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Name: Piper Walsh
Gender: Female
Age: 25
Physical Description: Tomboyish in appearance, Piper has short cropped brown hair, blue eyes, and a slightly squared face. Broad shoulders and standing at five feet eight inches, she is sometimes mistaken from a male from behind. Her rather generous bust - which she is not very fond of - clears that confusion when seen from the front. She's not generally concerned with her appearance, so her hair is usually wind-swept and comfortable clothes over fashionable are worn. A stoic face is worn when on her own, but when she's around friends there's usually a wide smile that reaches her eyes.
Personality: Piper can be as excitable as a child or as pessimistic as an old lady. Generally happy, although not very good at expressing it, Piper enjoys spending her time alone, flipping through books in the libraries or outdoors walking through the woods. While her alone time is her happy time, Piper does enjoy social events and is quite the character when around friends. Her normally reserved and measured way of acting is lost, leaving her excitable and grinning. It takes a while for her to warm up to you, but once you're friends, it's for life. She doesn't like sharing every bit of information with everyone though, so even to her closest friends she's something of a mystery. Emotions are hard for her to process beyond the basics - happy, sad, angry. She's not very good at comforting people, unless they don't mind laughing. She sees that as a cure-all for any malady.

Her preferred magic is mystic.

History: Piper grew up in a upper-middle class family, with enough money to comfortably live. Without the need to work in the fields, she spent her time in her father's library, reading anything she could about whatever she could find. Books became her friends over people, and she took an intense fascination to animals. Soon her reading brought her to the Hell Hounds of lore, and she was hooked.

Her whole life she grew up daydreaming about the Hounds, drawing pictures of them, pretending the house hold dog was a Hound rather than a lab. When she discovered she could use magic around the age of nine, her dreams exploded. This was what she needed to Summon a Hound! In the lore books, only those that had been able to use magic were found with the beasts. Of course, she had no idea how to go about doing that...

As she grew older, her lust for finding the Hounds dwindled just a bit. She still loves them, but has resigned herself to the fact that, even if they were real, they're not coming back. Her magic wasn't too uncommon among people, after all. It was probably left over from the time when Hounds were needed. She did retain her love for animals, though, and became a veterinarian to care for the animals of the world. Now if only those darn bells would stop...

The Summoning: She had heard the bells all her life, Piper realized as she picked her way down into the tunnels. It was just that she had grown so used to them that she hadn't heard them for a few years. Not until tonight, anyway. They were loud and urgent and something about them made her want to go find where they were coming from. Her heart beat faster as she moved carefully but quickly in the darkness, the stories and histories she read as a young girl coming back to her. Hounds...she hadn't thought about them seriously for a while, too busy with her job to let her mind wander. But as she drew closer to an odd open chamber, the thoughts came flooding back in full force. Could they be real? Could she be a Summoner? She knew she had magic, but it wasn't terribly uncommon these days.

Piper's thoughts seemed to melt away as she moved further into the room until she was floating in a great ocean of darkness, unfeeling, unseeing, all her senses dampened. She wasn't sure how long she was like that, but when she began to slip out of her odd state she realized she hadn't been floating at all. In front of her was a portal, shimmering and wavy like heat rising off the hot cobblestones in the summer, and a cauldron at her feet. How they appeared, Piper didn't know, but she certainly didn't care. She had other important matters to pay attention to now. Namely the curious voice in her head.

Hello, it said as she looked for the source. Did you make this portal?

"Yes, yes I did," she said, her voice quivering in surprise. "I'm not sure how I did it so I'm sorry if it offends you, I really just-"

Oh no! It's not offensive at all. I'm quite happy you've done it, actually. Piper was surprised at how eager the voice sounded and she had to halt herself from saying so. This could be a Hound she was speaking to, after all, and if she wanted it to bond with her, she probably shouldn't offend it.

"Oh...well that...that's good," she said slowly. "Um. Would you like to come out of there?"

Very much so. It's rather horrible here, always fighting with demons and such, the voice said with a little whimper. But I'm afraid we need to make a pact for me to do so. Is there anything you want or would need from me? I'm...well, I'm not a very normal creature.

Piper hesitated. What if this was a demon tricking her? Not a normal creature? Still, the poor thing was either a very good actress or actually aching to be rid of that place, so she readied herself for whatever might come through. "All I ask is that you never betray me. Be loyal to me and stick with me no matter what. If I ask you to do something, don't question it. Just do it."

There was a pause from the other side, and Piper hoped that if it was a demon, it was thinking twice about the offer. Finally, though, she felt a wave of relief wash over her as the voice responded. Yes, yes, I can do that. As long as you promise to protect me from whatever...demons are in your world. I doubt they're as bad as the ones here but...I can be a bit shy.

"Don't worry," Piper said gently. "I tend to stick to myself, so we wouldn't be seeing many 'demons' here." That seemed to satisfy the voice, and suddenly the portal began to grow very brightly. As Piper lifted her hands to shield her eyes one more thought flowed through her mind. I am called Aelira. When she lowered them, a little brown pup with a few feathers around her neck and hind leg sitting in front of her. Crouching down, she reached out for the small creature, who hopped into her waiting arms right away, tail wagging happily.

"And I'm Piper," she said in return, which got her a wet lick to her cheek in delight.