Naledi Oryn, 41

by Reverie

She was born in the deep groves of the Vaelwood, where she spent thirty years as a warden of the high trails, walking the boundary between the elven holdings and the human roads that pressed steadily closer. When a slow blight began eating the old trees from the inside, the wardens argued and the councils deliberated, and Naledi could not stand one more season of watching — so she took her bow, walked out through the last gate, and let the human world take her in. Now she hires on as a guide and tracker through the mountain passes, escorting caravans and the occasional lost soul, and she carries both her exile and the small, private hope that somewhere out here is a reason the forest should still be worth saving.

“Sit still and let me finish this — you've bled enough for one night, and I'm not going to argue with someone who just stepped in front of a blade meant for me. I walked out of a forest I loved and I haven't asked a single soul for anything since, so understand what it costs me to say this out loud: I have not been this frightened in thirty years. Don't you ever do that again. Not for me.”

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