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[Kay Velve'Niar]

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In the drow culture, males are lower than females. Lloth is the most widely worshipped deity.. and a harsh mistress. Being that she is female, all females think themselves greater than males. And Lloth supports this belief by granting them greater powers.

Being male, I was basically a slave.. even were I born to royalty, I would be thus, practically. It was found out when I was young that I had a gift of talking to animals. The animals we commonly used were mainly riding lizards, and I was given the task of training them and taking care of them. This included feeding the beasts and cleaning their feces off whereever they left it. The lizards had the ability to ride on the walls and ceilings of the caverns, so it was not uncommon to find it affixed to these places.

One day, a hunting party approached me with news of a new beast they had seen on the surface. They wished to ride them, for they used magic, and would enhance any attacks we made on enemies. So a surface was formed to capture some of them for study. Naturally, I was forced to accompany them.

When we arrived, after 2 gruelling weeks of travel through the caverns, we emmerged from the peaceful dark cavern into a hellacious sun-filled sky. Deciding it best to travel at night, we made our way to where they had seen the beasts.

In the moonlight, the beasts stood regal and magnificent. There were perhaps 10 in all. We numbered 20, altogether, so we feared not. After all, these were just new steeds... Right?

Wrong.

One by one, they turned to face our direction, and began to attack us in force. They moved as one, blasting our party with strong magic. I stood off to the side, hidden, for all I knew then was animal care and training, I was no warrior.

One beast, seemingly the leader, apporached me cautiously. It must have deemed me harmless, for none of it's companions attacked me, either. I looked around the clearing, and all my drow companions were dead, a bloodied mess. I later learned that those creatures are called Ki-rin.

I was alone, for the first time in my life, truly alone. The knowledge that my kin were hundreds of miles under the soil was comforting, strangely enough. That is when I decided never to return.
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Later in my years, I had one day come across a maiden, collecting water at a stream. I was on my steed, the head ki-rin, when I saw her. Hair of gold and eyes of emerald. Ears as pointed as my own. So, was this the one of the "evil elves" we had been taught to hate in the academy? Where was the evil in this goddess' face? There was no hate.... But apparantly I frightened her... she ran off. I did not give chase.

Instead, I returned to the very spot, day after day, at the same time, in hopes of glimpsing her. Soon, after a few weeks, she began to visit the stream again. Always, I stayed hidden to watch this angelic vision, without scaring her away.

One day, she called to me to come out from my hiding place. She had known I was there all along. We began to get to know each other. For months we met, secretly, of course, for her kin would have killed me outright for my brethren's past deeds.

A day came when she told me she was pregnant. She bade me to take her with me. I could not say otherwise, for I wanted her to come with me, as well. I forced her to remain in her village to live more comfortably, and reduce the hazards of life on the road. So she remained there, growing larger and more to term, quite obviously pregnant, and never revealing the identity of her child's father.

A night finally came, at the end, when I decided to take her away with me. I rode quietly into the elven village. I thought myself stealthy, but I wasn't quiet enough. For when she was mounted on my steed, with me in the lead of it, we heard shouts. "Kill the drow!" and "Murderer!", among various others.
We were leaving but I felt the air moving as arrows flew past us.. they loosed so many on us that night. With all the arrows that were sent our way, I wonder at the fact that it took only one to kill my beloved. Only one single shaft of wood tracked her form.. I wondered if it was a jealous lover, or a protective brother's mis-aimed shot..

It matters not, anymore. I could tell she was dead in the seconds I took to examine her. I had no time before I could hear them catching up to me...
Into the woods I ran.. and I wandered, numb for days, weeks, months, mourning my loss.

I made my home in the corrupted forest. My only friends were the nightmares. Companions to my soul, they were. I often dreamt of her. To this very day, a hundred years since, I still pause at the sight of golden hair and emerald eyes.
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I gave up handling animals, eventually. I chose to relearn the skills we were taught in the academies. Archery, mundane magics.

Now I simply wander.