Lea de Soleil
Leah is the 2nd Mate aboard The Barracuda, under the command of Gavin Endili. She is playful and mischievous. Sexy and alluring. Skilled at convincing others and diffusing tense situations or negotiating terms. On Foriedy she worked Fence and was trusted among wealthier circles for being able to move product without bringing back trouble.
She was recruited by Johan Parish to help Gavin Endili retrieve metal samples and a Golem from Kieg-Lac, and she has remained a valuable and loved member of the crew since.
Leah has trust issues and is very slow to open to others. This is not surprising given her history, but does make it difficult for her to rely on others. This has caused her to doubt her position within the crew in the past, but she is slowly overcoming these fears as she has found acceptance with those on the ship. Some have become friends or occasional lovers (Alenka and Gregory), others have opened themselves as family (Gavin).
Lately Lea has grown more bold, taking charge on the ship where she traditionally would have shirked duty. This growth may be a sign that she is finally starting to place her faith in those around her, without fear that they would leave her.
History
Leah was grew up somewhere within the interior of Resonn. She was born a fox and as such, of her memories from that life are a compilation of feral instinct and struggles for survival. She is uncertain when her transition into a magical being began, but slowly greater awareness began to take hold. Changed by Fae magic, Leah became a Kitsune.
She took a mate, fellow Kitsune Raphael Fvace’mirae (whose name relates to the moon) and together they danced under star and sky. Days became years. Leah began to speak, and Raphael taught her the languages of many tongues. He showed her how to read and write, to change form, to fight and to love. They had many fox kits together, but none that held the greater mystery of their magical form. Each birth was joyous, and each loss was more difficult than the last.
One night is burned into her memory, darker than others that she had known. A Human had encroached on the land surrounding her den and left out traps. One of her kits was caught in the trap and killed. It was an evil she had not known before. Death had come naturally before, never by steel jaws. In her anger she stalked the scent of the human back to his home and killed him, manifesting the Kitsune's Curse. She consumed the mans liver and left him for dead.
The curse's effect was jarring and blurred her memory. There remain lingering moments:
Animal ferocity and fear.
Running in the woods, paws carefully skipping across sticks that would snap and reveal her.
Skirting across dusty roadways and parting waist high wheat grass with her hands, praying that her paws would not tire as wagons bearing the smell of men rolled past.
Wet cobblestone, soaked by a cold rain that made feet ache... where had the hair on her paws gone? Raphael had not prepared her for this.
A mound of hay behind a stable. Warm. A cow chewing cud. A dog that didn't stop barking at the hay pile until someone kicked at it. People talking, shouting, laughing, screaming, crying. So hard to sleep and so strangle fascinating.
Cloths hung on a line. They fit so nicely and were so very soft. The boy who clung to his mothers hand pointing at her saying "mama, silk!"
The memories start to form eventually, though how much time passed was hard to tell. Leah was young, but she had grown so much. She disguised herself, masquerading as a human. Fulfilling the needs of her curse when she had to, and living when she didn't.
Appearance
Lea has long wavy red hair that flows past her shoulders. She is average height for a human (5’ 6”) and is quite slender. First impressions suggest that she may have elven blood, though she shows no elven lineage beyond the forest green of her eyes, which upon closer inspection are flecked with brown and gold. She is always in good spirits with a smile on her face that belies her mischievous nature.
Kitsune form:
When she appears as a kitsune she has soft red fur and deep brown eyes. She is slim, and stands only a little taller than 4 feet. She has 2 tails.