Ambria Timberwind
Ambria
Timberwind awoke from her sleep, the drooping leaves of the willow tree swaying
gently above her, as she blinked her azure blue eyes, and wiped the sleep out. “Thank goodness”, she murmured to herself,
“Another night over”. Ambria hated the
night. Her greatest fear was darkness,
although this had not always been so. In
her younger days, which were much happier times, the cycle of light and darkness
was welcomed. Her family made their
living by farming, and so the daytime brought life-giving sun, while the
darkness brought rest from the weary work of the day tilling the land. But that was before “The Dark Curse”. One summer, when Ambria was in her 10th year
of life, her family’s village had been cursed by an evil warlock angry with the
villagers for not providing him with the bulk of their crops. So he set a curse upon the village that from
that summer on, each year the sun would rise less and less over their lands. Ambria’s fear of the darkness started then,
as the sun shone less and less each day and the darkness signaled evil and
death. For 9 years, the darkness
increased little by little and the villagers lived with the fear that soon
their world would see no light at all. The
long nights of darkness eventually caused crops to die and farmers, including
Ambria’s family, were unable to grow food for sustaining themselves or to sell.
Ambria
stood up and stretched her lean, muscular arms to the sky as she shook off the
fear of the night. Her shaggy
chestnut-colored hair tumbled across her forehead, and she shook to get it out
of her eyes. She laughed to herself when
she thought about how long it had been since she had cut it. Since the curse until now, it had been over 10
years! When she first started out on
this journey a year ago at the age of 19, she tended to keep it in a long braid
down her back, but now more often than not, she just let it go however it
wanted to go. Ambria wasn’t what one would consider overtly beautiful, but she
is attractive and outgoing and never lacked for friends or suitors in her
world. She could be considered a bit of
a tomboy, but this did not make her unattractive to the opposite sex. In fact, her adventurous nature was one that
makes her popular with males and females alike.
She, however, is very choosy about who she befriends.
Grabbing
her leather boots, she smoothed out her torn skirt a bit, tied a scarf
around her waist and tightened up the ties of her corseted top. She struggled a bit to pull on her boots over
her swollen legs. The daily travels have
been taking their toll on her body.
Still, she feels strong. Her
strength is coming from her determination.
Fully
dressed, Ambria reached into her explorer’s pack and hummed a little to herself
as she pulled out a small amount of bread that she had stolen from a nearby
village. She unwrapped it from the
greasy cloth it was packed in and ate it quickly, savagely. “I didn’t realize how hungry I was!” she said
aloud. Then, sadly, she realized how
trivial these words were. She remembered
with great sadness the fate of Kryztatha, during the later years of the
curse.
Kryztatha
was Ambria’s younger sister, and along with their two brothers Jovin and
Dairenz, lived with their parents in the village. During the later years of the curse, when
their farm began to produce fewer and fewer crops and more and more villagers
were facing illness and starvation,
Jovin and Dairenz, decided to leave the village in order to seek out
food or a better way of life. They fully
intended to come back and rescue their other family members, including Ambria,
their mother and father and their sister Kyrztatha. However, while they were gone, the situation
got worse and worse, and Kyrztatha, much to Ambria’s horror, had starved to
death. Distraught, Ambria and her
parents decided they couldn’t afford to wait any longer for Jovin and Dairenz
to return, and thus they set out on their own.
Unfortunately, the journey was too much for Ambria’s parents and along
the way, they perished. This left Ambria
on her own to seek refuge, and also to search for her brothers in hopes that
they would be reunited. Ultimately, she
hopes to join forces with them in order to lift the curse that is on their
village and take the evil warlock out of power.
Ambria
felt the tears burning on her cheeks as she remembered the loss of her
family. This was truly her greatest
failure in life: that she was unable to save her sister or her parents. As she remembers them, she grasped the amber
pendant that hung from her neck. When
Ambria was born, her parents had named her after the gemstone, Amber, and as a
gift, they fashioned an amber necklace, bound in gold, that she has worn since
birth on. The amber, which has many
spiritual and natural healing properties, helps to give Ambria clarity in her
pursuits and guides her along life’s paths.
Having this treasure from her parents keeps her focused on what she has
set out to do. Touching it brings her
moments of solace.
But
there’s no time for solace now! “I need to get on my way, “ Ambria stated
boldly, and her words were carried off into the crisp autumn air. She grabbed her pack, glanced inside and made
sure that her thief’s tools were stowed away within. She smiled when she thought of what she had
become. She was such a good girl growing
up, but circumstances had changed her.
Now, though her inner being was still good and true, she often found
that she must summon the dishonest and sneaky part of her nature in order to
survive. In her heart, she feels that
these small changes are justified in order to combat the overall evil that she
faces. Though Ambria lives with the
heartache of the loss of her family, she is also filled with an angry determination
to find out the weakness in the warlock’s curse, so that she can help end the
curse forever. She is optimistic that
she will meet up with her brothers and they will again be a family and can
avenge the deaths of their sister and parents.
And Ambria is not afraid to break the rules—especially rules she feels
are unjust-- to do so.
She strapped on her bow and quiver, making a
mental note of how few arrows she had left.
“Hopefullly, I won’t need them today!”, she thought to herself. But her optimism was a farce. She knew that danger lay ahead, as it had for
many days prior. She would rely on her
cunning and skill to survive the day.
She tucked her two daggers into her boots and her short sword, whose
handle was also adorned with her namesake amber, into the scarf around her
waist. Lifting her pack onto her back,
she prepared for another long day’s journey.
“Onward, then!
” she said cheerfully to herself…more cheerfully than she really felt,
and she set out on her way.
