#dawne strider

And naturally Dawne would end up being Annette. (Kona and Summer are, ofc, Cecile and Ronald, but I didn't let myself get SO far ahead that I made them. ...yet...)

They're just such terrible people and the storyline suits them.

She didn’t hate moving through cities, visiting them, spending time in them but gods, it made life so much harder for her when ringing, raucous noises nearly deafened her. 

Dawne couldn’t quite hear the metallic tinging of the copper pot rolling across the cobblestones, not after the loud clang left her ears ringing. With the raised voices accompanying it, with the low level of murmur that rose from the city itself, she’d never felt more blind in her life. 

Why did she prefer the Steppes, the Shroud? Because ‘loud’ wasn’t usually a problem out there. 

Large hands closed on her; thick arms hefted her up and Dawne felt Shaman’s hair against her face as he settled her against his shoulder. Although she couldn’t hear his reassuring murmur as his hand closed easily over her back, Dawne relaxed against him. 

The gift of a home certainly couldn’t be taken for granted, not that either of them would have. As surprising as it’d been for Narasen to return to the cabin she’d so fiercely guarded for years and say she was moving into the Lavender Beds, Shaman’s shock tempered immediately when she explained why. 

L’upus’ marriage had set the other Keeper to thinking, to wondering, and after the death of the elezen she’d left ‘home’ for, after returning to quietly sulk and mourn on her own... Narasen finally came to tell Shaman she’d found herself a mate. 

And gifted him with the cabin. 

Not, after all, that L’upus needed it any longer, living in Shirogane with her wife and their mutual lover. Not that Narasen herself apparently needed it any longer, moving into her mate Lutu’a’s house as she was. Only he and his Dawne remained officially homeless and Narasen’s smile when she laid the heavy key in his hand had glowed. 

This way it’s still a family home, she’d said quietly, accepting his grateful embrace, Dawne’s startled yet warm hug. 

Chessi Eder lost the majority of her family before the Calamity and everyone save her father’s brother--who she calls “Uncle Les”--during the Calamity. For that reason, she’s very willing to do anything he asks, even when it’s detrimental to her well being. 

Tanaquil Ul’nia owes her life to a Dataq healer who found her after a pair of Dothral took exception to the Viera sniffing around their territory. The unexpected side effect of the Dataq’s aetherial healing was Tanaquil developing Xaela-style scaling on her body. 

“Summer” is the closest she could come to translating the name the pixies of Il Mheg gave her. Iala Kenn--relating to the turning of seasons, when she was found, and a ‘bright spirit’ that she was recognized to have--seemed to confuse people outside of Il Mheg, so she figured out that “Summer” caught the essence of her name. And she just really liked the way “Bellmayne” sounds.

Dawne Strider learned the old Auri language during her months living on the Steppes and it almost never fails to surprise any Au Ra who discovers this.