March Vignette

[Celandine]

" Philomel?" came the gasp.

Then the young woman turned around, the bob of her short brown hair bouncing. There was a stutter, then a gasp as the man who had called out the name looked at her in surprise and realised his mistake.

"So sorry!" he gasped,

Raising her pale-skinned and long fingered hand the girl doll her head gently, as his pale green eyes drifted to her goat legs, her generous curves and the small ram horns atop her head. It was clear there was some confusion in him, for he was already doubting himself now that he had spoken.

"Wait - it's - you look so -"

"I am not Philomel Van Der Apart," the faun said softly, her voice much calmer and careful than the Matriarch that the man had mistaken her for. "But I know of the Faun General."

The man took a moment, still stumbled by the similarities between the two goat-legged beings. Rigidly he straightened, tugging on his leather breeches as if grounding himself back to reality.

"You - you do?" He asked.

"Indeed," the young woman nodded, but did not smile. Instead she kept herself bared, tall and elegant, with all the graces her good-hearted governess had taught her. "But if you are looking for her you will not find her here. She is due her child soon, and thus is currently not able to ... Venture."

He blinked again, looking around the small shop that they were in, the shelves filled with potions and vials. The shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen, but instead there was a silver bell on the desk to call for them to appear from beyond the beaded curtain that led to the back of the shop.

"Oh. Oh are you one of her -"

"I'm not a courtesan, no," the young faun said quickly, "no not at all. But I know of her Guild and her work. She is quite a legend in this city, I am led to believe."

"Oh indeed!" Happily, he proclaimed. "Indeed. Some might say she saved the city from the invasion of the Brotherhood. And the wealth and prosperity she had brought, the trade she is linked with - why, it is not surprising she is finally getting herself an heir for all of... Well." He laughed lightly.

The young faun tried to chuckle in response. Yet it came out as a dry attempt, with an obvious line of disappointment in it. It made the man pause, then frown as he realised perhaps he might have praised the Matriarch of the Guilded Lily perhaps a little too much. Perhaps realising that the woman before him was not the keenest fan of Philomel Van Der Aart he coughed and began to make his excuses.

"Well yes, goodbye and goodday madam. Thank you - and sorry again."

"Please, no worries," she smiled a little, again gesturing with her hand. "You are kind, sir, to be so polite."

"Yes, well goodbye," he bowed rigidly, oddly, before hurrying out of the potion shop, causingg the bell on it to ring terribly sarcastically.

The young faun just laughed softly to herself, now genuine, and looped her hair back behind her ear. She thought of her soon-to-be brother and the fact that he was so well known to be coming whereas she, Philomel's first born, was more of a whispered rumour. Celandine, daughter of Philomel and her dearest friend Rameses Vaeron, raised for the first few years in secret in a brothel by others, and then recently in a fortress hidden away from the world. Blessed to mature and learn incredibly fast she was just nine years of age, but graced with the body of a true woman and the knowledge of one three times her years. Now thought to be ready she had come to Radasanth to begin experience for herself, to begin to make an adventure of her own.

It was her own beginning.