The Characters:

Christabel, our heroine
Lovely, willful and impulsive, Christabel at seventeen, is born to privilege and excess and slated for a good marriage. Given her background, she is something of a brat (a winsome one at that)—she however possesses a curious mind, as well as yearning for adventure. Confronted with the extreme turn of events—trapped in The Enchanted Forest that was custom built for her—Christabel must not only give up her status quo and her sense of entitlement, but also undergo a radical transformation—but without losing her pluck and wit…

Geraldine, our anti-heroine
Born to a comfortably well off merchant family in the sunnier climes of the Port of Abyssinia, the treachery and callousness of Sir Leoline and Roland de Vaux as well as the infernal sorcery of Bard Bracy have transformed the beautiful Lady Geraldine into a demoness.
Trapped by Bracy in a Panther body, her former life and humanity stripped from her—her fury will not be dissipated until she has exacted revenge on her torturers—mostly via Leoline’s daughter, Geraldine. She aims to strip Christabel of everything she herself has lost.

Sir Leoline, the father
When we first encounter the Baron of Langdale, Sir Leoline, Christabel’s father, he is an aging bon vivant. Later we discover this to be the erroneous fabrications of a dream… In reality, he is a repressed and mirthless Puritan. A combination of his wife’s death seventeen years earlier and some other dark secret of his youth still haunt him. As a young man, he had a wild and rascally reputation; now he spends a good deal of his time in somber contemplation. He has left his daughter’s education and upbringing in the hands of his priest and major domo, Bard Bracy.

Bard Bracy, our antagonist
At a very young age, Bracy witnessed his mother drowned as a witch. When invading Imperial forces arrived on the tiny asteroid and colonized the natives, Bracy was singled out for his aptitude for learning and invention—while others became slave labor. Trained as a priest and cyberneticist; Bracy uses his sphere of influence as the Baron’s right hand man, to exact vengeance on those who had killed his mother—namely his entire race. Bracy merging the ars arcana with his expertise in artificial intelligence has created an infernal means of harvesting souls through pain and grafting them on to other life forms…
He is both wise man and dark magician.

Roland De Vaux, the cad
The bosom friend of Sir Leoline’s wild youth—and sharer of dark secrets. At present trapped in the body of a Unicorn in Christabel’s Enchanted Forest—courtesy of the sinister Bard Bracy.

Wilhelm, the love interest
Typically handsome and courageous, Sir Wilhelm is a Captain and rising star in the Imperial Fleet. He is also betrothed to the Lady Christabel of Langdale—an illustrious match… He seems to have a good life, until a certain turn of events at Langdale. When Christabel is forced from status quo, Wilhelm, perhaps for the first time in his life must contemplate the workings of a Universe outside of his perfection.

The Jungle Cats
The Jungle Cats are former native sons of the land grafted onto feline bodies by Bard Bracy. Many of them amongst the people who killed his mother and ostracized him as a youth. Amongst their company are a Wise Tyger (courtesy of Blake); A Panther (the Lady Geraldine); A Cheetah; Lions, Leopards…
They form the core rulership of The Enchanted Forest. When Christabel becomes trapped in the Forest, she begins to perceive their human overlay—by the time the story begins to unravel, they have all but lost their animal forms. They are the former aristocrats of this tiny asteroid planet, and still retain the poise and elegance of their lives before the Imperial Forces changed everything forever.

The Faeries
Just as the Jungle Cats were the former ruling class, so also the Faerie Folk—the pixies, sprites and elves that flit about the Forest—were also a part of the old order. They are the innocents—young children and babies, too young to comprehend what has happened to them. As the enchantment fades, Christabel is able to see them in their child like forms—most of them toddlers and babies in rags…

© 2004, 2013 onome ekeh