<strong>Kailae</strong>(http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=166442)<br/><br/>The doors of the Charming Dryad swing open for the young woman who pushes her way through. Here's a portrait: wavy, golden blonde hair, leafy green eyes, fair skin from too much time spent indoors with her books. She wears a loincloth and a top that's really two strips of loose fabric strategically arranged into a halter, all in flamboyant scarlet red. In one hand she holds a weird bronze staff with a precisely cut crystal atop it in one hand that's far too delicate for actual use as a weapon.<br/><br/>Kailae scans the sea of faces in the place for a moment, spots a familiar face, and makes a beeline for it.<br/><br/>"Ran! Have you heard?" she says, bubbling with excitement. Her eyes are bright with the light of a brilliant plan in motion. "According to that notice outside, the Council is<em>finally </em>doing something about all the strange news that's come our way recently."<br/><br/>She sits down next to Ran... and then realizes just who Ran happens to be sitting next to. She has heard the rumors, of course, and some of Miranda's less rational proclamations.<br/><br/>Kailae herself is hardly very conventional by the standards of Dryad Wood, of course. She had always been the one who was too smart for her own good, clever but not wise, far too fond of her tomes, far too frank in her speech and far too daring in her dress. (According to the latest and wildest rumor, she and Ran are in unofficial competition to see who who can wear less clothing.) So as something of the odd one out in a little town like this, Kailae used to feel, if not kinship with Miranda, a little more willingness to put up with her oddities.<br/><br/>But things happened, and things changed. First there was that incident with the boy who stole Miranda's journal. It was an unsettling warning that not all books were safe to read and that there was perhaps more to Miranda's ramblings than mere hallucinations or an overactive imagination. That was one of the few times Kailae had been seriously shaken, because if any of the books in her father's library were written by someone like her...<br/><br/>Then, of course, she had taught herself magic. Since then Kailae had felt that, as the one educated in spellcraft, she had a sort of duty to watch over Miranda, just in case she did something unpredictable. It was a position that precluded any chance of genuine friendship and inevitably, the distance between them had grown.<br/><br/>Kailae smiles at Miranda. She doesn't<em>intend </em>to be unfriendly -- it's just a natural consequence of her position on the matter. "It's about time the Council stopped twiddling its thumbs and took action. What do you two plan to do?"<br/>