Sign My Guestbook
The circumstances of his birth could have been taken as an omen to his eventual fate.
Both mother and father were prominent members of Clan Tiger, and from the moment they learned of his conception, they expected no less of him than to be the One when he came into the world. One could even say they demanded such of the unborn child, going so far as to call representatives from all the other clans to witness the birth.
Unfortunately for him, that was not the case.
The mere fact he was not the foretold one was not enough of an insult to his parents...the fact that he was male lessened his value to them even more. Bloody and wet he had fallen from the womb, and another disappointment had come upon them when it appeared that he had no life strands. This was due merely to the strands being of the same bloody hue as the fluids and gore which covered his tiny body, but such was unnoticed in the face of such exasperation, shame, disappointment, and embarassment as the parents felt at the moment.
They had written him off mere moments after coming out of the womb. How dare he do that to them? In their arrogance and pride they had never forgiven the child for his failure. Never even harbored a chance for that happening, matter of fact, as the order was quickly given to take the babe away, and leave it to the wolves...literally.
The years following had not shown much more promise. His life had been spared thanks to the graces and compassion of Clan Unicorn, who had taken him under their care when the child was carried from the birthing chamber.
That small salvation had not come by chance.
A powerful Oracle of the clan who was referred to as simply The Lady of Vision had ascertained beforehand that he would not be the One. However, she had gleaned that he would have an important role to play in the future, a matter which would concern the One. What exactly that role would be, even she knew not. But the premonitions were clear enough to show that this child would play a part in the One's life, and so she took it upon herself to assure he would be around to fulfill that destiny. And so, with open arms, she and her people embraced the child, naming him Aramis.
Despite his entire childhood and most of his adolescence being spent among the serene and peaceful people of the Unicorn clan, the Beast within his soul could not be entirely ignored. They attempted to quell the Beast, by showing Aramis the ways of nature and the spirits, in the hopes that this would assuage the primal part of his being and keep it in check. Such attempts were largely a failure, despite him grasping the concepts and traditions with relative ease.
On the eve of becoming a full-fledged adult, Aramis could hold back no longer...his soul cried to be amongst his own. The peaceful, fun-loving antics of the Unicorns were in direct conflict with the calling of his blood, his life's essence. So one cloud-covered day, he set off, imparting but a few quick farewells. Part of him wished he could stay, but the need to find and bond with his own kind had a much stronger pull.
As a parting gift, Aramis was given a vision by his adoptive mother, a cryptic foretelling...the very one that drives him on to this day:
Hate pools
Love denies
All be fools
For deep, haunting eyes
A task unwanted
The mission a lie
Traveling darkness undaunted
Evil will vie
Blood will be shed
Alliances forged
A danger arises
Chaos be gorged
Souls will be splintered
True innocence behold
The battle for one spirit
Waged with numbers untold
Beware the Dark Devil
Yet embrace it you must
Power unsurpassed
In it you will trust
Betrayal and Death
Lurk straight ahead
Your footprints will fall
In with one of the dead
Loyalty and service
Freely you'll give
The reward you receive
With it you won't want to live
Two have the power
Two you will see
Together they'll mesh
So shall it be
The fates interlocked
You will never be free
Blurry, incomprehensible visions had gone along with the cryptic words...he could not discern them at all when he had received them. The Lady of Vision had left him with the knowledge that they would unravel and be revealed as time passed.
With the riddles in mind, he left, promising to return one day after he had found his true self.
Unfortunately for the Unicorn clansmen whom he called family, he would do just that....
Making his way back to the homelands of the Tiger clans was not all that difficult...despite the fact that they were loners for the most part, everyone knew how to find them. Their penchant for being mercenaries for hire was widely known, and many partook of their services. No one really questioned him upon arriving, stranger though he was...many of the Tiger clan traveled abroad, going where their missions bid them to. His "mother" had been kind enough to teach him what she knew of the ways of the Tiger, although she could never truly grasp it herself. Often in his younger days had he wandered off alone into the wilderness, giving chase to the forest creatures, preying upon them, led by instinct alone. Fighting had come naturally to him, but it had to remain hidden while he was amongst the Unicorn's brood. No longer was that the case. Not long after his arrival he had to prove his prowess...one of the Clan elders did not like strangers wandering about his territory, and took it upon himself to "test" the strangers worth. The battle between them was long and hard, but in the end the Elder won out. To his surprise, the Elder was taken with his inborn talents, and took him under his wing, teaching him all he could about the arts martial, as well as what it truly meant to be of Clan Tiger.
For the next three years he trained constantly, even partaking in a few skirmishes dealing with the ongoing war. For the most part he and the Elder, Cal'Cordos, had stayed out of the war...Cal'Cordos disagreed with the war in general, for reasons he never really explained. They had grown close, bonding much like a father and son despite their loner natures, and after a time he had actually opened up to Cal'Cordos enough to tell him what he knew of his past, including being abondoned at birth and taken in by the Unicorn matron. Cal'Cordos had listened intently, actually showing a bit of amusement at the fact...a Tiger being raised by the peace mongering Unicorns, quite an odd situation indeed. But deep down Cal'Cordos knew his desire to find out about his real parents...one day he set out to do just that for his protege. And never returned. A week had passed with no sign of Cal'Cordos, then a group of Tiger mercenaries came to him with the news...Cal'Cordos had been slain in battle. He was told that a group of Outcast travellers set upon Cal'Cordos, slaying him in such a way that he never had a chance to fight back. And as prize, they took his life strands. Fury and rage built up in him, and when the others told him they were going to exact revenge, he was all too eager to go along. They set out that night, tracking the murderers to their encampment...as the Outcasts had done to Cal'Cordos, so did they do unto the Outcasts. The travellers never had the opportunity to strike back, so fast and hard had been their attack. The blood rage came over him, and furiously he slew sleeping person after sleeping person. Only when a familar voice, in the form of a scream, came to his ears did he stop...his "mother's" voice. He looked about, turning to stare into her horrified eyes...his eyes quickly reflected the horror. He had been tricked, he knew it in the very core of his being. Cal'Cordos had been slain for asking questions about his true parents, and this had been nothing more than a ruse to throw him from the truth. The people they had just slain were not a threat to anyone...they were merely a travelling pack of Unicorn clanspeople...the very same Unicorn clanspeople that had raised him. More than likely they were coming to seek him out, but he never got the chance to ask. The others had quickly surrounded him and his "mother", egging him on, telling him he must slay her, that she was the last one alive. When he tried to resist them, protesting as he ran to her side, they fell upon him, beating him nearly senseless...his efforts were put towards protecting her from their attacks, but he was clearly outnumbered. Before he knew it, he was laying upon the ground, barely conscious...he glanced over to his "mother", reaching his hand out to her, watching as they tore out her throat...her eyes never left his the entire time, and despite the pain they held nothing but love and forgiveness in them. One final scream of protest and outrage escaped his throat before he fell to the darkness.
When he came to, he was in shackles, surrounded by dozens of Tiger clanspeople. They had come to watch his sentencing...they had come to watch him be branded Outcast. Rage overtook him, rage at the fact that he had been tricked...rage at the fact that he had killed his own "family"...rage that his mentor, nay his "father" had been killed by some of these very people about him...rage that he could do nothing about it. He could not even formulate an argument, such was his anger and hate...all he could do was lash out as they made him run the Guantlet. They tore at him as he ran, rending flesh and muscle, threatening to drain all his lifeblood. He only survived the banishing ritual by virtue of his anger and outrage...he simply refused to die, swearing vengeance upon these people, holding on to life with a fury not known to many. Those known as Clan Tiger left him there to die, dispersing moments after the ritual which marked him Outcast.
He knew not how long he lay there, the lifeblood slowly pouring out of him, before another group of people had come upon him. It was obvious to him even through his fever-blurred eyes that they were of mixed Clan lineage...and the fact that some of the males had very long streaks branded them as Outcasts. They had come to collect their newest brood member...him. He did not fight them as they picked his bloodied and battered body up, did not fight as they carried him off to his new "home"...he would use these people to help exact his revenge...he knew now that he could not do it alone.
During the next half dozen years he had gotten his revenge, and then some. Battle after bloody battle he fought, rending apart his foes in such a way that he earned the nickname Bloodstorm amongst the Outcasts. Many a time he had nearly died, but on he fought, giving in to his rage and anger, slaying those who had cast him out with a zeal that even frightened some that he now called "family". He could claim no friends among them, always keeping his distance, never wanting to feel the pain of losing someone dear to his heart again. But eventually he started to tire of this lifestyle...so much killing...would it ever be enough, would there ever be an end? About the time he started to ask himself these questions, the visions came back to him...he could almost make out faces now. There seemed to be two of them, and from what he could gather they were female, but he could not be sure yet. Something in his blood, his very soul even, cried for him to find them, whoever they were.
Soon it came to pass that the most trusted and powerful members of the Outcasts...of whom he was part due to his thirst for blood, seeming loyalty, and particularly long life strands...were gathered together in secret, given the vision of a woman whom they suspected to be the One, despite the fact that their leaders constantly denied any such being existed. His heart almost stopped when he saw the visage unfold...the very face before him matched one of those in his own visions. Mind racing and heart beating furiously, he volunteered all too eagerly when they asked who among them would undertake a mission to slay her. Not that he had any intention of doing such...the opportunity to finally get some answers lay before him...who really cared if it came about under false pretenses? He wasn't stupid, he knew they didn't trust him enough with this mission to let him go alone, someone would be tailing him, making sure he completed the mission before him...but that would be dealt with when the time came. Life amongst the Outcasts was not for him anymore...deciding to throw it all away, going into an unknown future in search of his destiny, he set off for the land known as Rhy'Din....
