Let's try this again...

Edits made, didn't realize the option to not be fresh meat wasn't intended for the way I used it.

[hider]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/tqNC5eV.png[/img][/center]
[h3]Zeldria Miphras[/h3]
Race: Gem
Age: 19
Element(s): Fire
Height: 5'11"

Bio: Not every Gem lives in a major town or city. For some of them, a more rural lifestyle is what calls to them. Such Gems, on occasion, find themselves coming together to form a small settlement where they coexist and work to help one another. In the plains of northeast Gemmenia, one such settlement formed nestled amid the hills. They never decided on a name; theirs was but a small cluster of a few homes, ranches, and farms, almost too small to be marked on a map. And, for a while, it seemed their size was small enough that the Reaping was largely kept away from them. They still had to pay their dues, as it were, but their small size and relative insignificance meant it was many years at a time between visits.

Zeldria was born into such a life. Growing up in such a setting was far from glamorous, often involving hard work, but like all the girls of the settlement she grew into it. People often remarked that she was one of the best they had, both because of her looks and her mind. She was sharp, learned fast, adapted quickly, and was taught from her first walking days to be kind and compassionate towards others. Her parents always taught her that if there was something she could do to spare someone else trouble, she should do it without hesitation; a lesson she took to heart.

One day she was forced to prove she’d learned that lesson in the most terrible way imaginable. Drakken reapers came to the settlement, unscheduled and all but unannounced. The leaders of the small community reacted immediately and defensively; they knew for certain that they were not scheduled for a Reaping, and they demanded to know why the Drakken were there. To hear them tell it, the town that had been scheduled for a reaping to the north had somehow given them almost no brides at all. That would not please their masters, they said, so they had stopped at the settlement to fill their cart more. When the community leaders understandably protested, the Drakken moved toward violence. Conjuring fire from his hand, one of them moved to set the entire settlement alight. “You’re just a small outpost that doesn’t even show up on every map, do you really think the Council will contest us over you?!” they yelled. Before anybody could consider calling their bluff, Zeldria stepped forward and volunteered to go with them. She fully knew the risks, or so she thought, but if she didn’t the settlement might be destroyed and all their lives ruined; as the only girl of age there, this was something she could do to spare all of them trouble, and so she did it.

She only hopes she made the right decision and that things turn out well enough.

[b][color=9e0039]"This is naught compared to what it averts. I do not flinch before the lightning flash; I will not flinch here."[/color][/b]

Adult Content Preference: Fades to black, neither comfortable nor confident writing them out.
[/hider]