(Character)

She’s named for the wind, for the way it wanders without end. Her name is one of the few things she took with her when she left. 

All her life she wanted a tokota of her own - but in her small and poor village, it was forbidden. Tokotas were for the men; they were for hunting and warring. A swift tokota was prized for carrying its rider into battle, and a fearsome tokota for its prowess. Women were not warriors, and a tokota was not a pet. Still, Esen made her wish upon every star, that one day her dream might come true.

 

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She found the lilac pup alone in the forest one day while out gathering herbs. His eyes were not yet open, and his family was nowhere to be found, his cries echoing through the trees. She took him in, without telling her parents - thinking that she would be able to raise the pup until he was big enough to defend himself, and that once he was no one would dare to take him from her. 

So she raised him, as much in secret as she could manage and he looked to her as if she were his natural mother. He seemed, to her, to be an exceptionally smart tokota, and she had never seen one with the same pale blue and silky coat as he. 

Timeline