Teej
Legacy Name: Teej

Bio

Name: Teej Weston
Age: Unknown
Clan: Strider Clan of the West

Teej doesn't talk much. He prefers to communicate entirely with scowling... which kind of makes sense when you consider where he comes from and the importance they place in words. Teej is... not from around these parts.
He belongs to a land where magic exists, and humans are waging war... but for once, not with each other. Instead, they are locked in an evolutionary arms race with a magical species known as ca'arans. The catch? The ca'arans were here first... but the humans don't know that.
Teej has a huge role to play in this battle, but he knows he's entered it entirely for his own reasons. He doesn't give a damn about humanity as a whole - all he wants is to save his clan. But that's not so easy. His clan have made mistakes, and they're being punished for it. The only creatures who can heal the hurts of the past won't do it... unless Teej helps them.
So what do they want?
Well, only for him to end the war of course.
The war between humans and ca'arans is destroying everything, and the other inhabitants of the land need it to stop. They can't solve it alone, but they have the power to make it happen if they work together. To do so though, they need the humans and the ca'arans to actually understand each other.
Simple, right? Nothing like getting two enemies to sit and chat it out.
Enter Teej. Teej is cut-throat, ruthless and unsympathetic to those around him. Ending a war should be a relatively easy task all things considered. It's not like he's likely to let anything stop him or get in his way.
But Teej has a problem. Teej has a secret, and its one that's hard to contain. He's tasked with helping Addie, the girl that the magical creatures believe is prophesised to be the one to end the war, but hiding the truth from her is imperative to his success.
This is one task that his wit and sarcasm won't quite see him through.

Credits: Profile by: Ringo Character Art by Shalashaka and Volgelspinne

Story

 Addie’s Perspective – Fighting Fire with Fire

Heat. That was what I needed. It was so obvious, the answer breaking into my thoughts with the same jerking force of waking sweating from a nightmare. Daigeil had light, light was easy enough. But it was the heat. The fire. The burn.
To suggest that nearly being consumed by Senethial had made me somewhat paranoid was not stretching things too far. I had never really been afraid. I grew up fighting the creatures that made their homes in darkness and fear. It was just life to me, but coming that close to death had made it real. It made me realise I could fail. I could fall.
The dreams merely complicated things. The war between fire and ice that had raged within me between Senethial and Daigeil's cursed touches was not a memory I could let go of. In the night it came to me, and I would wake, trembling and panting in the dark, Teej's amber eyes peering at me curiously through the black. He never asked, so I never volunteered the information of what had passed between the two ca’arans and me. But I was scared. I needed a friend, I needed a family member. I needed my sister. Since none of these things were available to me, I suffered in silence, growing more and more tired as the days wore on and I failed to sleep the night through. But on the third day into the Strider homelands it finally struck me. Fire.
Senethial had felt like fire. Daigeil had felt like ice. Fire melted ice, and you could fight fire with fire. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, but somehow in my head it made perfect sense. I just needed fire stronger than Senethial's. Much stronger. I turned to Teej.
“I need fire.” I informed him bluntly, my eyes wide with the sudden shock of my revelation. Teej raised an eyebrow but stopped mid-stride. Without asking for clarification, he bent towards the nearest leaf hanging from a tree and blew gently on it. It instantly caught alight. I shook my head.
“No. Bigger. Much bigger. And I need you to teach me to make it.”
If he had seemed surprised by my request before, now he was positively dumbfounded. In his usual quiet way though, he seemed to decide that not asking was a better option. He dropped his shoulder, causing his pack to crash to the forest floor before kicking it gently aside. Taking a deep breath, he started moving his hands in complicated patterns, muttering incoherently under his breath as he went. As I watched, twisting tunnels of flame began to form between his hands, dancing with the movements he made, connected like a string to his fingertips. Teej raised an eyebrow as if to ask if that was what I meant. I shook my head.
“Bigger. Much bigger.”
He nodded and jerked his head backwards, signaling for me to move away. I stepped back several paces but he shook his head and jerked it again. This time I ran back as far as I could whilst still keeping him in view between the forest's cloying surrounds. I looked back to Teej and he nodded. From that distance I couldn't really make out what his hands were doing, but I could tell they were moving much faster. The next moment, the sky lit up. A gigantic fireball, three times as large as the tallest tree in the forest and ten times as wide shot up into the air, burning everything in its path. I felt the heat as its outer diameter consumed the shrubs a few paces from my feet, and watched in awe as the fire subsided as quickly as it came, leaving the smell of charred wood and devastation in its wake. Teej stood calmly in the centre of a blackened field of destruction. Seeing that I was looking at him, he shrugged, seeming to ask again if that was what I had wanted. I jogged back over to him.
“Yes. That. That's what I want.” I told him firmly, barely noticing the rings of smoke curling up from the dying embers of the forest that had been there moments before. Teej hesitated.
“I can try. But frankly I don't know if I can teach you that. It's not ca'aran magic. It's much deeper. Much older. Ca'arans have no idea how to wield it or fight it. It's Lemaray. Much more powerful, much more complex.” He replied finally, hoisting his somehow unharmed pack back onto his shoulder.
“Perfect.” My tone was stubborn. He cocked another eyebrow, a habit that I was beginning to find irritating. I always seemed to be causing him surprise, and it was always intermingled with some kind of arrogant derision. At times he really reminded me of Daigeil.
“It takes a lot of skill. Notice how I controlled it? That my pack, you, and myself remain unharmed while everything else is in cinders? That's not child's play. That's.... well that's serious shit.”
“Good. So teach me.”
Teej stared at my defiant glare for a moment, clearly weighing up whether he really thought this was worth wasting his time on or not, but his own stubborn gaze flickered, and I couldn't help but suspect I saw sympathy flash across his usually completely impartial features. I really didn't understand it. He had no idea what had happened to me. He had no idea I was scared. And yet he felt sorry for me – why? Regardless of the reasoning, it got me my result.
“Fine. But I make no promises it will work at all.” He sighed, resignation weaved bitterly in his words.
“So long as you try.” I responded, and resumed walking across the charred clearing he had created.
“Addie!” he called after me, “Stop. You're walking east again. We need to go south.” I blushed deep scarlet, and for the first time in days, Teej cracked a rare grin of amusement.


 Teej’s Perspective – Waking Up

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
The water was freezing – colder than I remembered it being the thousands of times I’d jumped before. I had seen her fall, so she had to be there. Lungs aching, I pushed forward, propelling myself down further to follow her descent. I had just reached her when the sand began to swirl and surround her unconscious form. I grabbed tight to her hand, and in doing so I couldn’t help but notice that it seemed so much smaller than I remembered. But then I realised it wasn’t just her hand.
She was just so small.
I closed my eyes as the mud drew us both down together. Just a minute longer… I knew how this script played out. That was the whole damn reason I was with her. I knew things like this. So why the hell hadn’t I been there when she’d run into this trouble in the first place? I grit my teeth in frustration. I knew the answer. I just didn’t like it.
Everything was dark. I held my breath, knowing that I only had to wait seconds more before I could breathe again. At last, light burst through the gloom, and the weight of the water and mud lifted. Land. Finally. I could have kissed the ground along with the magic that had brought us there. Gasping, I pulled Addie towards me and gathered her up in my arms. I couldn’t tell if she were breathing – logically, some rational part of me understood she was fine, but there was something else tugging at the corners of my mind screaming at me to act faster, run quicker, get her to safety sooner.
“Tiana!” I yelled, sprinting down the path that led to the town. I saw fabric flicker in my peripheral vision as people peered out through the curtains of their huts to see what the commotion was. As I skidded to a stop in front of the hut I had sought out, a tall girl with caramel coloured skin and hair as dark as night emerged with a look of confusion etched onto her pretty features. She tilted her head at me for a moment, drinking in the sight of my panic and the sodden state of both my companion and me. If she had questions, however, she didn’t ask, but rather gestured with a nod of her head to come inside. I didn’t hesitate and ran in after her.
“What on earth happened?” Tiana asked, pointing to a bed of straw and animal skins set out to one side of the hut. I lay Addie down on it, gently stroking the wet strands of hair off her face as I did.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I just- I-” I was aware I was stammering incoherently. Tiana didn’t pay me much heed though. She was learning over Addie, apparently checking for a pulse and any visible wounds.
“Relax Teej. Whatever it was, the river has healed her. Which… you should have known it would…” Tiana spun to face me now, her brown eyes staring intently at me as she cocked her head in question.
“I do know that. It’s just… I…” I was stammering again, and Tiana suddenly seemed to find this incredibly funny. Her look of bewilderment morphed into a ridiculous grin, before she began all-out cackling at me.
“Teej. Oh wow. I-I just…” she managed to spit out between peals of laughter. I glared at her as I sat down beside Addie’s bed. Turning my attention away from Tiana, I watched Addie’s chest slowly rise and fall as she breathed deeply. Involuntarily, a sigh of relief escaped my mouth. She would wake up when she was ready – the magic was bound to take it out of her. But the image of her bleeding form diving into the river kept skittering across my mind, and an inhuman growl formed in the back of my throat. Tiana seemed to notice my demeanour, and stopped laughing.
“I’m sorry Teej but… well. I guess I’ve just never seen you show that much emotion in one sitting before.”
“It’s overrated.” I grumbled.
“That may be so but what brought it on? I mean, I assume your friend here was in danger, hence why you’ve both shown up out of nowhere drenched, but that doesn’t really narrow it down for me.”
“Not my friend. Not my emotions.” I growled. Tiana paused as though considering this for a moment, but eventually simply nodded and walked to the other side of the hut. Her back to me, she began preparing the medicine I knew would help restore Addie’s strength when she finally woke.
I stared at Addie’s face. I’d never really looked at her for any length of time before. Never really had a reason to. Eyes shut, she seemed peaceful – it made for a nice change from her usual constant nagging and bickering. Her lips were fuller than I’d realised, and they were parted slightly as she breathed in and out. Something stirred in my chest, and I tried to ignore it. Addie’s skin seemed impossibly pale now that the river had washed the dirt of travel away. I wondered how it was possible for her to be so when she spent all her life outside, but it occurred to me that it was her current state that made her seem… almost translucent. She’d nearly died, so it made sense that she’d seem to be fading in front of me. As the thought crossed my mind, the growl rose up in my throat again, but I fought it back with a burst of stubbornness. I stared at her harder, trying to imprint the vision of her safe and breathing as a replacement to that of the blood. It’d been so much blood. Despite her reputation, I was sure that it had all been hers. Whatever she’d run into, she clearly hadn’t had a chance. I grit my teeth.
The smell of whatever Tiana was cooking up wafted throughout the hut, and the sound of her singing a folksong from our clan momentarily distracted me. Suddenly, I was uncomfortable. The muscles in my back tensed, and Tiana must have sensed it because she paused her tune.
“Is she awake yet?” she asked.
“No, but I’m sure she will be very soon.”
“I’ll come back shortly then.” Without further comment, Tiana left and I exhaled again. After so many years, I still couldn’t be comfortable in the same room as her.
I reached out and brushed my knuckles along Addie’s cheek. Her skin was unbelievably soft. Again I felt the tightness in my chest build, and again I studiously ignored it.
“You’re an idiot. I mean, I’ve always known you’re an idiot. But seriously. You’re a complete idiot. If I’d known that leaving you for five damned minutes would result in you almost killing yourself, I’d have hired a bloody babysitter.” I murmured to her sleeping form. She looked so small, so fragile. Before I could gather control of myself, I leaned down and gently brushed my lips against her cheek.
“I’m glad you’re okay though. But really. You’re a moron.”
As soon as the words had left my mouth, I felt a sharp sting on the left side of my face. I let out a loud string of curses as Addie opened her eyes and stared at me, her palm still hanging in the air from where she’d slapped me. I glared right back, rubbing my face indignantly. We remained like this until finally she burst out laughing. Seeing her safe, and seeing her laughing, I felt all the tension leave me. I couldn’t help but join in with her. As I did though, Addie stopped, staring at me in shock. Realising it was probably the first time she’d heard me laugh, I abruptly shut my mouth and cleared my throat awkwardly.
“So… you’re awake then.” I muttered.
“So it seems.” Addie replied, hauling herself up into a sitting position and flexing her fingers. I could tell that she hadn’t quite gained control of all her faculties just yet.
“What happened?”
“Nymphs.” She didn’t provide any additional information. She didn’t need to. I nodded my understanding and looked away. At that moment, Tiana came rushing back into the room. She made a beeline for Addie, grinning her usual manic grin. I nodded to Addie to let her know that Tiana was with me, and okay, and then exited as quickly as I could.Out in the fresh air, I took a moment to try to calm myself. The feeling in my chest was getting progressively heavier. I couldn’t let it win. This wasn’t the time or the place.
Not now. I hissed under my breath, but the feeling just became more demanding.
She’s special.
I think I actually understood him.
And that, more than anything that had happened that day, scared me the most.

Credits: Profile by: Ringo Character Art by Shalashaka and Volgelspinne