The Mercenary Princess

Royalty, first in line for the throne, she learned early that her dreams of hunts and sword-fights were to be turned to those of embroidery and following the leadership of her eventual husband. On her 11th birthday her parents announced her betrothal and enraged she ran away from home, and was quickly picked up by a group of slavers and bandits who took her far from home. Eventually the bandits were raided by a group of mercenaries and she begged to join them, still terrified to return home. The leader, Bear, took her in and under his guidance she quickly took to the work and spent years traveling with his band. When Bear was killed in a raid she stepped forward and now she leads The Jade Arrows, a band of those formerly loyal to Bear.

History

Aleska was born to royalty, the firstborn. She was spoiled and from a young age she dreamed of becoming a strong ruler who could lead her people. She played conqueror with the other royal children in the courtyard and she often begged the Knight Captain to show her swordplay. As she got older her parents started to reign her in, and her life started to fill with etiquette classes. She began to realize that her burden was not to rule but to bear healthy children to continue the line. She tried to push the thought away, hating it, her dreams slowly slipping away just because she was a girl.

On her 11th birthday her parents surprised her and the court with an announcement that she would enter a long term engagement to one of her childhood friends, Calder, the son of the duke. It was not the arranged marriage but the realization that he would become king and she would be nothing but the mother of an heir that set her off. Aleska had a huge argument with her parents, right there and that night snuck through the cook's quarters and made a run for the woods, determined to run away. By the first rays of dawn she was lost, cold, exhausted and wanted nothing more than to go home. Finally the woods opened out onto a road and a passing caravan of carts. She immediately proclaimed who she was and that she wanted to be taken home. The travelers surrounded her and spoke in a foreign language before reaching out and grabbing her, throwing her into the back of a metal grated cage and locking the door. These were slavers and had no interest in who this young girl was, just the profit they could make.

Aleska spent over two years traveling with variant bands of slavers, across many seas and continents. She had been confused and then distraught and then defiant and finally broken. Most of the people the band picked up were gone within days, sold off or traded to other bands, but Aleska was one of a select group that the slavers kept to serve them.

On a dark night there were loud shouts and chaos erupted in the camp, a group of mercenaries had been hired to clear out the illegal slavers. Aleska watched as every one of the keepers were slashed down, terrified and enthralled by the chaos. Finally an enormous man stepped to her and cut away her bindings, offering her a blanket. He was the leader of the mercenary band, a large man with a fatherly smile and kinder eyes than seemed suited to a man of his stature and confidence.

Awestruck, Aleska begged and begged for him to take her with him. She'd long ago let go of ever returning home and she never wanted to be helpless like that again. The man, known to his company as Bear, couldn't pass up the little girl with the fiery spirit to match her bright tangled hair. Over time he became a true father figure for her, the rest of the band taking her in just as warmly. Quite a few of the company had been picked up in a similar way from raided bandit camps or slaver caravans. Bear never asked her where she came from and Aleska began sword training and traveling with them.

Eight years passed before Bear was killed in a raid. His large band of mercenaries fractured without his leadership and began to separate. Devastated by the loss of her dearest mentor and friend she stayed with Bear's second in command and some of the more loyal members, forming the Jade Arrows Company. With the guidance of her found family she became a leader.

Her past caught up with her one day when a former member of Bear's gang sent a letter to Mirador in hopes of a reward for the knowledge that the former princess survived, the letter was intercepted before the King and Queen could see it by her brother Albair who came looking for her. This brought back a host of emotions that Aleska rejected, pushing her brother away with threats if he ever came after her again. In the interest of new contracts and disappearing again Aleska moved the Jade Arrows across the continent to Greenvalley Port.

In Greenvalley she started to run into Pan, a member of the local adventurers guild with his own problems, they clashed but still a spark held between them and eventually they had a brief tryst. Aleska became pregnant and fearful for the loss of her precious freedom she gripped so tightly she fled from the responsibility that presented itself to her; she spent her pregnancy traveling back to Mirador, where she hadn't returned since she was 11. Camped in the deep woods outside the kingdom she gave birth to a girl, Gwendolyn, and she dumped the child onto her brother, the soon to be king, wiping her hands clean of the whole affair.

She eventually returned the Greenvalley, where the money and contracts were plentiful, and was increadibly cold to Pan, who she didn't bother to explain her extended abscence to.

Notes

[ T I M E L I N E ]
♢ Age 11 - Runs away from home, gets abducted by slavers.
♢ Age 12 - Rescued by Bear and his mercenary band, the Talons.
♢ Age 20 - Bear is killed in a raid.
♢ Age 21 - Aleska and the loyal members of the Talons form the Jade Arrows Company.
♢ Age 22 - Albair finds Aleska, she moves the Jade Arrows to Greenvalley Port
♢ Age 23 - Aleska meets Pan, becomes pregnant with Gwendolyn.
♢ Age 26 - Aleska starts to actually get to know Pan.

[ F A M I L Y ]
Father- Reinoldus Verona
Mother- Theophania Verona
Brother- Albair Marcel Verona
Sister-in-law- Ophelia Lavelle-Doucet Verona
Brother- Aemos 'Moss' Goffrid Verona
Sister- Adelysia Fendrella Verona
Sister- Alia Emelyne Verona