This is the beguiling Saryn who was gifted to me, as a bit of a challenge I suspect, by Trish (seven12342). Trish thought that if her girl Priscilla challenged my big eyed, soft side limits, see ( "Don't Hurt Me") then Sayrn surely would :-) Ah but Trish, you gave me a practice girl first and so it was only one additional step I had to make, not two. Doable. Thank you for letting me work with her, she is just so darn cute; Sayrn now has her place in the Delphinium Order. ----- Saryn was different. Sayrn actually liked rats; in fact it would be fair to say that Saryn loved rats. In that regard Sayrn was a bit of an outcast from the other elves of the Delphinium order. But that was perhaps not unexpected, given Sayrn's past. You see, Saryn wasn't born into the Delphinium elves...at least as far as anyone knew. And pretty much all anyone knew about Saryn was that Anna had found her while leading a spying party into the human city. Anna had entered into a dilapidated house on the outskirts of the city, a house filled with the stench of rats feces and much to her surprise had found this small waif. Clearly an elf and thus clearly not where she belonged. But where did did this small child covered in filth belong? No one knew. Even Saryn herself did not know; she had no memory of anything other than a few days of being in this house, playing with the rats. So Anna took Saryn back with her to the Delphinium Elf stronghold and there she had raised Saryn as sort of her daughter and sort of her apprentice...more of an older sister than a mother, for in truth Anna was probably no more than 5 or so years older than Saryn. Saryn was good, she was quick and she was quite, in a room you may hardly have known she was there. While Anna could be in your face, Saryn was always willing to bide her time. And so when she struck, you might never be certain it was her. So there was a place for Saryn in the Delphinium Order and the other elves knew it. Besides, she was Anna's girl, and that alone was reason enough not to mess with her. Saryn never did say too much, but when she spoke it was always worth listening too. A shy girl, she preferred to spend her time with Anna... and with her rats. For everywhere that Saryn went she was accompanied by her rodent gang. Not the big black monsters mind you. But rather the small and gentle kind; the kind like Saryn. Long ago the ancestors of these rats had been good friends with the elves. But now they, like Saryn were a bit of outcasts, given that their descendents had mutated into the hideous monster rats. Maybe it was because both the rats and Saryn shared a dark past, or maybe it was because they all lived on the edge of acceptance; either way Saryn loved her rats, and they in turn loved her. There is comfort in adversity. P.S. The crow is Ingrid, she is Anna's bird. A spy. A master of stealth. Here she is out in the open watching over Saryn as she plays with her rats. Ingrid doesn't really like rats but she likes Saryn and so she keeps Anna's cat, Millicent, from eating (too many of) Saryn's friends. She was the fourth critter in my last image "Defending George." Look carefully in the tree and you will see Ingrid cheering Anna on as she kills the monster rat. In fact you can even see her in the thumb below. Previous

"Defending George"