Sarilan Lefia-Amelda

Sarilan, as an Earth Spirit, is surprisingly strong yet often underestimated because of her small stature. Many times, enemies have laughed at facing such a small opponent, but then are hard-pressed to defend themselves against Sarilan's ferocious attacks. She is very adept at magic and able to use more magic than most other earth spirits before getting tired. The word "Sarilan" means "vine" in the Forgotten Language of Truth. Her full name means "Vine leaf sapling".

Personality
The third youngest of the Moonhunters, Sarilan is (usually) clever, cheeky, and witty. She often relieves stress between certain prophecy members. She is hardworking and helpful (mostly) with a love of reading scrolls. She has managed to empathize with or understand many different beings, both friend and foe, and therefore can predict their reaction to a certain situation, which Alira often finds very helpful, and asks her to plan battle strategies with Silvrê and herself. One person she has never been able to read, however, is her closest friend, Alira. Alira is a mystery to her, and therefore, still a thrill to be around. She can't understand Alira's choice of deputy or why she created a new position for Sarilan, who would have been just fine as an ordinary warrior. Since she is an earth spirit, she easily adapts to any environment, as long as it is on or under the ground. She is usually miserable in water or whenever she flies higher than cloud level (she says that if she can't see the earth, she feels rather unsafe) but is a useful hunter because she knows how to lure certain animals into naturally grown traps.

Physical Description
Though the smallest of the Moonhunters and petite in build and stature, Sarilan is light-footed and agile. Her skin is a light brown, similar to the bark of a birch tree, her deep brown hair is streaked with lighter brown and earthy green and is usually pulled into a practical braid. Her features are surprisingly delicate for an earth spirit; she has a delicately pointed nose, almond-shaped eyes (which are dark ebony-brown but highly flecked with green), small, dainty ears, arched eyebrows...and don't forget the mischievous grin, for though she is normally serious, she loves jokes and having fun. She is 135 years old. In the Mortal world, Sarilan has Alira turn her hair deep brown and her eyes hazel so mortals don't ask questions.

Wolf Form
Although she is the advisor of the moonhunters, Sarilan can (regrettably) only shapeshift into a wolf because Alira created the position at the last moment, before she was able to ask Sarilan what animal she would also like to shapeshift into. Alira promised that someday, though, she would be able to turn into another animal. ANYWAYS... as a wolf, Sarilan has nut-brown fur and piercing green eyes flecked with many shades of brown. The tips of her ears are golden, as is her right forepaw. As the brown moves up her tail, it becomes deeper, until it fades into an almost-black at the very tip. Just as with her elemental form, Sarilan's wolf form is petite, yet lithe and strong.

Weapons
Sarilan's weapon (or weapons, depending on how you think about it) of choice is/are a set of leaf-bladed knives. Their metal blades are shimmery green with hints of brown, and their hilts are made of White oak wood, wrapped in mottled greenish-brown leather. On the end of each hilt, there is an emerald gem roughly the size of a thumbnail (minus the lunula). Her knives fit into pouches she has sewn into her silver cloak and parka, which were given to her when she became a Moonhunter. If she is fighting long-distance and cannot throw her knives, she uses her birchwood crossbow, which she recieved upon becoming a Moonhunter.

Clothing
Sarilan wears the standard Moonhunter clothing (silver tunic and leggings, silver boots, silver cloak or, in the winter or the Ice kingdom, Silver fur-lined parka) with a hint of green in her outerwear, green and brown trim on her tunic and leggings and an intricate tree design on the right side of her tunic, and the same design on her boots. She ties her hair with a green and brown ribbon. Though Elementals don't usually wear jewelry, Sarilan wears a necklace, which is actually her shield in it's compacted form, that Alira made for her when she became the Senior Advisor of the Moonhunters. The necklace is gold with an intricate emerald pendant in the shape of a tree to supposedly help her channel her magic as well as be her shield, but she has yet to prove if the pendant actually does help her channel her magic. Her knife pouches are sewn into both her cloak and her parka, and she has an extra pocket in each of her boots, just in case...

In the Mortal world, Sarilan usually wears jeans and a green T-shirt that says something about various parts of her element (trees, rocks, leaves, etc.)However, on formal occasions, she wears a magnificent dress, made from the inner bark of some elemental tree or another (she's not sure exactly what it's made of). It begins with a brownish-gray stone-like color at the very bottom, and the color ligtens to a rich earhty brown by the time it reaches her knees. It then morphs into a deep green, which lightens to the color of sunlight through the forest canopy. The overall impression the dress makes is that the viewer is looking at the blended layers of the earth. It has the same intricate tree design sewn onto almost all her clothes in the very center. It falls to about midcalf and is easy to run in. It is long-sleeved, the better to conceal her knives, which she hid by sewing knife pouches into her sleeves, so that, with a flick of her wrist, she is armed.

Sarilan despises high heels (except for the sturdy ones that make her taller) because they make others even taller, while she stays the same height. On formal occasions, she wears mortal boots (with slight heels) that she bought at the mortal shop "Nordstrom's". They are comfortable and easy to walk or run in. She is quite happy with her choice.

Unless at a boring mortal formal occasion, Sarilan slings her crossbow and quiver (filled with supple, flexible cherrywood arrows) over her back, sticks her knives in their pockets, and is almost instantly ready for battle.

Bonds
Sarilan's bond is a gray chickchu. At first, she thought Silvrê called her chichchu a chicken, and was very confused because the chickchu didn't look like a chicken, but quickly warmed to her best animal friend. Her chickchu's name is Zirek, or Resourcefulness in the Forgotten Language of Truth, as being resourceful is a quality she highly values. He is dark gray, like slate, with a lighter gray that is more like mica. His eyes are green with gold flecks, like a sunset seen from below the canopy of a forest. He is a great strategizer and compliments her strengths.

Family and Friends
Sarilan's closest elemental friend is Alira, who she has known for nearly all her life. However, once she met the other members of the prophecy, she became fast friends with all of them, even Vrana (despite the fact that Vrana's environment taste, or air, is the exact opposite of her own, earth), and developed close relationships especially with Ziya and Içericinde. Although at first angry with Silvrê for giving all of them a hard time, she forgave the sorceress, realizing the obstacles were to protect herself, and is now on the way to friendship. Sarilan is an only child who grew up on the outskirts of the earth kingdom, then moved away from the border because the nearby Air kingdom began to raid the villages around her home. Her parents were crop-growers who became talented soldiers and rose through the ranks of the army and were later assigned to take on Qara herself, though her father later died in the war (sacrificing himself to save Sarilan's mother), prompting her to hate war and, soon afterwards, she became a advocate for peace. Sarilan studied hard and became an excellent warrior and scholar herself. Queen Torpaq took note of her excellence and sent her to the water kingdom to train, where they had the best mentors.

Other Information
Although pure earth spirit, Sarilan has potential to become a sorceress, but she doesn't want to. She says that even though she would be able to semi-control the other elements, she would lose most of her awesome earth powers, including the ability to wrap vines around enemies to trip them, turn them into patches of very angry tansies, or encase them in trees. She loves her powers!

Also, though she is very short, she can summon mounds of earth to stand on so she can speak eye-to-eye with her friends, especially Alira, Silvrê, and Vrana, who are very, very, very, very, very tall. She often complains about only rising to their chest level and finds hugs fairly awkward.

Real World Connections
Sarilan is based off of author Mulan Jiang's close friend Maya Chan who edits and comments on all her work, including Elementals.