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Birth and Childhood
Born the first week of Harvest in the year 605, Shea Stonemoor was born the only daughter amongst a gaggle of elder brothers to Evandes and Belloria, a huntsman and his wife, a well-to-do tavern owner. Hailing from the Forest District town of Hedgehem, Shea's youngest years were spent competing with her siblings for the affections of both parents. Often, her father was too busy trapping, hunting and scouting the surrounding lands, teaching his sons the lay of the lands around the town in which they lived. Their absence was felt for days until their triumphant return, often with a brace of trapped rabbits, geese or locally caught fish.
Until she was able to string along coherent sentences, Shea spent her earliest years getting under her mother's feet, often in an exasperating manner that was only soothed by the toddler's habit of sing-song. Despite proving to be vocally talented from a young age, the child was expected to conform to her family expectations, learning to cook well and sew barely visible stitches with skill, sweep floors and polish tables. When she could escape her mother's busy kitchen, Shea eventually connived her father into allowing her along on some of his trips in to the more wild places around the very civilized, if not large, town. Though the youth rarely showed an inclination for the patience required to trap and fish, she enjoyed foraging well enough.
The trips broke the monotony of daily life, baking pies and repairing clothing, but as she grew older, the young girl grew restless with life even when she managed to escape it. Her voice proved light and pitch perfect as she honed it through regular practice, impressing the occasional patron of the tavern enough to earn a few copper coins of her own. Though two of her elder brothers had chosen to find their own trades, smithing and leatherworking respectively. Singing, by comparison, seemed a nonsensical trade and despite her passion for it, Shea was expected to continue her work as a maid within her mother's tavern.
It wasn't until the unexpected arrival of a musician that her thoughts on the subject were radically altered. The man and his variety of instrument cases proved, in a number of ways, that it could be lucrative. His clothing was unassuming, unimpressive, but such didn't matter to the ten year old girl who felt a kinship with the jovial fellow. Her inquisitiveness was amusing, but when she proved truly interested, he agreed to give her a rough understanding of notes and pitch upon one of his more basic instruments, the flute. So enthralled by the instrument and the music it created, Shea's work fell to the wayside for days and her parents well less than pleased.
But, the man was merely a traveler who would stay no longer than a week, and with his assurances that the girl was a talent in such things, her parents grudgingly allowed their youngest and only daughter the chance at such a break. Heart broken when he left, she was buoyed only by the discovery that he had left her a rough hewn flute as a parting gift upon which she practiced daily when she could escape from her expected chores. As she grew older, she used her squirreled away coinage, earned by occasionally entertaining the patrons of her mother's tavern, to purchase a wider variety of instruments upon which to practice. As she grew older, her parents finally resigned themselves to the inevitability of what they considered to be their daughter's flighty moods.
When she had grown into her sixteenth year, Shea stubbornly attached herself to a troupe, after proving herself capable enough if still a raw talent in the field of music, that had come through the town to put on a variety of shows and exhibitions of their talents and skill. Shea continued on with them for another two years, plying her trade and refining it until she broke away from them with mutual respect, choosing her own way for the first year of her truly independent life.
Personality and Temperament
Playful and casual, Shea is best at putting others at ease and indulging herself whenever she can in whatever manner she wishes. Despite her seemingly care free ways, the young woman has learned to be frugal through her rough and ragged travels as a musician and occasional minstrel. Though she does not always try to force her company upon others, Shea is a sucker for a soul in need and enjoys dispensing what little wisdom and advice she might have.
Being a bit of a vagrant, despite her Freelander status, for a time has given her a fair insight, albeit far from perfect, in to the human psyche, something she ponders upon often. A natural talent when it comes to playing a variety of instruments, Shea spends quite a bit of time honing that talent further and is rarely found outside of the company of those same instruments.
She is not opposed to rendering her services freely, though is careful about such offers. After all, she does need to eat now and then.
Plans and Goals
(In Progress)
Links and Logs
(To Be Posted)