So, turns out it’s ludicrously difficult just to find stock photos of even two women shaking hands — let along two women who could be plausible stand-ins for Amazon warriors.
So, I went with a photo of two guys shaking hands playing basketball and cropped the image to focus on their arms, since one, it captures at least a suitable amount of muscularity and two, kinda invokes the Epic Handshake meme, which is actually a apparently a painting based on the scene when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers (RIP) meet in the first Predator movie.
Man, somebody just needs to take a bunch of photos of people dressed as Elves and stuff and make a stock photo database of specifically Fantasy-themed images…
Copyright
J.B. Norman
The entire Lyte Brigade jumps at the door of the public house is booted upon.They stare in quiet awe at the newcomer, a towering figure of size comparable only to their own Falcata.
The colossal newcomer throws back her hood.
“Oh geez,” Pela says. “She’s big.”
The newcomer glances around the dining room.
“Where is Falcata of Theophano?” she asks. “I would have words with her.”
As the members of the Lyte stare transfixed and desperately hoping they aren’t about to get horribly, horribly beat up, Sally Lyte hops down from her chair and approaches the giantess without a care in the world.
“Sally!” Matilda hisses in a desperate whisper. “What are you doing?”
“Hi,” Sally says happily, looking up — a long way up — to the newcomer’s face. “I’m Sally.”
She holds up her beloved stuffed rabbit.
“This is Count Bunnyescu. What’s your name? You’re big. Can I feel your muscles? Can Count Bunnyescu touch your muscles?”
“Do you know Falcata of Theophano, child?” the stranger asks.
“Yeah!” Sally says with a nod. “She’s my friend! Shall we go find her. And after we go find her, can me and Count Bunnyescu feel your muscles?”
She takes the stranger by the hand and begins to lead her off.
“Sally!” Matilda says again. “What if she’s a bad guy?”
“We should go help, right?” Nolan says. “You know, in case Falcata’s in trouble?”
“You saw her!” Matilda exclaims. “How are we going to help? She could eat us!”
“Yes, Miss Matilda, but Miss Falcata is our friend and companion,” Tancred offers. “We have to do something.”
Amara reaches for her spellbook and starts looking up healing spells.
“Okay,” Nolan says, taking a deep breath to steady himself. “We’ll go on three.”
“Wait,” Matilda says. “Is that, one-two-three-go, or one-two-go?”
“She’s coming back!” Pela gasps.
The stranger is indeed coming back. And Sally is still leading her by the hand, though her other had is how happily wrapped around one of Falcata’s muscular fingers.
“Everybody!” she says giddily. “Look! Look! This is Falcata’s friend! Isn’t she cool?”
“Yes,” Falcata speaks up. “Everyone, allow me to introduce Sicaria of Theophano. She has been my best friend since we were girls.”
“Wait?” Nolan says. “You know her? So, she’s not here to, like, challenge you to some kind of crazy death-combat?”
He heaves a heavy sigh of relief.
“We do not challenge people to ‘crazy death-combat’,” Sicaria notes indignantly.
“Sorry,” Nolan mutters.
“Apology accepted,” Sicaria declares. “For, you see, the Amazons are a gracious and people. Which is exactly the reason why it is absurd to think we would challenge those who offend is to death-combat.”
“I said I was sorry!” Nolan insists.
Sicaria leans in close to Falcata.
“The puny one is cute,” she whispers, though not quietly enough to keep Nolan from blushing a deep crimson. Or Amara from clenching her hands into fists.
“Are you really surprised that two Amazons know each other?” Matilda asks her brother.
“I mean, there’s a lot of Amazons in Realmgard, right? I didn’t want to assume anything,” Nolan mutters defensively.
“Yeah,” Pela agrees. “You know what they say: when you assume, that’s a bad thing — so don’t do it. Or something.”
Originally, my plan was to name all my Amazon characters after weapons or armor, but there isn’t enough Greco-Roman vocabulary that make good names for that to really pan out.
“Sicaria” does kinda fit, though. It’s a Latin word that means something like “(woman) carrying a dagger”. The historical Sicarii — plural of the masculine form of the word, Sicarius — were the radical Jewish rebels in the era of the Jewish War who were the most openly violent in rebelling against Roman occupation and collaboration.
Maybe not a great name for a character I’m not intending to be a villain at this point…
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