Orianna’s Origin

(Approximate story word count: 1800 words. Estimated reading time: 18 minutes.)

There once was a girl.

A girl lived with her noble family in Waterdeep. It was a very minor noble house, but nonetheless the patriarch of the family was very concerned with keeping up appearances amongst other noble families, to not besmirch their good name. This meant everyone in the family had to look, behave, and act in a way that fit in.

A girl did not like that very much.

A girl was asked to do many things. These things included attending all sorts of classes on noble life, from which of the thirty-three forks needed to be used in each given situation, to the simple act of writing polite correspondence in elegant cursive writing. Everything expected of a respectful noble.

A girl very rarely enjoyed these things.

A girl often grew unfocused. Long hours of sitting at a desk numbed the mind, not aided by the droning voice of the even fancier noble teachers that had been brought in to conduct these lessons. Mealtimes helped to break the monotony, but it was only the briefest of respites until she had to return to her lessons, not helped by the clothes she had to wear.

A girl felt uncomfortable in such outfits.

A girl did have some positive moments. All nobles were expected to be able to hold their own in combat if needed, whether it was fending off a highway ambush from opportunistic muggers or taking part in friendly duels between other nobles. She excelled in a combat focused environment, whilst her brothers and sisters struggled.

A girl had found something to thrive in.

A girl was nonetheless reprimanded. Her father argued that she was not taking her studies seriously, disregarding what they had taught her about keeping up appearances and instead “choosing the life of a brute” by solely focusing on her combat training. They were happy she was able to actually focus on something, but “an heir needs to be a well-rounded man”.

A girl sighed as she heard those words.

A girl struggled to reconcile who she was with who she needed to be. She was the eldest child of this family, and so was being groomed as the heir to the father’s fortune, which meant she was thrust into even more classes to try realign her trajectory with what was expected of her. The only new one of these that struck a chord was the dance class, but even then that left further questions.

A girl yearned to be someone else.

A girl knew who she really wanted to be. In art classes when teachers were not looking, she would create doodles of herself in divine dresses, adorable accessories, and stylish shoes. In dance classes she would close her eyes and imagine herself not in a stuffy outfit, instead envisioning a massive ball gown which drifted across the reflective floor effortlessly. But all the same, she continued to excel in her combat abilities.

A girl was about to encounter difficulty.

A girl was confronted by her father. They were outraged, pulling out piles of parchment covered in the doodles she had made, asking what he did to deserve this kind of treatment. He brought up that her movements in dance classes were unbecoming of a noble gentleman, and could lead to other houses perceiving weakness on their part. Combat classes were now also suspended, as no available teacher was willing to spar with her anymore.

A girl was ordered to stay home to think about her actions.

A girl did not really feel like listening anymore. In the dead of night, she used her expert dexterity to sneak through the house, dodging servants on patrol in order to sneak into one of her sister’s rooms. She scanned the wardrobe and was able to construct an outfit that she had once doodled, putting it on and feeling like she existed for the first time in forever.

A girl had not yet finished though.

A girl snuck through to the master bedroom. Despite now wearing high heels she was able to move in such a way that minimised the clicks and clacks. Above the door of the master bedroom were two ancestral cutlasses, weapons that suited her more rapid fighting style with dual-wielding coming almost naturally to her.

A girl stole the swords.

A girl left the house. She wandered out into town, not particularly looking for anything. In fact the act of just walking around in her stolen outfit was giving her an insane amount of satisfaction, no one was reacting to her, all the things she was told by her father about looking out of place were lies. People were reacting like she was just an average adventurer.

A girl felt very comfortable in her situation.

A girl noticed a sign. It was an extremely brightly coloured sign, magical lights highlighting each main word in the venue title. “Kinky Kylie’s Kalamatious Kombat” was the headline, with “Fight pit here tonight – winner takes all: thirty platinum and a bottle of fine wine” as the subheading. In extremely small text was “Cleric fees still apply. Clerics reserve the right to steal your wallet”.

A girl was intrigued by this prospect.

A girl walked into the building filled with anticipation. The atmosphere was completely different from any situation she had been in before, surrounded by all sorts of sights, smells, and sounds. A far cry from the stuffy noble meetings she was used to, especially upon seeing the risque leather outfit that the tiefling running this event was wearing.

A girl suddenly felt very flustered.

A girl approached the tiefling. She was the eponymous “Kylie” of this event and was running the registration. Her eyes scanned the girl in front of her up and down, feeling pretty convinced about the weapons the girl was carrying, but also having doubts about her lack of armour and the… somewhat impractical footwear.

A girl asked the tiefling nicely whilst stuttering some words.

A girl was then allowed into the tournament. Every other participant had their doubts about her ability, some scoffed about the idea of such a delicate flower being let into such a tournament, whilst others tried to gauge what kind of lie she told to get past Kylie’s checks. It was not long before the tournament began.

A girl was up first.

A girl was due to fight a druid. As the druid entered the arena, the entire crowd loudly cheered them on, whilst a much more subdued reaction was given for the girl. Some even laughed, muttering about how they would not last ten seconds. The announcement to start the fight rang out, and the druid changed into a wolf before launching forward.

A girl did not hesitate to stand her ground.

A girl dodged out of the way effortlessly. Before the wolf could even turn around to launch another attack the girl had delivered two swift blows to them, forcing them to revert to their humanoid form. The crowd uttered shocked gasps that this was even possible, and the druid struggled to comprehend what had happened, quickly shifting back into a panther.

A girl was ready for the next strike.

A girl was pounced at by the panther. The attack came close to connecting but just as the massive paws of the beast were able to hit into her, she ducked down to avoid the brunt of the claws, using her advanced dexterity to guide the panther over her before delivering two slashes to its underbelly, once more causing them to shift back.

A girl fully had the upper hand now.

A girl was in her element. Some of the shock in the crowd had subsided and now some of them were cheering for this surprise underdog, putting the druid off kilter. With no energy left to change into an animal, they took out their staff and infused it with druidic might, hoping to take down their opponent that way.

A girl was not afraid.

A girl dodged all the attempts to strike her down. Effortlessly moving aside before launching counterattacks with ease, leaving her opponent bloodied before eventually rendering them unconscious. The audience were left in shock. Kylie was left struggling for words.

A girl felt alive.

A girl progressed through the rest of the tournament with very few obstacles. Any opponent she faced quickly fell to her agile fighting style, even spellcasters struggled against her fluid motions. The final match came, and the final match ended as all others that evening had.

A girl had won it all.

A girl greeted Kylie outside of the pit. The tiefling could be seen holding back some begrudged patrons with the threat of an extremely powerful spell, not caring that they had lost their bets due to this surprise underdog, actually having quite enjoyed the spectacle herself. Once they had finally left, she presented the prizes, making idle chatter as she did.

A girl continued to be flustered by them.

A girl was wished on her way. It was the early hours of the morning when she came out of the venue, and she began to make her way home. She had hoped that she would be able to sneak back in without much effort and then just work out a plan for returning the items she had “borrowed”.

A girl was not afforded that luxury.

A girl was greeted by her father at the door. He was trembling with rage, shouting curses and insults at the top of his voice, seemingly forgetting his own words about keeping up appearances in order to express how he felt in this situation. He made various threats about revoking noble titles and potential house arrest.

A girl had decided enough was enough.

A girl slammed the crossguard of the cutlass into her father’s nose. Shattering bone and producing an eruption of blood, he collapsed to the floor moaning and writhing in pain.

A girl did not look back.

A girl began to walk away from everything she had ever known. She had found she was pretty good at fighting for a living, and with such a generous champion’s payment to begin her new life, she knew she could finally live as herself. Plus the name she had provided to enter the tournament had grown on her.

Their name was Orianna, and she knew exactly who she wanted to be.

Inspiration

This one is definitely a bit more experimental than I have done in the past, especially with how every paragraph, bar the first and final one, start with the same two words. And even then, the first and final sentences (sort of) share the same first word, giving a sort of pleasing cyclical-ness to everything.

There’s a fair amount to unpack with this story. Parental pressure, living with (undiagnosed) ADHD, finding something you excel in only to be told not to focus on it, the realisation of being transgender, struggling to find yourself whilst being expected to be someone you’re not, breaking out of your shell for the first time, dealing with the consequences of that, and finally choosing to live your unconditional truth.

God even writing out that list of themes left me a bit overwhelmed. Especially as a lot of them are me drawing, somewhat exaggerated, parallels from my own situation and how I have evolved.

Specifically on the “choosing to live your unconditional truth” front, as my moving out has allowed me to experience life as my own person for the first time in forever, and with this several avenues of opportunity have opened up for me.

Having written both her origin story and her introduction story, I have a clearer picture of where Orianna’s story can go from here. Not to mean that there won’t be anymore silly slice-of-life pieces about her wanting ice cream or doing a kobold’s makeup, but I feel there’s definitely space to advance Orianna in some deeper stories.