Backstory 1: Introductions

Grynn was always an athletic child, quick and strong and blessed with keen senses. She naturally tended towards tomboyish behavior, which was abhorred by her mother. Her father on the other hand, he was a brilliant marksman and fletcher. She spent many hours in the rafters of her father’s workshop, watching him carefully select the cuts of wood to make the strongest bows in the kingdom. She often giggled silently when he started talking to himself while he worked. She knew he knew she was spying on him when he would start talking louder, with more jargon, both for her benefit to learn, and for the joke between them.

Three years passed, and while the boys liked her as an athlete, the girls hated her because the boys liked her. She didn't care for the attentions she was getting from either, and would often spend days in the woods, fishing and practicing her archery and bush craft skills.

On one of these escapes, there was a rustle behind her, and an old dire wolf stumble out of the briars. She was sick and her pack had abandoned her and her pups. She sat next to Grynn by the fire, and called to her pups. Two adorable fluff balls scrambled up next to her, and quickly lost focus and started playing. The old dire wolf looked up to Grynn, then to her pups. When she was satisfied that Grynn could be trusted with her pups, she curled up and let out her last breath.

Grynn couldn't remember crying about something since she broke her arm falling out of a tree when she was four, but she cried then. She called the pups over, mimicking the short bark the mother had used as best she could. To her surprise, they came. They started to sniff and nudge the corpse, still warm by the fire. The black one sneezed when he finally smelled death, and the brown (who was play biting her ear) clenched his teeth and jumped back in surprise, taking a chunk of her ear with him. Grim as it was, Grynn knew she would have to take care of them now or they would starve. She tried the bark again and got their attention, and then presented them each with a fresh fish.