Enka

Gender	Female
Birthplace	Ista Weyr
Current Home	Ista Weyr
Rank	Jr. Weyrwoman
Dragon	Miraneith
Significant Other(s)	???

Description

At five-foot, four-inches in height, this teenager is slim and graced with subtly rounded curves at chest and hip; but not yet fully developed into the bloom of adult womanhood; her complexion is pale, warmed with a faint blush of tanning from the tropical sun upon which a scattering of freckles is sprinkled liberally across the bridge of her narrow pert little nose and prominent cheekbones. Delicately featured with wide, expressive eyes of a soft dove-gray color set upon a narrow oval face, with a chin that is rather softly rounded, and slightly protruding ears. Her lips; full and well-shaped define an expressive mouth — one that is oft given to smiles, and occasionally to frowns — the shape of them suggesting the curve of a bow. Her body is slender, narrow-waisted and given to the fore-mentioned subtle curves in all the right places. Her hair is ash-brown in color; the shade a mixture of a cocoa-brown and mousy-brown. The combination of these colors lends a faint illusion of a sort of grayish-brown cast to her hair which falls from a left-sided part, straight and silky-smooth to brush just past her shoulders.

Enka is something of a clotheshorse; while she doesn't have a great many outfits, particularly as she has moved about so often in her time she does nonetheless covert the few garments she has managed to obtain from family and friends over the course of her travels. As Enka lives in a tropical climate, she prefers loose, lightly-woven and flowing fabrics that keep her cool and comfortable. The majority of her clothing reflects her socio-economic status; mainly consisting of affordable fabrics such as cotton and linen of a common weave, while she does have at least one sisal item in her possession, it's small, and rather inconspicuous. Enka's preferred colors are light pastels, particular soft blue-gray or pale green-blue; the likes of which are fairly affordable and easy to produce. As a brunette, these colors go best with Enka's complexion.

Rider Garb

A shirt of creamy-hued linen clings about Enka's body, rendering her upper chest somewhat shapeless by the drape of the chemise that exposes her tanned shoulders and hugs about her upper arms, fastened about her biceps by ruffled hems. Worn loose and flowing, this shirt flares out over her hips. Over this shirt, she wears a leather vest, the color a simple brown trimmed with a strand of gold. Leather hide trousers fit neatly about her legs, the bottoms of them ending at her calves and draping over her leather boots which reach to mid-calf. The boots are shiny, well-polished until one could almost see their reflection in them, made from herdbeast leather with hard wooden heels that provide just enough support for a woman who's on her feet for much of the day. Her shoulder knot — a twist of orange and black cords rides atop her left shoulder — signaling her as a member of Ista Weyr — and looped within the knot, the strand of gold identifies her as the rider of a queen dragon. Her hair is worn loose, a fall of ashen-brown down her back to a point just past her shoulder blades, while a strand is often draped over her shoulder, and falling downwards over her chest.

Riding Leathers

Coming Soon

Resident Dress

To suit the tropical climes in which she resides, Enka is dressed in light airy fabrics, the likes of which help keep her cool and comfortable even on the hottest and sunniest of days. Her garb of choice for the moment is a durably woven linen skirt dyed to to a blue-gray hue. It falls gently about her hips, the hemline ending at her ankles which expose the brown leather sandals she wears to protect her feet. A woven sisal-rope belt, brown in color, wraps about her waist, the tasseled ends trailing out beneath the hem of her tunic. Worn over her skirt, an unbleached cotton tunic — off-white in color — clings to her upper body, loosely flowing sleeves ending above her elbows, tied back with a strand of navy-blue ribbon. Trimmed lightly in a turquoise-hued blue, and a tiny strand of navy-blue, the cotton shirt is worn loosely; a corset of turquoise and azure cinched tightly across her slim waist, the same color ribbon criss-crossing across the corset and tied off in a bow at the top. Across one shoulder, she wears a single loop of black and orange cord threaded together, identifying her as a resident of Ista Weyr. For the moment, her hair is pulled up away from her forehead, and into a high ponytail held in place by a bit of sisal thong; the ends of it just brushing her back.

Bathing Suit

While Enka's choice of bathing attire does expose quite a generous amount of skin, it is nonetheless a practical and comfortable outfit that serves a purpose. Pale blue in color; so much a pastel hue that it might as well be nearly white, her bathing suit consists of a halter top that covers her upper body strategically, the strings tying back around the nape of her neck, and the front halves of the halter held together by a smooth metal-colored ring. A pair of shorts, the wide waistband comfortable about her middle, settles low about her hips. Covering hips and thighs, and everything in between, these shorts are meant for wear in the ocean waters about Ista — or wherever a body of water might be found. She wears no knot at the moment, and no other means of identification, but she's not trying to hide who she might be. Her feet are bare, sandals forsaken in case they might be tugged off by an insistent sea. Her hair, that sleek wave of ashen-brown is worn loose; freed from confinement and left to fall freely about her shoulders, and down her back.

Work Wear

No stranger to manual labor — although not particularly grueling — Enka is dressed in clothes appropriate for work that requires the use of her hands and body where she might actually work up a good sweat in doing so. A muslin shirt of a loose-weave clothes her upper body; loose flowing sleeves allowing full range of arms and torso, the square neck style of the tunic keeping her well-covered against heat and sun while still allowing for moisture to wick away from her skin, and stay cool. Her tan-colored pants are of a capri style; somewhat longer than a pair of shorts, yet not as long as a pair of trousers, thus providing sun protection without the risk of overheating. They button above her knees, a patch of paler cream to add an accent to her garb. Leather boots encase her feet, reaching above the ankle, with a hard leather sole for protection; the boots themselves shiny and worn with use. Her ash-brown hair is braided into a simple braid that falls past her shoulder, a colorful blue ribbon and bow ornamenting the end of it.

---

History

The Beginnings: Enka's Life Prior to Ista Weyr

Born to the union of Chaya — a Harper Journeywoman posted to Ista Weyr — and J'luus, the brownrider who sought comfort in her arms the night of a failed mating flight, Enka grew to toddlerhood in the nursery creche of the Weyr's Lower Caverns. She was named for neither mother nor father, but rather a half-hearted attempt upon her father's behalf to please his mother, Jaaenka, resident of a nearby Hold and none too pleased to have had her son swept off to the Weyr and Impressed quite some Turns back. Thus, Enka was named for a grandmother who had never seen her in a futile act of appeasement that in all likelihood had little to no effect upon the intended party.

Enka's sense of stability would soon be short-lived. Granted, she was still young yet and such an event probably did not register upon her toddler state. By Enka's fourth Turnday, matters had come to a falling out between her parents; misunderstandings here, hurt feelings there, accumulating in a rather spectacular (albeit private) argument — and a brownrider transferring north to the cooler climes of Telgar Weyr to avoid the confrontation. Perhaps it was just as well that Enka was too young to have remembered the events; such as once tempers had cooled and realization had set in — thus sparking Chaya's rather desperate pursuit to win her lover back. It was perhaps to the Harper's credit that she had even thought of her daughter at all, after all, Enka was still in the nursery, but nonetheless, the woman brought her along, perhaps hoping that with his daughter in tow, Chaya could smooth over her relationship with J'luus, and everything would be back on the mend.

In the end, the problematic situation, as it were, was solved, and after a heartfelt reunion, and Chaya's subsequent posting to Telgar Weyr where Enka spent the next nine Turns of her life. Growing up a weyrbrat at Telgar would not have been much different than had she been at Ista — save perhaps for the climate and location, for she certainly had chores and responsibilities that grew as each day and Turn passed along, and Enka was capable of shouldering more of the workload as time went on.

But alas, nothing ever lasts forever, and perhaps that first rocky argument so long ago might have heralded the initial troubles of the Harper and the brownrider. Chaya and J'luus had their share of falling outs and disagreements over the Turns, and before a great many Turns had passed, their relationship status was primarily one of an on-again, off-again habit — despite the birth of two sons, Enka's brothers Chauy and Jayas. And finally, it soured for good. In a rather dramatic public shouting match (although spectators noted that it was only Chaya doing all the screaming) Enka's parents declared their relationship quits for good, and prepared to go about their separate ways — thereby shattering the relative stability of Enka's young and rather sheltered life.

While Enka could easily have remained at Telgar Weyr (and indeed, J'luus had made it quite clear that he could — and would — support his children indefinitely) Chaya was certain that it was she who was the injured party in the relationship, and she reacted spitefully in a childish underhanded way to get back at the man she was convinced had wronged her. To that end, she dragged her three offspring back with her to the Harper Hall, thus uprooting Enka from her home a second time (although it was the first the girl could really remember.)

The girl wasn't at Harper Hall for long. It had been Chaya's intention to apprentice her children into the craft (and thus keeping them apart from their father) but soon it was quite clear from the onset that Enka had no musical affinity and inclination to say the least. While she could sing moderately pleasing enough so as not to embarrass herself in a crowd (and at best she could be taught not to sing off key most of the time) she was no great vocalist. Nor was she a composer or instrumentalist. Therefore, she quite disappointed her mother, who sought to foster the girl off to her sister (certainly an unknown aunt to the girl) who had married a small cotholder not too far away.

Although Enka did — and always would — resent her mother for packing her off like so much baggage and rearranging her life yet again, she grew to love her new home, and the aunt who fostered her. Her uncle-by-marriage ran a small trading post of a sorts; just a little cubbyhole of a cothold that was nonetheless a stopping point where trading caravans could stop and rest for the night. This meant there were always people coming and going — so many new people for Enka to meet.

By this time, she was fourteen, and had discovered the difference between boys and girls, and over the course of the next Turn and a half, proceeded to have a crush on just about every teenage male in her vicinity. But perhaps she was too shy to even approach the objects of her desires, and thusly her affairs never got beyond mere adolescent pining — and even should she have been more bold, her aunt (strict hidebound traditionalist that she was) would not have allowed any visitors to trifle with her niece's virtue.

And so, Enka grew into coltish adolescence within the confines of her aunt's home, and she may well have remained there until the end of her days had fate not intervened again, although it were none of her own doing.

It began as a misunderstanding — a wrong glance at the wrong time, and suddenly Enka found herself with a suitor who was ill-inclined to take "No" for an answer. And nor was he willing to yield to the stern authority of Enka's aunt. Had her aunt and uncle been perhaps less scrupulous, Enka might well have found herself in a rather precarious position. But as it was, her uncle was unwilling to stoop to a level of such audacity, and rather than risk a financial loss and a blow to the cothold's reputation, he prevailed upon his wife to send Enka away in hopes that the entire situation would be defused, and blow over. Enka was sent away as soon as arrangements could be made — not back to her mother (which sincerely pleased Enka) but rather she went to her paternal grandmother for whom she was named, who resided at Redtide Hold. And that insufferable elderly lady was less than pleased to have been given guardianship of a granddaughter for whom she had little use.

And so Enka found herself returning to the island of her birth, arriving almost unwelcomed by an elderly lady she had never met, and settling into life at a Hold soon devastated by natural disaster, thus forcing her to seek refuge in the Weyr where she had been born. Having been uprooted continuously within her short lifetime, Enka has found her journey come full circle — where her fondest wish is to settle down, remain where she is and make a life for herself as best she might.

Settling In Again: Enka Becomes A Part of Ista Weyr

Since Enka's return to Ista Weyr, she has experienced many changes — made new friends, and begun finding more of who and what she is as a person. Despite chaffing under the fussy eye of her grandmother for the first few sevendays of her stay at the Weyr, Enka was able to begin pitching in and doing her share of odd jobs around the Weyr. Her chores were a mish-mash of things — laundry one day, working with runners the next — whatever needed doing, she was willing to do. And it wasn't long before Jaeenka took off for some mainland Hold, leaving Enka quite happily behind. With her grandmother no longer in the picture, the girl was freed up a little from the strict hidebound ways of the older woman, and was able to settle once more into her long accustom role as a weyrbrat.

Having gone her entire life up to that point without a firelizard, Enka quickly acquired three of them in rapid succession. Bronze Barq was first, picked up by chance upon the beach of Xanadu Weyr when a rider's gold's clutch was hatching. Not really sure of what to do, Enka settled for flinging meat around rather than wiggling it, and it was the young bronze who settled for her. Soon after, Enka made the acquaintance of Shorynia, a refugee like herself who had wrangled the job of becoming a paperwork assistant at the Weyr, and that grew into a friendship which led also to another friendship with Baileigh, another girl who also became a paperwork assistant. With Baileigh and Xhaine — a Harper Journeyman — Enka attended the Connell Festival at Fort Weyr, enjoying a night of dancing, wine and song that led to eventual plotting with Ysa, Ista's Senior, about drunken wherries painted in Ista's colors. And too, she went to Western Weyr with Lei and Shory to watch their Hatching, and party in the living caverns with Xhaine afterwards.

Life was good for the girl — she had friends and a lack of inconvenient relatives, although her great desire was still to find her place in the world. In the meantime, she also gained another firelizard in the living caverns of Ista when Xhaine's foundling clutch hatched, and she found herself in the keeping of a earthy looking brown she named Quake, reminded perhaps of the great earthquake that brought down Redtides Hold (although why she'd want to commemorate that tragic day, nobody would ever know.) It wasn't much longer afterwards that the senior queen of the Weyr, Ellamariseth, clutched, and Enka watched from the galleries with her friends — all of them making comments about the eggs.

The prank that would end all pranks was orchestrated between Enka, and several other weyrbrats — and drew in her friends and acquaintances about the Weyr as well. Four wherries were soused with cheap booze, tackled and painted in the colors of the Weyr. It was a triumphant moment indeed for Enka — a moment that was not entirely over, although it would be several sevendays before the prank was fully complete.

And not long after that, Lorena's brown Loyauth stopped Enka as she passed the Weyrlingmaster pair on her way through the northern bowl. They were waiting for a delivery, she was on her way to tend runners. The question was proposed: Would she stand for Ellamariseth and Kinseth's clutch? Accepting, although the thought of actually being a rider had never crossed Enka's mind (for all that her own dearly loved Da was one) Enka found herself as one of the Candidates.

As a Candidate, two of the chores that Enka found trouble getting used to was tour guide and nanny duty — she was never really that capable with kids, and the tourists just seemed like giant kids themselves. ("Always complainin' and cryin' 'bout this an' that.") But after a dressing down by Niah and A'tien one afternoon, Enka did her best to adapt to the situation, and was more open about working with kids, especially once Niah told her how to handle them.

Candidate passed quickly. Enka was placed on a team with all boys — Sigam, Gobhan, Raevin, Ashiira, and William amongst them who called themselves the TAZERs (Team Awesomely Zealous and Exceptionally Radical) — and they all plotted together to come up with an amazing mascot … the seawher, thus earning them the first of the gold stars. Enka also participated in diving off a cliff, although she couldn't quite climb up the cliff fast enough, and the other team (and her competition … her friend, Baileligh) won that round of gold stars. Clothes were stolen, borrowed and otherwise lifted from various riders — Enka having fallen into the ocean in pursuit of her firelizard, Barq, was able to borrow a pair of A'tien's clothes (although they didn't fit her nearly as well as they did him) but once more, the other team … the Istan Infernos that won the gold stars.

And then they happened. The summer Games between Fort and Ista, and Enka got together with those weyrbrats who had aided her in painting the wherries, and they released them at the opening night of the Summer Games, and that night, enka cheered on her friends as Ista won the firestone bag and toss.

In the meantime, Enka found two gold clutches on the beach of Ista Bay — both guarded zealously by fierce wild gold firelizard mothers. While she succeeded in snatching all the eggs of one clutch (which later hatched out in the living caverns, the hatchlings going to her friends and those about her) from the second clutch, she was only able to snatch a single egg before having to run to protect herself from a vengeful 'lizard momma. But lo' this egg hatched out into a gold firelizard, much to Enka's surprise, which she named Sunshine.

A field trip to one of the outer islands near Ista Weyr got the entire candidate class out of Ista proper, and for the next sevenday or so, the candidates were on camp-out, having to gather herbs, cook for themselves, sleep on the ground in tents, and checking out a spooky looking mystery ship with human bones in the brig. Nonetheless, it was the TAZERs who won in the end, and Enka was able to relax and enjoy herself at a beach party while being waited upon by the other team.

---

Family

Name	Relation	Location	Position
Emalia	Daughter (by S'gam)	Ista Weyr	Infant
Anali	Cousin	Ista Weyr	Resident
Pralius	Foster Brother	Fort Weyr	Sr. Apparentice Healer
J'luus	Father	Telgar Weyr	Brownrider
Chaya	Mother	Harper Hall	Journeywoman
Chauy	Brother	Harper Hall	Fosterling
Jayas	Brother	Harper Hall	Fosterling
Jaaenka	Grandmother	Ista Weyr	Refugee

---

Firelizards

Sunny Day Gold Sunshine
Radiant sunlight seems poured from the brilliance of Rukbat's rays; given shape and form into a lean supple form. Glistening daylight is a glorious halo about a dainty small-muzzled head, which sweeps back to to a wide-browed forehead upon which are set delicately-shaped head knobs, her neck long and elegant, with a femininely curved chest and shoulder. Her wings are broad, strongly muscled and meant for sustained distances; the 'sails and 'spars splashed with sunflower — paling to muted flaxen along the wingsail membranes themselves, the near-translucent opalescence of them enfolded in noontide splendor. Goldenrod dribbles down across finely curved ribs, and a tucked-up belly before yielding to droplets of sunshine that spill over her rounded flanks, and then pool in puddles of sunlight in the curve of her neatly forked tail.

Bronze Barq Has Bite
Polished to a gleaming perfection; the dark brassy hide — a shimmering shadowed mixture of chocolate bronze hues — stretches over a frame of majestic stature. He is, by all accounts stoutly powerful, graced with a keen litheness and sinewy muscles that sweep over graceful features. Strength lies within his form; his ribcage and sides bellow out like a beer barrel that give way to strongly muscled legs, and a long whiplash of a tail. On the front end, a sharply curved muzzle sweeps back into a regal arch, delicately etched with a greenish tinge that highlights his handsome angles. Shades of green pale into silvery tones; tracks that lead down the line of his back to the sterling sails of large powerful wings; a ghostly shimmering cape that seems to always be held partly open.

Down to Earth Brown Quake
A rich, deep brown forms the base color of this firelizard, reminiscient of plain clay that was pried from a riverbed and sculpted with skilled hands into the shape seen. From this base, other details have been crafted onto the surface. Lightly rolling hills begin at the strongly muscled haunches, terminating into the mountains of his shoulders, whose peaks abruptly erupt into dark loam-hued wings. A faint tracing of grayish-green lichen can be detected at the wingspars, although they disappear without a trace as they near the wingsails. Accented along his limbs seem to be a veritable treasure trove of tiny jewels, glittering in specks of a myriad of rainbow hues. They are truly the Earth's treasures, carefully hoarded by this brown firelizard.

Dragon

Ollie Ollie Oxen Free Gold Miraneith
If beauty be a necessity for heart and mind, it is the only place where it will ever lie amid the befuddling features of this ungainly creature. Perhaps a mother's eye will take favor to her awkward grace, a reptilian nature given soul in smooshed body and cheek, coated with pale-speck'd mustard there to pudgy sides, cock-eyed limbs and plump, stumpy tail. A widened snout fixed to a quite non-existent neck gives birth to massive protuberant eyes, each set strangely distanced on the fore of her nearly shine-less, blunted nose. From jaw to thickened tail tip, ivory clashes dismally against all brighter hues, coating her flattened underside as well as splayed, crooked toes. Though, as if there was a reluctant charity to this astonishing abnormality, striking color gives some small relief to her needlessly large-stature'd wings. Her sails darken to an exotic gamboge that, with increasing quantity towards the prow of curvy ailerons, is spotted haphazardly with snowy white. However, though lacking refined allure or a lovely feminine grace, she will boast what mere beauty shall never achieve: she is truly, everlastingly, unique.

*Miraneith sketch by squeechan. THANK YOU!!!

---