— Penda Berrigan —
[ˈpɛndə ˈbɛrɪɡən]
Gender:
Male (he/him)
Age:
18 years
Sexuality:
Asexual
Panromantic
Kingdom/Race:
Forest Fairy
Appearance:
At 4’1”, Penda is on the ‘very short’ side for his kind. He is certainly the shortest fairy he knows, anyway, and seeing as his last growth spurt was several years ago, he’s sure it will stay that way. His medium tawny beige skin is crisscrossed by darker-toned stripes along his arms, nape and back, and speckled with freckles. His calloused fingers, defter and longer than other fairies, are darker than the rest of his skin similar to his toes, and typically stained by juices from crushed plants. His frame is slight and nimble - he is quick on his feet and skilled at weaving between trees. Penda is prone to racing ahead, running on the balls of his feet with a surety of the earth beneath him as he darts back and forth. His hands move near-constantly, fidgeting as he shifts his weight from foot to foot. It is a stark contrast to the way he stands stock-still at times, oscillating between the two modes quick as a blink. His olive-green wings, falcate-shaped as a curved gum leaf is, broadens at the base before rounding into a delicate point. Though they are not well-suited for high-altitude flying, his wings are made for swiftness, fluttering rapidly to accommodate sudden changes of direction.
His dark, loosely curled hair is streaked with lighter brown, ending just below his ears. His face, rounded and with a childlike innocence about it, conveys the adolescence he just left behind. Wide, leaf green eyes sit on either side of a small nose, the colour reminiscent of new growth on a tree. Penda smiles frequently, teeth bright and eyes sparkling. Dustings of freckles decorate his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, highlighted by the way he easily flushes all the way up to his ear tips. His ears often move around independently of each other, collecting sounds from every direction, gathering information. Between the curls just above his forehead protrude a pair of antlers, reaching backwards where brownish-white prongs rise up, similar to a young white-tailed stag.
Like other Forest Fairies, Penda always walks barefoot, his feet toughened from a lifetime of treading on sticks and stones. The clothes he wears are not unlike a toga, wrapped around him with a modesty that is loose enough to provide a full range of movement. The fabrics are various browns with green accents, intertwined with random leaves and flowers that Penda has woven in. The cloth belt he wraps around his clothes has holdings for vials and medicines, along with an old satchel slung on his shoulders that contain all kinds of powders and treatments. He does not carry any weapons - though he has a good aim with a bow and is trained to defend himself with a staff - save for a little knife he uses for harvesting materials from plants.
Personality:
cheerful - polite - naive
Penda is optimistic about many things in life: he seeks to fill the glass instead of leaving it half-full, looking for the sunbeam in the shadows, the rainbow in the rain. His typical attitude is cheery, though he can be affected by the moods of others, and is easily joyful in bright situations. He tries to share his optimism with others, though he is careful not to overstep boundaries unless he believes they are in dire need of it. Manners is one of the first things Penda learned, after all - excellent bedside manner, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, making apologies - useful to become well-liked in his village, and necessary as a healer. He is something of a peacemaker in this way, showing deference to make others like him more and seeking negotiation instead of anger. While highly intelligent, he has a general cluelessness in matters unrelated to healing or nature, let alone happenings outside the Forest, which can annoy some people. This paired with his cheerful disposition tends to give him a childlike, innocent air about him.
timid - sensitive - distrusting
While he is generally upbeat, Penda is also quite shy. He struggles in large social situations, when the feel of too many eyes skittering across his skin is overwhelming. He is embarrassed easily, nervous of what others make of his words and actions. When excited he may tumble over his words and stutter, but the same also occurs when he feels uncomfortable. Easily weighed down by others’ opinions and criticisms, his insecurities and anxieties strike at random, causing him to retreat inwards. Thankfully, his quietness doesn’t last long. He takes personal failures harder, whether it be the loss of a patient or an animal under his care, and it can take several days at least for his full brightness to reappear. His natural distrust and the ‘every fairy for themselves’ attitude of the Forest Fairies wars with his kind personality - he doesn’t want to trust any random stranger after all, what if they are malicious? Nonetheless, it is his duty to be helpful. This can lead to some inconsistencies in the way he acts around outsiders: he may be perfectly friendly to another while simultaneously refusing to say anything of value, or subtly push for an outsider patient to leave his care as soon as they can.
inquisitive - eager - fidgety
Having little information about the world outside the forest, Penda is interested to learn more about it. He’s naturally curious, wanting to know how things work the way they do, but he’s not set on perfecting his knowledge - he asks ‘why’ just because he can. He would rather learn what is relevant to him and his environment, say the culture of other fairies, so he can interact better and not offend. The only exception is when it comes to medicine, where he can spend days researching into a little known treatment or ancient theory. He is enthusiastic in many senses, always keen to try something new, ready for each new day. His attention switches at the drop of a hat, spontaneously changing topics in a conversation to something completely unrelated and almost forgetting what he said moments ago. Similarly, he fidgets and darts ahead as the fancy strikes him. He can become overexcited, but his energy is usually contained and he calms quickly into a more passive state.
capable - determined - selfless - dependable
Despite his relative inexperience when compared to many fairies, he really is quite good at what he does - his healing skills are exceptional whether he is treating animal or fairy, and he has an excellent proficiency in plants. Though easily distracted, Penda catches more than meets the eye, filing away what he observes. His skill does not lead to boasting; he exercises humility and gives credit and information freely. In stressful situations, his naivety falls away and he becomes single-minded in his tasks, dedicating hours on end to fixing the problem. He has felt the sting of failure before, and he will do whatever it takes to prevent it again. However, this means that he can neglect smaller matters and become almost frenzied as the task consumes all his time and care. It is not pleasant when he is like this, and it’s difficult to snap him out of it. Trust given to him by others is highly valued, and he does his utmost to pay it back in full; he is content when others are content, but he is still learning to not bend over backwards for everyone and sometimes slips in this regard.
Magic:
Penda’s magic targets the living, or the potential of life. He can urge the healing of wounds, or persuade toxins to leave a body, but it’s extremely draining. It’s much easier for him to coax a shoot out of its seed and into the sunlight, to grow at a faster rate than others. He can also control the growth of plants to some extent, though it is much harder to influence a great oak tree than a sapling; tell a plant to grow more leaves here, and store its minerals there. It’s useful for making medicines and gathering food, though sometimes he wonders if his magic can work to harm instead of heal. He hopes not.
Strengths
Intelligent - always eager to learn something new
Agile - one of the perks of being a Forest Fairy
Navigation - after living in a forest his whole life, knowing how to get around is a useful skill to have
Good healer - he's spent his entire life learning to heal
Weaknesses
Pushover - is reluctant to stand up for himself, worries about upsetting others
Fidgety - can be very restless
Dealing with negative emotions - he’d just rather not, to be honest, but he knows it isn’t healthy
Naive - he doesn’t know as much about the other kingdoms as he’d like to
Likes
Plants + how they work
Rain
Sounds from nature
(Most) insects! Especially beetles
Explaining his passions
Dislikes
Flat, open spaces - there are so few places to hide and seek shelter
Excessively strong sun - the forest is very shaded, he’s unused to the sun’s fullness
Fighting - he can defend himself, but he’s a healer at heart
Bitter foods - he’s tried one too many inedible things as a child
Fears
Being unable to help others (failure) - fueled by the deaths in his village, Penda worries that all his training is for nothing
Losing his family/loved ones - he already has little of it left, and his village is small to begin with
Crickets - it’s a bit silly, he knows. He was bitten by a king cricket when he was young and still has a small scar on his left pointer finger. It’s usually fine, he just feels uneasy whenever he sees a particularly big one. He's working on it
Family
Correa Berrigan (deceased) - mother
unknown (status unknown) - father
Cassie Atala (deceased) - maternal aunt
Hadra Atala (deceased) - uncle, Cassia’s partner
Lilly Atala (alive) - cousin, sister of Pilly
Pilly Atala (alive) - cousin, sister of Lilly
Amulla Yundill (deceased) - surrogate mother, mentor
Familiar:
Penda bonded with a nankeen kestrel, Mallee, when he was just past 11 years old. She’s a small creature with beautifully warm brown plumage and blackened wing tips, and quiet, but she is never afraid to make her opinions known. She can usually be seen perched on Penda’s shoulder or keeping watch in the sky above, though recently Mallee has taken to rummaging through Penda’s satchel in search of berries when she thinks he isn’t looking.
Backstory:
Penda grew up in a small village on the far side of the forest, raised and taken care of by all members of the community, as his village believes strongly in that custom of Forest Fairies. He never knew his parents - his mother died during his birth, and his father was from a different village - but that rarely bothered him. He was primarily raised by the village healer, Amulla Yundill, and trained under her from a very young age, dedicating nearly all of his spare time to collecting medicinal plants, reading tomes and caring for injured wildlife. While he still calls himself Amulla’s apprentice, it is in name and loyalty only, for he has been able to heal without her supervision for a couple of years. Though Forest Fairies are reclusive, occasionally fairies from other villages will come to see him and receive treatment for their maladies.
The first victim in their village was his maternal aunt, who caught the Tree Fever and didn’t make it. Penda took in his younger twin cousins, Lilly and Pilly Berrigan, as their primary caregiver, and has been raising them since. He’s been working tirelessly to treat the others who’ve caught the Fever, and nearly ran himself into the ground using his magic to try and get the sickness to leave. It only got worse when the Amulla, both the senior healer and his surrogate mother, also passed and he was helpless to do anything. He hasn’t given himself time to grieve yet, and is waiting for the inevitable flood. He is anxious about being sent away from his cousins and misses them deeply, hiding it under a half-optimistic guise, though he knows that the village will care for them in his absence. He only hopes that there’ll be a village to return to.
Other:
I do have a female water fairy (from before) in case she’s needed, so yeah :)
One of Penda’s favourite pastimes, especially in autumn, is to go looking for Corroboree frogs on the mountains.
Spring 
Night Weather: 
Brimstone Moon: 
