 The paths I have walked.
Character History
Kaden was born in the forests of Taloba; there he had his mother and his father. He could only just remember their voices; their scent. His mother’s voice flowed like wind through the tree leaves and she always smelled of damp fur. His father’s voice boomed like thunder yet his touch was gentle and warm; smelling of grass and growing things. Kaden loved his parents and loved that quiet time spent with them. It was a short, but that small bit of warmth and love he would always remember.
Just before his eyes opened to see the world and his vision to clear, Kaden was stolen from his home as his parents were gone enjoying the day and some quiet time to themselves. Humans had come in search for Myrian tigers for fighting games. They found it impossible to get close enough to even touch one of the beasts, but a young Kelvic left alone was easy prey. How they had heard of him Kaden would never know; nor what really happened that day.
As they were smuggling him out his mother returned and caught them. Enraged she changed to her other form and attacked. Though he would never see it, Kaden’s mother stood as a huge wolf and fought with everything she had to defend her child. She was a dire, bigger than a wolf should ever be; but the humans had knives and swords, clubs and spears. Five men soon had Kaden’s mother dead beneath their feet. Killed as a wolf she would not change; they skinned her so they could sell her fur. It was beautiful, a russet red and brown with a single white shock on her chest.
The humans were finishing up when Kaden’s father came home. He was not a Kelvic and did not have the power his wife had; but he had fought just as savagely. In the end the thieves left him to die slowly. Blood filled his lungs and his vision blackened to the sight of his son crying and being taken; his wife dead and skinned beside him. The humans had a time getting Kaden quiet an in a disgusting act of depravity they had folded him in his mother’s fur. The familiar scent calmed him into sleep; even as the fur was far colder than the baby could remember.
The thieves took him from the forest, only once had they tried to sell the wolves fur. A woman had recognized the shocking red fur and the babe with hair that shown as his mothers. The thieves quickly silenced the woman and ran. Kaden in a bid to keep him quiet; was allowed to keep the fur. Unknowingly he curled into the skin as he dreamed of colors he had not yet seen. The men all rugged and scarred met others of similar looks just outside Taloba. By this time Kaden’s vision had cleared as a human, and his eyes opened as a tiger.
He saw only fleeting and blurry forms of his birth place, the tree’s he would not see again. The men had put him in a large cage pulled by two beasts that stamped and screamed angrily at the scent of the wolves pelt. Days of this had all very willing to throw it out. As they took it, young Kaden only cried. Uncaring of the babe they caste it aside but a day’s travel Kaden did not stop crying and refused to eat. One of the men was sent back and it was quickly retrieved. One man had the idea to wash the blood away and this quieted the horses so that once more they made steady pace.
Slowly but surely Kaden grew. When one day he stood the men tricked him into changing and slammed a collar around his neck. It was easier to take care of a beast then a growing child, easier to throw chunks of fat and gristle in the cage then bottle feed the terror. Life was harsh and he steadily kept growing. He was always hungry and always restless. He yearned to get out of the cage and touch the grass. Soon the collar started to chaff against his throat, tightening and constricting his air. The men pulled forth a new one and one night while he slept it was changed so he wouldn’t die.
As they reached the water he was loaded into a ship and finally let to change into his human half if only to be helpful and ‘earn his keep.’ Once below deck he was chained nightly, his neck hands and ankles so that he could not try and jump or even go above the deck. From there he was set to work. It was his job to tend the horses and the dairy cows kept below deck. The work was harsh and never ending; many of the times the animals would become ill and cleaning after them was hardly wholesome work. He longed for the sun, longed to be clean and with a full stomach.
After a while he himself grew sick. The lack of food and sun, neither able to get clean or stop working. Kaden was made to work with hardly any rest, a strike or kick; a whip of a crop or belt would send him to his feet. It wasn’t too long after that Kaden got a fever and couldn’t be roused to move. Finally the leader took note of him and he was immediately allowed above deck. There in the sunlight it was apparent that his wrists and neck where chaffed and infected; his skin had yellowed from the lack of proper food and small cuts and scrapes had become infected as well.
He was given more food and his bindings were loosened. They let him sleep and stay out in the sun. He was bathed and his wounds carefully cleaned. His so called handler was killed but Kaden had missed that. He had nearly let their profit for the year die from neglect. He spent the rest of the sea voyage healing and resting so that when they docked he was in a good bit of health again. His skin once more had a soft tan that set off his hair which it to had thickened and shown with health. His bindings were taken off and he was forced to change. Having been forced to be human for so long he was glad of it.
The bindings had left terrible scars but as a tiger his fur hid them well. Once more he was in the large cage and the fur there for him to sleep with. Despite all the years that had past he still felt comfort in its scent. Where they were now was far colder than he had ever felt before. Moving from the sea it only grew colder each day. Kaden had some relief from the chill thanks to blankets that had been thrown into his cage but other than that he was left in the wind. Everything changed one day, and Kaden’s feet touched the ground for the first time he could ever remember.
The leader had decided they wanted him to be stronger and more fit; so they opened his cage and set a leash on him. Kaden had followed meekly out. From all the years he knew better then to fight, it made everything worse. He was tied to the back of the cage and forced to walk as the horses pulled the thing along. He had marveled at the feel of the ground between his toes and how his claws could dig into the earth. It was only a week of this when things took one last change for the group. As normal the humans were talking amongst themselves, they looked forward to stopping at a city to get some food other than dried fish and beef.
Kaden wasn’t paying attention to them. There had been a snow fall earlier and he was amazed by the crisp white ice and snow. The men were all sitting in his old cage, chatting and sitting close for warmth. The horses were plodding along without guides as they knew the way well, but the land changes. Suddenly the humans cried out and horses scream. It happened so fast that it took some minutes for Kaden to figure out what was wrong. Two horses while heavy were not too bad; but the heavy and large cage filled with humans was. The horses crossed a gorge without noticing it. The top had thick enough ice and old brush to hold their weight; but once they pulled the cage across it. Well, everything broke. The cage went down pulling the horses and Kaden behind it all.
The gorge was large, if it had been just a bit smaller the cage would have been wedged into to place; but it wasn’t. One of the horses was caught between the cage and stone wall; it snapped its leads and body while the other one went down. Kaden struggled not to be pulled back with it and it paid off. Pulling back and being low to the ground; Kaden’s rope rubbed against the gorges stone side and before it got to his neck it broke. He was left standing alone listening as the screams of men and horse faded. The one horse not pulled down was dead, it’s back broken and body nearly rendered into two. Kaden didn’t know what to do, and in shock he stayed where he was.
He had never been without the slavers, never been alone. Shivering he stayed and watched the gorge silently; just waiting for one of the humans to come up and yell at him to do something. A day passed then another, snow was caked onto Kaden’s back and his stomach growled fiercely. He looked to the dead horse and made his way to it. It had started to freeze, but Kaden's strong jaws made fast work of the carcass and he ate till his stomach was bloated. He didn’t know what to do; so he started to walk. Aimlessly he moved forward not knowing what to do, where to go.
The comfort of the fur was gone, lost with the humans and the cage. Least there he had been warm. Slowly he made his way further and further north. At one point he had gotten hungry and had hunted. It was an odd furry animal he had never seen before; but he ate it with delight. Slowly more snow piled up and everything started looking the same. His coat had not had time to thicken for this degree of chill and as he kept going it just kept growing more and more cold. It happened at night, he simply feel and couldn’t find it in himself to get up again.
He looked up only to see color splashing across the sky. Sleepily he watched it wave and move. It was like watching a sea of colors in the sky. Endlessly it seemed to roll and wave and Kaden felt his eyes start to close. The snow was beautiful as was the sky. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing to die here in the peace. He had a full stomach and he was slowly starting to feel warmer. He looked back up at the sky, not bad at all. Yet his life was not meant to end that night. A woman who shown brightly like the snow she walked on came suddenly to his side.
It was an odd time and Kaden could not truly recall all of it. She took off his collar. The metallic ring landed in the snow to be covered up without another sight. He changed as she told him to and he answered her, best that he could. She was his imagination after all; what did it matter he say to it? She had seemed pleased enough about his reply, her hand had went to his right shoulder; then suddenly he felt true warmth rush over him from head to toes. She had him stand and took him to the city he hadn’t known was just a little away from where he had fallen.
There he learned the one who touched him was Morwen; the Queen of the city he found himself now in; and the goddess of winter. It was a shock for Kaden that she could be such a thing, he had never heard of gods or goddess and yet one had touched him and saved him anyway. Now he carried her mark and had a gentle reminder of her gift as snow touched his bare feet, but he felt no chill. Avanthal, the city fate choose for him; or maybe he should call it the gods; or simply Morwen.
Kaden was allowed to rest, and for two days he slept. Upon waking he was given a bag with clothes and things; the man who handed it to him said they had gone back the way he had come and gathered them from the gorge. Before setting him out with directions to a place called the warren, the man handed him back a pelt he knew for so long. He explained it had been caught on the gorges wall and he had brought it back along with them. Kaden clutched the worn red fur to him and buried his face into it. Despite the long years he still could smell the scent he now knew was his mother. He thanked the man and set out; he would see what he could make of the life the goddess had given him.
|
|
![[Verified by Crosspatch]](./images/checkmark.png "[Verified by Crosspatch]")
Kaden Swift 
by Kaden Swift on September 20th, 2013, 10:23 am 
