Sunsong

History:

Mother – Path, a near-full blooded elf descended from non-wolfrider stock; an energetic, attentive scout. Her ancestry definitely included healers, explaining how her small family came to be among the wandering wolf-folk and survived as well as they did. It had been at least two generations since a healer had been born to her line. Path is around 350 years old.
Father – Spur, descended from Hunt stock, but known to be ‘more pure' than most; a hunter who often uses thrown knives or weapons that snare prey. Spur is nearly 1100, and remembers the era when they were still traveling around looking for a good place to settle. Though he is still capable in most ways, he will occasionally beg out of a big hunt, and is often a little snippy about being dragged ‘all over the place' by anyone wanting him to attend events. Probable siblings from father's side, likely dead but potentially around
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No one would have imagined that the child of two ‘nearly pure' elves would be born with a downy covering of fur, and a nub of a tail! Her first tribe-given name was Defiance, harkening back to the old practice of deciding whether a child was ‘hunt or firstborn' by the presence of a thumb. Her thumbs work quite well, actually.

Though never really ‘ashamed' of their daughter, both Spur and Path were pretty shocked themselves, to have such an odd child born to them. They had Recognized, though it was his second… perhaps third Recognition in Spur's long life. They have admitted to their child that they'd considered alternate routes of raising her: up to and including just… abandoning her to the pack and seeing if she'd grow up more wolf than elf. But her very elfin laughter, and the presence of her (admittedly furry feeling) mind, prevented them from doing anything like that. Neither of them are close to their furry daughter, though both admit to being extremely impressed that she's been able to learn to master a power thought long gone in their kind.

For the first few turns of her life, Sunsong would maintain what looked to be a half-wolf appearance, and she definitely learned to run on all fours before she stood tall on two feet. Once she did that, however, all bets were off: she climbed trees and dug under rocks just like any other elf child. It began to appear that her moods dictated her appearance, and by the time she was two Eights old, everyone was more used to seeing her without the tail, than with it.

A tribemate's serious trauma triggered her first fully conscious shift into wolf form, when one of the hunters, treed by a large forest cat, fell from the branch he was on, and broke his leg. His pained sending prodded Sunsong to shift fully and quickly, race out to where he was fending off the cat, and she delivered a death blow to the feline with her fangs after a short, surprisingly easy, fight. Someone later suggested that her reaction to the event wasn't necessarily caused by her wolf-shape power, but by the other, more subtle – and clearly growing – healing power she had.

However, once he was safe, not only could Sunsong not heal him with any sort of magic (she merely allowed him to climb onto her strong golden back and carried him carefully back to the main Tree), she couldn't shift back into an elf-form. This lasted for nearly a hand of days, until finally she exhausted herself both mentally and emotionally, and crawled away (“to be alone forever with the wolves” was her mental wording). When she fell to sleep and woke much later, she was furless once more.

Ever since that day she has struggled with this, but grown more and more able to work at will, rather than just be subject to sudden whim. The confidence of her tribe mates also seems to play a role.

Only after this point, too, when her full shifting had shown itself, was she ever allowed to be introduced to the Sea folk. That was perhaps her parents only ‘shame' – they weren't sure whether the Sea elves would take kindly to an actual wolf-elf in their midst. Old feelings died hard, after all, and legends among the wandering pack hinted that they wandered because of such things.

Sunsong is aware that she's an oddity, but makes every effort to be ‘as elf as possible' when meeting new people. Sometimes it can't be helped, she does frequently slip into a more comfortable furry state if she thinks she's being scrutinized, which probably makes it worse.

As she is quite young still, but old enough to consider herself not a ‘cub' any more, she's still searching more for her place in the tribe – or the pack – or both. If there are powerful healers or magic users around that are willing to teach her, she'd be more than happy to do whatever it takes to get her own magic under full control.

It is not likely that she's had any lovemates, and she somewhat bitterly acknowledges that it's because she's furry and ‘weird' – also that the curiosity that a mate might show in that she is furry and weird, kind of bothers her. She would like to have a mate that understands her, and compliments her powers or skills, not one which hangs on to her because she's a novelty item.