A Character Sketch - Physical Attributes

Oct 28, 2005 22:47


It could be said of Nymboline that she rather resembled an over-grown, wingless pixie or other fairy-like creature. That is not to say she was uncommonly diminutive in stature, for her height was a little loftier than the average human female, however, it was in the delicateness of her figure and the exquisite structure of her face. In other words, she appeared deceptively frail in limb and possessed few of the curves that constitute as womanly charms. Her hips were bitterly narrow and there was very little plush flesh to fill the laced bodices of the diaphanous gowns she persistently donned in all varieties of weather. What she did have was an airy, careless mien surrounding her, an impression furthered by a wavy blonde mane of hair so voluminous and fine it crackled to life at the faintest touch. Even in the most gentle of breezes, it would float up on the air and surround her head in a flaxen halo reminiscent of the angel she never was, nor desired to be.

Nevertheless, the nymph’s most remarkable feature could easily be considered her eyes. They were the strangest of oculars that one could come across, for they were indecisive eyes.  Nymboline’s irises could not choose just a single hue, and therefore dithered between various shades of the sea: blue, green, violet and gray. This scintillation of colors proved almost hypnotic on many woodland animals, small children and the aged, more specifically, the senile aged.  For all the rest, it was merely disturbing to look too closely and for any length of time into Nymboline’s extraordinary eyes. She openly delighted in this reaction to her gaze, despite the trouble it had caused at home.

When the newborn Nymboline first opened her startling eyes, after howling for a good half hour in the midwife's face with her eyelids scrunched tight, her father saw the babe’s preternatural orbs and cursed his wife. He accused Nymboline’s mother of having a fateful tryst with the neighborhood warlock, for the child had no evidence of a hunchback such as his. The mother denied the charge, stating that the child could not possibly have come from her loins, despite the recent evidence, for the baby did not have a harelip as she did. Therefore, the only explanation remaining was that Nymboline was a changeling, switched somehow in her mother’s womb. As Nymboline grew so did her beauty and it became widely accepted by the village that she was not her parents’ daughter, for both parents could have claimed an orangutan as a close relative. Only Nymboline knew the truth: her parents were simpletons.

Beauty aside, Nymboline’s physiognomy proved little more productive than a winsome distraction at auspicious times. Her figure, though not as fragile as one would suppose,  did not prove uncommonly strong. She could ride horseback and employ a short bow, if she so deigned, but could not so much as lift a long sword without toppling over. Being slender and light of limb, she was swift as a whippet, and her long, nimble fingers could perform dexterous oddities on account of many years of practice with embroidery and.. other, less wholesome activities. During her youth, Nymboline’s mind grew sharp and her tongue even sharper. Once her innate magical abilities had been discovered, she devoted much of her time in gleaning methods of controlling her powers from others she has encountered. Although barely into the cusp of her prime, Nymboline has learned enough to keep her lily of the valley hide from accruing too many scars, there was much of which she was still ignorant.
Next post
Up
[]