DarkDelights

Valurra F-List
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Half-Drow, half-Sylvan. Even though Valurra was only a babe, her mother was scorned and cast out for choosing to keep such an abomination rather than kill her. She left with a heavy heart and though it was hard-going at first, the woman managed to find them shelter in a cave deep inside the forest and turn it into a home.

It was there that Valurra was raised during the first few years of her life. Her mother taught her how to speak both Elven and Common, as well as what the woman could of the forest. The girl learned how to survive in the forest. Some lessons were taught by her mother and others by life itself.

The hardest lesson she learned was death and at a young age. Her mother had become sick when she was only eight winters and for two years the woman’s health had steadily declined. Eventually she became bedridden and Valurra did what she could to help keep her mother’s strength up and try to help make her better. None of the herbs she found worked and she didn’t know where any cities or towns were where she could get stronger medicine. It seemed hopeless but Valurra kept on trying.

Unfortunately, when Valurra returned home from one long trip into the forest for supplies, she found her mother unresponsive. She didn’t want to believe that her mother was dead, but as hard as she tried to get her mother to wake up, the woman did not. All night she cried at the loss of her mother and in the morning she buried her in the small garden they had made together a few years previous.

Now Valurra was alone in the vast world and that scared her. She had no idea how to get any places of civilization. As much as she explored since she could first walk, she never went too far for fear of getting lost and never finding her way home. On top of that, she had yet to learn all of the necessary survival skills one needed to live in the forest alone and her hunting skills were severely lacking.

Days went by, weeks even, and somehow Valurra managed to survive. She barely got by though, plants making up the most of her diet while she was still struggling with catching animals; and fishing wasn’t any easier since she never learned how to do it.

Then, on one particularly freezing winter day, Valurra came across a campsite. She would’ve ignored it since she had seen many before if it wasn’t for the smell of cooking meat. The winter that year was especially harsh and pickings were worse than slim for the nuts, fruits, and other edible plants that she had to compete against herbivores for. Her food stores were empty and she was starving, so she took her chances and carefully made her way to the campsite.

At first, it seemed luck was on her side as she devoured most of the meat that had been cooking over the fire; but, as she decided to look through the gear laying around for stuff to take so that she might better survive, her luck ran out. A voice shouted at her and without even looking in its direction she ran.

Valurra ran as fast as she could, but she wasn’t fast enough. She didn’t get very far before she was brought down by her pursuer and had a knife at her throat. It was only when the man was face-to-face with her that he realized she was just a child, and a terrified one at that.

She thought that he was going to kill her, not only because she had stolen from him but also for how she looked. Her mother had told her the truth of her appearance, why Valurra’s skin was black while her mother was lightly tanned. Instead, after some interrogation, the man ended up taking her in.

It was under his protection and guidance that Valurra became a mercenary and assassin for hire. With how the world viewed Drow and how she looked exactly like one, it was her only option, which suited her just fine. Having lived in the wilds of a forest for the first decade of her life, it was something she did not want to give up, and her teacher, the man she viewed as a father more often than not, taught her everything she needed to know to survive in the wilds.

Nicole F-List