In the months following Skrekrill's invasion of Twistoult's forests Braenwyen found her mind wandering to her family - not her extended family in Grandesque who had half-disowned her for her eccentric spirituality but her siblings, her father, and her mother. Her dreams were filled with images from her chick-hood, memories and nightmares from her very first fateful experience with Skrekrill. She had never been able to remember her father's face before, whether it were because of a psychological block or because she was too young when he was killed she never really knew - but now with the spirit of Skrekrill so close she could swear that when she closed her eyes his face danced before her stern, stalwart, broken, but undefeated. She could finally remember that his last stand, the final battle that destroyed him, was fought over her and her siblings.

For the first time in years Braenwyen found that she was thinking of her family - not just having nightmares about them. For the first time she could ever remember, she missed them.

She didn't know that her memories were still riven with gaps that had yet to be filled.

She spent more time in her own aery; a cave-like ordeal overlooking the borders of Twistoult and Grandesque. This aery had been in the Twistoult side of her family for countless generations and it offered a perfect view of the mountains and forests bordering each other. When she did venture out she began picking up new objects with which to adorn her aery - somehow this war had prompted a feeling of patriotism in her, and she felt that paying homage her ancient aery would show her support for her people.

Even though she felt like perhaps she should retreat, perhaps she should feel insecure and more afraid than she ever had before she was content and her nightmares had begun to be far more controllable. One night Braenwyen even had what she knew was a vision (for it was too comforting and clear to be a mere dream) of the goddess Doamich appearing to her and telling her that a new day was at hand and it was time for her to embrace the sun.

Oddly enough the next morning Braenwyen awoke feeling like a whole new gryph. She spent the morning grooming herself and basking in the sunlight as there was not even a cloud in the sky. She flew about and scavenged until later in the evening she could feel the air pressure change and the temperature shift, and she knew it was time to return home.

When she arrived at her aery she landed inside the cave and watched the clouds roll in, covering the now-setting-sun. She preened and dozed, but suddenly deep in her bones she felt an unsettling feeling. As her eyes searched through the cloud-cover she could just barely make out the sight of an unfamiliar gryph flying toward her. She jumped up and flew up to the peak of her aery on top of the rocks where she could better see the intruder.

He was white, and foreboding, and huge. And he triggered a memory of her father.

As he neared her heartbeat began racing and her vision of her father became clearer and clearer. This individual had his differences, but he felt so much like her father that she had to wonder.

It wasn't until she could catch his eyes that she remembered and knew who he had to be.

"Brother...." She whispered to herself. She let a small smile flit across her beak and her ears perked up. She sat down and her tail twitched impatiently, and her mind was filled with thoughts of being reunited with her last remaining family members, of having the family that she had always wanted.

He landed with a thud for he was so massive, and the scowl on his face didn't phase her.

"Braenwyen?" he asked, and even his gruff voice sounded so much like their father's that she gasped.

"A-Arawn?" she stuttered. "Brother?"

Arawn nodded and grunted, narrowing his eyes at her. He clacked his beak and his waddle jiggled almost humorously - Braenwyen suddenly remembered that her father did almost the same thing to her when she was being naughty. Arawn's white-tiger's tail whipped back and forth, and she could hear thunder out in the distance.

A breeze kicked up and ruffled their feathers as Arawn announced "The Queen Maud of Skrekrill has ordered your evacuation of this aery so he may use it for his own ends, you must leave now." Braenwyen hoped she saw a look of regret in her eldest sibling's face, but somehow she knew that this was all in her head. Arawn showed no remorse as he growled at her and said, "Besides, this was supposed to be mine anyway."

"I thought you were dead!" she squawked. "I was the only one left and so I came here..." and as she said that she thought to herself 'because here is where I feel closest to mother.' "Anyway what's this Queen Maud business?"

Arawn puffed up and announced proudly, "I am up for consideration for promotion to Madadh due to my valor and cunning in our war against the Twistoult and Grandesque cowards." He glared at her and added icily, "And if I can acquire this parcel of territory my advancement is secure."

Braenwyen shivered as she took it all in. "What...?" she mumbled half to herself. Arawn heard and laughed mockingly at her, "Brain still full of fluff, sister?"

"When... I mean, we were born in Twistoult," Braenwyen's mouth couldn't keep up with her thoughts. "What's all this about Queen Maud? I thought you were dead!"

"Oh silly baby sister," Arawn paced around her as his tail lashed back and forth. "When the Skrekrill attacked our family all those years ago it wasn't some random encounter - it was a coordinated effort to free us from the Twistoult madness."

Braenwyen cocked her head and Arawn growled, "Do I have to explain everything to you?"

The breeze had died down momentarily but all of the sudden a gush of wind kicked dust in their faces and muted their words. The sound of thunder rolled closer and Braenwyen glanced nervously at the approaching clouds.

"Father was born in Skrekrill and he was a great warrior promoted to Madadh-rank. Then one day he fell under the beguiling spell of a Twistoult witch - our mother - and he expatriated from Twistoult and started a family here. But the great Queen Maud knew he was simply sowing seeds of dissent and madness into our minds, and knew that our father was keeping secrets that he would sell to Grandesque to crush the Skrekrill. So one night the Queen sent a foray to our family's aery to break the spell of the Twistoult witch, to silence our father, and to bring us back into his loving fold."

Braenwyen's heart sank as she heard Arawn say these things. She had no reason to believe him, but no reason to disbelieve him, either.

"It was a shame our other sister was in Grandesque at the time, for she probably would have been freed from their arrogant, overindulgent ways if she were with us that night. As it was the only suitable chicks for retraining that the Nachtbrag could find were myself and our two other brothers. You were so young and feeble that they knew you had little chance of surviving without our mother..." Arawn spit out that last word like it was a curse. "Our father thought that he could stop them single-handedly, and she was so enamored by the lies of Twistoult that she had no combat training. The only reason that the Nachtbrag didn't finish you off was because they thought the night would do it.

"And there in Skrekrill, sister, I found the truth. Grandesque must fall for its sins, and Twistoult must be conquered for their cowardice. Our brothers and I were saved from this fate - we were saved by the great Queen Maud!"

There was madness in Arawn's eyes now, and Braenwyen began inching away from him.

"And now we are here, dear little sister," Arawn's voice sounded like venom. "And you have a choice: continue living your pitiful existence and leave this place to me, or just try to fight me for it. Your call."

Now the thunder was almost directly above them and Braenwyen could see lightning streaking in the clouds.

"You're crazy," she mumbled. "What have they done to you?"

He growled and swiped at her, and she squawked and began flapping away. As she alighted and headed away from the storm and his violent madness he called after her, and the sky finally broke pouring rain over both of them.
*~~*
If you read all of that then you get a cookie!

Basically, I've been feeling like Braenwyen's character is pretty flat and I can't live with that. So after the war event subsided I decided to do some writing on Braenwyen's personal and family history, and decided it would be cool if I added a little bit of intrigue by making her father from Skrekrill. I'd always thought that since her family lived so close to all of the borders they would be eligible for attack, but after deciding her dad was from Skrekrill I started to think of a lot more options.

At first I was going to do multiple illustrations showing her family history, then I decided the only image I was really attached to was this one and I could use the image description to tell the whole story.

Photoshop 7 with a tablet
300 dpi at 1750X3000 pixels
somewhere around 9 hours, I think but I stopped recording the time halfway through at about 5 hours.....