Tristan, Overlord of the High Reaches in the Northern Realm of Trillia is said to be in league with the Dark Lord Vas Yasik. Rumored to be born the son of the war Goddess Corana, Lord Tristan rules his domain with justice and fear. Though peace prevails through his kingdom, the subjects of Tristan's reign live in mortal terror of the creatures that come in the night.

Through a strange quirk of fate, Tristan fell in love with a wandering Sanji who played at his table in exchange for room and board. Though blind, Sabyena wove tales of epic splendor, and sung both ballad and reel. It was Sabyena who stole the heart of the demigod.

Lord Tristan vowed to win the Sanji, and seat her at his side as his queen. But Sabyena saw the wickedness of her suitor and demanded that Tristan learn the meaning of love before she would give him her hand.

Wandering through the lands of Trillia, Tristan searched for the meaning of love to no avail, until after years of fruitless efforts, he rested on a boulder overseeing a pool of crystal water. To his suprise, Tristan saw a single rose blossoming in a crack of the rock on which he sat. Bewildered, he asked the rose why she would bloom in such a harsh place.

"To be with my love," the rose replied.

Puzzled, Tristan asked where her love was, if he was not beside her, rooted in the rockface.

"He is there," said the rose, " aloft in the winds. At night he lights in a branch atop an old oak near this rock. It is then, when he is with me, that I am at peace."

Lord Tristan, cruel overlord of the High Reaches, begged the rose to tell him why she would chose a life of arduous pain to be near one that scarcely reckognized her pressence.

To this she replied, "I love him."

With that, Tristan returned to the High Reaches, bringing with him a hawk in a golden cage, jessied and belled, and a rose dug from the earth, and held in a pouch of warm peat.

When he presented the gifts to Sabyena, she smiled and gently kissed the rose, a single tear falling from her eye. As the tear touched the petal, the rose blossomed into a hawk with a breast as red as the rose she once was. And with a cry of joy, the redbreasted hawk launched into the air, followed by her mate.


--- Pencil line work only. A weekend project as a break from the work week. Might ink and color this one, who knows.