Nadine (Archy Girl)

Tuesday, Feb. 15th, 2012


` In hunt, Nadine came upon a farmer whom was talking earnestly with a captain that she assumed was residing in a neighboring garrison. It could not hurt to eavesdrop in and listen to the affairs of a little region. After all, it’s not like they would spot her. She was no thief, but she knew her stealth was keen enough, if it was not: then she would go every night having to ask for a piece of Sampelo’s catch.
` The common man, knife on the belt and calluses crafted, said to the soldier: “The crops in the outskirts are being destroyed, I can’t keep a steady supply of grain, you must start asking more farmers for their share and not come after those which cannot sustain even themselves!”
` The foul captain rambled on, “I care not for these foolish excuses, our garrison is in need of some good meal or I’ll be stark close to eating the grossly haunch of a centaur with my men tomorrow! It’s bad enough we already have to resort to using those spell crafting elementalists for supplying us with water.”
` The farmer implored the captain to see reason in his plead, but the captain only threatened onward, even though he had no more authority on the matter than a Fahrar cub would have in the Asuran council. It is for this display of corrupted authority that Nadine left herself independent of the military leaders. She held her loyalty to those few selective souls she came to trust in her time of nobility and her recent travels, but she was unwaveringly set on prioritizing the needs of the peasantry. She saw determination in them that opposed the undead front, but their ferocity was truly left recoiled in defense of their own land.
` It displeased her that the peasants could not reason that every being must be soldier to their own future. It displeased her that they, as a whole, could not find ways to end this evil wrath now. It displeased her that she could not place herself in the shoes of commoners in order to perceive their logic first-hand. She was raised a noble, that mindset of origin cannot be waved away with a flick of the wrist.
` Nadine could not bear to have the undead ravage through the landscape while she could do something to intervene. She prepared a small campground to wait on until noon to help stop the undead. It would be a sufficient test of strength for herself to overcome, she did not plan on being caught by surprise.
` Sampelo was dawdling through the grass and gnashing at flies, biding his time as he and Nadine hid in wait of the undead horde. Nadine stretched out of her comfortable position in the rocks and took a look down the road in check for undead. She sparked a fire with her flint and dagger; she kept the flames low, some undead tended to have a remarkably keen eye for flame.
` At last the fire burned well enough under the cooking pot to boil the tender fowl. The rusted bowl was cold and left a stingy aftertaste in her stew. After a few bites that thankfully felt as if they restored some energy, the cooking pot arced through the air onto the road. The winds were nigh still, she sharply whistled to Sampelo as she caught bow in hand.
` An afflicted Charr bounded toward the rocks by her fire that she was at just a split second before. She dodged around him and let loose an arrow that pierced the Charr behind the knee. “Good riddance,” an excessively mutated elementalist shocked Sampelo several times in succession. She strode across the clearing to buy some time away from the chasing Charr. She barraged the elementalist and saw Sampelo tear a gash at its side, but he was not left without his own wounds. The elementalist did not fall to the earth, but disintegrated and muttered into the wind.
` The problem with this Charr, she realized, was that he came imbued with defenses. Though unsure, she noticed at least three times her arrows flickered away from her target. What she needed was the advantage of height. The only way to achieve this would be by running all the way up the rocky hill with minimum restraint, and she had no time to untie all of her provisions.
` She figured that the only way would be in climbing a nearby ledge with proper footing and get to the top just in time to send an arrow through the Charr's spine. A precise point blank shot would be ideal. Yet, she decided to improvise. She slung an arrow in the face of the beast. Disoriented by the roar of the Charr, she went off target and the arrow collided into the bone of his palm, and the bowstring snapped. The Charr's mace crashed through the side of her vision and sent a jarring impact to her side. Her senses impaired, through the haze she saw only the Charr fending off Sampelo's hungry claws. Sampelo believed Nadine to be fatally wounded; he swung around the corrupted vessel and flanked him in the side. The Charr barely missed sinking his teeth into Sampelo's tail. Hostility flared within Sampelo's deep blue eyes, circling the Charr, Sampelo leaped and split the Charr's neck with his fangs, producing a notable crack. Witnessing this fight of tooth and nail, she struggled to regain full maneuverability. She found that the arrow she misled had forced the Charr to drop his mace in the fight with Sampelo: being the reason the Charr fought with such primitive behavior, even for an undead. Sampelo let out something close to a purr, in recognition that death had not befallen her, and closed in beside her.
` From behind her, Nadine heard a grunt. She twisted around. Knife in hand, she led herself in closer. The Charr murmured an almost inaudible whisper, “Forgive me...” and deteriorated into the passing gust.

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I hope I put in that dialogue fairly well!
Still fairly short, but a lot bigger than my earlier post.

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Friday, Feb. 10th, 2012

To be honest, I spent some time searching through girl names to find the one which, in my head, works for my main, Archy Girl. After taking this time (a week after, or more) I decided to write up my Guild Wars 2 characters with their own little biographies. Then I decided tonight, since I am bored, to write up a little story on Nadine, Archy Girl.

At least read the last sentence, I like it.

Having regarded the most prestigious of the nobility, Nadine cared not to flaunt as she observed in high court; she time and time again struggled to thrust aside those dark horrors of desolation and corruption which had tunneled into her mind at night from the growing threat across the land. At first, these nights were wrought with drudging nightmares that resonated through her mind, yet once she awoke they flew away into the barren night. Later on as these dreams decreased in their depravity, yet they started to give her a calling for her to help stop this evil.

Nadine procured herself on one arm as she heard a rustle in the distance. She scraped her dagger from its scabbard and tensed in preparation. Sampelo quietly nudged the door aside to the insulated cottage and found himself seated at the foot of the bed, anxious to delight his sterling companion. Nadine realized the futility in pulling her knife on such a beast, and that of waking before dawn, so she dozed off again.

A ranger is one who acts swiftly, quietly, and dependently. “Still!” Nadine utters as prey approaches. Nadine manages to camouflage beneath the foliage, however Sampelo just barely finds his footing beside her. Wary, the boar searches the trees for sign of danger, but to no avail. Nadine equips her bow and thrice pelts the boar in the side. Through some unrecognizable feat, the great boar fails to acknowledge its loss of blood and pummels toward Nadine. Sampelo bounds from the leaves and flanks the wild boar. With a pounding heart, Nadine forwards her gratitude to Sampelo yet again. Thus, a ranger must retain solemn acceptance that they are not the full tool to be utilized in their profession, that such a companion is their other half, that they are never alone in their adventures.

Thanks for reading! Comment por favor.

Hi Finn, you have really nice talent!

I first noticed you have a keen sense of knowledge when it comes to wording--you took the time to accurately say something, and not in the simple sense of 'Nadine didn't like high court much', you actually took the time to express yourself so it all is much more colourful, and hints at your characters personality as well. It's not just an excuse to use fancy words or such, but makes it much more interesting. Be careful not to go too overboard though, sometimes simple is always better!

This was short, but I never try to judge writing by its length. Is this simply a snippet/drabble or you planning on working more with this? If it is just the first, then you did very well with the small amount of word length at hand. If you plan to do any chapters of something longer, then I would encourage practicing more on length and content.

I really like the name 'Nadine' as well. She seems like a very likable character and would like to know more about her.

You seem to be a very good writer, keep it up

Yea I was thinking about that myself when reading over, I hope I get myself to do some more! Free time here it is, and I just got to take advantage of it. Thanks Kayuga, and I'm glad that so far you both like it!

New update!

I'll try to make it work like a blog, and put in my new stories up top! I hope I continue writing this! I do have a good deal of ideas and hope you all like it

nice update! I think for a 'journal' this length works out perfectly, though variance is always fine.

your dialogue was very good! it suited the characters (even though the farmer and soldier were just cameos), and everything flowed nicely together--nothing felt awkward or slapped together

i found the action scene very exciting, but just a tad confusing when it suddenly happened--take care when doing scenes like that. like if you were watching a movie or comic, the scenes that happen and see are brisk and quick--so sometimes short sentences and paragraphs spread out work very nicely

otherwise, it was a very good read, and I loved this quote: "The farmer implored the captain to see reason in his plead, but the captain only threatened onward, even though he had no more authority on the matter than a Fahrar cub would have in the Asuran council. "

so funny! keep it up

Nicely done. There are several ways to develop a character -- one is a journal-type narration of events that have just passed, where you an inject some rumination from the character. Another way is to have others give their opinion of the character, her background, or any events she's participated in and their opinion on them. A third is to have the character remember past events that led her to where she is. There are others I'm sure, but those three have served me well.

I also would like to get to know Nadine better, but also to know where she is fighting undead and why she is fighting undead, and what makes her unique from her brethren nobility. Hope there is more to come. :O)