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Banon Maldwyn
Profile: Banon is a girl of average height. She stands at about 5'5". She has almond shaped, blue-green eyes and red hair that grows in natural ringlets. She has a clever tilt to her eyebrows a light sweep of freckles across her nose. She has extremely fair skin and burns easily so she hates being out in sunlight. She has a white scar in the shape of a key on her shoulder from the time that she accidentally leaned against a brand when she was very young. She has muscular arms from all of her work in the stables and strong legs from riding. When she rides, people tell her that she looks like she was born on horseback, which is not all together untrue for all of the riding she's done since birth. She is a quiet type of person like her father, but she has a sharp wit for anyone who can bear it. She has a tendency to hold grudges but her temper surfaces only rarely and usually only in desperation, when she is angry she speaks in low, controlled tones, though sometimes she has been known to yell. When she laughs her eyes tear up. She cries when she's frustrated. She loves to sing when people aren't listening. Biography: She walked through a lush garden. The air was full of the scent of the many flowers, but she was unable to isolate the delicious sweetness of her favorite among them, lilacs. She felt of ripple of doubt spread across her mind as she remembered that there shouldn't be any flowers growing, since the ground was only beginning to thaw after the harshest winter in her memory. The sky, cloud-dusted at one moment, then immaculate midnight at the next, was filled with the eyes of the heavens peering down upon her. She walked down a well-flattened path and looked ahead towards the great palace ahead of her. She observed the blades of grass with keen interest, watching as they blurred from one position to the next as an unfelt breeze pushed against them. She looked up from her contemplation to study a large and rather old oak tree, but stopped short of a man bending down to examine a rock in the path ahead of her. Usually the dream world showed flashes of people, but never were they so stationary, so solid, so real. His clothes-unlike her own ever-shifting, at once a fine silk riding dress then plain brown pants, whirling through every color imaginable; blue, green, white, yellow-did not change. His long black curls fell back to reveal a face untouched by age. She wondered how it was possible that one could seem as old as time and yet have no age at all. She released a barely audible gasp that in that silent splendor of night, echoed like thunder, as she realized what this man must be. He stood, turned from his study and saw her. His eyes narrowed at first then widened as he saw the instability of her garments. She remained motionless for the time it took him to realize that she was as untrained dream walker, before she turned and ran. The cities fell away behind her as she stretched her legs from mountaintop to mountaintop, until she found herself falling through a sea of feathers going faster and faster, the ground rising up to meet herself Bang Banon Maldwyn opened her blue-green eyes and began her daily ritual of counting the wooden beams of the ceiling above her. Bang What is that awful noise? Banon hated loud noises, especially in the morning. Bang "My lady Banon," yelled the loud, familiar voice of her father "would you mind gracing us with your presence. Your beloved Emrys misses your cooking." Banon threw off her frayed quilt, pulled her dark green riding dress over her head and brushed her curly red hair back before descending the ladder from her bedroom down to the queen's stables in Caemlyn, Andor. Her day went by, as is a day's wont, without any event of consequence. On this day, however, she was preoccupied with the events of the night before. She fed her horse, Emrys, in the morning as well as the queen's mounts, she watched her father train a young spirited filly named Drysi, she mucked out the stalls and she watched as a delegation from the Grey Tower entered into the city. She thought she recognized one of the Asha'man as the man she saw in her dream, but dismissed the notion as childish dreaming. It was just a normal day. With the new delegation came the added work of six more horses to care for. Banon prepared the horse's stalls and then went to bed early. For some reason, even though she was sleeping quite a lot, she could not help but feel tired all of the time. She found herself standing on a stretch of shimmering moonlight made solid atop a rippling sea. The sheer expanse of water was crippling to a girl who had only ever seen small speeding rivers, full of goals and determination. This water was so placid and content, it made her feel as though every one of her unfulfilled dreams were reaching out of her depths and stinging her all over. She felt as though the sea was taunting her because it was so full and she, so very empty. She looked down, past her bare, moon paled feet and saw nothing but liquid clarity. She froze for a moment, remembering that people could not walk on water. She sank, sputtering and fighting, down into her happy murderer. Her eyes closed, she wished she was in that garden from the night before, she was afraid of that man, but at least she hadn't died there. She opened her eyes one last time to see a spray of pale purple lilacs the color of early dawn. Emerald grasses surrounded her and again the intoxicating scent of flowers filled her mind. She lay there, panting, still feeling the harsh waters pressing in around her, daring her to try to escape. She could hear nothing but her own deafening breath. That was why she didn't hear the footsteps coming down the path. "Are you alright?" She looked up past the lilacs to see the very same man she'd seen the night before examining a rock. He had a cocky grin on his ageless face and a touch of concern in his dark eyes. His constant clothes were a certain shade of black and simply cut, though elegant in their simplicity. He stood over her; a hand resting lightly on his hip, on his other was a large stone ring. She tried to get up quickly; to run away from this stranger invading her dream, but found herself to be too weak still to do more than sit up slowly. "Yes." She made herself stand up, ignoring her aching muscles, using the sturdy lilac bush as a cane and ignoring his outstretched hand. "I fell into the sea." She didn't care how absurd that statement sounded at the present. She felt wet, tired and most of all annoyed that someone would be traipsing around in her dream world. She attempted to keep her face blank since she didn't know what this stranger was capable of and felt it really would not be best to offend those more powerful than herself by glaring. The stranger considered her carefully, she saw with no little embarrassment how he smirked at her inability to keep her clothing from changing twenty times a second. "You are untrained, girl. Do you know what the Grey Tower is?" His voice was slightly hoarse, as if he was recovering from a cold. It made her feel on edge. She'd heard of it, of course, that was where the delegation was from, but the way he mentioned it, it seemed as if he thought she needed to go there. That's simply unthinkable! Then again, she thought, so is talking to other people in your dreams. For that matter, is this my dream at all? Or is it something else entirely? "Where exactly are we? Isn't it just a dream? How am I talking to you? How do I know if you're even real?" She didn't bother to leave the suspicion out of her voice. She was feeling steadier on her feet now and knew she could jump mountains if he decided to take offense. His brow creased in concentration a moment before he answered. "We are in what is called Tel'aran'rhiod, the world of dreams. Some, like me, need a special object to help them, but you, it seems, were born with the natural talent. It's actually quite rare. You must go to the Grey Tower for training. It isn't safe to wander in this world without knowing what you are doing. If you die here, you die out there, too." He paused a moment before continuing. "Have you ever woken up from Tel'aran'rhiod with bruises or sore muscles? It's true that your body is still in the same place, but your mind travels here. It is here so fully that what happens in this world affects your body in our world. This is why you must go for training. It is easy to find yourself lost or in danger here as you no doubt found earlier when you fell in the sea." He chuckled at this last sentence made her blush with embarrassment and anger. 'You expect me to just leave my family for some place I've barely heard of? I don't think so. Dangerous though it may be, I'm not leaving my parents, they need my help too much. Besides I don't end up here all that often." This wasn't exactly true, she was visiting the garden in the dream world with increasing frequency. She wasn't going to be traveling across Andor to some tower just to study, any time soon. Her father needed her to tend the horses he trained. He wasn't getting younger and he needed her to take over the stable for him soon. Her mother couldn't do it, she was needed in the kitchen staff of the palace all of the time. Besides, she was good at horses; they were her life. How could she leave? "Yes, that's exactly what I expect you to do. What if you can channel? Do you know what happens to girls who can channel but aren't taken to the tower or trained at all? They die in the worst pain you can imagine." He voice got steadily louder and harsher as he said this. She shrank back a little. It seems she'd finally broken his Asha'man calm. 'What kind of person leavers her own family? How do I know if I would I ever see them again?" Her voice was almost a whisper. Her face was full of concern and worry. "You know the consequences, make your choice. It's rare gift you have. It's a shame you want to waste it." The Asha'man turned and disappeared. He left her standing in a pool of her thoughts rippling with her discordant emotions. Questions created whirlpools in her mind as she struggled to find out what she wanted in her life; already so different than what she had planned for herself. After making her decision she left the dream world and let herself fall into sleep.
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