Thestreale
My name is Thestreale, and I come from a small peaceful society deep in the woods. Our community, Hamonia, came to be in the woods because our founders wanted to create a place free from violence, civil unrest, and murder, of animals and people. Our community lives by the motto of love and treats every living thing with kindness, love, and faith, and you will gain their trust and loyalty. We do not eat meat because animals deserve love and kindness just as all other creatures.
The founders established the order of all inhabitants, with a unique mark given at entry to the community after infancy. An infant will stay with their birth parents until they have passed three complete rotations of the sun. On the eve of their third rotation, there is a ceremony that establishes their place and what their contribution to the village will be. At this ceremony, each infant will be given their mark by Percivile Wiseowl, the society's founder. The mark will show that an infant will become a farmer, gardener, animal keeper, or the prestigious mark of a high leader. The high leader mark is very rare and only appears to those deemed most worthy.
On the night of my third rotation, my ceremony started calm and standard. I was wrapped in light pink and purple cloth and given my mark on my left arm. My marking began to shift and change revealing baby animals which would mean I was an animal tender and learn to take care of all animals within our village and the surrounding wood. However, my mark began to shift again and show people standing amidst the animals which meant I would be a high leader. Percivile and the high leaders did not know what to think; they decided to conceal the leader part of my mark. I would be trained as an animal tender.
I said goodbye to my mother Elsila and my father Everet Wildhorse because I would have no further contact with them as they were farmers. I grew into my duties of caring for and providing for all the animals. My ideas were not popular, so I was looked down on. My caretaker Mangral was constantly reprimanding me and trying to change my approach to animal tending. I am wild and free with the animals and always had their best interest in mind.
As the years carried on, I grew wilder and carefree with the animals, trying all sorts of indifferent foods and methods to help them live longer, jump higher, and use other senses to help protect and care for their offspring and the inhabitants of Harmonia. In my late teens, I was tending to a family of badgers and developed a strong infinity for them because of their kind eyes and strong-willed nature. One night I heard the smallest badgers screaming. I ran to their den; Mangral was already there with other tenders. A giant wolf was trying to attack the badgers. The tenders were trying to shoo it away with curses, charms, and other defensive magics. No one was attacking the wolf. I was so afraid to lose the babies that I turned into a bear and started mauling and pushing the wolf away from the badgers.
I had managed to do some major damage to the wolf's neck and body, that it fled. As I turned toward Mangral, she hit me with a rock and broke my form. She and the others were terrified, appalled, and angry at what I had done. Percivile and High Leader Aldorum were called to pass judgment. They said changing into a wild form was forbidden because doing so makes an animal cause harm to another. I had to find the wolf, ask it for forgiveness, and heal it before returning. I was given a bag of herbs, small tools, maps, and my bedroll and sent away.
I started my search looking around for traces of hair and or blood from the creature. I found a trail of blood and followed that; within a couple of hours, I found the creature near a creek. From a distance, I could tell it was not moving. As I got closer, I could tell it had passed from its injuries. I was so upset; I laid down next to the creature and cried, begging for it to forgive me and have safe passage to the next life. I composed myself and buried the creature in a burial ritual. Once I was finished, I headed toward my home.
As I got closer, I could see fires burning but heard no noise of animals, children, or people. When I arrived, the area was destroyed. It looked as though a stampede had gone through. I heard a faint voice from the rubble of a small house; it was my birth father Everet Wildhorse. He was gravely injured. With his dying breath, he told me the giant wolves were angered by my attack; they ran through the village, destroying everything in their path. Many members of the village were able to leave and escape, including my birth mother. He said I broke his heart, tore his family apart, and destroyed the village. I tried to reason with him, but he turned away and ignored me. Defeated, I salvaged through the rubble of my hut and found my research journal and diary, then left the ruins of my village.
As I traveled away from the village, I found that one member of the Badger family had survived, the smallest baby. I gathered her to travel with me and named her Lunar. We headed out toward the edge of the forest to discover what is beyond the woods. As we were walking, we ran into a small caravan of performers. They were camping because a couple of their animals were sick, and they didn't know how to heal them. I struck a deal with the leader, Astroal. I would heal and tend to their animals if I could travel south with them.
As we traveled, my badger Lunar and I took care of the animals and became close with Lavender, Astroal's daughter. Lavender had a condition where she was sick a lot, and there wasn't anything any of the performers could do. Through our travels, we heard tell of a healing stone that could heal any illness or ailment. So we convinced her father, Astroal, to head south toward some ruins that are believed to hold a healing stone that could make Lavender better. He agreed to travel toward the town. Once there, I left the caravan and headed toward the ruins with Lunar.