Profile of Vela

`` If you be my boat I'll be your sea A depth of pure blue just to probe curiosity Ebbing and flowing and pushed by a breeze I live to make you free

Lithe in form with legs a mile long and paws too big for her body, Vela, much to her dismay, has yet to grow out of her awkward puppy stage. She’s almost fox like in appearance, her muzzle short and narrow and her ears sharp triangles. Her fur is the color of oatmeal and burnt sugar, and her eyes, large and doe like, are warm brown; cedar wood in darkness and almost liquid gold in the light. Should you find yourself beside her, you’ll find she smells a mix of a fresh aromatic spice with eucalyptus and rosemary, a hint of pepper, lemon, and wet earth.

`` As pretty as a peach and sweet as one, too, Vela is unlike the man who raised her. Where her father is all gagged edges, Vela is entirely soft. Too soft, perhaps, if you asked either her father or her nanny. It could be argued that it’s her lack of worldly experience that allows such sweetness, but Vela likes to thinks she’d remain kind no matter what.

Curious and daring, Vela is the cause of many of her nanny’s woes. Though she doesn’t mean to be so mischievous, she can’t stand being home for too long. No matter the time, she has the habit of sneaking off without her chaperone. She longs for an adventure like in her stories, and demands a new tale to obsess over every time her father returns. Soon she hopes to venture out into the world, and find her calling. Only trouble is, she doesn’t know what she wants to do. Vela has many hobbies and she switches between them rapidly. One day she’ll like something, the next she’ll like something else. She wouldn’t classify herself as indecisive, she just…likes a lot of things! Her nanny says she’s can be hoarder, but Vela disagrees. Everything she owns has sentimental value!

Friend to all, Vela is happiest when in the company of others. So far the only friend she has is her nanny and father, but she hopes to change that soon!

Though an avid reader, Vela is not a romantic at heart. In fact, she knows very little about any of it. The birds and the bees? What’s that? She’s far too busy making her dreams come true for romance! Besides, her father would chase off any boy that came a mile within her. If he was around, that is.

Oh, her father. Vela adores Bastien and often begs him to take her with him on his adventures, but the answer is always the same. She doesn’t like how he drinks, and chides him should she catch him drunk. Happiness and health is all she wants for him, and booze does neither for him. She can’t help but fear what will become of him should she leave. He would no longer have anyone to come home to, and that would break both their hearts, she’s sure.

Perhaps he ought to take a wife! Or a husband! Operation “Get father married!” is a go!

`` But you can set sail to the west if you want to And past the horizon till I can't even see you Far from here where the beaches are wide Just leave me your wake to remember you by

Vela can recall very little of what her life was like before Bastien. She’d been a child when it all happened, no older than three months. She had a different name. She had a mother who she remembered loving, and a father who frightened them both. She can recall leaving one night while her father was away on duty, her mother crying the entire time. She cried the next day, too, and the day after that. “I love your father,” She murmured into Vela’s fur one night, “but I love you more.”

“How much more?”

“To the moon and back and twice around.”

She can’t remember all the places they lived, because there were so many and they never stayed for very long. Her mother was always annoyed when she asked where they would go next, or why they had to go at all, so eventually Vela stopped asking.

Then one day Bastien was there and her mother was not.

She traveled with him for a while. “Your father’s paid me to return you to him.” Was all the man said. He’d been even grumpier back then, if you could imagine. Vela can remember not knowing how to feel - she loved her father, but he was mean. She loved her mother, but her mother seemed so sad when she was around… Just a babe, the ordeal muddled her mind. Even so, she remained cheerful. She talked and talked and talked until her tongue would dry up, about anything and everything! It was okay that Bastien didn’t like to, because she had enough breath for the both of them! She told him about her parents, the life she’d left behind. Her friends, her pets, her father. She told him about her parents fighting, how her father was always angry. How tired she made her mother. “One night I heard them screaming and daddy said she wasn’t trying enough and I don’t know what she wasn’t ‘trying’ but mama said she never wanted to be a mother and he knew that! And then they started getting louder until I came out! It was really weird.”

Eventually she wore down Bastien’s walls. Found a crack in his heart and slipped inside, where she never left. How could he return her to a father that scared her or a mother who so easily gave her up for a bit of coin? He thought to give her away, but found he loved her. So Bastien kept Vela, adopting her as his. When he found someone suitable, he hired Vela a nanny. Someone to educate and watch her while he was away, as he could be gone for months at a time. It’s been the three of them ever since.