Image Credits Meiker Mystery Gang

Name: Jeleba Greer (dja LAY bah)

Gender/Pref: female, straight

Age: 18

Hair: pale blond, kept in a pony tail and held back with stylish sashes and bands, the front is short and in back it goes to her mid-shoulders

Eyes: grey-blue with more stormy grey than sky blue, often looks concerned or judgemental

Appearance: pale skin that does tan well but she hardly wears less than her shown finery. She is upright and proper, 5'9" and looks it; she is not particularly curvy, nor is she markedly muscular; her voice is strong, sharp, and not very pleasant if she's either whining about something or yelling

Family: related to those among Calig's merchant house, she is the eldest of two daughters and one son, and she takes strongly after her fraternal grandmother in so many ways that everyone expects her to take over their business when that woman retires... Jeleba doesn't much care for either the idea that she must do this, or that she should have her own heirs and family to keep up the lineage, even as the eldest

Aspirant At: Abazzu Castle

Skills: she has grown up around the business end of merchantry. She is highly literate, and socially adept in ways that 'mere' merchants aren't always. Quite good with numbers and accounting, but also with business deals, legal contracts, and working directly with people who may be trying to wheedle out of their side of the bargain. Fashionable, physically careful and precise, she doesn't spill a drop of tea unless it's the metaphorical gossip type. Not... that she serves the tea. She is surprisingly compassionate toward servants and workers alike, having understood that a happy worker is a good worker - she will not tolerate workplace beratement or beatings, though she's not above scolding a little to light a fire under an under-performing person. She does know when to stop, she is a very good judge of personality and intent, even if she's firm enough to get a deal in her family's favor almost every time.

Personality: A spoiled rich girl, but she does earn what she's been entrusted with. She commands attention and respect, though she doesn't demand either unless she truly feels slighted. She's strong willed, a bit grumpy and slightly more than a little bad tempered here and there - something that her grandmother chuckles about and continually tells her 'wait til you have kids' ... she has no intention of that thank you. She does feel like she needs to do her own thing, at least for a while, but she won't undermine her family's needs or plans to get where she wants to be. She'll earn it, and show them who's really boss.

Background: as above, she has definitely benefitted from being the eldest and expected to follow in her family's quite aggressive footsteps. Her father and his mother were among the first to join up with the Deswet Merchant Guild. They do all the land-trading while the Deswets handle the ocean-borne duties, and she took to the books the moment she could read. That's how she knew that her uncle was abusive toward his staff and employees: they were almost always late for work, slacking off, and not performing to their expected results. When she, as a 9 year old girl, went to the warehouse they worked at, and saw just exactly why they did this, she approached her grandmother immediately.

Her son was repremanded, and his floor manager was promoted - and ever since that time, she's made sure that their books got shown off as the highest sales and best customer responses in their family.

She also however, took to the finer things all too easily. She loves looking her best, even if in a severe format, and she knows how to adjust her look for any given event or meeting. Her expectations are high, but she is willing to go the distance and make sure that they're met fairly.

She wasn't sure what was going on with the one Deswet boy, Calig. He'd been in port a few days as normal, and suddenly looked all aflutter, and then abruptly went off with a drak knight? On a drak?!

While it wasn't unusual to see draks around, obviously, it certainly was out of the ordinary when one of them took off with members of the merchant guild! She stalked around the drak... areas? Flats? Hillside? She wasn't sure whether the non-Castle draks had a term for such a place where they were welcome to rest up and wait for their knights or riders to do their business in town. She would learn, shortly.

Because one of those riders looked her over with interest. Not the kind that she would spurn - not like the ways that the dock workers or the rare middle-aged widower merchant would do. She could tell they wanted to talk, so she let them approach. Something about the way their drak also did, their beautiful head tilted as if listening in. She'd been Judged, she would be welcome to come to their Castle... Stand as an aspirant?

Oh - oh that would be juicy, indeed. That'd be one way that she could walk her own path, come back to the guild and family with her own responsibilities rather than just the ones that they intended her to fill. So off she went after a heated discussion with her father - though oddly it was her grandmother who approved of this venture. To Abazzu Castle, a place she'd never heard of, but she would certainly be talking it up once she got there... And came back. If she was riding a drak that had come to her, or another to bring her home after failing to pair, in the moment she was in the air behind the knight, it didn't even matter. She was freer than she'd ever been!

**

It was a longer wait than they expected, at this Castle's hatching and Pairing ground. But Jeleba put herself to good use, making sure that each of the human visitors had what they needed and was making plans to figure out trade routes and exchanges with these local Draks. They were in charge of this 'castle' after all, and humans were rare at best here! It wasn't completely uncivilized, there were still simple cots and rooms carved into the marsh-surrounded hill, but it was definitely not a remarkably comfortable place for those without wings and paws!

The draks on their deep cavern grounds had been apparently discussing this for a while, but now, now that everyone knew that the draklings had hatched and were grown enough to start making their own demands of their harried parents, it was only a matter of time before they'd be presented! It took three weeks from that time, to now, and finally... finally the humans were allowed to see these amazing young draklings. Jeleba had been joined by several others in the meeting hall where the parents both grilled them for personality fitness, attitude, the right amount of physical skill and desire to do the right thing should a drakling from their precious clutch choose them. Jeleba was confident but not a fool: she admitted her worries to the dam of the clutch, and perhaps that endeared her.

Their sire sat beside an entry point, and Shirezro then presented their younglings. Well, with some amount of difficulty. Jeleba had to admit a laugh privately, kids would be kids no matter their species, and these young draks were quite the active bunch! A whole wad of them, wings and tails and necks and fur entangled so much that it was hard to tell them all apart tried to run under their mother's legs, but she put a stop to that with a comment - one which was interrupted by a snarling and angry drakling getting into a tiff with another of the siblings.

The Fire was aggressive, a little Wind a bit scared, and an Earth stood her ground between them. Their sire cleared his throat, they all froze... Eight draklings, some obviously more ready and willing than others to get on with this.

They sat where they had been romping or squaring off. And it seemed like it would have worked, save for one particularly antsy and energetic forest variant that bolted out and tried to head toward the Aspirants. Their mother grabbed her by the tail, causing her to whine and begin pleading to go, but it only served to make another bold enough to move. With the distraction of dam and drakling keeping them both busy, the Earth drakling then took that opportunity to move out unhindered.

As if on sight, the drakling knew just what to expect and where to go, the pale Earth drak bounded directly toward Jeleba. She came in a rush but stopped short of bowling the young woman over, sitting at her feet, and examining the human woman thoroughly - properly, close up instead of as a glimpse here and there before they'd been presented.

"I don't see why I must wait for mother to announce me, or for the others to make a decision. I know what I want. And that's you. You look marvellous. I did too, but my brother messed up my mane. So rude!" the Earth drakling said. "Anyway, my name is Salomro."

While there were 7 more draklings to choose or not choose their new partners here, Jeleba for once in her life stopped paying attention to the entire area and anything else going on. Because the most important thing in the world just happened, and she was not inclined to ignore it!

"Well Salomro, I am Jeleba, and I'm honored to meet you." She appraised the hair situation, and began smoothing out the little drakling's messy mane. "You're right, now you're perfect and presentable again!"

They finally did start paying attention to the other draklings and new pairs, when the feast and celebration was held! What a strange thing, in a castle without two-legged inhabitants, Jeleba pondered. But still it was a good day, a good feast! She'd overheard several of the local draks and knew better than to start suggesting they offer better human accommodations, any human presence here would be transient at best. The new pairs would also need to provide their own training partners, since the 'knights' were all draks themselves. Not a problem, still, because they did at least communicate to other more human-centric castles.

It was off to one of those, Dun Keiba, that Jeleba and her precious - precocious - Salomro were taken. They'd be needing normal training for flight and care, of course, but Jeleba was hardly going to become a Knight for their Armadas. No, after the initial training and adjustment periods, she was able to send word back to her home and family. It would be a while, over a year in fact, before she'd go back there to even show off Salomro and her skills, but it wouldn't be the last time they would go back and forth. Like Calig, too, they would begin forming the basis for some air-based trade routes for their family business!