Author Games: A Knight's Valor

Fennet Abernathy of Oceaf

♔ Character Name: Fennet Abernathy

♔ Gender: Female

♔ Age: 19

♔ Birthplace: Oceaf

♔ Physical Appearance:

Hair: Fine and coppery. Fen keeps it cut short so she can work and fight more easily. She and her two male cousins have the exact same haircut.

Face: Defined, yet delicate. Her eyes are a warm brown color; Fen always keeps them wide open, so they tend to sparkle in the sunlight. Her long, upturned nose, pointed chin, and wide smile give the impression of someone who loves a good adventure.

Body: Fen is of average height, about 5'6". She is lean and quick, and working and fighting for over ten years have given her muscled arms and high stamina. Fen's complexion is fair and tends to burn easily; she wears sun salve at all times.

♔ Personality: Fen is curious and energetic. She loves to explore the beaches and wooded areas around her home, and she loves to learn, both in the natural world and in a structured setting. Fen likes knowing how things work, especially on a smaller scale; she enjoys learning the details of a system so she can mentally fit them together into a fantastic, coordinated whole. Being poor at an activity does not discourage Fen; rather, she derives pleasure from working hard and gaining experience and knowledge as a reward. Family and friends are important to Fen as well. She hopes to always be able to enjoy life with the people she loves.

♔ Past: Fen grew up in a large household. She and seven family members lived together in one home, these family members being her father, two aunts and an uncle, two cousins, and one grandmother. Fen spent her early life exploring Oceaf with her cousins George and Sam and the family dog Toby. This fostered a love for the natural world and the adventures one could have within it.

After expressing interest in her uncle's smithy, Fen began spending time there at the age of eight. Her uncle Antony believed she might take up a smithy apprenticeship eventually and allowed her to perform small tasks. She experimented with weapon design and eventually detail work; though she had a knack for both, she balked at tasks requiring coarser motor skills, particularly hammering. Expressing these concerns to a customer led her to begin training with the local combat master for girls in order to build upper arm strength and coordination.

Fen loved close combat so much that, at the age of fourteen, she chose to continue with combat training and did not take up a smithy apprenticeship. Her goal was to become an Oceaf guard like her aunt Elsie; despite this, she continued to do work at the smithy in her spare time, earning money for the jobs she did there. Now nineteen, Fen hopes to serve and protect the land she loves so much by becoming a Royal Guard.

♔ Skills: Aside from combat, Fen's biggest talent is smithing, particularly sculpting the smaller details of a weapon. Fen is also able to eat ridiculously spicy foods and challenges anyone to find a food too spicy for her.

♔ Strengths: Fen's intuition is her greatest strength. During combat, she can interpret her opponent's movements well and react accordingly. She is also skilled with moderately heavy weapons-her specialty is her combat master's specialty, the broadsword. Her agility and speed help her in a match, and her perseverance helps her both in and out of the sparring ring. Fen is also quick to understand new ideas and systems.

♔ Weaknesses: Although Fen loves to learn, this learning is driven by intuition and emotional desire to understand, not rational strength. She therefore cannot remember many facts at once and is poor at arithmetic and other logic-based activities. (She is terrible with names.) Furthermore, because Fen is driven by emotion, she is easy to cripple emotionally as well; for example, her friends' and family's opinions heavily impact her decisions because of her emotional attachment. Fen is also a bad swimmer, and though she is strong, she is not incredibly so-male opponents will almost always be stronger than her.

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COMMENTS FROM THE ROYAL COURT:

♕ King Artheur: I've never heard of a lean, quick blacksmith. It must be quite a combination. Tell me, child, how can you lift a broadsword when some of my strongest men struggle under their weight?

♕ Queen Melinda: My husband is right for once. I bet you're lying. I hope to see you fall under the weight of your lies and crush your soul.

♕ Roland Delmere: So your skills include eating spicy food and fine detail work? Perhaps you'd be better served finding a pitiful acting troupe where you could design pretty costumes and eat till your heart's content. This life may be too far above your reach...

♞Sir Thomas: There's very few things better than a girl who believes herself capable of taking a man's job. I can see a spark in you, my dear. And if your passion for this contest is as hot as the flames you work with, I look forward to seeing more of you.

♞Sir Adeline: Ignore them, dearest. You will gain muscle. Surely, there just must be a mistake in your words. Fight hard, train, and when you gain the ability to do all that you desire you need to...then and only then shall you fight better than all who thought less of you.