Amm

[Amm]

Please excuse my bad attempts at poetry.

Aniz race description.

Amm

Am for short. Ammmmmmm for long.

As the way her people reckon things, she is adult and mid-sized; nothing special. But for ooc purposes she is ten years old, 4'4" and mysteriously light in the way of fae everywhere.

She is Aniz.
She is Tera.

Appearance

Fly quickly, colored
more beautifully than gems
Such is dragonfly.

A face scrunched with concentration, open with curiosity, darkened with fierce joy, painted with light, steady with certainty. A face that shifts as readily as a whirlwind on the prowl, a small body wavering with movement, but staunch with purpose. Fickle eyes, whirling with bright color. Pale hair, silky and trembling in the frisky wind.

Alive.

[Amm is about average for one of her kind. She is short, compared to most other races, but formed with an ethereal quality; the sort of thing that hearkens back to fae ancestry. She is fine-boned, almost frail looking, with large bright green eyes flecked with amber, and long white-blond hair left loose to the wind. Mayhaps it is due to the fae blood, but her hair rarely tangles. Her skin is bronze-toned with reddish hints. As a human, she'd seem sunburned, but the coloration is entirely normal to an Aniz. To some she might look like an exceptionally proportioned young human/elfish teenager, for the race as a whole does not develop much of the curves or muscles of human gender-specific anatomy, and the race has become rare in most parts of the world.

She is not graceful, but abrupt. Her movements are spartan and economical, with nothing wasted on elegance. The only thing about her that does not seem aggressive are her expressions, which range wide like a child's. Though her emotional output might be limited, it ranges at will in every twitch of her facial muscles. There is no need for subtlety among the Aniz people, and so there is none in Amm.

She is not a skinny thing, but neither is she weighty; yet there is a certain gravity to her presence, a grave solemnity that belies her age as most 'big people' might reckon it.]

Personality

Caught by the hunter
Aniz Tera traps the prey
Delighting in chase

To give all to Aniz is the way, the only way. Loyalty, courage: the best there is to offer is given to Clan. Rock steady nerves to wait, patience in all. Fury in the hunt, no hesitation. Faith in clan; unquestioning obedience to tribe, to An. Joy for new Aniz, in life and death. Revenge for all wrongs, without question. Suspicion for outsiders, bending to curiosity. Lighthearted, well meaning mischief. Hunger.

[Amm could, under the right circumstances, be described as dumb. She is mostly silent, hard to teach beyond survival and magical skills, tends to stare blankly at those who speak or just off in the distance. Yet among the Aniz people, nothing is further from the truth. She, as with her peers, is merely prone to underexpressing herself. She is capable of learning, but most academia bores her. Give her the winds and the seas, and her delight and comprehension will be right on her face.

She is an aloof person, taking her privacy very seriously, and will take offense at the slightest indication someone intends to touch any of her possessions, or invade her personal space. But, due to her awkward communication skills outside of her people, it is highly unlikely for someone to understand she has taken offense (or why, if they see her expression) or that something is wrong -- right until she starts pointing her spear at them.

She is easily risen to aggression, and is a warrior-hunter in the strictest sense. She wields a spear and would not hesitate to use it to kill for food or to defend herself or her people. She has no qualms about causing death, and no squeamishness. She does what she has to do, why fuss? She is a courageous person, and will put herself into danger if she feels it is necessary.

But, for all that she is a handful, she is unquestionably loyal. She does not understandthat other species cheat and lie and hurt for the sake of hurting. To Amm, it is anathema to Aniz culture, so why should it be different in any other? Within the Aniz, it is very rare to have an individual do these things, act in those ways, and those that do are driven out, and word is spread.

But, she is not necessarily closeminded to outsiders. Suspicious, wary: yes. She has a strong vein of curiosity in her, however, and so long as no danger is evident she will take time to discover whatever she can of strangers.]

Strengths

Brave hunter wields strength
A weapon for all conflict
No quarter given

Fierce dragonfly form. [Her large dragonfly form is fearsome, with very powerful jaws and strong wings. Capable of carrying up to fifty pounds and snapping through bone given enough time.]

Spear fighter, well rehearsed. [Not quite a master with the spear, but leaning close to it. Her biggest problem in fighting others outside of the Aniz is that she's often at a disadvantage due to her short stature and light weight]

Increases oxygen for breathing in air surrounding. [All Aniz have the ability to sense air makeup, and replace other gases with oxygen. Their ability to control the gas, once transformed, is null. Typically, it is done by concentrating on a certain area and sensing out what is the air composed of, and then picking or choosing which one to convert. This is to provide their large dragonfly form with enough oxygen to be able to fly, but can also be used to cause other beings oxygen toxicity. Aniz have to be in direct sight of the gases they wish to replace. As it is an ability that takes much concentration, it is typically only done when in large dragonfly form.]

Easy bending. [very flexible, makes dodging blows easier]

Sharp obsidian, always carried. [spears are impossible to keep with the change, but pure obsidian stilettos are possible to enchant so that they stay strapped on to the Tera through changes. Amm is adept at using them, but her skill level with them is low enough that she only uses them as a last resort. If she's using them, they're mostly to give her some time to figure out how to run away.]

Weaknesses

Woeful are the lost
Despairing in brief failure
Hunger captures all

Failure is unacceptable. [would rather die than fail Clan and An.]

Memory is poor. [. . .yeah, poor memory]

Curiosity too strong. [sticks her nose where she shouldn't]

Birds are prey, but scary, scary. [has a rather unreasonable fear of birds, though she si capable of overcoming it]

Close places, tight places: reason for panic. [claustrophobic]

Harsh winter, harsh desert -- both death. [Easily dehydrated, and extremes of hot or cold easily kill her. Weak to fire or frost magics.]

Without Clan, without An, all is lost. [Without a clan and without An, there is much despair and hopelessness.]

What are use of markings? [does not read or write; has hard time comprehending the idea of an alphabet]

Easy death, without healer. [unlike most shifters, Aniz heal very, very slowly. They adapted so that they tend to have very strong healers. Without these, however, Aniz are likely to get infected or die to disease.]

Why speak? [Aniz tend to 'speak' mostly with movements and signs. Vocalizations are always secondary, and too much verbalization is frowned upon. For other species, this is odd at best and crippling at worst when it comes to communication.]

History

The story gains life
There is no speaking needed
On dragonfly wings

Murky water, clear sky. The day Amm transformed into a dragonfly for the first time was the most joyful in her life. To fly, to pump her wings and soak in the air and the sun, was more than she had ever dreamed of. Nothing had prepared her for the air. Nothing had prepared her for the still greater joy of homecoming. To see others like her, ready to succor and protect and provide shelter from all outside, it was something like a dream.

She was exhausted, and quickly spun the cocoon, to protect her as her magic re-ignited to create her adult form. She slept for a year, dreaming of Clan.

Not all of her siblings made it. She was sorrowful, but glad. Their brief lives were woven into Lifedance, as told by Bright Wind Clan's An, Hozu. Amm was part of Bright Wind Clan, though her tribe was one of the smallest, and only got to see Hozu once every three years in the Greatmeet. But Amm didn't care. Her tribe, Exquisite Hum, was all she knew, all she cared about.

She learned over the next four years how to use a spear during most of her waking moments. She learned to respect the healers, and the bigger members of her tribe. She learned how to hunt. She took her first bird down at age seven, though the thing almost snapped her rear left wing off. Healer Iu fixed it for her, but she never forgot the pain, the panic. She never quite got over her unease of birds, though she ate them often. She was adult.

She was happy, fierce, proud. She danced the bodyspeak of the Aniz best of all her siblings. Better than the elders. Even Hozu told her she had movement that sparked the winds to motion.

When she was eight one of the healers enchanted six obsidian stilettos for her for use during the great shift. Amm took them gladly, and shyly offered a string of frogs. It was a good exchange.

When she was nine, the Strangers came. How they found Exquisite Hum marsh, strictly warded by the healers against outsiders, no one knew. Next year, they would ask Hozu during the Greatmeet. For the time, they did not create war with the Strangers, though the Strangers were rude and mouthy. So noisy, so uncouth and always reaching and grabbing. They traded bright stones for bright threads.

When she was nine, they got ready for the Greatmeet. It was hard, for the Aniz had taken a strain of coughing fit, and the healers were busy busy. There were whispers it was caught from the Strangers, but that was silly. Such things didn't happen. It was a fuzzy time for Amm, who was one of the first sick. She was so unlucky! She missed the first day of Greatmeet, which was always the best day. She was still sick the second, but by the third she was much better.

Most of Bright Wind Clan was not better. Exquisite Hum's healers had all died by then, Amm found out. It was unheard of. The other healers could not keep up with the demand, for their healing was exhaustive work, and there were too many sick. Amm did what they told her to do, but in the end, she spent much of Greatmeet watching her people die. One by two by three by four. . .too many to count.

By the fifth day, Hozu was dead. If it had been quiet before, the very life of Bright Wind Clan drained from the soul. Amm, with three of her siblings and ten elders who were healthy enough Spoke the death. Their fingers fluttered slowly like butterflies in the red of the sunset, and through the next dawn. One did not vocalize when great death was present. It confused the spirit of the dead one, and trapped them forever in the earth. It was a very sad thing. It was a very sad time.
When the dying stopped, twenty five warrior Tera remained, and two healer Tera. There were no more An.

Healer Zuuu, who was the biggest and smartest, told the strongest warriors to take news to the other clans. Healer Zuuu said the Strangers of the Exquisite Hum Tribe were to blame for Hozu's death. They must be punished. There must be war.

And for the less strong warriors, they must go to nymph-place, to save as many nymphs as possible.
And for three of them, to take the distance as skin form, to get to know the Strangers better, so when the time for dying comes it is the Strangers who die, and not the Aniz.

Amm has her journey now. She must go as skin form the long way to her nymph-place -- not to mate and produce eggs -- to save their young, lest Bright Wind Clan be no more. She will learn the ways of the Strangers. Then she will protect the nymphs against everything and anything, without letting any of the weak be culled. And then, bring them home, so they too learn to hate the Strangers, and how to kill.

She must do it, for Hozu. For Zuuu. For Exquisite Hum. For Bright Wind.

For Aniz.