Hazel

WIP

## Biography

He was only four years old when his parents left him in the dense woods of the **Eonach Coillte**. They couldn’t afford to feed a third mouth. They never gave him a name, for they knew they would become too attached if they did. Upon waking up, he desperately cried for his mom and dad. With every step he took, the rigid ground of the woods struck at his fragile feet. He screamed until his throat grew sore. He cried until he had no more tears to spare. Besides his parents, nobody knew him. He was destined to die.

He found a soft bed of foliage and passed out for the night. By next morning, he awoke on a crudely made bed to the sound of distant children’s singing. He was put in a tent, and his injuries healed. Now, only hunger rattled him out of dormancy. Confused, yet strangely warm and comforted, he stepped out of the tent in a pair of moccasins that sat before the bed. What besieged the boy was a fairytale: a lush forest, lit only by the glow of hundreds of fairies. One of them became the very first to notice Hazel: a fairy by the name of **Joy Jumpymuse**, what he thought was an unknown voice in his ear but flew around him in circles.

At this point, the residents of the hamlet finally noticed the newcomer. They were all children, the oldest being around 12-years-old. The younger ones ran and crowded around him, first, talking over their questions with their own words. Then came the others, all looking eager and curious about him. He took a step back, overwhelmed by their excitement. It wasn't until the leader of the group, the oldest boy named **Cedar**, silenced the group. He appeared with a warm smile, asking the newcomer of his name. He said he did not know. That he did not have one.

**"Then, Hazel,"** Cedar answered, almost instantaneously. **"Because your eyes are Hazel."**

**"Hazel,"** he echoed. For the first time in days, he smiled.

They called themselves the **Lost Boys**, and they welcomed him with open arms, fulfilling an empty gap within Hazel: a need for love and affection. Where they were was a pocket dimension created by none other than Cedar, aptly called **Ná talamh** (**Neverland**). Here, time slowed down to a snail's pace; it went by longer in Neverland than it did in reality. A year here could have been a decade in the real world.

As the day neared an end, Cedar helped Hazel find a hut to live in, and he passed it onto Joy to help. She gave him all the comforts he could have asked for; the ones he didn't know he needed until he had them. Joy created clothing to replace his torn rags. She cleansed him of the dirt and filth in seconds. It was the first time there were people who cared about him.

When Hazel begged and pleaded to learn how to master those same powers under Cedar's tutoring, Hazel was elated at how quickly he agreed. Cedar taught him everything he knows to this day. From what kind of magic he was capable of and the use of his staff. It took Hazel years upon years to master them, but it didn't matter―they had all the time in the world.

Cedar, however, had plans he could not even tell Hazel or any of the Lost Boys. There came a day like any other, jovial and calm. He suddenly handed his staff to Hazel. There was a brief silence among the crowd, and everybody assumed this was a thing between master and student. Instead, they quickly learned it was a farewell gift. With only one sentence spared to Hazel, a crack in the air appeared, and Cedar jumped out of Neverland.

Cedar spent the majority of his life in Neverland; a haven he created for himself to replenish everything he’d lacked for so long. After years in his self-made utopia, regret and guilt ate him inside out. He wanted it to continue on, though, so when Hazel arrived, he entrusted him to take his place. He wanted to experience the actual world again. He wanted to escape from the place he felt became his luxurious prison. He felt there was something more waiting for him. And so, after leaving it all to Hazel, he used his magic as an exit while everyone called his name.

It was too late. Cedar was gone, leaving everyone with a new feeling: dread. However, Cedar’s exit did not disappear. Thus, Hazel organized the Lost Boys to form a desperate search and rescue party. None of them knew or remembered what the real world was like, but they were all willing to take the risk to bring back their dear friend. With help from the fairies, they packed their belongings from the huts, gathering together for one more time. Then, at last, all the Lost Boys ventured out of Neverland.

But what was beyond the woods was astounding to them all. After so long in *Neverland*, they were used to the mystical properties and mythological creatures that roamed the land. The real world had become the fantasy. Carriages dashed across paved roads. Adults walked in fancy attire. Buildings scaled ten times higher than the biggest tree in *Neverland*, and there were so, so many people.

The Lost Boys became like kids in a candy store, running around lost and towards anything that caught their eye. Hazel tried corralling together, but was met with a faint response or none at all. They each dashed in opposite directions, making it impossible for Hazel to gather them. However, it wasn’t long before he too was enthralled by the alien society. There were so many new things, it was impossible for none of them to captivate the Lost Boys.

But by the end of the day, he never forgot his goal: Hazel was to find Cedar and bring him back home to *Neverland*. However, he was already separated from the entirety of the Lost Boys. And searching for Cedar proved to be a near impossible task. Days of searching turned to weeks. Weeks to months. Months to a year. Hazel relearned many of the things he felt centuries ago: hunger, fear, loneliness. At the same token, he met many people, learned many tricks and things.

He believed the other Lost Boys had given up and returned home, but he wanted to surprise them by bringing Cedar back, too. Hazel became a vagabond, scrounging for food and making his own comfortable hideouts. He trekked to places he thought Cedar could be, but never found any sign of him.

The last time he ventured back to *Neverland*, he had grown to be 18 years old. The Lost Boys were not there, and neither were the fairies—save for one **Joy Jumpymuse**. But, in contrast to the decade he’d spent, it was far more silent. He couldn’t find the same happiness there that was present back then. Cedar was right: as soon as the Lost Boys learned of the outside world, the magic of *Neverland* disappeared. With nothing left for them in there, Hazel and Joy left the pocket dimension for good.

### Travelling with Mihret and Amani

To people around the wood areas, Hazel was many things: a vagabond, a wanderer, a fateful guide for the lost, an enigma. With only a singular name to go by and constantly surrounded by a bright fairy, some even speculated him to be a fairy himself. Hazel had seemingly come from nowhere, and there was no denying he knew his way around the woods like the back of his hand. Some heralded him as a divine spirit in the woods, appearing to those in desperate need.

It was to one pair of people, though, that truly changed Hazel's life. The duo had heard of Hazel via rumors of the nearby townsfolk, after having difficulty dealing with a monster that terrorized their lands. In fact, Hazel was just about to go deal with it when **Amani** and **Mihret** stumbled upon him. Together, they tracked down and repelled the beast in the woods, and Hazel planned to leave them as soon as possible.

However... their foreign appearance piqued his interest. After some probing into their purpose, Hazel learned Amani's goal: to map the world. It was a simple one in hindsight, but something clung inside the forest-dweller. Another glimmer of hope that maybe, somewhere in the world, Cedar was still in hiding.

## Abilities

While not a member of the **Ciorcal Draoithe** (*Circle of Druids*) that trains and educates the Druids of the **Eonach Coillte**, many Sotíran who have interacted with the strange young boy would often refer to him as one, as he uses various magical spells that affect the nature around him. However, this is not because of Hazels alleged connection with nature, but rather a biproduct of his prolonged exposure to the fairy magics of Neverland.

### Traits

* **One With the Bush:** Wherever Hazel goes, the plant life seems to grow active. He and nearby allies are not perturbed by plant life and can move freely through them without being bothered or slowed—even if they're completely enshrouded in shrubbery.
* **Will-o'-the-Wisp:** With Joy Jumpymuse by his side, she essentially acts as a third eye, able to detect and sense things that Hazel cannot. Whether it be incoming danger or a direction he needs to take, she and in turn Hazel will be the first to know of it.

### Ancestry Traits

* Blood of the **Sotíran**: Resistant to harmful Druidic or Elemental magic **(-2 damage)**. More persuasive with the peoples of the Eonach Coillte **(+2 persuasion points towards Sotíran, Tylwythálfar, Tuatha, Fir Bolg, Fomóire, Fae, Redcaps, and Leprechauns.)**

## Trivia

* Hazel would very much prefer wearing nothing but a loincloth. According to him, "it is very liberating."