Florence Shekoni

Florence "Flo" Shekoni (b. 2009) was a rider at The Eyrie from 2022-2027. She was twin daughter of Olu & Sara Shekoni and younger twin sister of Ebenezer 'Ebb' Shekoni. Florence was an Earth wielder, bonded with unicorn named Silver Blade.

## Early Life

Flo and her family lived on Wildflower Hill in the Earth Zone. When Florence was growing up she always dreamed of being a saddler like her Father and twin Brother. Her father Olu is a saddler, while her mother Sara is a Unicorn Healer.

### First Year at the Eyrie

Like most 13 year older on the Island, during the Summer Solstice Flo was brought to the Hatchery door and to her shock was able to open it. During the same night she hatched her Silver unicorn, Silver Blade.

During the night Silver Blade frightened her, causing her to scream and the rest of her future Quartet to come to her attention. Skandar showed sympathy for Flo but Bobby showed her annoyance by telling her to stop screaming. Unlike Mitchell who wanted to give Skandar up for possibly being a Spirit Wielder Flo stuck up for him and even made Mitchell back down by using her new found authority as a Silver rider.

Over the course of the year Flo finds herself both respected for having a Silver unicorn, but also mocked at times for her cowardly attitude toward Silver Blade. She confides her feelings with Skandar and even asks him to call him “Skar” just like his sister did.

Flo doesn’t make the best first impression during her lessons, often falling off Silver Blade due to the Silver’s powerful magic. Flo, however was the first to mutate with her hair being lined with silver, much like her unicorn.

Later in the year Flo and Silver Blade finish fairly high in the race of the Training Trial. But in doing so the Weaver appears and takes Silver Blade from her. In a rare moment of assertiveness she grows angry at Mitchell for wanting to delay.

During the battle with the Weaver Flo shows both how much she cares for Silver Blade as well as her more noble and brave side by leaping in between the Weaver and Skandar as well as shielding him from the Weaver with her powerful magic, while Skandar broke the bond between the Weaver’s soldiers and their wild unicorns.

### Second Year at the Eyrie

During the second term as Nestlings Flo and the rest of her quartet manage to find a dead wild unicorn, something most consider to be impossible.

Flo brings paint in each of the elemental colours (minus Spirit) and the quartet paint the walls of their tree house in blue, yellow, red and green. As well as getting into a paint fight.

During the year Flo regularly goes to the Silver Circle meetings at the Silver Stronghold. She becomes very conflicted on her friendship with Skandar and affiliation with the circle. However, her good nature wins out and they remain friends. She even explains the tale of the two brothers, one Spirit Wielder and one Silver and how it brought war to the Island.

During one of their breaks Flo takes her quartet to meet her family and have dinner with them, during this time an Earthquake destroys part of the Earth Zone.

As the year progresses Flo becomes concerned about Skandar and his feelings toward his sister and attempts to help him find the information from the Silver Stronghold about his sister possibly being a Spirit Wielder. Originally planning to go with Mitchell, she has to change to Skandar in the last day.

When Flo and Skandar go to the Silver Stronghold they find that not only is Kenna a Spirit Wielder but also that the Silver Circle are killing wild unicorns. Flo is sickened by this and storming the battlefield she and Skandar ride the wild unicorn and escape from the Silver Stronghold. Rex Manning is able to smooth things over with his Father Dorian to keep him from taking Flo to the Silver Stronghold forever.

Flo is horrified when she is told that Silver Blade will be used to kill the next wild unicorn and plans with Skandar and Mitchell to lead Nina Kazama and the council to expose the Silver Circle for killing the Wild unicorns. This goes badly amiss when the quartet, including the newly returned Bobby is found in the wild by the instructors and Kazama’s council.

After this Flo worries constantly about if she and Silver Blade will be taken to the Silver Stronghold to be kept.

Closer to the end of the year the Quartet figure out the True Song telling of the First Rider’s gift. Flo goes with her quartet and she herself battles against the Unicorn Queen’s magical Earth form and manages to allow the rest of her quartet to get through. When returning to the Eyrie they use the staff to bring balance back to the Island with Flo covering the Earth section of the staff.

Dorian Manning is exposed for killing the Wild Unicorns and as such is arrested, with Rex Manning taking over both as air instructor and as liaison between the Eyrie and the Silver Circle.

## Personality

Flo initially started out as very timid and quiet. She disliked loud noises and generally avoided crowds of people.

She was very afraid of her unicorn Silver Blade at first, as with being silver his magic was very powerful and was able to do things that frightened Flo terribly, to the point where she showed outward fear of him. Over the course of the year she grew to care for Silver Blade and they began to grow as rider and unicorn.

Flo initially didn’t get on well with Bobby and Mitchell, as she grew annoyed with Mitchell for his attitude toward Skandar and Bobby for her loud and more outgoing behaviour. However both of these qualities calmed down pretty quickly and she often joins Mitchell in explaining things about the Island that the other members of their quartet don’t know.

Flo seems to share more quiet moments with Skandar than the rest of her quartet and it’s hinted that she does care for him, as she is the only other person aside from his sister to call him “Skar”.

Flo is very much a peace keeper for her quartet whenever arguments happen. Such as between Mitchell and Skandar, or when Bobby briefly left the group.

Flo has a bit of a conflicted nature with Skandar due to her being a silver rider and Skandar being a Spirit wielder, she felt guilty about some of the things she had to do, such as the pact of the Silver Circle. However she never let this come in between her friendship with him.

Despite being usually timid, Flo has a brave personality and sometimes recklessness as well. When she went in-between Skandar and the Weaver and when she rode a wild unicorn out to the wilderness to stop it being killed by the Silver Circle.

## Physical appearance

Florence is a teenage girl with dark brown skin, afro-style black hair and dark brown eyes. Her height is currently unknown. She has silver streak on her hair for a mutation.

## Relationships

### Skandar Smith

Skandar is Florence's good friend. Their friendships can be described as sister and brother like. Florence cares a lot about Skandar and his well-being, she is interested in knowing about his past and family. Flo is also the only person who calls Skandar "Skar" besides Skandar's older sister Kenna.

Skandar first met Flo when she hatched her unicorn Silver Blade. She was scared of her unicorn and was loudly screaming when Skandar came and asked if she needed any help.

Even though Florence is typically hesitant to do dangerous things, she always lands Skandar a hand when he needs help and is there for him for any case. In addition, she always stood up for Skandar in the first book despite him being Spirit wielder. She was always kind and encouraging towards to him even though she was also of the Spirit element at that time.

### Roberta Bruna

Roberta is Florence's friend. Florence and Roberta have very different personalities: Bobby is more outgoing, foot-loose and prefers doing things her own way, while Flo is reserved and prefers following the rules. Despite these differences, they typically get along just fine. Bobby usually looks up to Flo for information about The Island and Flo is always happy to help her with that.

### Mitchell Henderson

Mitchell is Florence's friend and fellow islander. Although they have contrasting personalities, with Flo being peaceful as well as calm and Mitchell being easily angered along with opinionated, they usually don't have problems getting along.

In the second book, Florence encouraged Mitchell to not care so much about his father's approval. She also comforted Mitchell by telling him that he is awesome just the way he is.

### Sara and Olu Shekoni

Sara and Olu are Florence's parents. Flo and her parents love each other very much. Since Olu and Sara are very kind, gentle, caring and helpful, Florence is the exact same way.

### Ebenezer Shekoni

Ebenezer is Florence's brother. They have a great brother-sister relationship and similar personalities.

### Rex Manning

Rex is Florence's ally. They both belong to the Silver Circle due to having Silver unicorns. Rex, unlike his father, is kind as well as friendly. He genuinely cares about Flo and helps her when she needs it.

## Etymology

* Florence is name meaning "blossoming, florishing, prosperous" from Latin origin.
* Shekoni is a surname meaning is unknown from Nigerian origin.