Melia

Melia is the hamadryad of an apple tree. She is the eponymous antagonist of Event 001 and Block 001.1.

*Melia* means *apple* in Ancient Greek.

## Description

Melia is described as shorter than Ruya and roughly the same height as Basil, placing her in the region of four to five feet (122-152 cm) tall. Like most hamadryads, her clothing is comprised of both impossibly large leaves stitched together and leaves growing organically off sections of flesh, such as the backs of her arms and ankles. She looks ambiguously Mediterranean, with brown skin, freckles, and a large mane of white hair with the texture of carded sheep's wool.

## Personality

Melia appears hot-tempered, haughty, and theatrical. She is easily-slighted and prone to vengeance, shown by the events of Event 001. She is implied to have rehearsed her monologue multiple times before Block 001.1, pointing to a rather dramatic nature. When not provided sufficient undivided attention, she tends to yell at people, as in the case of Aelia, Alma and Lamont running away from a dragon and consequently missing her speech, to her annoyance.

Despite her hard exterior, is suggested that she may have a soft spot for those who care for nature's resources: in particular, she takes care to thank Alma Thompson for putting her apples to such efficient use, and assigns Marjorie Wolfe a quest to put a warning sign in the orchard.

## Event 001

*Anyone who’s eaten in the school dining hall recently has surely noticed that the menu is nothing but apples. It seems that one of our esteemed students made the mistake of throwing half-eaten fruit on the ground of the apple orchards near the college’s South Wing. Needless to say, the orchard’s patron entity was hardly pleased, especially with the harvest moon just around the corner. In retaliation, it seems the entity has caused all the trees in the orchard to overproduce fruit to an extreme: and they’ve threatened to flood the school with a storm of delicious, delicious apples, if even a single one goes to waste!*

Melia becomes insulted when a student throws away a half-eaten apple in September, regarding it as wasteful, rude and irreverent. In retaliation, she and the other hamadryads within the orchard over-produce fruit. Unbeknownst to the students, these apples are laced with a slow-acting curse that will numb one's sense of taste.

## Block 001.1

*Somehow, as though overnight, a large portion of students have lost all sense of taste. The dining hall food is cited as tasting unpalatable, like sawdust.*

*The one thing all these students seem to have in common? One time or another, they all ate at least one apple from September's dining hall surplus. Sure enough, apples seem to be exempt from this curse in particular: they simply taste like… apples.*

...

*There is good reason to begin the search in the labyrinth, for one. Only a day after the curse has begun, woody vines begin growing out of the Labyrinth's trap door, spreading along the wall of the library basement. The vines take shape, spelling out:*

**TO TASTE AGAIN**

**AN EQUINOX APPLE, AND**

**THE WOOL OF A GOLDEN SHEEP**

**FORGED IN FIRE, CONSUMED**

*Many students have an equinox apple; but it seems taking a bite out of it alone won't suffice. Likewise, fire is easily accessible, but golden wool...?*

Melia lures students into the Labyrinth in this manner, promising a cure. She then disguises herself as a sheep ("*Sir Sheepington*," as dubbed by Meloa Ruicott) and acts hungry, in order to test their character. Damiel Lye fails this test with flying colors, attempting to lift the sheep into the air to take it home-- this is regarded by Melia as an act of thievery and magician's arrogance, angrily telling him that "*What belongs to the forest stays in the forest.*" Taesong Jun and Niles Bazarov also fail dismally, immediately slaughtering the sheep.

Ruya and Basil do well in Melia's eyes, with the former taking care of the sheep during monster encounters, and the latter feeding the sheep a Scuttlespore Trumpet... with... good intentions.

Curiously, the only obstacle she explicitly puts in their way is Tityroi. Any other obstructions, such as the realm of the Aos Si, heckling hamadryads or strange shadows organically arise from this particular Labyrinth block and, indeed, are feared by some of its other residents.

Melia implies that her and other hamadryads have taken over this particular part of the Labyrinth for their very own. Because the same hamadryads are present on Concordia's campus, it can be inferred that the hamadryads are capable of moving to and from the Labyrinth through use of a yet-undiscovered entrance other than the library's trap door.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ It is unknown which student this is, specifically; however, Young Hughes, Elain Ainmuire and Basil Merille are all likely candidates. Lavien and Capella were both present in the orchard before the event, but littering is out-of-character for both.