TYRILLEE

Tyrillee was as tall as an average human, but slender as a spring willow. Two lambent, palely green eyes were set into a merry face that was bright and sparkling and framed with a flowing mane of snow-white hair that cascaded over her shoulders and down her back to her waist. A crown of braided dragondil blossoms adorned her head, and she wore several necklaces made from the same flower. Her feet were bare, and her only garment was a bright red poncho whose hem was embroidered with threads of gray and green. The dryad had a rapturous voice that was feathery soft and feminine, a whisper, a bare rasp like the susurrus of the wind as it slithered over grasses and through leaves, like the gentle scrap of the clouds as the wind pushed them across the sky.

Although overly friendly, she had a shy boldness about her, or perhaps it was a fake boldness, such as the type found in a young girl romantically interested for the first time in a man twice her age. Tyrillee was an overly touchy woman—those who did not understand her may actually find these platonic affections offensive. In normal, every move was filled with grace and frolic. A quick pirouette here and swinging back and forth on branches while in conversation, then quickly darting into their heights with astounding leaps.


HISTORY
Once the dryad had come up the Westland coast in pretty ships. But they moved away from the water deeper into the great woods, always deeper and deeper. But when the dryad last moved, Tyrillee’s grandmother, Old Sylba was too sick. Such is their way that the dryads left Sylba behind. Only Tyrillee stayed to care for her. When she passed away, Tyrille had no one to talk to, to laugh with, to love her. No humans came to the woods. Only grues and kobolds that were unable to see her, and never able to catch her. She was lonely until she met Anesi and his companions in the 960s.
Before joining Anesi’s party, this dryad had never left the forest. Before hesitantly leaving their safety, she ran around touching each of the trees, stroking them and rubbing her body against the rough bark. At each tree she paused and shot a glance back at them, her thin brows knitting together in an expression of worry, before advancing to another tree.

On their journey, she demonstrated to them her knowledge of nature, showing them other things to eat, such as roots from the ground, seeds, and certain leaves and flower petals to vary their diet. She had a very caring and affectionate connection with Cubby, the brogmoid companion of the group. He gave her rides upon his broad back, and cared for her in times of trouble, although all of their interactions, which were most likely seen as romantic from outsiders, were all platonic interactions.

When Anesi, Fidget, Cubby, and Tyrillee entered into Arbroneth, the dryad broke away from her companions in fear of Dispoz, who she heard might seek to add her to his “collection.” Tyrillee instead explored the keep, coming upon Chuck the dragon who was imprisoned in the dungeon. She wanted to free him. When the dragon caught sight of the dryad’s red poncho, he was thrown into a rage, for Chuck could not tolerate the color red. He shook the entire foundations of the keep trying to break free from his chains. It was Anesi who finally released the dragon from its chains with an effective REZROV.

After Chuck had slain the wizard Dispoz (who had transformed himself into dragon), he carried the companions far southward to the ruins of old Mareilon and deposited them there before leaving. When the dryad entered the city, she became overly queasy at the buildings have been made from dead trees. During the night, she fled to sleep inside a living tree beyond the walls of the city. At dawn, Tyrillee returned to them, just in time to help them escape from grues, which under the influence of the Great Terror, dared to come out in the day.

Once the companions escaped the ruined city, they ventured across the Backbone Hills. Fidget, hoping to kill a lone surmin, foolish released an arrow on it and missed. Tyrillee was the only one to escape its retaliatory wind by diving into a tree. When she returned, she brought with her Gryphon’s Breath flowers to heal Anesi’s wounds which he received by grue-thrown rocks in Mareilon.

At New Mareilon, the Servants of the Terror found them and in the process of defeating some of them, Anesi set flame to the entire city. Thus the second Mareilon died just like the first. L. Rhonda, a city resident, led them through a trapdoor in her bedroom closet, which took them into the Great Underground Highway. Following this route, they reached Dolo Finis, the abandoned capital of Miznia.

It was here that the final showdown took place against the Great Terror and his Servants. While Chuck and his dragon brethren arrived just in time to crush the Servants, the companions were left to challenge the Terror. After several attempts failed, Anesi used the YONK spell upon Tyrillee as she drew near to a morgia tree. This spell strengthened her, so when Cubby took hold of the Terror and threw him to Tyrillee, he was easily able to coil her arms around the demon and vanish inside the tree with him. She reappeared alone, leaving the Terror behind inside the world within the tree. It now had an entire world all to itself.

After the Terror had been defeated, the companions parted ways. Tyrillee remained at Miznia. There was something about the morgia trees, which did not grow in the north that fascinated her, and she wanted time to play among them before she began a search for the rest of the dryads.

TRIVIA:
Tyrillee's favorite food was the nectar of the dragondil flower.