<div class="floatleft">(http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j480/Erion2451/imagesqtbnANd9GcS9_OPu2UlXIEHWAEMAihAw7O4FwIHsbaYiD7B2cxE28OhQxSp7ww.jpg)</div><div align="center"><strong>Hollywillow Character Post</strong></div><strong>Time of day beginning post:</strong>Noonish<br/><strong>Time of day ending post:</strong>Noonish<br/><strong>Location beginning post:</strong>West of Dulon Landing<br/><strong>Location ending post:</strong>West of Dulon Landing<br/><strong>Characters currently interacting with:</strong>None<br/><strong>GM Intervention Request\Required? (Yes/no)</strong>Possibly<br/><br/>Holly frowned when she saw the discomfort her question had caused the unique stranger.  The craggy skin around his eyes suspiciously narrowed in pain even as his body twitched.<br/><br/>Despite his look he responded, ““I am Castoff, protector of these lands, offspring of Pain and Nature.  I protect the living things that have no guardians here, south of Grace.”  The capitals of the words “Pain” and “Nature” were evident in his enunciation.<br/><br/>A wave of his hand indicated the horses, and Holly lifted her eyes toward the distant herd.  Holly’s trained eye and natural empathy toward animals led her to notice the reason the man directed her attention to the horses.  Blood coated several of the stallions’ flanks, and the animals shied when one of their companions moved too closely to their recently healed wounds.  Further, the entire herd looked lean and undernourished.<br/><br/>Castoff spoke of the cruelty of the Blood Elves.  How the twisted creatures were feeding on horseflesh and starving the herd out of pure vileness.  The protector’s eyes clouded over and a thorn bush, gnarled and twisted, instantly sprouted at his feet, and twined around each leg to just under the knee.  As if signaled, irritated neighs echoed from the herd loud enough to bring Castoff out of his trance.  An irritated look was given from the man to the thorn bush.  Holly heard a sigh, and then, with a wave, the odd man banished the thorn bush back into the ground.<br/><br/>“Adventurers freed the horses and I have taken to protecting them more directly than I’d like. The few Blood Elves that remain are a distinct danger, and I will not allow them to eat any more horse flesh,” he spoke and his words carried the weight of a promise.<br/><br/>Holly stomped her foot as the tale ended.  “Nor will I!”  The Dryad spoke with outraged anger as Castoff finished his story.  “How dare they hurt them.  Will you let me attempt to heal the horses?  I promise I will not cause them pain.  I only want to help.”  Her voice was sincere as it could be and her outrage was obviously genuine.<br/><br/>Castoff turned his gaze from the horses to Holly, “your kind is rare, especially so far south of Grace. What seek ye, creature of beauty and nature?”<br/><br/>No sign of acknowledgement was given to the compliment, if it was actually a compliment.  To Holly it was simply the truth and needed no response.  She was as much a child of beauty and nature as Castoff was a child of nature and pain.<br/><br/>Holly looked at him and blinked vapidly for a moment before she grinned.  “Oh, yeah.  The others can’t really leave their trees.  I don’t know if I’m seeking anything, at this particular moment.  I was seeking an old, mysterious tree because they have the best stories, but the trees here played a trick on me and sent me in the wrong direction.  Apparently that tree dwells in Grace.  I saw the horses a while ago, but the sky is so big here.  It didn’t feel like it was safe to leave the tree line.  I was going to head toward that smelly village that is nearby because the clouds made me want to, but then I saw you and I’ve never seen anyone able to make plants grow by simply walking.  Can you show me how to do that?”<br/><br/>Her outrage from before had faded almost instantaneously when Castoff had changed the subject, and her expression had changed just as quickly to carefree smile.<br/><br/>“I can protect the horses from the trees if you want and you can protect them from out there,” she said as she indicated the grassy plains under the deep blue, ominously cloudy sky.<br/><br/>“Oh, the trees say that somebody is watching us, but they don’t think it’s a Blood Elf.  Actually, they’re certain it isn’t a Blood Elf.”<br/>