Astilbe

Like many other pouflons, Astilbe bloomed in the Dawn Garden, and was picked up and loved by a doting pouflon couple. Her fathers took her to Goldfair, where she was raised in a happy home through her formative years. Like many others within the villages, her fathers owned a relatively successful farm, and Astilbe's early life was helping them run the business, tending to the flowers and fruits and learning the ins and outs of farm life. They never experienced any strife or struggles, and it was peaceful.

And it was incredibly boring.

While her fathers were fine with the tranquility, Astilbe, young and spunky and plucky, found the peace grating. She wanted more excitement, more action! The most action Goldfair tended to see was when the neighbors have disputes over harvests, and those tend to end amicably, no fights or anything! Astilbe just wanted her young life to have more pizazz, was that so much to ask??

The few times she got a taste of excitement was when she was brought on trips to the various towns that made up Bellacoste, usually business trips to send their modest supplies of flowers and fruits. From Chrysanthos to Roseacre and even as far as Citremery, Astilbe has been around the block, absorbing the sights and acquiring new backdrops to her daydreams. It was the most content she could be with her life, until she got old enough to fly the coop.

It all changed after her first visit to Obrille.

Meeting Dwi was an awakening in more ways than one; not only was it the blossoming of her first ever crush, it was also the blossoming of her future goal in life. Dwi spoke about knighthood with such passion, eyes sparkling, that Astilbe couldn't help but be moved. Like most anylon would do when trying to impress someone they like, Astilbe vowed to join him in the future, to climb the ranks of knighthood and be a knight of great renown.

It hit two kiweets with one stone; not only would she get the chance to impress her crush and sweep him off his feet, it would also give her the chance to travel and explore Bellacoste for training. She didn't actually care about the knight stuff, so this was one of the biggest draws. So with her best puppea dog look, Astilbe got her fathers to support her future goals.

Once Astilbe was grown, true to her word, she signed up for the Obrille Knight Academy to begin her journey into knighthood. She's not what you would call the most skilled at it; she did just enough to stay in the academy, but she never truly took the teachings to heart, focusing more on trying to impress a now grown Dwi. Her fathers would ask how school is going, and she would sort of vaguely wave a hoof and say it's all good. And so it's been a similar cycle for several months now; Astilbe doing her schoolwork and being bored out of her mind from the super simple tasks they assigned to novice knights, chatting up Dwi (and despairing how oblivious he is), sneaking out of training to explore the new areas training took her...

And then one day she met a dragon pouflon in distress and in trouble and flew in to save them, and finally, for the first time, as her heart thundered in her chest, sword wobbly as her magic threatened to give out and drop it, she understood 'chivalry'. And it became something more than trying to impress a childhood crush.