Beautiful People: August

It’s that time again, time to discover more about the characters in my books in the August edition of the Beautiful People link-up. This is an amazing link-up aimed at helping writers get to know their characters better, and share them with other people. It’s run by the amazing people, Cait@Paper Fury and Sky@Further Up andFurther In, and if you haven’t joined in before, you should definitely give it a go. As per usual, I’m only going to be answering five out of the ten questions, but you can view the rest of them on Sky and Cait’s blogs.

I’m about to jump back in for yet another round of editing on my YA fantasy, The Crystal Tree, so I only think it’s fair to answer the questions for the people in that book. Generally, I answer these questions for my main character, Briar, but on this occasion, I think I’ll be speaking for my male lead, Kade, instead. This month, the questions are all about best friends, and when it comes to friends, Kade definitely has two of the best, the brother-sister duo, Lara and Rowen.

How long have they known each other, and how close are they? Kade has known Lara and Rowen ever since they were all children together. As the prince, growing up at court meant that he was always on his own, until Lara and Rowen, the children of a local lord, came to court with their parents. They were thrown together as the only children in the whole place, and quickly became an inseparable trio, which held together even after Lara was supposed to become a young lady and stop tramping around the countryside with the menfolk.

Apart from his mother, Lara and Rowen are the  two people Kade is closest to, and, since his exile, they have been the only people in his life he has been able to trust. For their part, they gave up a comfy life in their lordly home, to help Kade clear his name. They’re as close now as any group of friends could possibly be, and would literally die for each other if it was necessary.

Are their personalities similar or do they complement each other? Their personalities definitely complement each other, as they’re all very different people indeed.

Kade is the solemn one of the group, though he was definitely more light-hearted before he was accused of treason and ran for his life. He’s always been the level-headed one of the group, bringing the voice of reason into some of their more harebrained schemes.

Lara is the feisty one. She might be a lady, but she can sword fight with the best, and isn’t afraid of traipsing round the countryside in search of bandits and treachery. Don’t be fooled though, she’s a lady to her core, and is just as much at home in the battlefield of the court as she is in the wilds.

Rowen is the light-hearted one, not really worried about most things, and definitely the most ready with a joke to lighten up the situation, he prefers to avoid confrontation, and gets a bit embarrassed when Lara picks a fight.

Who is the leader of their friendship (if anyone)? At the moment, their friendship definitely revolves around Kade, and he’s in charge of what happens in their friendship, but normally, Lara would be top dog, bossing the other two around to her hearts content. The boys are happy to let her lead the group until it becomes necessary for Kade to rein in some of the wilder plans. Rowen is definitely not a leader. He’s happy just to stand back and let the others fight it out for the leadership.

What kind of things do they like to do together? The short answer: Everything. As children, they played around the castle, playing games such as hide-and-seek, and pranking the servants and the other nobles. They’d also sneak out of lessons and meet up in the gardens to hide out for the rest of the day, which used to get them into terrible trouble, but they didn’t really care.

As they got older, they used to travel and have adventures away from the court, until Kade had to step into his role as the heir to the throne. Then their travels became much shorter, though Rowen and Lara would generally accompany him on journeys such as diplomatic They also like to hunt, and to spend time just hanging out sometimes, to get away from the court and all the official business for a while.

How would their lives be different without each other? Their lives would be totally different if they weren’t friends. If they hadn’t met as children, Kade would have been a lonely little prince and would have grown up as a solemn little prince with no sense of humour to speak of, no escape from court life, and no real friends who liked him for himself and not just because he was the prince. For Lara, she’d probably have ended up being an ordinary lady in long skirts and with impeccable manners instead of running around the country having the time of her life. And as for Rowen, he’d definitely have had to take a far more serious view on being a lord and possibly become sensible. Thankfully for all of them, they met up, became best friends, and the rest is history.

Are you joining Beautiful People this month? Link me to your posts! And tell me, what is your favourite set of literary friends?