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Name: Nichola Talbot
Age: Early 20's
Gender: Female

Magic: Earth
Hound: Cadoren ("Ren" for short)

Physical Description:
Nichola is of medium height and a slender build; uncharitable souls would call her “bony.” She has short, chestnut-brown hair and cool gray eyes, and what would be a light complexion if not for a deep tan.. She always carries a cane, which she uses to offset a pronounced limp caused by an old injury that never healed correctly. She favors sturdy clothes that are easily cleaned and mended.

Personality: Nichola is reserved and short with anyone other than Cadoren. She is initially suspicious of others, but reliable and generous, even warm, once her trust is earned.
Biography:
Nichola grew up on her family's isolated vegetable farm near the Alabaster Plains. She was an only child, but her parents were kind and loving to one another and to her. They didn't have much, but her mother was skilled at making what they had stretch, and she never went hungry. When she was ten, she was kicked by the family plowhorse and broke her leg. It healed badly, and she walks with a permanent limp now as a result.

She and her family valued independence, however, so she learned to work around her injury, using a crutch or a cane to get around and do her chores. Her father died in an accident when she was 15, and a few years ago her mother passed away from a fever.

Grieving and alone, struggling to care for the farm by herself, Nichola sank into despair and would likely have perished from self-neglect or worse if not for the tolling. It pierced the cloud of her depression and gave her something to think about. One day she gathered her cane and set out to find the source of the bizarre sound. One very strange episode and a bargain later and she had an armful of white fur named Cadoren, and a reason to live.

The Summoning

The infernal tolling had been distracting Nichola for days, making her surlier than usual. Her leg seemed to ache more, everything took twice as long, she kept making stupid mistakes...and all because of that thrice-damned bonging. It was driving her mad!

It wasn't an easy decision to investigate. Nichola barely remembered what life was like before she'd hurt her leg, had only the most dim of recollections of running through the yard without pain. Now, she needed a cane just to get around, so going on a hike through the woodlands looking for that stupid noise was almost unthinkable. And it was just so hard to do anything anymore... it hardly seemed worth it since her parents had passed, now that she was alone. Seemed she could hardly even muster the energy to get her wares to market anymore.

But the ringing cut through the cloud of despair she lived under. It wasn't enough to ignite true passion or anger, but it did irritate the stew out of her which was, eventually, enough. Finally, one morning, Nichola could take no more. She got dressed, wrapped herself in her coat and scarf, grabbed a sturdy walking stick and headed out into the fields.

She reached the edge of her property and hesitated. She hadn't been out this way in ages... but the incessant tolling continued, and so too did she. The trail was overgrown, every step a struggle, but eventually, following the noise, she found the entrance to a deep cave. The air blowing from the entrance was cool, damp, and musty-smelling... but there was no sign of animals having used the place for shelter, and the place gave her a chill. The ringing was coming from within.

Nichola, for all she'd been through just to get here, damn near turned around and went home. The whole thing was just creepy... But that damn noise! After taking some time to catch her breath and mull over her options, she decided she had to continue. She'd come this far.

Down into the dark she went, with a makeshift torch she'd assembled to light her way. It was difficult to say how long she'd been walking, how far she'd managed to come. She wandered past murals of ancient battles, the hellhounds of lore carved in snarling relief beside their handlers, along with strange runes that, she assumed, told their tales. Eventually she found herself in a deep, echoing chamber. And blessedly, the sound stopped.

Slowly, she edged further into the room, cautiously trying to figure out what this space was. The light of her torch glistened on the damp walls, and fell upon a black iron cauldron, bizarrely unrusted, a table and shelves full of bizarre odds and ends of plants and dried animal parts and stones... and a stone archway.

"Hey. Wake up."

Was she asleep? Apparently she was. Nichola slowly became aware of the cold, wet stone under her cheek. She was freezing, curled around herself as best her gimp leg would allow, and shivering.

"Hey, are you okay? Can you even hear me?"

"Wharmblarghle." Or, something to that effect as she tried to respond to the strange voice echoing through the chamber. It took her a moment to realize that she shouldn't be able to see. Her torch was out and had been for awhile by the looks of things. But the walls, floor, and ceiling were comfortably illuminated by a strange shimmering light.

"Well, that's something, I guess. Roll over or something, will you? Talking to the back of your head is awkward."

Right, the archway. Nichola rolled over, slowly and painfully, and looked up in awe at what was now a portal formed of otherworldly light.

"Bwha... wha?"

"..." There was a long, weary sigh from the other side of the portal. "It's okay. Take a minute to get your breath. I'm a Hellhound. You summoned me, just now. I want to offer you a deal."

Well, this was just a little much, Nichola groused internally, trying to ignore the kicked-in-the-gut feeling that she'd gotten the moment the beast had explained what was going on. Staggering painfully to her feet, Nichola groped for her walking stick and leaned on it with a slight grimace- lying for hours on an uneven stone floor had done nothing for her leg.

A hellhound. One of the mighty beasts of legend, talking to her?

"I'm a farmer. A lame, money-poor, orphaned farmer... what in the name of all that is right and good could you want with me? What could I possibly offer you?"

There was another pause, accompanied by what Nichola somehow felt sure was an uncomfortable shuffling of immense paws. "I'm lonely," the voice came again, quietly this time. "You have a farm?" She could've sworn the thing sounded almost... wistful. Like her run-down, grubby little farm might just be the best thing in the whole world. Heaven, to a hellhound. Then again, if it lived in hell...

"I do..." she confirmed slowly. "You're... lonely?"

She knew well enough how that felt. The endless days with the silence broken only by the wind or the birds, noone to talk to. She found she wanted to help. At least, in the small part of her mind that wasn't occupied panicking about how impossible this whole thing was.

"... Yeah...." the voice, while low and rumbling and frankly terrifying was beginning to sound rather young to Nichola's ears. "So, what'll it be?"

"Be?"

She could hear the thing snuffle in confusion as it struggled for how to rephrase the question. "Well, if we do this, you're giving me the ability to come out there. To be in the sun, the wind..."

Yep, definitely wistful. Despite herself, Nichola was starting to feel sorry for the creature, and much less afraid. She limped closer to the portal, tilting her head curiously. "So you're asking what it's worth to me. To free you, to feed you, all that?"

"Yeah, exactly. What do you want?"

She looked down at her leg, then back up at the portal.

"I can't fix that," the beast hastened to explain. "We can't heal the blind or anything like that. But I can carry you! I can do lots of things, I'm very strong!"

She had to chuckle. The beast sounded like one of her young cousins bragging in hopes of being allowed to help the grown-ups. "You know, I can live with that. You help me on the farm and be my legs when I need you to be, and you can come with me."

"You mean it?"

"I do."

"Me too. But I should warn you, it might be a little while before I can hold up my end."

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Coming across... well, it's going to weaken me. A lot. But I'll be strong again soon!"

Nichola chuckled and nodded. "I'm okay with that."

"Good. Okay, hold on to your hat..."

As Nichola did have a hat that had somehow remained on her head throughout her mysterious fugue, and as there was now quite the wind blowing from the mouth of the portal, she followed the creature's advice.

"By the way, my name's Cadoren," the voice said as the wind howled and the portal began to glow brightly.

"I'm Nichola!" she yelled over the wind.

"It's nice to meet you, Nichola!"

The light was by now too bright to see anything, and Nichola closed her eyes to protect them from the glare. When the wind died, she dared to peek, to find a bundle of white fluff peering up at her from the floor, looking tired and nearly as confused as she felt. "Cadoren?"

She felt his weary, happy confirmation in her very soul, somehow, and smiled, reaching down to scoop up the puppy and sling him over her shoulders as she would a lost lamb. "Let's go home."