Wirt

Cheep (Brother, NPC)

Wirt was a golden-brown Nelson's Sparrow, who served (more or less) as familiar and companion to Judith of Vektren. His story is ongoing. Wirt was created and RP'd by IraWolfeh.

## Personality

* ***Meek, Cautious, Sharp-Eyed, and Well-Meaning.*** The little sparrow is, in essence, a meek little creature just trying to get through life in one piece. All he has ever known is the harsh realities of the world, so despite his youth, he is not someone devoid of the experience to save him from naiveté. He is cautious, at times exceedingly so to the point of paranoia, but he has learned that this level of intense vigilance can be the difference between life and death. He's gentle and kind, and conscious of others in a way that surprises most who come into contact with him given his strangeness. He strives to do good, but only so much as to not be of much cost to his own wellbeing. He does not stick his neck out for just anyone, nor does he take any unnecessary risks. His experiences have made him rely heavily on his own methods of observation, and over time he's become extremely sharp-eyed and practiced in making carefully thought out decisions based on these observations. Wirt is fairly logical in most of his thought processes, but when it comes to his safety, he can be exceedingly paranoid and driven more by his own fear than by his mind.
* ***Anxious and Untrusting.*** From his youth, Wirt had always been afflicted with anxiety (or, as his parents called it "the shivers"), but the trauma of his mother and brother's deaths only served to exacerbate that anxious tendency. He is untrusting and suspicious of everyone, regardless of species, but he will keep this distrust beneath the surface if he can help it.

## Pre-Group History

The clutch of new parents Fern and Mugwort could not have come at a worse time.

The pair had managed to make it through the worst winter both had ever seen, and the first blooms of spring seemed a sure sign that the worst was over. Mid-spring, Fern and Mugwort welcomed two little eggs into the world and all seemed well. The tall grasses of the marsh provided a safe haven for the new family, and it was there under the watchful eye of their mother, Wirt and Cheep emerged from their shells and had their first taste of the open air. The boys spent their early days at their mother's side within the sanctuary of their nest while their father foraged for food. The two brothers were inseperable; two halves of the same whole. Wirt was soft and calm, Cheep sociable and energetic. Their relative strengths made up for the other's weaknesses, and both boys were finely in tune with one another. Despite their dissimilarities, they were thick as theives and enjoyed each others company day in and day out. They spent most of the day listening to their mother's stories or playing whatever little games they'd come up with. Things went on that way for a while. That was, until one day without warning, their father suddenly... vanished. The three of them waited, mother and sons, but days went by without any signs of him. It was not uncommon of males to leave their families behind, and while that may have stung a great deal, Fern thought nothing more of it and urged her sons to do the same. And that's just what Wirt did.

Soon, the young sparrows were fledglings no longer and the family no longer needed to remain confined to the cover of the grasses. It was finally time for Wirt and Cheep to begin their lives and go off on their own.

At sunrise, Fern led her two grown sons away from their childhood home and the family said their tearful goodbyes. Just as Wirt and his brother prepared to start their new lives, a low rumble, barely audible, filled the early morning air. Wirt put his wings back at his side, but Cheep began to flap them, seeming not to have heard the potential danger. He left the ground and disappeared from out under their sanctuary. Mere moments after Cheep left them, they heard a cut-off cry and then... *nothing.* He turned to his mother and both of them shared the same look of confusion and horror. Going out after Cheep was not an option, not when they didn't know who or *what* was out there.

But Fern, in her desperation and concern for her son, wasted not a single second before going after him.

Wirt cried out and tried to grab his mother before she flew out behind him, but all he managed to pull back was a feather. A shriek followed by a sickening *crunch* filled the air. Blood dripped down the grass and onto the ground, a mere few feet away from where Wirt had stopped dead in his tracks. The little sparrow couldn't see anything from underneath the protection of the foliage, but he was no fool. Whatever was out there had killed his only family. A horrible devastation washed over him and grief pounded over him in waves he could hardly stand, but his will to survive pushed him to move. He bolted as far as he could get from the beast that had murdered his family until he could no longer hear the sounds of its heavy breaths and the horrible crunching of bones. His escape had been a miracle, but he was not as relieved to have survived as one would have imagined him to be.

The weeks following the death of his mother and brother dragged on, and Wirt couldn't seem to find any peace from the nightmares that plagued his dreams or the visions that made going on with his life nearly impossible. He would never know who or what had caused their deaths, and the lack of closure unnerved him to no end, He couldn't stand the loneliness of being without his family, of knowing he would never see them again. His nights were sleepless while his days were monotonous and filled with the horrible anxiety of merely trying to stay alive. The pale wolves which he'd begun seeing all over, were a constant threat that kept him glued to the trees.

Many days, he wondered why he bothered with life at all. What was this life of his? A waking nightmare, a life of constant vigilance, grief, and sorrow? Would it not be better for him to just... let go? The thought of seeing his family again, of reliving his carefree childhood... they made just giving up and accepting death appealing. But... he just *couldn't do it.* He was at war with himself constantly. He wanted to die and yet, at the same time he didn't. As much as it pained him to go on, he was, deep down, afraid to die. Some days, he told himself that he would finally go through with it, only to bail at the last second. A part of him, despite everything, wanted to survive. Eventually, he stopped entertaining the thoughts of death he had so often had.

After weeks of moving from place to place, Wirt finally settled on a permanent home. The home he had chosen for himself, a luscious bed of foliage, overlooked a glittery, secluded pond. Seeing that pond was the first time since his family's death that he'd ever, for even a moment, experienced a sense of peace.

The land he occupied, as far as he knew, had only ever been home to the pale wolves that passed through. So when the wolves known as the Vektreni returned to what was (unbeknownst to him) their homeland, Wirt was taken completely by surprise. It wasn't long after that before the golden she-wolf made her first appearance at the pond...

## Trivia

* Wirt first sees Judith at the Gloating Viper where, after seeing her come there time and time again, he speaks to her for the first time.
* Despite being Judith's "familiar," Wirt and Judith are not together most of the time. Wirt does not venture very far from the relative "safety" of the Gloating Viper, where he lives alone. It is there where he and Judith speak to one another, during her many visits there.

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* IraWolfeh's deviantART Gallery