Tabea (tah BEE ah)

Bonded to: Lanabath From: Mystic's Bernese

Age: 88 Born in: Deep Winter
Soul Name: unknown Known By: no one yet Found: not found yet
Sex: female Mate Status/Sex Preference: has heard that the Bald Mountain elves have had Recognitions, maybe she will get that lucky! In the meantime she is content with whoever will be with her
Children: none, she does hope to be a mother
Parents/Relatives: birth parents dead; adopted parents Aoku and Meysh
Original Tribe: Ice Gliders Arrived to Bald Mountain: 200
Height: 3'11" Build: muscular but not athletic
Hair Color, Length, Style: flaxen blonde, braided with beads, to waist
Eye Color, Size, Shape: her eyes may have been brown at one point but they are too damaged to heal let alone open
Skin Tone: pale creamy
Voice Quality: light, smooth, gentle
Clothing -- Summer: oh she'll love having something that lets the sun warm her skin!
Clothing -- Winter: heavy fur lined long sleeved dress in dark green; leather pants in black; thick warm boots
Jewlery Worn, Made: her hair is kept with golden beads, found while the group explored some old abandoned Troll digs
Tatoos/Markings/Scars: her face is badly scarred with burns and metal shrapnel cuts, over her left ear, cheek, across the top of her nose, and over both eyes
Pets/Animals Kept: none, small deer and owls seem to like her but she's never considered them pets
Notable Posessions: just the beads and herself, isn't that enough?
Holt Function: search rider?
Strength: below average
Dexterity: average
Agility: below average
Health: above average
Size: small, could have been much stronger if she could see and act
Intelligence: very high
Appearance: high
Charisma: high
Magic Power: extremely high
Magic? How Powerful? Sending 9/10, Magic Feeling 5/10, Deep Sensing 8/10; these abilities are all reasonably close-range, within 10 miles for easy communication, but her Deep Sensing power can detect motives, emotional states, physical stress, and other quirks of an intelligent being and she uses this (along with her dragon of course) to actively search or confirm worthiness for dragon riding. She had used this to make sure of their trading partners when they would encounter humans or other elves, and always felt that some of them were 'better' for some reason. Now she knows, but will they be able to locate those special others this long after parting?
Cold Resistance 6/10 like most Ice Gliders she shrugs off the cold, though she honestly doesn't prefer it, she'd like to remain near the warmer woodlands
Rock Shape/Metalshape 4/10 the small beads and baubles that the Trolls left sitting around are easily reshaped for her skilled magic, it's an unusual ability at best as normally Elves cannot shape metal with magic
Climate/Locations Preferred: temperate forests, quiet nights, meadows
General Likes: having comfortable friends around, people who respect her for what she can do rather than feel sorry for her sight being gone
General Dislikes: having to tolerate the folk who don't think she 'can' do 'that' - whatever it is, she'll probably try...
Fears/Worries: that she won't ever find her Recognized mate - she knows that her adopted fathers are not going to be having children together, but maybe she will give them grandchildren either way?
Special Strange Info: while she is definitely sight-blind, she can easily use her powers to navigate when there are people around. It's almost completely unconscious using her Deep Sensing, and though she cannot 'see through their eyes', she gets a good sense of an area, particularly indoors, and won't trip up on things
Basic Personality: considerably more cheerful and kind than anyone expects her to be; she does clearly remember the incidents that led to her injuries, though until meeting Ainea she didn't truly understand the depth of hatred that their old chief had; curious, generous, and quietly confident
How they feel about
Humans: the traders are often quite fun! Though they do smell a little weird
Elves -- herders: don't they trip over all the animals?
Elves -- magic users: she doesn't understand how an elf can be an elf and not have magic? But the Go-Backs are almost empty from it, how odd
Elves -- bond-riders: oh now she understands, even flight is possible for her
Trolls, etc: if they hadn't left their cruel traps around, she would have been ... well, she has been told the difference between those and the one or two living in Bald Mountain, and trusts them thanks to her powers; if that changes, she will alert Apogee and Ainea

Skills: Does not hunt, but is known to help make arrows and other small items
Tinkering / Small Items: very high
Metalwork (theory learned recently): average
Communication (Symbols): high
Verbal Communication (Human/Trader): above average
Animal Communication (generalized sounds): average
Psychology: above average

Will have Ride (Dragon): high

History: (as from Aoku's story)

Tabea has learned to listen and perceive things that the eyes would fail to grasp. Not merely with magic, and not only with her ears or her fingers. She can truly get a grasp on a person's mind or mood just by listening to their weight shift, or the little sounds they make while impatiently waiting, or the sound of a rumbling hungry gut. But with her magic working, this information can be remarkably specific. One trader had recently lost his best cart-oxen, and was desperate to replace it. One of those surly Go-Backs felt that a blind girl would be of no use until she casually pointed out the snow cat about to pounce. She's full of surprises, and strangely lacking much spite. Perhaps that's why a gold dragon came to her - she doesn't really understand the significance of this, but with Lanabath's eyes she can now at last see the world anew.

**

At some point before leaving for their bonding journey, Apogee carefully pulled Tabea aside, looking for a bit of privacy she led the younger elf to her high aerie. Tabea felt the stronger pull of the wind here, there were odd smells - so much tanned leather, and a tangy smell that she didn't know was 'lacquer' over the springy sapling wood ... a new glider frame that Apogee was building for someone down in the human village nearby. The blind elfess was guided to a comfortable pile of pillows, which she snugged into.

"This is softer than any new snowfall," she said, dreamily.

Apogee didn't hem and haw, as soon enough the group would be on their way. "I ... know that you've sometimes been cut off in conversations and ignored where you should be heard," the chieftess said. "And I want you to know that I'll hush those people to let you speak, when you need it. I got... tired of having other people interrupt an... an old friend, back at Twin Peaks." She sent an image not of a blind or injured elf, but of a fully functional and seemingly proud male elf. "That is Symbolmaker, and he had a lovemate, named Strongmind."

And here, was where Tabea understood. This girl, clearly still an elf, she was... "What chewed on her?" she blurted out.

"No, she was born that way, half an arm, hardly stumps for legs, and eyes that could never see." Apogee sent the image of this girl, with a broad smile on her face laughing as her lovemate put her on the back of a strange fluffy goat-creature and it bolted away. "But she was at least as smart as any other elf in the Peaks, probably more so. And she had learned how to know who was walking by just by their breathing, or the way their footfalls kicked the leaves."

"I ... well, pebbles and ice, and not leaves, but..." Tabea nodded. "I know how that is. And I can sense them," she tapped her forehead, avoiding the puckered burn scars there. "I suppose I should feel quite lucky," she admitted, "I didn't lose anything more than my eyes that day. And I don't really even remember much beyond the fear and smoke." If her eyes could have opened, they would roll, "Aoku blames himself every time he thinks about it. I only wish I could stop him from doing that..."

"Either way," Apogee chuckled, "if you need me to intervene just send my way. I know you're capable of standing up for yourself, don't be afraid to have me show up too. Sometimes the young at the Peaks would stare or point, and she knew they were, but said nothing. It was cruel, th...they didn't make it out, neither Symbolmaker or Strongmind survived the great quake that destroyed our old holt. But I remember both of them, I found this," she held out and nudged the back of Tabea's hand, and the girl felt for this thing. Cloth, a very strong weave, with embroidered stitches...

"Patterns," Tabea breathed, "there are patterns here, I can almost see them with my fingers."

"I can send their images to you, they were meant to be seen or felt, even the humans near the Peaks had their own version of this, and I think he took many symbols from it where we had no words."

"That's... that's so clever," Tabea was still 'reading' the tiny but raised stitches. She realized each of them would fit within two fingers' space, a square, or more accurately a diamond shape wider than it was tall. "May I take this with me? I - I promise I would not lose it!"

She actually felt Apogee's stomach tighten, but then the chieftess collected her wits. "Yes, I think you could study it, just bring it back to me, okay?" She imprinted the 'words' into the young elf's mind, Apogee realized that Tabea was barely older than Symbolmaker when he had put those things into their patterns. Armed with the knowledge of 'this means hut' and 'that is river', Tabea would learn almost half the symbols by touch even before the dragons they were waiting for hatched!

***

It was quite a surprise, apparently, for a girl her size - or her breed - but particularly a blind tiny elf girl - to Impress a gold. She would be a queen, maybe not a big one, people kept saying, there were others in the nests that were bigger by far. But she was definitely the biggest among this group straight out of the shell. She wouldn't remain the biggest, Inidoth the bronze would eventually be just a touch bigger than she. Lanabath however would not have even sniffed at any other potential bond that day. Even when she had to brush aside the two squabbling greens nearby, she did so carefully and with purpose, rather than in anger or carelessly.

You are mine, I will be your eyes, if you will be my one.

She was hungry, and Tabea had come prepared just like all the other candidates, with a bowl of cut meat. "I am honored, Lanabath, I think we'll make a perfect team."

***

They would reside more or less in the northwest-most reaches of Bald Mountain's attendant hills, rather than in the Holt proper. But that was because several trading caravans and hubs were closer to that area, and Tabea loved interacting with those. She even made signs, 'have fur need sour-berries', 'dangerous snake season', and the elves as well as humans (and yes, the spare troll or two) understood those signs quite well. Her beloved fathers make regular trips to her, but they know that her delightfully grand dragoness will definitely keep their daughter as safe as could be.