Shael's Background
Plodding leisurely through the forest, the young elf hums a soft tune, the raven curls at her shoulders bouncing in time with her carefree gait. An oaken bucket full of bright red berries taps against the silver gleam of her long sword, but the girl seems unconcerned with the racket she's making. Every now and then, she sticks already ruby fingers into the bucket to pull out a berry, and pop it between equally ruby lips. Her arms are decorated with the merry hue as well, along with an assortment of scratches and scrapes from bushes reluctant to surrender their treasure.
Nearing the edge of the glade, greedy fingers dive in for one last treat, and she tosses the morsel in the air, weaving her open mouth beneath it in an effort to catch the prize. Her reward is a bounce to her nose, a red splat remaining in it's wake before it falls to the ground, rolling beneath a tree. The elf's gold-sparkled blue orbs don't follow it that far, however, as her gaze catches on something more curious alongside the berry's path. Leaning down to inspect it, her keen nose catches a waft of a strange odor. A trite confused, she straightens her frame, and sniffs noisily, her nose crinkling afterward at the smell... smoke... something burning. And *what* was *that*? Her stomach churns it's sweet contents, and she lifts a hand to her mouth in repulsion.
Now deciding to quiet herself, she switches bucket hands and slips cautiously to the edge of the treeline, lifting the branches of a billowy elm to peer down the small dirt road that leads to her home. As she glances southward, the bucket falls from her hand, it's sweet bounty spreading much like the pool of crimson undiscovered beneath the blood-stained cap lying near her fallen berry.
"Atarelle!!"
Her boots kick up layers of dust as her feet carry her swiftly towards the hungry flames eating away at her home.
----
Swollen eyes, long red from sobbing take a last sorrowful glance at the charred remains of her home. Wiping a rivulet of water from her dirty, tear stained cheeks, the girl stands, her head hanging as heavily as the heart that has shrunken in her small chest, and she turns her back from the only home she's ever known... and the sad remains of the father who had cared for her since the day her birth took her mother from this world... to begin her trek to Dostarra, and a grandfather who doesn't even know she exists.