Please take a moment to view full size, thank you. This is for Doarte who created this incredible light gothic background (Shades II). I rarely use premade backgrounds and virtually never a parchment paper like this, but I had a vision of this work as soon as I saw the package. This set was so gorgeous I had to give it a whirl. It was way more challenging to get this type of cut and paste work to look good than I figured it would be. The secret was to put the figures on a separate layer and then to age them in photoshop to get them to match the subdued vibrancy of the background. Photoshopped the bejeezes out of this one! -------- I found this parchment print when I was cleaning out my Grandmother's house after the grand old lady, my witch mother, passed on. I thought I'd share it with you as it forms the basis of my present stories about the Delphinium Elves. I had it restored a bit but the stains would not come out without further damage so I left them be. I am sure this is an old print of my ancestor Anna Wildwood and her mentor Simon de Beers. You can see their names in script and it looks like original handwriting to me. As I told you earlier, Anna was a Delphinium Dragon Defender but you didn't get to such a position just because you wanted to be one. First of all, traditionally, you had to be born into the Delphinium Elven Order, then you had to have a lot of raw physical talent and drive and finally you needed a good mentor to guide you on your path. And that mentor had better be a skilled warrior, because being a Dragon Defender pretty much meant your life was devoted to fighting and kicking butt. Dragons were precious weapons in elven hands and so the humans and their kind wanted them dead. Fortunately for Anna she became a Defender just about the time Simon de Beers appeared on the scene. You will see that Simon was not an elf, he was human. What the heck was a human doing with the Delphinium Elven Order? Well you see Simon used to be a Professor of Ecology at a university in the human city. But he got through grad school by being in the Army Reserves and when a war broke out he was called away to duty. Now it turned out Simon was as gifted a fighter as he was a biologist and so he quickly rose to the ranks of Captain. But when they decided to start cutting down the elves sacred groves, to build their parking lots as Simon said, he could no longer serve his tyrannical human masters. So he defected to the elves. Simon was an outcast. You can bet at first the elves were mighty suspicious of Simon, but he proved a loyal soldier and leader. Best of all Simon was a great mentor. He taught the elven clans how to defend themselves not only against the humans but also against the giant rats which plagued their forests. Simon was blessed with many eager students, but off all of them his favorite was Anna. Anna was a naturally gifted warrior. Bold, brassy, in your face, but also a disciplined pupil who could endure long hours of hard training in the worst of weather. Anna became Simon's gift to the Delphinium Order; he was quite proud of her. They only had one major falling out between them and that was over Sayrn. Simon could never set aside his suspicions of the beguiling big eyed girl whose every spare moment was spent playing with her rats. It was he that christened her "The Ratling." Simon hated all rats, big and small, human and otherwise. Sayrn always got under his skin with her quiet ways, her big eyed stare, and her never ending supply of rodents. But Anna would have none of Simon's protestations about Saryn. And frankly, Anna was such a prize, that he was willing to take Sayrn as part of the package. Awesome Wildenlander and Jack of Hearts outfits by Luthbel at DAZ. Ron's Stains at DAZ. Previous

"The Ratling - Sayrn"