-like form or Raiko stopped their chase. She run for a long time without looking back. It took almost a whole day before she could find another druid, and she was barely capable of telling him what happened before falling unconscious, exhausted.
She woke up several days ago, in a hut. A dwarf branch rank druid know as Seratto was taking care of her, and explained the situation for her. It turned out that the council tried to find her captors but failed. Raiko was missing too, and no one knew if he was dead or alive. That much was true, but the dwarf was hiding something from her. Later, in a Council meeting, the Trunk announced:
You are to mind your own business for a while, and to keep a low profile. Do not make connections with outsiders and try to break the ones you had. Some of you may have heard that the outsiders burned a great extent of forests in the Xilres region. You are not allowed to investigate it, since that would pose a danger to the Council. Trust no one, and be aware of leakings. Our regular meetings have been canceled and no further one is scheduled. You will be informed when we decide it is time to meet again.
By hearing nothing about Raiko she got desperate. There was so little information they were sharing, why didn't they put the cards on the table? Why weren't them telling everyone what happened to her and asking for assistance to find Raiko? She got enraged by such a behavior and disrespected one of the greater rules of the Council: Not to talk if you were not invited to.
Are you gonna leave every one of us to death, like you did to Raiko? Why don't you tell everyone about what happened with me and what dangers are we facing? Care you not to let our secrets fall into the hands of outsiders? Or are you just so afraid of.... - her words suddenly ceased as several spells knocked her unconscious again, but those who were present saw that the Trunk was somehow worried with her words, and whispering took hold of the place by the sudden flow of information Rakel granted them.
A couple days after that she woke up being carried by Seratto. She was a woman now, with beautiful black hair and a clean face. Her female features were not prominent, but they did draw the attention of men several times. She jumped from his arms and took a look at the sky. Why are we heading north?
The dwarf explained that by her actions she was banned from the spring council for at least one year, but that could take more time if she did not respect the druids where she was going, the Winter Council. "You are going learn many things from the council, including to quiet that temper of yours" - was what they said.
But they did not get there. Knowing that the Council forbade her from going after Raiko, she imagined they would keep a look at her on the Winter Council, and if they got there it could get troublesome to leave later. She liked the dwarf, and was sorry for what she was about to do, but it was for the greater good. She escaped one night, in a place where you could see a large forest to the east. She ran into the woods, and once there covered her tracks as best as she could. She used the trees to move around and go back through a different path, running west. The dwarf knew her, and the first place he would imagine her to have gone would be the woods. So she moved away from them as best as she could, and after 5 days stopped worrying about him catching up with her.

Now, what am I to do? It is impossible to find Raiko with the information I have. I cannot go back to the Spring COuncil, and cannot go to the Winter one either. So, they forbid me from doing something I have no ways of doing. They also mentioned about the incident where Nuro (Xilres' Ruler) put the forests on fire. They should pay for it, but the Council FORBADE everyone from doing that. Weird. Really weird. Why would they do such a thing? We should be more active in the matter, or the next one in line could be the Uncharted woods...
She was not allowed to investigate the burning spree, and she was about to do just that. To hell with them, I'm banned! I should be on the Winter Council, not here, so I guess I can do whatever I want!
Rakel decided to gather some more info, and found the pity excuse of Xilres' governor, Nuro, for burning the place. But what else would it serve for?. Andril's actions were too harsh on a previous ally, and as much as she heard they did not use the diplomatic option. Andril nation must be involved as well. Hearing about the war to come, she decided to join the army and rank up inside, making allies and getting rumors about what had happened. She would climb as high as she could,
and get to know who was responsible for all the fire. [i]Maybe what I learn will help me to find Raiko and to learn about who was responsible to the kidnapping of druids.
Getting into the army was not easy, as she was week and not so martially trained. Rakel hid her druidic abilities, and fooled a recruitment officer to accept her in the ranks. She bought a Sarenrae wodden holy symbol and showed them her healing skills, that were pretty good, by the way. She easily passed for a Sarenrae cleric joining the army, trying to be promoted to the Medic team, that was by all means better respected than the infantry, but it was hard. You see, no one wants a woman in the army, and indeed there were only a few of them. And all of them nimble or strong, unlike Rakel.
It was a few days later, still in the lower ranks, where she got the opportunity to shine. The soldiers were training with sharp swords instead of the usual blunt ones, to impress Colonel Geoffrey, who was about to visit the unity today. Rakel had heard about him and by that time knew deep information about the upper ranks of the army. It is very easy to get information of men, specially when they are happy, and even easier they had not seen a woman in weeks.
The colonel did come to inspect the ranks, and the training soldiers got too carried away showing their abilities that one of them got hurt pretty bad. There was no combat medic around, since the infantry practiced with blunt swords and they did not hurt like a sharp sword did on the man's shoulder. Seizing the opportunity, Rakel rushed to the man, cleaning the wound and pressing bandages against it, to avoind it from becoming any worst and the soldier from losing too much blood and dying in the process.
Well done, miss... - the Colonel paused for a moment, to let Rakel greet the man in a soldier way and say her name - Rakel. You look to have some healing skills, but not much of a muscle, don't you? Tell me, what are you doing in the infantry instead of the Medic team?
And so she got to know Geoffrey in person, he learned her name (what an honor for her!) and granted the woman a pass to the Combat Medics team.