The Beaver King, A Cautionary Tale of Medieval Dysfunction

Sharkeesa WellPenny came to the Grier Nest after harm had already been done.

Before her adoption, she lived among the transients who passed through the Grier holding—people drawn by shelter, promise, or desperation, and gone before anyone learned their habits. One of them abused her, both physically and in ways that left no visible mark but changed everything that followed.

When Vast Sister Grier and Billdong the Bone-Clad Grier adopted Sharkeesa, they did so believing they were doing the right thing. They believed love, patience, and shelter might be enough. They believed safety alone could heal what had been broken.

They were wrong.

Sharkeesa arrived already armored. She watched first. She listened longer than she spoke. She did not soften with time. She did not attach easily. She did not trust kindness, because kindness had failed her before.

By the time she reached her later teen years, the household had become afraid of her.

She developed a fixation on weapons—particularly knives—which she displayed openly and spoke of often. These fixations were not theatrical. They were deliberate. She used them to intimidate, to control, and to remind the household that she was not powerless.

She made credible threats toward Vast Sister and Billdong. At times, the threats extended to the animals. Whether she intended to act was never clear. What mattered was that she wanted them to believe she might.

Objects meant to dominate and unsettle were placed where they would be found unexpectedly. The message was always the same: I can enter your space whenever I choose.

Sleep became unreliable.

There were nights when Vast Sister and Billdong woke to find Sharkeesa standing silently and watching them, her presence unannounced, her expression unreadable. The animals reacted first. Then the people.

Fear replaced neglect as the defining condition of the Grier Nest.

The Griers did not attempt discipline. They did not confront her. They withdrew. Doors were closed. Lights were left on. The household learned to move carefully and speak less.

During this time, Sharkeesa WellPenny developed an intense fixation on Baylor the Brave. It was not innocent, mutual or healthy.

Baylor represented strength, movement, and authority—everything the Grier hut was not. Where others avoided Sharkeesa, Baylor did not flinch. He treated her with measured distance and basic courtesy when their paths crossed, never cruel and never inviting.

That restraint did not discourage her. It sharpened her focus. She watched him closely. Learned his routes. Noted his habits. She spoke of him rarely, but when she did, it was with certainty rather than fantasy, as though proximity alone constituted claim.

The Griers noticed. They feared not only what Sharkeesa might do to them, but what she might do if she believed herself rejected.

Baylor, for his part, never encouraged attachment. He neither confronted nor indulged her fixation. He maintained distance without explanation—a choice that likely prevented escalation.

Within Beaverton, the crush was later understood not as romance, but as direction: Sharkeesa’s need to anchor herself to strength she did not possess, to power she could not control.

Fortunately for all involved, Sharkeesa WellPenny left when she turned of legal age.

She did not announce it. She did not say farewell. One day she was simply gone. The Griers did not pursue her. They did not inquire. They closed the door behind her and lived more quietly afterward. For a time, nothing followed.

The last the Griers ever heard of Sharkeesa PennyWell came through the Solipsian paper.

The article was brief. Clinical. Absurd in its phrasing and chilling in its conclusion.

The StillPoint Ledger – Serving Solipsia and the Outlying Townships

Woman Arrested Following Battery Complaint; Matter Referred to the Concordant Standard

STILLREACH — A woman was taken into custody Tuesday evening following a reported domestic disturbance in the 700 block of Dearborn Road, according to constabulary records.

Just before the seventh bell of evening, officers responded to a battery report at a private residence.

Upon arrival, officers made contact with the reporting party, a 26-year-old man of StillReach, who stated that he had been engaged in a verbal argument with Sharkeesa WellPenny, age 20, while inside the kitchen.

According to the report, the argument escalated when WellPenny allegedly pursued the man, seized him by the shirt, and then grasped his groin in a violent manner. The report further states that PennyWell would not release her grip and continued to pull, prompting the caller to seek immediate assistance.

Before formal charges were entered, the matter was elevated and the Concordant Standard was summoned.

Custody was transferred without further incident.

WellPenny was last seen under Standard authority.

She has not been seen since.

It was at the time that Baylor The Brave cupped his manhood and prayed to any God that would listen — thankful that this was not his cross to bear. This Mistrelle is also thankful that it was spared.

After the article circulated, Sharkeesa WellPenny acquired a kingdom epithet—one that spread quickly and was never corrected:

Sharkeesa Wellpenny, The Iron Pennys Shredder of StillReach

The phrase was intentionally opaque. Outsiders did not understand it. Insiders did. It appeared in ledgers and was spoken carefully. It was never explained.

As far as this Minstrelle knows, that is where her story stops.

There are no letters beyond that notice. No hearings made public. No return.

The Concordant Standard does not publish outcomes. The Three do not explain themselves. They listen. They weigh. They end matters.

Sharkeesa WellPenny passed through Beaverton briefly and left a permanent mark. She was not gentle enough to disappear quietly, nor protected enough to remain unbroken.

What became of her is not sung. Only the warning remains. And the silence that follows when the Three are called.