Guild Wars 2 Roleplaying Community

Written by Pale

Introduction

Aroree of the Twilight is Sylvari. She is of the fall. Partly therefore − and partly because her skin and hair are colored in the purple, red, rose and yellow colors of the leaves of the season, same as the last hues of sunlight on the evening sky when she was hatched − a poetically inclined norn gifted her with the additional name of Duskleaf. Others claim that the norn was more likely being humorous, referring rather to Arorees temper, which is as sure to ignite in the face of injustice as the coming of the autumn storms. And with a fury to match. Like all Sylvari though, she struggles to determine exactly what is and isn't unjust, not to mention a range of other things. Something which has gotten her into trouble on more than one occasion. Luckily, perhaps mostly for Aroree, she is far from always angry. Rather, she is a spontaneous and generally smiling sylvari, with a flair for teasing and mischief. She has a great interest in the more merry sides of the other races, doing her best to try and understand the points of jokes being told around the tables at various inns. Her own attempts however, have been less than successful, discovering that suggesting asura to be the awkward offspring of molerats and rabbits, as well as asking charr warriors how often they cough up hairballs, are generally bad ideas. Forcing her to leave establishments prematurely, if only for her own safety.

Aroree is a ranger. Thinking that the best way to discover the sylvaris' place in the world is to look in the direction they came from - in the land and nature itself. When not occupied with examining all the other races which live in the land, she usually prowl through the forests, or finds a clearing where she can lay down, relax to the sound of the crickets while she looks up in amazement, and wonders what all those stars are all about...

However, when the evil which threatens all races rises against Tyria, she will be ready. She will be the dagger, the bow, the thorn, the strangle-weed. And perhaps then, those fighting alongside her, will learn to appreciate her temper and spirit.

Chapter 1

There was a rustle in the low-hanging leaves as the moon peeked through the clouds and down into the otherwise silent night of the forest. Suddenly, two almost simultaneous motions, followed by two almost simultaneous sounds stirred the quiet, as a deer darted from its hiding place and the whoosh and thud of an arrow cut it's path short. There was a long moment of silence, until, just as suddenly, a small, leaf-covered head appeared to grow right out a bush without a sound, were it not for the fact that the leaves on the head were bright red, rose and yellow in contrast to the green which surrounded it.

"Ha! Dinner!" A wide grin spread across Aroree's face as she ran her eyes over the deer, appreciating how clean her kill had been. She moved out in the open, her two bows strapped to her back and her blades besides them, and wrapped a rope around its neck, so she could drag it to a more safe location. For a second though, it would have seemed she was already too late, as a dark form moved around the leg of the deer, growling deeply and staring at her with yellow eyes. "Blackfell! Not now! You can eat later!" Aroree hissed. The large black wolf immediately stopped trying to get an early meal and came up on her side, looking at her expectantly. "Ah, I see. I am not only going to catch our dinner, I am also to drag it back to camp all by myself?" Aroree lifted an eyebrow, sending the wolf a skeptical gaze. "Sometimes, I'm not even sure why I keep you around" she sighed, smiling partly to herself, partly to the wolf. Blackfell simply yelped happily and started to lead the way back in the direction of a small group of thorny bushes which in Aroree's mind made it out for 'camp'.

Arorees thoughts wandered some whilst she dragged the deer through the dark forest. She had traveled around in the east part of Kryta, north of Lion's Arch with a charr, seeking to make good on the new truce between humans and charr to rid the human lands of the pests which plagued them. Strangely enough however, most of the humans they encountered seemed to have either not heard of the truce, nor seemed to care, as they had spent more time fighting off attacking villagers, trying not to harm them, than they had spent fighting bandits and centaurs. Eventually, the charr had given up and traveled for Ascalon, whilst Aroree had been banished from the last village they had visited on the charge of "suspicious relations to a charr". At the same time wondering and furious, certain of a great injustice but without any wish to harm the villagers, Aroree had walked out village gate, vowing never to return, and marching towards a nearby forest in which she now found herself. She stopped for a moment, taking in the night air and relaxing for a moment. She loved the forest, the smell, the subtle sounds, the feeling of being surrounded with life. But then all sylvari did, she pondered. She did not get to ponder for much longer, however.

Blackfell heard them coming the same moment she did, and snarled softly. Aroree hushed him, dragging both wolf and deer into some bushes, and kept completely silent. She waited for several long moments before she could actually see them. centaurs. She counted at least sixty. They moved with a blend of speed and near silence, their direction taking them towards the city Aroree had herself left the previous day. They passed by not far from where she and Blackfell were hiding and continued onwards towards the village. She thought to herself for just a moment if whether the villagers who had banished her was worth saving. But, as she was unable to conclude if what they had done to her had actually been fair or not, given that she did not quite understand how the hostility between charr and humans worked − aside from their war of course − she quickly decided that saving the villagers was all there was to do. As she was about to get up and run for the village she heard the sound of more hooves and froze. She looked in the direction the other centaurs had appeared from, and saw two more of them riding towards the village. "Rearguard" she wispered to herself, taking her longbow from her back along with an arrow, aimed she aimed and let the arrow fly.

The arrow hit the centaur through the neck, causing it to collapse to the ground. The other, who was apparently quicker on its feet) than the first, quickly took cover behind a group of trees before Aroree could manage to send a second arrow its way. Cursing her own dullness Aroree sprinted towards the first centaur she had managed to fell. She had shot it first as it was carrying a horn. But seeing how much faster the other centaur had been, she was thinking she should perhaps have done things the other way around. Now she needed to kill the other centaur, as well as prevent it from reaching the horn. She could not spot the other centaur through the trees. Could a centaur crouch and hide? she thought to herself. But before she could think another thought the answer came to her through the thundering of hooves from behind. The centaur had utilized its great speed to circle around her unseen behind the far trees, and surprisingly with relative silence. She spun around, lifting her bow, seeing the centaur galloping towards her with a raised spear. Before she could loose a shot, however, a dark mass of teeth and claw launched itself towards the centaur from the side, as Blackfell caught the centaur's spear-arm between its jaws in a great leap, hurling both to the ground. Aroree ran towards them, finally letting her second arrow fly, penetrating the centaur's other arm which it had used to pull a knife to use against the assaulting Blackfell. The centaur screamed in pain, dropping the knife, but the scream was drowned out as Aroree dropped her bow, pulled one of her blades and leapt towards the centaur, blade stretched forward as she simply yelled "Die!", her skin red and purple from anger. The blade went into the front of the centaur's chest, and its tip came out of the back. The centaur let loose a short sigh, and died on the spot. Aroree wasted no time, pulled out the blade, strapped her bow to her back and ran for the village. Blackfell followed her, after sending a short disappointed gaze in the direction of the deer, still hidden beneath the bushes. Aroree seemed to almost fly across the the forest floor as she ran towards the village. She made a mental note to be more careful with fast moving targets when fighting in a forest in the future, and thought to herself she could probably take out a couple of centaurs from behind before the rest ever figured out what was going on. Especially since their attack would undoubtedly already have already started. Aroree smiled to herself as she ran through the blackness of the forest, the lights of the city far ahead down the hillsides. This was proving to be an interesting night.