Brett was born Elswyth, the second youngest child of
Kendra and Bowdyn of Canterbury (Cantwaraburg), Kent
in the year 980 C.E. There had been a total of eight
children in the family three of which had died before
reaching the age of ten. Elswyth had two elder
brothers, Selwin and Galan one elder sister, Elvina,
and a younger sister, Aedre, that survived into
adulthood.
Around the time of her birth the Danes were beginning
to renew their raids on England, attacking Chester and
Southampton. Times were not easy, but not as hard as
they could be. The family was fairly close-knit, and
while by no means wealthy, they had a comfortable
life. Elswyth herself was particularly close to her
father, her brother Galan and younger sister Aedre.
Her mother was at times distant with Elswyth and often
the young woman would catch her casting odd, far off
glances in her direction as if seeing something no one
else could when looking at her middle daughter.
As the years passed the raids became worse and
eventually, despite being begged by Kendra not to go,
both Selwin and Bowdyn went north to fight the Danes.
Selwin perished in 991 during the Battle of Maldon
when Byrhtnoth of Essex was defeated by Danish
invaders. Selwin left behind a wife and two small
children that became absorbed into the family. Though
they were warmly welcomed, it was an added expense
that put a strain on the family. A strain that was
alleviated a few years later when Elswyth was married
off to Caedmon, a fairly well off man and one of the
more skilled leather workers in the area.
She was only 14, and he 21, and though no real lasting
love or passion truly developed, Elswyth did become
very fond of her husband and he was quite taken with
the young girl. The same year they were married the
Danes under Sweyn and the Norwegians under Olaf
Trygvesson sailed up the rived Thames and besieged
London - and were bought off once again by King
Aethelred (The Unready) as the invaders had been a few
years earlier. Because Bowdyn had returned home by
that time, the battles, though still very worrisome,
seemed to fade a bit into the background as familial
concerns filled everyone's minds more and more.
Even after two years of marriage Elswyth still had not
become pregnant yet. A fact that seemed to bother her
more than Caedmon, who was content caring for his
nieces and nephews and was not all that concerned yet
with producing a child of his own. Sadly, Caedmon died
in 1000 leaving his land and business to Elswyth. She
in turn gave some of the land to her remaining
brother, Galan, and tried to keep up the business as
best she could.
The raids on England continued, with much of the
country overrun by 1010 East-Anglia, Essex,
Buckinghamshire, to name just a few, were all under
Danish control and Kent was being overrun as well.
Elvina and Elswyth both perished during a raid on
Canterbury in 1011 when the Archbishop Ãlfheah was
taken (and later martyred when he refused to be
ransomed) and the city and its magnificent cathedral
were burned.
Elswyth awoke hours later with her mother sitting at
her side. Kendra did not seem half as surprised as
Elswyth that she had revived. She then revealed to her
daughter that she had seen this moment in a dream
several times when the girl had been in her womb and
while she had been growing up. She had also had other
dreams of her daughter dreams of her fighting with a
sword, dreams of her dressed in the strange clothing
of a distant land, dreams of her caring for victims of
a terrible plague... Kendra often had dreams of her
family, she had known Selwyn would die if he went off
to war, had known that no matter what she did she
would bury several children before their tenth year,
and while these dreams worried her and made her sad,
they had never made her fearful until Elswyth was
conceived. Her daughter would be born with a gift, but
not the same as she had been. That was why her mother
had always looked so oddly at her.
Few people had seen Elswyth's lifeless body, but those
that did murmured later that the woman was evil,
possessed by demons or worse, the devil. Bowdyn's
standing in the community helped to quell the rumors
for the most part but Elswyth knew her life in
Canterbury was over. She lingered on until her beloved
father passed away in 1015 and then struck out
westward, eventually settling in the Devon countryside
a few miles south of the city of Barnstaple.
Life there was quiet and peaceful and while she was
not as happy as she had been at home, Elswyth was
comfortable for the most part. She seldomly went into
town or had contact with the townspeople so she was
surprised when a traveler came to her home one
morning. As she went to the door to greet the person
Elswyth was overwhelmed by a sudden headache and wave
of nausea. It passed somewhat, after a moment, but a
buzzing remained at the back of her head as she opened
the door. The traveler was a raven haired woman by the
name of Morgaine, and as it turned out she was the
reason for the sudden sick spell Elswyth had suffered
- she too was an immortal.
The two women spent several decades together moving
from Devon to Cornwall and then going north to the
city of Gloucester before finally heading into the
Welsh countryside. Morgaine was a fair swordswoman and
Elswyth a quick study. Soon the student surpassed the
teacher in skill, but the two remained together for
companionship sake.
After parting ways with her teacher Elswyth, now going
by the name Gaerwen, remained in the Welsh countryside
for another two decades before curiosity got the
better of her and she ventured back east to see her
home again. Over a century had passed and though
Canterbury had changed a great deal there still was
something about it that was familiar. She asked around
a bit and found out that there were decedents of her
family living still living in the city. Galan and
Aedre both had started families and their children had
children and so on - the current families were five
generations removed from her and though she dearly
wanted to get to know them she hung back. It was
easier to not get involved if you could help it
Morgaine had said.
Another decade passed and she changed names again as
she drifted south and took up residence in Dover.
While in the city Brett (now going by the name of
Rowena) met and fell in love with a mortal man named
Denis - a highly skilled blacksmith. Though not her
first lover, she did consider Denis her first love and
they married in 1144. When she told him of her
immortality he set out to teach her everything he knew
about making swords (as well as other smithy skills)
saying that while he could not be by her side forever,
he would at least be able to keep her somewhat safe by
way of ensuring she would always have a ready blade at
her side to defend herself with. She faithfully
remained with him until the day he died 45 years
later.
After Denis' death Brett traveled to Ireland where she
resided for a time under the name Fiona Heald. She
took her first two heads during that period and then
met and befriended an immortal woman by the name of
Ceirdwyn - who, she was surprised to discover, had
been Morgaine's teacher. They traded stories and a few
fighting moves and parted ways as good friends.
The years rolled on and Brett drifted from place to
place on the British Isles and then mainland Europe as
well by the 1300's. She had the misfortune of being in
Venice when the Bubonic Plague hit, and though she had
no medical training she tried to help people as best
she could especially when the healthy mortals of the
city would refuse to go near the ill for fear of
catching the plague themselves. As it turned out,
medical skills would have been of little use anyway
with the almost 100% mortality rate of the plague. So
all she was truly able to do was make people more
comfortable and to be there with them so they didn't
die alone. It wasn't much, but it was better than
doing nothing, and her mother had seen this in a dream
so she knew she had to do something. It was among the
worst experiences of her life and if she never saw the
likes of it again it would have been too soon.
The years passed and she continued to drift, never
settling down in once place for very long. She met a
few immortals, some she killed, others became friends
and a few became students.
One such immortal she met in rural France in the late
1500s. The town wasn't much to talk about, and she had
initially intended on staying only a night or two then
continue onward, but she overheard a story at the pub
that first night that piqued her interest. It seemed
as though the town's priest was keeping someone in
prison and the rumor was that no matter what happened
the man didn't seem to be any closer to dying now than
he had been when he was first incarcerated.
Brett's suspicions that the man was an immortal were
confirmed when she passed by the jail later that night
and felt the buzz of his quickening. She confronted
the priest the next day and was appalled to hear what
he had done. She believed in God, or at least a higher
power of some sort, but not organized religion and she
told him so highlighting in rather graphic detail all
the things the Church had done, all the atrocities it
had committed "in the name of God." No God would
sanction such things, in her opinion, and in fact
would probably be upset to learn what this man had
done while supposedly in His service, and she made
sure that the priest understood that before she left.
She went to the prison that night and freed the young
immortal, taking him to the Brittany region along the
coast of France. There she nursed him back to health
and set about teaching him. He already had good form
with a blade and she helped him smooth out some of the
rougher spots and taught him new techniques. He was a
good student, one of her best by that point, but there
was always something disappointing about their
sessions. He never seemed to focus all that well while
sparring and she wasn't entirely certain why.
Then again, perhaps somewhere deep down inside her she
did know the reason. Recognized that on occasion he
seemed to look at her the same way Denis had, but for
a long time she refused to acknowledge it. She had,
after all, rescued him from a miserable and painful
situation in the prison and nursed him back to health.
In situations like that it was not uncommon for the
person rescued to form feelings for the rescuer that
began as gratitude and then were confused for
something else, something more.
She had never taken another immortal as a lover and
although Morgaine and Ceirdwyn both had not said it
was forbidden she wasn't certain how good of an idea
it was. It was hard enough keeping one's own head
without having to worry about your lover as well.
Word began to spread of unrest in England the Scots
and the English had just finished fighting what would
become known later as The Bishops Wars, and there were
rumors now that tensions were building between King
Charles I and Parliament for various reasons (one of
which being the fact that Charles had marched off to
fight the Scots without permission from Parliament).
It was probably only a matter of time before Britain
would erupt into a civil war and Brett knew she needed
to return to her homeland once again to fight.
Having seen his fill of fighting and war Noah did not
wish to run off and fight again, and so Brett began to
prepare to leave her student after a half century
together. She had long since taught him everything she
could about surviving as an immortal and he was more
than ready to go off on his own. Still, there was a
part of her that was reluctant to leave him. It had
taken decades, but she finally was able to admit to
herself that she cared deeply for him.
Before she left for Britain she presented Noah with a
new sword, one she had made special for him. It had
become something of a tradition for her, giving swords
or gifts to her students and friends tokens to
remember her by. Then, the night before she was to
leave she went to him and spent the night with him.
Knowing that she would possibly be unable to leave now
if he asked her to stay, she arose early the following
morning and was gone before Noah woke up. It was the
last time she ever saw him.
Through the 1700s she traveled extensively, living in
the newly founded city of Saint Petersburg Russia for
a brief time before returning to London again in the
mid 1700s. After a few decades there she found herself
rounding out the remaining years of the century in
Berlin.
Early on in the 1800's Brett (using the name Varina
Naidenova) found herself in Russia once more, but this
time in the southern reaches of the great country. She
joined with a group of Cossacks who became one of the
closest knit family groups she had enjoyed in her
immortal life. She became particularly close to a man
named Evgeni Novikov, and his two sons, Pavel and
Gavrel. They fought in the Napoleonic wars of 1812 but
did not take part in Tsar Alexander's pursuit of
Napoleon back to Paris at the end of it, preferring
rather to return to their semi-nomadic lifestyle. By
the 1830's Brett knew she had to leave and did so late
one night in the summer, leaving behind her customary
gifts - one for Pavel, one for Gavrel and one for
Gavrel's young son Ilya. She moved north and lived in
what is present day Latvia for a while before drifting
over to see what had become of Saint Petersburg since
she had last been there. She eventually went west and
lived in Krakow, Poland for most of the remainder of
the 1800's.
In 1891 Brett was again in the Don River region, and
she met up with Ilya who was now a man of nearly 60
with children and grandchildren. He vaguely recognized
her, and Brett identified herself as Jelena Chichkova,
the granddaughter of her former alias. During
introductions to Ilya's family Brett began to sense
another immortal, though the quickening felt muffled.
She soon discovered that the fiercely buzzing
pre-immortal quickening belonged to a rather
precocious child who was watching her with intense
blue eyes from his mother's side. The child was Ilya's
five year old grandson, Ivan. She visited with the
family only briefly before moving on again, this time
not stopping until she was in the United States.
The country was still young but full of enthusiasm and
excitement in the future which the immortal woman
found refreshing and she remained there for a few
decades. Brett was never one to run from a fight, but
she did not feel the need to get involved in the first
world war. To her the cause and reason for it was not
a just one and the deaths were all the more senseless
because of it.
By the time World War II broke out, Brett was back on
English soil. If ever in the course of human history
there was a just war, this one was it in her opinion.
Because she wished desperately to become involved in
the war effort in a more active role than a nurse or
the like, Brett cut her hair and posed as a man. Under
the alias Dale Reese, she enlisted in the Royal Air
Force where she took part in several skirmishes during
the Battle of Britain. She was shot down over Germany
during a battle in early 1941. Somehow the immortal
woman managed to avoid capture and then made her way
to occupied Denmark where she joined the resistance
movement helping to hide and ultimately smuggle the
Danish Jews over to neutral Sweden where it was safe.
After the war she returned to the United States where
she managed to bounce around from place to place and
job to job sometimes working as a farrier, or maybe
assistant trainer at a farm, other times a
seamstress/shop owner in a small town (to name just a
few) for most of the remainder of the 20th century.
In the 1990's Brett met and married Thomas Avery. The
two owned a large ranch in northern Montana, outside
the city of Cut Bank, which they converted into a Dude
Ranch and it became a semi-popular tourist destination
for 'yuppies and city folk' (as Thomas was fond of
calling them) who wanted a taste of the 'west' in a
convenient and not too difficult package. Geardagas
(Old English meaning 'days of old') was not just a
tourist spot, but also a fully functioning ranch
operation and this reflected on some of the activities
available. There were cattle drives in the spring and
fall, trips to area state and national parks, hiking
and biking trails, fly-fishing, and of course various
horse back activities to name just a few things. The
ranch was especially renowned for the small group of
Bashkir Curlies they had among their herd of horses.
The friendly and gentle horses with their unique coats
were a popular attraction to a lot of people. Guests
could camp out at various sites on the grounds or rent
a private cabin if they preferred, and the main house
had additional rooms as well. They also could partake
of the second big attraction at the ranch - its Mead
Hall (which was fashioned after the ancient Anglo
Saxon and Norse ones Brett had seen in her earlier
years).
In addition to making various items for use on the
ranch, Brett also made and sold swords and other
weapons on the side, along with a period costume or
two as well. She gained enough attention to attract
the interest of some producers in Hollywood and put
her blacksmith skills to work on a few movies and mini
series at the tail end of the century and into the new
one.
She and Thomas had just opened the ranch for the busy
tourist season when the flu hit. What few guests that
had made it to the ranch died there as well, with
Brett, her husband, and the hands tending to them as
best they could. When they fell ill it was up to Brett
herself to take care of things. It reminded her too
much of the dreadful months she had spent tending to
people during the Bubonic Plague but she managed.
There was nothing much left to do chore wise at the
ranch
most of the animals were dead or dying. The few
remaining healthy herd animals were turned out and the
cattle were already on their summer lands so most of
her duties consisted of caring for the people and then
burying the dead.
Thomas died on the morning of July 5th. He had seemed
to be recovering the day before, even going so far as
to sit on the deck and ask Brett to light a few
fireworks to celebrate his favorite holiday. She had
done so, just to see him happy again, but the black
spots on his neck had worried her. And those worries
had, unfortunately, panned out the following day.
Not long after she had buried Thomas her beloved mare,
Synnove, fell ill as well. To further complicate
matters, she was also pregnant with a late season
foal. Knowing that the mare would die anyway and
figuring there was a remote possibility the foal might
be immune to the flu she made the decision to perform
a c-section. In the end it worked, the foal, a colt,
was born perfectly healthy and Brett then put the mare
to sleep rather than let her bleed out and die.
The colt, which she named Cyril, was far too young to
travel and so Brett resisted the call of the dreams.
Deciding instead that she would stay at her home until
he was strong enough to move with her.
