Delia Huxley - XERES LIVE!

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Basic Information

Full Name

Delia Huxley

Nickname

None

Race (Grade)

Human (E)

Class

Kennelmaster

Height

5'6"

Birthday

Sunspeak 9, 1249

Age

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Birthsign

The Radiant Treant

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Bloodline Ability

🔮 Unknown

This Bloodline ability has not yet been unveiled to you.

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Physical Description

Delia Huxley at the window of her old shop in the city, saying hello to a resident

Appearance

Delia is fifty-eight, and as an E-grade she looks about thirty-five. She is of medium height and soft-figured, with a warm, open face, a ready smile, and a great mass of long, wavy blonde hair that she pins back with fresh flowers, usually something orange. She dresses like the city she came from: a rust-orange cardigan embroidered with flowers over a cream camisole, a long brown skirt printed with orange blossoms, a thin gold pendant on a chain, and neat brown heeled ankle boots. Somewhere about her person there is always a treat, and every animal in the room knows exactly where.

Unique Characteristics

Animals go quiet around Delia. Frightened dogs stop shaking, nervous horses lower their heads, and puppies simply adore her. She reads an animal the way other people read a face, and she can tell fear from pain from aggression from plain bad manners at a glance. She is a great deal warmer with animals than with their owners, and she has no hesitation whatsoever about telling a nobleman that his dog behaves badly because he does. She still dresses for cobblestones. Her boots were not made for forest mud, and she has not admitted it.

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Personality & Temperament

Positive Traits

Endlessly patient with animals
Reads fear, pain, and bad manners at a glance
Refuses careless breeding, whatever the fee
Keeps meticulous records on every litter
Always has a treat hidden somewhere on her person

Challenging Traits

Noticeably less patient with people
Will tell a duke his dog's manners are his fault
Cannot leave a stray where she found it
Turns down wealthy clients, and says why
Still dresses for the city in a town full of mud

Your dog behaves badly, my lord, because you behave badly. He is simply more honest about it.

[Already lining a basket by the stove for a half-starved stray.] He's only staying until morning.

Yes, it's adorable now. Ask me what it weighs in two years.

Likes

Puppies, all of them, at every stage
Well-kept family records and healthy litters
Working animals that love their work
Strays who turn out to be staying past morning
Good leather, for collars and harnesses

Dislikes

Breeding for fashion at the cost of health
Owners who blame the animal for their own manners
Abandoned litters
People who buy a cute creature without asking its size
Mud on good boots, though she won't admit it

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Background & History

Only Until Morning

Delia Huxley grew up in a household where animals were simply part of daily life. Dogs slept beneath the kitchen table, injured birds appeared in baskets beside the stove, and her father routinely came home with some half-starved creature he insisted was "only staying until morning." Morning rarely mattered. Delia learned feeding, grooming, birthing, temperament, and basic veterinary care almost as naturally as other children learned household chores.

Fear, Pain, or Manners

By the time she was grown, people had begun bringing difficult animals straight to her, because she had an uncanny ability to tell fear from pain, pain from aggression, and all three from simple bad manners. Most of the animals that came to her labeled "vicious" went home calm. Some of them did not go home at all, because Delia had decided the home was the problem.

More Than a Shop

She eventually opened her own animal shop and breeding house in the city, though "shop" hardly described it after a while. Delia worked with companion animals, livestock guardians, messenger birds, ratters, riding animals, and the occasional strange magical creature that someone swore was perfectly domesticated. Her collars, harnesses, bedding, and animal supplies became nearly as popular as the animals themselves.

No Careless Breeding

Delia is especially respected for refusing careless breeding. She keeps meticulous family records, watches for inherited problems, and pairs animals by temperament as much as by appearance. She will flatly refuse wealthy clients who want unhealthy traits reproduced because they happen to look fashionable, and over the years she refused a great many of them, including at least one duke, whom she informed that his dog behaved badly because he did.

Silmarithil

Delia moved to Silmarithil on Greenrise 10, 1307, and the move surprised everyone who knew her in the city. She has always said that a city's relationship with its animals says a great deal about its people, and she had spent too many years in one where animals were accessories. Silmarithil's hunters work beside their hounds, its law punishes anyone who hunts breeding stock out of season, and its duke is raising a bulette. She decided it was either the best place in Haven for her or the place that needed her most, and that either way she ought to be there.

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Goals & Aspirations

Huxley's, Under the Trees

Delia means to open a new breeding house and supply shop in Hearthmarket, with runs and pens behind it and a basket by the stove for whatever turns up. The hunters have already started bringing her their hounds, and she has already told two of them what they are doing wrong. She would also very much like to meet Silmarithil's messenger birds, its Nightstriders, and, eventually, the bulette.

Give Her a Few Years

Delia believes you can see a town's character in its animals, and she means to prove it here. Give her a few years and the difference will be obvious: healthier pets, better-tempered working animals, fewer abandoned litters, and far fewer people discovering too late that the adorable little creature they bought grows into something weighing six hundred pounds.

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Development

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Current Status & Relationships

Residence

Silmarithil

Role

Kennelmaster

ATTENTION!

Delia Huxley is an E-grade human kennelmaster who is 58 years old and looks about thirty-five. She is not a fighter, but if you need an animal calmed, assessed, or understood, she is the person to find: she can tell fear from pain from aggression from plain bad manners at a glance, and frightened animals usually settle the moment she walks in. Do not ask her to breed anything for looks at the cost of its health. She has refused wealthier people than you, and she will tell you exactly why. Do not blame your animal's manners in front of her, either; she will tell you whom it learned them from, and she does not lower her voice for nobility. And before you buy anything small and adorable, ask her how big it gets.