Name: Arril K. Shepherd
Gender: Male
Age: 28
Magic?: No. Arril's magical abilities ceased when he was thirteen, after his transformation.
Appearance: 
Arril is mostly seen in a dark cloak, protecting him from the harshest cold and possibly helping him conceal his inhuman appearance in the future... He wears warm clothing underneath, of earth colors. He goes around with leather feet wraps protecting his otherwise bare feet from rocks, sticks, and cold. His hair is not actually hair at all; it's long spines, silky to the touch, but able to harden the instant he feels threatened. He carries a leather satchel along with him, a frypan hanging off the side. He is armed with a bow and quiver of arrows, and a knife.
Personality: Arril is a shy and reserved individual, prone to making friends with animals over his human brethren. He tends to stay away from humans if at all possible, because of his exile. He is highly cautious and analyzing. He sometimes uses his instincts to drive him, but only in desperate situations.
History: Arril was born on the far eastern coast of Feretris, his isolationist parents wanting to keep their children away from the constant threat of slave raids and rebellion to the west. Arril's father, an Anjt farmer by the name of Ular Shepherd, was proud to have a son to call his own. Free to raise him as he pleased, he had plans to raise the best farmer in the land of Feretris. Without the threat of slavery, and their large lands free of other tribesmen (save for his family during planting seasons) it just might have been possible. His mother, a Demere Shaman by the name of Rilla Dianama, had other plans for him. She regretted leaving her tribe without one more shaman, but she longed for a child to pass on her legacy to, free from the iron grip of slavery and military actions. The two had met traveling east, away from the struggles. After a brief courtship, they married and established a settlement near the coast. Two years later, they produced their first son, Arril.
Arril's childhood was spent learning the art of shape shifting and conversing with the animals around him. Though he could say a few basic sentences in most common animal tongue, He excelled in reptilian and canine languages. As his father watched, irked at his wife's decision to sire their first child into a shaman, Arril progressed, talking more fluently season after season. His shape shifting abilities grew more and more complex, almost to par with an intermediate warrior, Arril pushed his limitations with his power more and more, often to the point of passing out in a changed form. His best friends were animals; a wise serpent named Sih, A spined lizard by the name of Yoric, and a lone wolf by the name of Ardent. Arril spent much of his time with his friends and was urged by his mother, to interact with the animals he felt most comfortable with. His father, knowing he spoke and spent most of his day in a changed form, did not know his boy was changing into the form of a snake, and spending time with animals that could be a threat to his farm. When he saw his boy changing into a serpent, then slithering over to a pond in the woods to coil around
another serpent and converse with a nearby wolf and a small poisonous lizard, He was enraged. He waited until his son had changed back, just before dusk. He approached the boy, exhausted from the concentration he had to use in keeping the serpent form for so long. He was mentally exhausted from conversing with two other species with a snake's lips, and he had tender spots on him, where the older, wiser serpent, Sih, had crossed over him as they rested together, talking to the lizard and the wolf. His father shook the boy and told him take him to his friends. He took him to the wolf, the most spottable first. His father then hurled an axe at the threat to his farm, killing it instantly. He had been mad at his wife for filling his son's head with meaningless ideas for the past decade. It was time he guided his son to the right direction. Horrified and shocked at the slaying of Ardent, Arril collapsed in misery over the poor animal's body. The axe was still in the creature's side, through its heart. His father spotted the spined lizard, Yoric, and squashed the helpless thing under a large rock. His looked for the serpent as his son pleaded for him to leave her alone and stop killing his friends. His father told him they were only animals and resumed looking for the serpent, Sih. Arril, his eyes filled with tears, called out for Sih to hide, in the serpent's tongue. He was backhanded by his father, and he lie stunned against the mossy grass of the pond. "Ha!" His father had found Sih, and hurled a rock in the serpent's direction. There was a loud hiss as the serpent was hit, and moved no more. His father took the boy back to their home. Arril could smell hops and barley on him, and wept silently over his slain friends. Later in the night, when everyone was asleep, he snuck out and ran barefoot to the dogs' sleeping area and awakened a hunting dog, putting a hand on the dog's muzzle to keep it from making noise. It was a dog he conversed with on a normal basis, and she wondered what was the matter. He told her everything that had happened, and told the dog to tell his mother in the morning, why he ran away. The dog, understanding, whined her sympathy and sadness over the tale. She would stay up the whole rest of the night in sadness, and tell his mother in the morning. Arril ran to the place he last saw his friends and took the time to mourn over them individually, the wolf, the lizard, and Sih... But when he got to the place where Sih had been struck by the stone, she was not there! He called out her name silently, looking at a small trail of blood in the moonlight leading to behind a rock. She lay there, coiled around herself to protect the wound. After a brief reunion and moment of unimaginable rejoicing, Arril tore a length of his shirt away and bandaged up the snake as best as he could. He ran a ways into the forest, waiting until morning to stop and rest. He decided to do something he never heard of before, combining traits of his animal friends into one completely new creature. As he concentrated and began the shift, he screamed in pain as his insides shifted, and his exterior began to swiftly change. He tried to reverse it, but it only kept him in a semi-human form. When he awoke the next day, he was changed completely. He was a new creature. As he tried to change back, he found that his powers had failed him and he was stuck. But as his silent panic subsided, he noticed subtle changes in how he sensed the world. His smell was better, his eyesight was enhanced, detailing heat in a perception he had never before had thought possible. His movements were graceful, measured. He no longer wobbled as he stood or walked, every little shift corrected by a long tail. As he ran further away from his father, with Sih in tow, he began learning how to adapt to his changes with every footstep that he made.
Arril's teenage years were spent in the wilderness. Using his keen sense of smell, he learned to stay away from anything human at all. With guidance from Sih and many other reptiles that were inclined to help him along his travels, He gradually learned how to blend into most surroundings using camouflage and his reptilian instincts. Although they were wary of him at first, the canines that Arril encountered throughout the eastern lands warmed up to his fluency of canine language. With their help, Arril learned how to move with absolute silence and even more camouflaging skills. He learned how to stalk living creatures without being spotted in all sorts of conditions, and with years of guidance from wolves and wild dogs, he was able to read any trail, where it was going, what made it, even how big the creature was, in almost any terrain. Even wet terrain! Together with his enhanced sense of smell and teachings from the wolves and Sih and other reptiles, He became quite a skilled ranger. Throughout his teenage years, he experimented with weapons, crafting bow out of yew, strung with the fiber of flax. Over the years, he was able to shoot farther and with more accuracy, crafting straighter arrows and more complex fletching. By his 27th year on this world, he was an expert ranger, able to traverse and live off the land with ease. He had looked some for a cure to his trapped state, but it was sparingly. He had grown accustomed to being a lizard-human, even with being cold blooded. As long as he had Sih with him, to continuously cycle heat through the two as they slept on cold plains nights or freezing winters by a fire, he could survive, and survive well.
As Arril entered his 28th year on this earth, he stumbled upon an abandoned foundation in the middle of an overgrown forest. He usually stayed away from human structures, but this one had no human scent over it... It was massive, like a castle foundation. The only thing that lingered over it was the ghostly aura of his ancient ancestors. Humbled by their presence, obviously looking down on him for running from his true nature, he felt ashamed to be in the place of such wisdom, and to renounce his humanity because of his father's violent deed so long ago.. He looked up at his ancestor's highest point in the foundation and prayed to them, asking for forgiveness. He felt the urge to see his own kind again, and got up, sniffing the air. He smelled wood smoke to the west, over the horizon... He thanked his ancestors for humbling him and making him see what he was looking for all this time. As he walked west, he explained it to the now massive Sih, asking her if she wanted to part him. She politely declined, and increased her constriction of his shoulders and upper body ever so slightly. They had been through it together, and she wouldn't leave him until she was ready to part the world. She had grown into a stunningly beautiful serpent, rich with sheen from her healthiness. Her length of five feet was coiled around Arril perfectly, his balance centered with her. As he walked unknowingly westward, he thought how his brethren would react to his appearance, and started to practice the human language he had learned from so long ago...
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ooooooh, in your face gaia! it did it again, but I was smart enough to take the advice of you guys and copy it to the clipboard.
ninja Sorry for the long revision, I guess I got a little carried away in the first part of his history... please read it... I took a lot of time to make this... I appreciate open critique.
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