Aeolusia

Keeper of Iolaus's Love
Guardian of The Consecrated Codpiece

Age: 30

Description: Slender, lean, medium tall, 3 - 4 inches taller than Iolaus. Skin very fair, but emotion frequently brings attractive blushes. Deep brown shoulder-length curly hair which takes on slight reddish tints under the strong Grecian summer sun. Eyes a warm hazel tone with a faint suggestion of green.

"As the family all leaned in to hear of her adventures that had brought her to this destination, Aeolusia's long fingers adjusted a leather waist wrap that carried a healer's sack. There was also a healer's band on her arm. She wore functional black leather pants tucked into matching knee-high boots. Her long sleeved shirt, reaching to mid-thigh, bore colorful stitching. An elaborately tooled black vest and a braided belt completed her clothing. In the belt were fastened several throwing knives, and a traditional boot dagger was situated near one bent knee.

Two thin braided straps hung around her graceful neck, one of which held a delicately designed jade amulet, light blue-green in color, the other supporting a larger and much darker bluish object--Iolaus's own amulet. He had insisted on her wearing it that night for luck, although she had argued that he needed luck as much as she did. Aeolusia's hand reached up to touch the two items. Even as her kindly eyes took in all the faces around her, she continued to rub both the talismans in what was obviously a fond caress."

When a situation calls for it, Aeolusia also wears typical protective warrior battle dress made all of leather, either a cover-up suit or the halter top and skirt made of leather straps, depending on weather and other circumstances. She never wears sandals during travel, boots (either tall or short style) being most practical. But during any celebratory tribal event, she loves to wear the light, colorful, flowing dresses and sandals favoured by this particular clan of Amazons. Usually, she will complement her clothing with silver or gold jewelry, often wearing a single earring of the same design as the one Iolaus wears. And she is never seen without both the jade pendants around her neck.

Refuses to carry a sword for fear of the damage she could do with one. Does keep a boot blade in her boot. Carries a war staff, uses a bow and arrows (having learned archery from Iolaus), wears a belt of throwing knives that she's handy with. Her feet are another potent weapon...she is a most excellent kickfighter, which compensates for a lack of upper body strength.

History: Aeolusia's origins are in Germany, although some of her ancestors came from England and Ireland..."barbarians" all. Her German name was Adelgund, her family typical farming stock who raised her gently in a little hamlet nestled against the Alpine mountains in Bavaria. At the age of 20, during a solitary hiking expedition, she was kidnapped into slavery and never set eyes on her family again. As a result of the trauma and cruel treatment by her captors, Adelgund's past became blurry and she forgot her given name.

In extreme northern Italy, she was bought as a slave by a kindly native of the new land, an immensely wealthy vineyard owner, given the name "Dorilis" and was treated well, but remained defensive and bitter over her lot as a piece of property. After a time, things at the villa fell apart. The master died, the family fortune was squandered by his two sons who killed each other in a drunken fight. The wife went mad from grief, accidentally burned the house down and expired in the blaze. The two remaining daughters sold off most of the remaining slaves, including "Dorilis."

This was her first experience on the slave block. No kindly man came to order the restraints removed and lead her away. This time she was forced to stand naked and defenseless before the leering, hooting crowd of men. "Dorilis" had long ago decided she hated men and would loathe them forever as the cause of all her misery!

She was sold to a family where cruelty and abuse were liberally dished out. One night "Mally" escaped on a stolen fast horse and was never found. She fled straight east, in hopes of making it harder for her owners to find her and also to try to work her way back toward Germany. Near the easterly coast, however, she was again captured by an expedition of Grecian militia. She was put on a slave vessel bound for Greece, sold in a seaside town, and taken by a good family of Athens. This time she was given the name "Lara."

"Lara's" new owner was a rich widower with one adult son and a second wife. The son, Georg, a musician and poet, was very talented but also very conceited, believing he was the gods' gift to women. He had his eye on Lara. His father, her master, had been trying to bed her but had finally given up. She was a valuable slave, well treated, with many daily duties, and so terrified of him that he feared spoiling her for her work if he forced her. Best to amuse himself with more willing slaves.

Lara was featured at the regular musical entertainment; her singing voice was lauded as the most beautiful in the civilized world. At a celebratory event, two of the guests were a couple of very handsome young princes who seemed not only impressed with Lara's talents but also paid attention to her in a way that revived her womanly instincts. Over the years, her sworn hatred of men had faded to nagging distrust. The flattery of the two princes had weakened her defenses enough to allow her to briefly fantasize over what her life should have been and ought to be at present. The daydreams haunted her thereafter.

One night Georg tried to rape her, and she managed to escape him and flee from the estate. She felt rather guilty for running away, for the mistress had been kind to her and was experiencing a difficult pregnancy which would probably end in tragedy. For the fourth time Lara was captured and again placed on a slave block for exhibit. But this time her clothing was not ripped away to disgrace her. Instead she was commanded to sing, and sing she did, with all her heart, thankful at least for one means of temporarily forgetting the pain of the past 10 summers of her life.

Enter Hercules and Iolaus, fresh from monster battling and passing through the town on their way elsewhere. They heard tell of a slave market in town, which incensed them, since both found slavery intolerable. The sound of a woman's singing came floating to them on the breeze... both of them were lured to the site of the market and saw the source of the music... both were captivated and Iolaus was instantly in love with the singer. The two heroes fought with the slave traders, conquering them and setting all the slave women free.

Hercules offered to escort Lara to Alcmene's home where she would have food, shelter and company until she decided what to do next. But because she was distrustful, stubborn and a little scared, she proudly refused and instead wound up working as a waitress at a local tavern...

Iolaus hung around, downing ale after ale until he was somewhat drunk. He lewdly pinched Lara, who exploded in a fit of temper and inadvertently generated an all-out tavern brawl. Of course, between Iolaus and Hercules, the brawl didn't last over-long, but during the fight Iolaus was hurt and lay unconscious. Lara was surprised to see this, since she had taken for granted that both Hercules and Iolaus were Olympian gods. When she told Hercules what she had assumed, he had a good laugh and said he couldn't wait to tell Iolaus, it would be good for his ego.

One of Lara's talents was herbal healing, and she was stern with Hercules about exactly how to convey the unconscious Iolaus to a bed at the tavern. She helped a great deal to take care of him and his injury, although he protested that he was fine and didn't need coddling. Still, he immensely enjoyed her attentions. The two grateful men rewarded her with a small dinner arranged right there in the room they were occupying...afterward Iolaus impulsively grabbed and kissed her. Lara felt so uncomfortable about things going too far already, that she quit her job the very next morning and fled the town.

She accidentally wound up in Thebes, Iolaus's home town, a fact Lara had been unaware of. When the two men confronted her there, she ran away from them again... but later on she relented and decided to return to the town, telling herself it was only because it was such a nice town and she would like to set up her own apothecary shop in just such a location. This came to pass; Lara became a professional healer.

After this, the relationship between Iolaus and Lara had its ups and downs, mostly ups...Iolaus was so passionately devoted to her that she couldn't help learning to trust him and Hercules, too... In less than a year, Lara (renamed Aeolusia) became Iolaus's wife. She learned from him and Hercules how to fight like a warrior... Ares God O' War became very interested in the young woman, wanted her to become his servant and another warrior princess, but Aeolusia stubbornly rebuffed him and each time she did, he grew more resentful and less polite in his advances...

As if Ares' unwelcome visits weren't enough, things became still more complicated....deadly in fact. During a battle in which Iphicles was killed, Aeolusia was also killed while trying to protect him. Wild with grief, Iolaus begged the gods to help him either join his wife in Elysia or bring her back to life again. Zeus agreed to allow him to travel into the future to find her and bring her back.

Using the Kronos Stone, he was transported into the modern day, right into the bedroom of a young woman named April, who listened to his long strange story and had an uncanny understanding of everything. She had been having disturbing thoughts and dreams of late and everything was soon made clear to her, like a curtain being drawn back. She had lived before, and Iolaus was her devoted husband, from ancient Greeceland, circa 450 B.C. He took her back in time with him, some 2,450 years...and she remembered everything of her past life, even getting killed. Now everything was set right...happy happy, joy joy....

They re-lived the fatal battle scene...in which they saved Iphicles from death, but this time Iolaus took the fall and nearly died...but was ultimately saved by the healing magic of a team of unicorns belonging to Aeolusia's best friend. They lived out their long lives together in marital bliss, had 4 children, then Iolaus expired at the age of 102... Aeolusia soon after at the advanced age of 98. But she did not go to Elysia, but instead woke up as April, in bed in her own home in the modern day... She understandably had a distinct sense of confusion and disorientation, felt a certainty that everything she had seen, felt and heard was no dream but the real thing. She missed Iolaus deeply, missed her friend Hercules and the happy life they had once shared together as a trio. The day ahead of her was a depressing one since nobody around her would ever understand what she had experienced and was now feeling. She stayed home from work and took to her bed to brood and weep.

But later in the afternoon there was a commotion outside of her home... a young man had just had a car accident. That young man turned out to be none other than...modern-day Iolaus...who had spent the last few decades searching for the woman he knew existed in this world, the woman who had been his wife so many, many times over the eons. Back in Thebes, after his death as a mortal at 102 and Aeolusia's death not long afterward, Zeus had eventually taken pity on depressed Hercules and turned back time again so that Iolaus, though mature, would now become immortal and be at Hercules' side forever. But the payoff was that Iolaus was now bereft of his wife...who would be reborn many times in years to come, but each time Iolaus would have to be patient and find her again...

In the modern day, everyone thought he was seriously mentally ill and sometimes he had wondered too...until now. The pair instantly recognized each other and it was another incredibly joyous reunion... Hercules soon came back into the picture when Iolaus contacted him on his cell phone, telling him the great news...

April's mother was bewildered by it all and pressed them to be "properly" married although the couple insisted they were already husband and wife, had been for the past 25 centuries... But, hey, getting married again would be just twice the fun! So they did...and all was simply rosey until Ares made another major play. The worst storm in history developed and Aeolusia was swept away in it....back to Ancient Greeceland, where Ares assumed he'd got her where he wanted her now...until Hercules--very lonely in this time period before Zeus had brought Iolaus back to him immortalized--showed up, astonished by the reappearance of the woman who had recently died an old, old lady. He protected her and became closer to her than he ever was before. Aeolusia also grew close to her ancient family, her 4 children who were now in their 60's, much older than she... Hercules had always been in love with her but now he was free to take her as his wife. Aeolusia wasn't completely content with this arrangement but consented since she assumed she was there in Greeceland once again to stay, and Iolaus was lost forever to her.

Meanwhile in the modern day, Iolaus and his mother-in-law grieved bitterly for their lost one. Once again Iolaus pleaded his case before the heavens and the gods were merciful. He found himself on a bridge, a gigantic amazing bridge that spanned the skies, the clouds, the stars and planets... It was a bridge to the Dreamscape, a real place where everything was tangible, everything was whatever anyone wanted it to be, time was irrelevant and all dreams came true. There, he found Aeolusia and once again they enjoyed an ecstatic reunion. She wasn't married yet to Hercules but shared a tender and lingering goodbye with him before returning to the modern day world with Iolaus. They both promised Hercules that they would visit him often in the Dreamscape. The couple went home to their contemporary life but they frequently visited Hercules, as promised...and had a sort of double life there, which was a lot like what they had all known in their first existence in 450 B.C.

Sometime during this double existence, 3 things happened: in Ancient Greeceland, Iolaus returned to Hercules as an immortal, meaning there were now 2 Iolauses who met and were amazed by each other... And with help from the Kronos Stone Aeolusia learned the happy truth, that she had spent more than one life together with her man...their fates had been entertwined over and over again since the dawn of history...long, long before their beloved friend Hercules was ever born. Aeolusia also became acquainted with some Amazons and because they admired her warrior skills and relationship with the famed heroes, they ultimately adopted her into the tribe as an "honorary" Amazon. Aeolusia contributed to the tribal life and told her strange stories of her many lives...

Aeolusia is skilled in kickfighting, archery, knife throwing, horsemanship. Accomplished singer. Has the best and strongest variety of Warrior Screams of all known Amazon tribes. Professional healer and herbalist, carries her knowledge on the road in her travels with Iolaus and Hercules.