Name: "Ariel"
Species: Human
Age: 14
Gender: Male
Personality: A skittish sort filled with nervous energy, his posture evokes the image of an alert rabbit primed to run for his life. This nature worries him, as more than anything he wants to live a careless life, so he actively fights against his nature with varying degrees of success. Very hard too anger and flinches from confrontation. Is afraid of spirit folk and the smell of alcohol makes him physically ill.
Background: A fearless boy from a far off logging town of Shoggy Creek who'd spend his leisurely days hunting and camping on the mountains surrounding his home, until one day when he got befuddled by a sickly sweet wind and wandered up a twisting path to the forbidden Mt. Bald Head. There, waiting to trap him, was The Old Man of the Mountain.
The Old Man was a powerful spirit folk, huge like a thunderstorm, red faced, with craggy fists like an avalanche and a beard of sharp hooked briers. He hunted great dire animals up on Mt. Bald Head and commanded the fowl winds that occasionally blew down from the mountain, bringing all manner of weird occurrence. But he was a lazy spirit who spent most his time drunk, asleep, or both, and it was well known that he wouldn't take the time to bother anyone that didn't bother him. Except if he needed something.
He did need something. He'd been watching the boy and he liked how good he could handle himself around the woods. He liked how fast he ran, how he could hide where no one could find him, how he knew what and what not to eat to live out there. In fact, he was so impressed he was going to give the boy a job. He was going to be the playmate for the Old Mans hundreds of children. The old one, he explained, had gotten all worn out and busted and couldn't run anymore. With nary another word the Old Man scooped the boy up and put hung him in his beard, carrying him away to his cave at the top of the mountain.
The children, which he'd produced with all manner of ill wind that blew around the Mt. Bald Head, had inherited every ounce of his evil nature but none of his laziness. There was only one game that would get them out of the cave to let the Old Man drink in peace. They called it Chase, and it became the boys life. Every day he'd be set loose on the mountain at sunrise, and the children set out to catch him. Whoever did got to do whatever they wanted with him for the day, which usually set them to fighting well into the night before they slunk home for supper. Then the boy would be laid up in a hole and fed a special elixir that would give him the energy for the next day no matter how badly he'd been banged up yesterday.
This went on, day in an day out for who knows how long, until the day he was caught by Ariel. Ariel was different from the others. She was the youngest of them, the daughter of an unusual sweet wind that blew past the mountains maybe once in a thousand years, and managed to carry her mothers nature with her in the midst of the foulness that surrounded her. She was also very fast, but she never tried to catch his for fear of her siblings anger. One day though, after he took a particularly nasty stumble, she surged past the others to catch him. Then, in defiance of the tussling tug of war that normally ensued, she carried him away. All day and all night they moved together, well out of the reach of her siblings grasping claws. Then supper time came, and the children all grumbled their way home. But amidst the grumbling the boy and Ariel spoke in hushed whispers.
The next morning Ariel got up before sunrise, gathered up her fathers useful things, and hid them in the woods. Then, when it came time to Chase, he shot ahead of the others grabbed the boy before anything. Together they sprinted off down the mountain, gathering up the useful things, and running until Mt. Bald Head was nothing but a distant shadow echoing with screams of anger and disappointment.
Appearance: A short boy with a runners build, deeply tanned with short and curly blond hair and green eyes. His body is covered with old scars and bite marks, including a circle of tooth marks that ring his left eye and continue down his cheek before disappearing under his ear. His right shoulder is a mess of scar tissue, as though his arm had been popped off and then crudely reattached many times.
Outfits: He favors wearing long pants or overalls, long sleeved shirts, and a wide brimmed hat when outside. Most of it looks like its been extensively modified, cut and sewn to make it fit someone of a much smaller size. When outside he usually has a long red shawl wrapped around his neck and shoulders.
Siblings: Ariel, who manifests as a swarm of small, softly glowing orange figures gliding around his body on little wind streams. They look vaguely like people. There's a clear head and shoulders, although the head is a ball of light that floats just a little above the shoulders. Instead of arms they have crudely formed wing like appendages growing from their shoulders, and their legs are replaced with a wriggly little tail like tadpoles.
House: A tent, one of the useful things gathered by Ariel before they made good their escape. On the outside looks like a normal canvas tent that's not even fit for two men, held up by string and stakes, but it's remarkably sturdy. On the inside is a three room cabin. Most of it is taken up by a main room, where a wood-stove sits as the centerpiece of a cozy room that includes a large bed, wardrobe, writing desk, and a clutter of various knickknacks scattered on various shelves. Two doors in the wall open into a larder and a washroom. Because it's a tent, he can pack it up and move it whenever he feels like it.
Misc:
-Ariel can manipulate the wind, lightening loads and increasing speed. This, combined with agility and an uncanny ability to read terrain, allows the pair to move incredibly quickly. When Ariel is manifest the air is filled with a sickly sweet scent, like rotting peaches.
-Among the useful things stolen from the Old Man are an ax the chops wood all by itself, a broom that cleans by itself, a rifle whose bullet will seek out that heart of any prey animal the user fires it at, and a flute half full of that energy elixir.
-To make sure he couldn't go home the Old Man stole the boys name and scattered it to the ends of the earth via the wind. Because they're always together he just goes by her name.
