Nest
     Slaine was a departure for 2000 AD from science fiction into sword and
sorcery fantasy.  The series was based on Celtic mythology by writer Pat Mills
who had obviously done his homework on the background.  Set in Tir-Nan-Og, the
mythical Land of the Young which became the contemporary British Isles after
the celtic version of the Great Flood, the series covered the adventures of
the title character Slaine.
    Introduced as a wandering warrior with an untrustworthy dwarf (Ukko) as a
companion the series began with Slaine hearing that the tribal King who had
decreed his execution was dead so he could return home.  As he had been
wandering farther and farther from his homeland for three years getting back
took some time and adventures kept getting in the way throughout the early
run of the series.  One of these adventures introduced Nest
     An apprentice druidess, Nest made her debut in "Dragonheist", as she was
returning home from the Druid's college to claim her inheritence.  Her late
father had owned Worm's Head Farm where he had raised dragons.  Their crystal
skulls being prized for the gemstones that were made from them.  To make them
easier to handle the dragons were slaughtered while still young and small but
Worm's Head Farm had one full grown dragon, the Knucker, a flying steed which
had been the owner's pride and joy.  The problem was that with wild dragons
extinct when a dragon began ravaging the nearby village everyone blamed Nest
for letting the Knucker escape.  The dragon was actually a beast known as the
Mata which had been in hibernation since the ice age and recently revived but
nobody suspected it existed.  Now it was back and having been used to being
offered sacrifices in the old days it was in a bad mood about having to hunt
it's own prey again.
     Anyway Slaine and Ukko saved Nest's life from a mob of angry villagers
and asked for jobs on the dragonfarm as a reward.  They weren't planning on
settling down as labourers, they intended to steal the Knucker and use him to
fly back to Slaine's tribe.  Finding that life on the farm was nightmarish
with her uncle running it until she reached the age of majority and suspecting
he planned to kill her before then Nest told Slaine and Ukko that she had
guessed their intentions but would help them if they took her with them.
Unfortunately the dragonheist didn't go as well as planned and Slaine and Ukko
found themselves riding the Knucker with no idea of how to control it.
Running after them Nest ran into the angry mob again who planned to use her as
bait to trap the dragon.








     Slaine managed to land his dragon and kill the Mata then with Nest at the
helm the trio flew away with the Knucker under control.  Slaine and Nest were
a couple for awhile but they split up when he continued on his way and she
stayed at the druid's fortress/college having become a full fledged druidess.
She still shows up in Slaine in stories set after Slaine's death to quarrel
with Ukko (both of them immortal so long as they remain in the fortress of the
Ever Living Ones) over his chronicling of Slaine's adventures.  Though these
days she's little more than a mouthpiece to voice Pat Mills new age paganism
and hasn't had an adventure in years.  So it goes.








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