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Leafsong

Leafsong, by Lu (poe) Added by Leafsongmerry

Name:	Leafsong Shalah'aman
Title:	Cenarion Delivery Girl
Class:	Druidic Apprentice
Training:	Third-year Cenarion student.
Homeland	Nighthaven, Moonglade
Residence	GHE: SW, The Park, Stormwind City
Known Family	Ashamal Shalah'aman (Husband) Mel'arian Gladefall (father) Elurina Thornwell(Mother, deceased) An'alith Shalah'aman (son) Mirae Shalah'aman (daughter) Loredar Shalah'aman (son) and Flora Shalah'aman (daughter)
Alignment	True Neutral
Profession(s)	Official Gladefall Herb Empire representative, experimental alchemist, hawker of dubious potions.
Height	7 2"
Build	Lean

The Gladefall family have always been stricken with the dual curse of poverty and fertility. Mel'arian, scraping a living by selling cheap herbs off a blanket on the streets of Nighthaven; was dismayed to discover that his wife had fallen pregnant for a third time. The new daughter, however, soon proved to be an asset - she was adept at heckling potential customers while simultaneously lifting their coinpurses. Life in the Nighthaven ghetto was hard, but the struggling herb business received an unexpected boost from winning a Circle contract.

With this new source of income, the Gladefall family was able to legally rent the storage shed where they had been squatting. The humble Gladefall Herb Hut was established in the poorest district of Nighthaven, and due to the shrewdness of Mal'arian, began to conduct a mildly successful business. The now-adolescent Leafsong was sent out to find new business in neighbouring towns. She had inherited her father's craftiness and greed, and was eager to increase their family's net worth. Dragging her bulky, much-patched satchel, Leafsong began to routinely tread the trails between Nighthaven, Auberdine and Starfall Village. A chance encounter with an irritable Kal'dorei exile on the slopes of Hyjal led to a peculiar business arrangement; where she would 'visit' him every few months on her delivery rounds, and go away with gold coins jangling in her pocket (and some more inevitably pilfered from his coinpurse).

Through the acumen of Mal'arian and Leafsong's source of additional income, the Gladefall family were able to purchase a small marketplace dwelling in the Trade District of the newly created Kal'dorei city, Darnassus. Leafsong, who had the rudiments of druidic talent, began to take evening classes at the Cenarion Enclave; in exchange for her assistance in the tedious but necessary chore of sorting seeds. Although naturally quick-witted, she suffered academically because of her abysmally poor reading and writing skills. Nevertheless, she had enough basic skill that she was taken on as a thero'shan by Shan'do Fanmilour Thornweaver. After he was called to serve in the Dream, the Circle were unable to find another Shan'do tolerant enough to take Leafsong on as an apprentice- her reputation for clumsiness and poor literacy (and that one incident where she attempted to "harvest precious blooms!" from an unsuspecting druid in Tree of Life form) preceded her. She soon fell through the ranks of the apprentices, traded between Cenarion botanist and field researcher; until she became little more than a pack-mule.

Her first voyage outside Kal'dorei territory took her further than she could ever have imagined back in her days living on the streets of Nighthaven. Accompanying the Cenarion Expedition as they established the Refuge in Zangermarsh; she spent her days in a state of terrified homesickness. During a routine delivery mission to Shattrath City, she met a man idling on a saber beside a pool on Aldor Rise. That man was Ashamal Shalah'aman, her benefactor from the Hyjal delivery days, returned from exile and pardoned by the Cenarion Council. Retaining some affection for the awkward girl, he offered to become her Shan'do and the two began to journey together. As a result of the inevitable resumption of old habits (and the Gladefall fertility); Leafsong soon fell pregnant.

After Ashamal and Leafsong became lifemates; her father (delighted at how their family value had now increased ten-thousand fold) sent her overseas to take advantage of their new human allies. Leafsong began to peddle Gladefall products in Stormwind, resuming her Cenarion education in the Park District; while moaning about her expanding stomach. A few weeks after An'alith Shalah'aman (lovingly nicknamed 'Treehumper' by his young mother) was born; the Gladefall fertility struck again and -much to her outrage- she fell pregnant a second time. Mal'arian floated the Emporium on the Darnassian market and profits boomed; necessitating a third name change to the family business.

Mel'arian had now realised the potential of owning a business with worldwide contacts, private transportation, and import/export privileges throughout Azerothian seaports. Over the years, the Gladefall Herb Empire became a front for an international smuggling and fencing operation; procuring ancient Kaldorei artifacts and selling them to interested parties (many of them dwarves and humans with a taste for the exotic.) Mel'arian and his three children run this side of the'family business' themselves; with Leafsong acting as the regional coordinator for Stormwind. As a result, many of her starless nights are spent sitting on the end of the last dock in the Harbour, watching for the arrival of a lantern-less rowboat.

Leafsong Shalah'aman spends her mornings in classes beside the pool in the Park District; her afternoons doing delivery rounds between the various Stormwind taverns and restaurants; and her evenings with her husband and baby. Her stomach seems to grow daily (in her opinion), but does not impede her from her active daily routine. She treats non-Kal'dorei citizens with a wary caution, but her desire for profit overwhelms her natural xenophobia and she will not hesitate to approach even the most sinister denizens of Stormwind with a shrill "You wan' buy?". Memories of desperate poverty still affect her day-to-day life; exceedingly tight-fisted with money, she is not above pickpocketing those who look like they could afford to lose a few silver. Excitable and slightly solemn; her primary concerns in life are A) The safety of her family B) The accumulation of as much money as possible and C) How to spell her own name correctly.

Mirae Shalah'aman was cut out of Leafsong's belly by her husband, as she lay in a sedated state. Now, Leafsong is busy attempting to balance her schoolwork, family life and the work of the Gladefall Herb Empire- both the herb sales, and the more dubious activities they have begun to engage in. She is currently balancing her druidic study, her GHE deliveries, and raising two young infants - as well as attempting to convince her husband that family is more important than fanaticism. Much to her additional horror, in late October she discovered that she was pregnant -again-. Much cursing and disbelief ensued. She is now expecting twins, due in May. She is also contemplating performing a vasectomy on her lifemate with her pruning tongs.

As of late, she has been doing absolutely terribly in class. It appears that she has no natural talent for her chosen path. She is possibly the worst druidic student in Stormwind, if not on Azeroth. The single time she successfully conjured roots, they began to inadvertently strangle her teacher. It seems as if her childhood dream may be somewhat unrealistic, especially in conjunction with her added responsibilities as a businesswoman and mother. Leafsong, in her usual pragmatic manner, has accepted this possibility and does not appear too perturbed. As long as the business continues to make profit, any druidic aspirations have been sidelined for now. After a difficult birth, the twins Loredar and Flora were born on the banks of Lake Elune'ara, in Moonglade.

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Recent: After displaying a remarkable lack of natural talent or aptitude for learning, Leafsong has been expelled from her druidic studies. Using this as an excuse to throw herself fully into making the GHE: SW a success, she was displeased to realise that her cousin, Shyla, had become far more valuable an asset to the family business than she. Shyla now almost single-handedly runs the Stormwind branch of the Gladefall Herb Empire, proving her worth to the Empire's owner, patriarch Melarian Gladefall, Leafsong's father. Although Leafsong does not regret that the majority of her time is now spent looking after her children, she has to reconcile this knowledge with her consumnate desire to contribute to the GHE's success and expansion; and sometimes has difficulty acknowledging that her new role as a young mother means that she is now regarded as more of a resource-stealer, than an active contributor to the business. Her old delivery duties taken over by hired staff, the shopfront run by Shyla; most would be grateful for this relaxation of responsibility, but for a girl who had previously devoted her entire lifetime to the success of the family business - it is sometimes a bitter pill to swallow. She continues to try and involve herself in the operation of the GHE: SW, mostly by hawking the occasional product (she carries around a satchel stuffed with them), or by hounding local customs officials for tax breaks. In an effort to occupy her time with something other than babies; she has also fleetingly taken up several new hobbies, including boxing, sword-fighting, goldfish rearing, and archery (and so far, been absolutely atrocious at all of them).

Leafsong stands at approximately seven feet, tall for a Kaldorei female; though her slumped posture and bowed head indicates that her distinctive height is a cause of some social discomfort, the product of a recent late-adolescent growth spurt. Her frame is narrow and lanky, her limbs skinny; the result of periods of prolonged malnutrition. Despite her scrawniness, her arms and legs have developed a layer of thin muscle (from daily delivery rounds), and she appears to be generally in good health. Her fingers are long and bony, the nails bitten to the quick. Her skin is pale, though liberally speckled with summer freckles over her nose and cheeks. A lurid, ugly scar marks her neck, though it is frequently covered by a ribbon or scarf. Her face is unremarkable, neither plain nor pretty; her cheekbones prominent, and her nose long. Her mouth is wide, the crooked teeth in the process of being corrected by a copper-wire goblin retainer. Her general expression is a mixture of solemnity and stubborn wariness, though the serious demeanour is broken often by a toothy, askew smile. The dyed hair, which falls in a fine pea-green curtain to just below her shoulders; betrays its false shade by showing an inch of white at the roots.