Personality...

Saucy Salix is a favored knight of her Majesty, the Fairy Dire Queen, praised for his elegance and nobility. The Queen keeps him around for his handsome looks, for conversationalist he is not, being prone to soliloquies on whatever takes his fancy. The fairies call him the Pan of Sauce - Shepherd among Willows, and adorn him in cloaks of willow boughs. Something of a rakish gentleman, Salix is often finding himself in trouble of some sort or another. It's usually his tongue that gets him in these messes - not quite silver, it's still a quick enough sharp implement, often deadpan in delivery - and it's what got him captured by faries in the first place. His saucy backtalk often gets him in trouble with the Queen or one of her advisers.

Salix is a passionate jader in his interests, which consists of making merry, playing tricks and magic. Salix hopes to master the art of magic reserved for those acclaimed humans - magicians and witches. He enjoys the pursuit of occult knowledge almost as much (if not more than) the acquirement of said knowledge. He's a very poor magician, capable of only a few illusory tricks which are not really magic at all. Still, he does them well, and the attention and praise he gains from entertainment can sustain him for a short time, for truly he loves the limelight. His voice can be soft as feather down, or carry like a stag's roar - and he loves a bit of dramatics.

An avid reader, Salix loves books. His old master, a human magician taught him the skill. It's one thing he's very proud of himself for - the only accomplishment he's really had in his life thus far. It may not be much, but for Salix it means everything. It means he can learn magic and read stories from those long gone. It means he will never be alone so long as he has a word to read. He considers himself a connoisseur of art and literature - but always as a consumer, never as creator.

Salix is most comfortable in dense places - dense wood full of friendly trees, dense halls full of roving fairies, dense rooms full of useful clutter. He likes to move through active spaces - open fields and moors give him pause, and leave him feeling exposed. He feels the need to be bolstered by things on either side of him - as if he needs them to frame him, or protect him - he couldn't tell you for sure which one. Even when he doesn't feel apart of these environments, he feels comfortable to know the empty spaces are filled. Emptiness unsettles him.

Salix has gained something of a capricious reputation. He's always fashionably late to parties. He's fickle with lovers and friends alike, at once appearing loyal and supportive, but bowing out when something else grabs his attention. He finds it hard to relate with others on a deeper level - he makes connections, not friendships. He's often left feeling unsatisfied - he wants to make friends, but doesn't know how. He's flirtatious and frolicsome, but rarely faithful. He's lived among faries so long, he's forgotten that not everyone in the real world is out to play tricks on him, and toy with his emotions. He can get bristly and defensive over things deemed innocuous by other jaders, and sometimes has trouble showing emotion.

This dark fawn loves entertainment - good food and wine, good music and dance, good companionship, good sport and good stories. The Fairy Realms may offer good music and good sport, but it is rather lacking in other areas. Always he craves for mortal companionship, for beef and mutton and potatoes, but mostly for stories. Stories to keep his mind sharp when dealing with the fairy court, pining for his chance to return to the mortal world. Yet, Salix fears he is a fickle creature, for no sooner does he arrive home than to yearn for the music and beauty and adventure of the Fairy Realms. He is caught inexorably between two worlds. A jader trapped in the body of an elkrin. A magician in a world of dying magic. A mortal who walks amid the immortal.

Lover and thief, scholar and gentleman, Salix is no fighter. Despite the firece looking antlers, a warrior he is not, relying on magic and luck (both of which he is severely lacking in) to defend himself. When these fail, as they often do, Salix is left with his last two options - his tongue, and his legs. If he cannot talk his way out a situation, he will run, and vice versa. And boy, will Salix talk. He will talk your ear off if you let him, becoming more bombastic and verbose as his anxiety rises, going off on tangents, flattering, fawning, insulting, joking, teasing, riddling - every trick he might think of, swinging between subjects and tactics in a bid to keep his attackers engaged. He'll say anything, short of begging. Salix may be willing to stoop low, but that his dignity will not stand for.

A proud jader, Salix seems to over flow with self confidence, but in fact he has quite a fragile ego. He's always been an insecure, and slightly nervous jader. He can become easily confused or frustrated, and often throws in the towel and procrastinates. He's prone to introspective episodes of self-doubt and fear. These seemed to have gotten worse with his interactions with the fairy dires, who are always playing tricks on him. He has very little patience for the majority of the little imps, and will snap furiously at them if they try anything. They always fly out of reach laughing at this antics. Salix knows it's best to ignore them - but he can't. They're like thorns in his side. He enjoys trading insults with them, but only when he gets in the last word.

Physical Description...

The Sauce Pan is no dainty, elegant deerz. Salix is built more like a draft sleipnir than an elkrin. He is tall, and built much heavier than his siblings or his parents. Though the fact that some jaders are still taller than he is, rankles him to no end - he likes being able to look down on people. Perhaps Asher accidentally mixed some moose elkrin blood in with him. Woe to those who call him fat or big boned - Salix will have you know that he is sleek. Sleek as a bull elk in a winter coat. But truth be told, Salix does like his fairy realm pastries, and his thickness isn't all due to fur.

This jader's coat is a dark, earthy shade of wet loam, dusted with pale spots. He has piecing red eyes, which makes for a rather scary appearance in the dark forests he roams. Adding to his physique are two horns atop his head, that grow in a shape reminiscent of antlers, a trait passed down through the Imperial line of his lineage. His muzzle is chiseled, and he bears a tiny tuft of fur on his chin. His cropped ears, are a little shorter than his siblings', and one sports a large notch from a tangle with a deer trap. His feet which are rather large as jaders go, and can move through the underbrush as silent as any forest creature. He's not sure where he picked up this style of movement - perhaps his time among the fairies brought it about. His pace is generally slow and languid, an easy, stretched out gait, and this coupled with his silence, gives his movements an almost otherworldly feel. His step is graceful, his legs supple and strong. At first glance one might mistake him for an elkrin – he even has the tail for it - but his stocky frame, and deep-throated bay quickly reveal his canine nature.

Salix's coat, especially on his neck and belly is quite thick, and scruffy. He never thinks to groom himself, and his fur is often host to many stray twigs and leaves. As a pup his mother Niabi would often fret over the state of his fur. Salix would always run when it was bath time. He hates soap with a passion – believes it scrubs away his natural masculine musk. Instead he ops for rolling around in whatever interesting smelling thing he comes across – piles of leaves, mud, pine needles, you name it. If he likes the smell of it, he'll stop and roll in it. He has been informed by many to avoid barbecue sauce especially when traveling through dire wolf territory at night.

Story...

" And pleasant is the fairy land,
But, an eerie tale to tell,

Ay at the end of seven years,
We pay a tiend to hell,

I am sae fair and fu o flesh,
I'm feard it be mysel. "