Arcangel



Whisper met Arcangel on a particularly blustery night while on her way home from a job just to the north of Ivycrest. She was unfortunate enough to have been followed by a small band of orcs intent on the demise of yet another annoying little elf. They had been especially troublesome this winter, and the attack was nothing out of the ordinary… Whisper could handle herself. She did just fine, dispatching each of her assailants one after the other. Though, by her standards, just fine meant she was still alive. She was exhausted! As she was gathering up her things to keep moving on, a noise caught her attention… someone or something was watching her from the shadows, though she could not see it. She kept an ear out for any approaching dangers as she walked, each step taking more effort than the last. She still felt something in the darkness, but she didn’t hear anything. Finally, she decided that there was no way she was making it home that night. She built a small fire for warmth and snuggled into her blankets on the protective side of some trees. They offered a nice weather break. Safe from the wind’s bite, Whisper finally allowed sleep to find her; though she slept lightly… she still had the nagging feeling of being watched. Whisper was startled awake the next morning by a warm breath on her neck. Instinctively reaching for one of her swords, she rolled away from her blankets, coming up in a defensive crouch near the remains of her fire. She definitely wasn’t expecting what she saw… it was a horse… a large, beautiful black stallion just watching her from where she had been laying. Breathing a sigh of relief, she put her blade away and approached the large animal, hand outstretched. She had never really owned a horse before, but she had seen many people respond to them like this… so she figured she’d give it a try. The horse snorted a bit and took a step forward, nuzzling her hand. Grinning, Whisper spent a good deal of the morning talking with the animal; scratching its ears and patting it on the neck and sides. She wasn’t too surprised when the horse insisted on following her home, though her family was! She went to see Ty first… he ran the forge, and knew a bit more about horses just from having to shoe them so often… he might know whom the animal belonged to. Ty’s jaw dropped when she waltzed into the stable section of his shop, the large black horse trailing after her like a trained puppy. “He followed me home Ty. Can I keep him?” she asked, grinning broadly. “Phastian’s fire woman! Where in the realm did you get a warhorse!?” Color left her face when he mentioned the term ‘warhorse’. Elven warhorses were a treat reserved for the great generals and kings of the area… they didn’t follow young girls around in the woods… She worried over who would come knocking in the near future looking for the horse thief that ran off his stallion. She spent the next few weeks tracking down different breeders and ranchers in the area where she first encountered the stallion. Of course, she could go nowhere with out him following her. Eventually she found his old home. An older gentleman took one look at the horse and sighed. “He bolted the other night. We tried, but you know how hard it can be to track anything in a blizzard!” He walked over to the horse, patting him as he spoke. “I’ve had him for about a dozen years now, and thus far he hasn’t given any of my patrons the time of day. Seems to me he’s found his rider finally. We call him Arcangel, though when he’s mad he tends to resemble the devil!” The old breeder wouldn’t let Whisper leave with out Arcangel, so she eventually negotiated a price with him… which was quite a bit of work. She had no idea what the going rate for a horse was, and he seemed content to just let her walk away with him! She gave him extra in exchange for some riding lesions and instructions on how to care for him. Near two weeks later, she and Arcangel left the horse farm to return to Ivycrest, and have been inseparable since. Whisper often jokes that if she can be Death’s Whisper, it seems fitting that she is traveling with an angel.