Age: 4
Alignment: Neutral 
Personality: Playful, young, a fun sense of humor, huge smile 
Occupation: None
Home Region: Steam City
Powers/Abilities/Skills: Cat shifter

 

Other Associated Regions: None

Avery was born in early autumn. Her mother died in childbirth, leaving her father to care for her. For some time, the child was cared for and loved deeply, but as she turned from a baby into a toddler, she began to look more and more like her mother. Unable to tolerate being reminded of his late wife, the man left his little girl in the forest to die. 

As she was left truly by herself for the first time in her life, Avery discovered something that her father hadn't. The terror of being alone in the forest ripped through her, and suddenly, Avery was no longer a young child, but a kitten. As strange as that was, she used it to her advantage. As a kitten, she could easily find shelter or scraps of food from the local villages.

One day, not too long after being left in the trees, a woman began to take extreme interest in the tiny brown kitten that would scour the area every day. She had bright yellow hair and kind eyes. It didn't take long for Avery to open up to her, and soon the woman was taking the child in as a girl instead of a cat. She vowed to help her learn to control her power, and soon bestowed her with the name Ava, used affectionately. Clarisse was her name, and she soon had Avery and about a dozen other children under one roof. They were all magical, and they had all been orphaned. Avery loved the overwhelming amount of love and acceptance that came from her new family. 

In the middle of the night in late summer, an older boy named Jackson woke the entire house by screaming. Something hurt, something was wrong. Avery heard from the room she shared with a few other girls as he cried for Clarisse to help, to do anything to make the pain go away. Jennifer had looked at her with a face that clearly said to stay out of it, so all the girls stayed in their beds and listened as Clarisse took Jackson away. Soon, the excitement had calmed down and there wasn't any use waiting for the pair to return, so all the children went back to sleep. 

Some time later, just as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon, Avery was awoken by the front door opening. Thinking it was Clarisse and Jackson, returned from wherever they had gone, she slipped out of bed and started downstairs. However, she was wrong. It wasn't Clarisse. It wasn't anyone she had seen before. It was some man. As Avery peered around the corner into the living room, she saw that he was wearing brown pants and a dirty yellow shirt, and that he held one of the older girls in one arm and a knife in the other. 

Breath caught in her throat, the little girl ran back to her room, trying not to cry. Unfortunately, the sound of her steps alerted the man to her presence, and soon she could hear him following her. Avery didn't dare look back as she ran into a closet and slammed the door behind her. This time, her fear was a good thing, and she suddenly realized she was getting closer to the ground, and her eyes were quickly adjusting to the dark. 

In kitten form, Avery stayed in the closet as she listened intently to the mass slaughtering that was happening outside. She begged every deity she had ever heard of to not let them find her, and it seemed her wish was granted. Even after it seemed the man had gone away, Avery stayed hidden for what seemed like an eternity. She wanted Clarisse to come back. She needed someone to hold her and tell her it would be okay and to explain what that man had wanted. 

Though she had long since managed to calm down and turn herself back into a child, Ava waited until she heard the door open and a voice that clearly belonged to Clarisse before she threw open the closet door and bolted down the stairs. Tears started to fall as she grabbed her guardian and held her like her life depended on it, and through her sobs she tried to explain what had happened. Clarisse listened to the child's story before setting her on a sofa and telling her to wait while she went to investigate upstairs. 

Though Avery had expected everyone else would never be seen again, she wasn't prepared for the look on Clarisse’s face as she returned to the living room. She carried in her hands a small bag quickly stuffed with a few outfits that would likely fit Avery and a few of Clarisse’s own belongings. 

“I need Bunny!” Avery had cried, referring to a stuffed rabbit that had been given to her upon her admittance to the family. 

“There's no time! We have to leave now!” And with that, Ava had been picked up in her guardian’s free arm and they left, never to return to that forest.