Hello! Today I present to you a lovely piece of art done by Lupus Astartis from Twitter (I won this one in an art raffle) of Tara-lin, the half-elf Singer of the Legend of the Singer (Children of the Dryads and Sorceress of the Dryads).

Tara-lin is the half-elf daughter of Eldor, a Valor Knight, and Lìrulin, a wild elf huntress (pictures and posts for them will be coming up next). She is a Singer, one whose song expresses the magic the elves have from the dryads and who can sing with the dryads to affect – and sometimes change – the world. According to the tales, there used to be many of them, but now one has not been known in elven society for elven lifetimes. Tara-lin was born and raised in the wilderness of Elethri, and her best elf friend is Earnrìl, an elf who was able to be her play-mate and grow with her, despite the fact that for Earnrìl, Tara-lin’s life has only taken about a couple years. Tara-lin is best friends with Alis, a human she met in the Valor Hall and helped to escape.

Due to her connection with the dryads and her magic as a Singer, Tara-lin is bound by the Pact of the dryads, and therefore she is unable to kill or harm, to will violence – at least, not without corrupting her nature. But she is not one to take anything lying down or let anyone walk over her. She is not one to let anyone else make her decisions for her or to let things happen when she could do something about it.

Here’s an excerpt sharing some of Tara-lin’s wisdom:

Tara-lin laughed and shook her head. Her ruby hair, the color of new leaves, swirled about her light brown face. “Eldazìn, I know better than to let my life be ruled by fear. I have been into Nightshade Castle itself. I have fought and vanquished three wailing wights. I know better than to fear. I had to, I had to learn; else I would not have survived. Might. May. Death. These are the words of fear. Fear will take your life; fear will kill you; fear will drag you into the depths of Nightshade.

And here is another showing how Tara-lin can react to things:

“Well,” began Tara-lin, speaking loudly and about to stamp again, when she felt Vonë tense and shy under her arm. Relaxing her pose and voice she said, “Sorry, boy,” and stroked his ears and face. Deliberately keeping her voice lowered, she continued, “Well, they can drown in their own run-off for all I care. I wouldn’t do a thing to drain their soil for them. They dug this pit for themselves, and they can live in the bottom of it if they can.” She tried to stroke her horse reassuringly since he continued to pick up on her tension.

Excerpts taken from Sorceress of the Dryads Copyright ©2022 Raina Nightingale

Legend of the Singer

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