Sabine

Minnow and Finch (Siblings, NPCs)

## Application Sheet

Sabine was an ash-gray she-wolf with EYES. She entered the Domain and found a new pack, Hintertomb, where her story is just beginning. Sabine was created and RP'd by Arrillaga.

## Personality

* ***Capable, Contemplative, Tactful, Genuine, and Observant.*** Sabine finds herself trying to enjoy the good in life, however hard that can be. She does this by being her whole self, a trait which caught her quite a bit of bullying in her youth. In her practice, Sabine has learned that the best way to communicate with those beyond is by being as respectful as possible. This trait aided her when it came time to join Hintertomb, as her words are her strongest tool. In her dispersal, Sabine learned a lot of skills that made her more than capable of surviving on her own. While she is not the greatest hunter to grace the world, her skills allow her to not have to rely on others to feed her. The beliefs of her birth pack and her parents’ wisdom for divinity made Sabine a very thoughtful wolf. Every problem that is presented to Sabine is addressed from all angles, so that she could get the most full perspective on it. This goes hand in hand with her observations. While taken literally, Sabine is a great watcher, and enjoys taking in all the details. But, even metaphysically, Sabine has a knack for noticing what others don’t.
* ***Folksy, Mystical, Foolhardy, and Idiosyncratic.*** The wolves of Hintertomb can be a hard sell for the average wolf, but her history of mysticism made Sabine feel almost at home amongst the strangers. She isn’t the most fanciful of the Hinterkin, but among more traditional wolves, she can stick out like a sore thumb. And because she comes from a land fairly far away, a lot of her quirks feel abnormal around the company she keeps. Some of these quirks are easily overlooked, but others can cause quite a bit of annoyance to her peers. Her pack was fairly small, and those humble beginnings give Sabine a bit of folksy charm. While that is often helpful in relating one on one, it does mean that she can get a bit over her head when around larger groups of wolves. Sabine’s capability is almost matched with her foolhardiness. Her confidence has grown quite a bit since she has come out of the shadow of her sister, but that means that she can find herself overextending her range. In both pursuits of physicality and of the mythical, Sabine is often found biting off more than she can chew.
* ***Self-Conscious, Guilty, Disorderly, Anxious, and Pendantic.*** The relentless bullying of her sister and their peers has made Sabine self-conscious in her appearance. She is very aware of the capabilities of her abilities, but when it comes to the art of presentation, Sabine finds herself out of her element. She is working on becoming better in crowds as well as speaking to multiple wolves, but she can get anxious when she believes all eyes are on her. An unfortunate consequence of Sabine’s connection with the occult is that she believes she is being watched at all times (which is not particularly unusual amongst the Hintertomb). For Sabine, this presents less as paranoia and more as general anxiety, which can be triggered by various different things. Sabine blames herself for the curse that took her family. She believes that the ghost of her sister is what caused the problems that brought down her entire clan. At times, Sabine can find herself almost totally swallowed by the weight of this guilt. When she gets caught up in her thoughts, it leads to her getting lost and losing items. She is not the most neat of wolves at the best of times, but at the worst? It becomes unbearable.

## Pre-Group History

Sabine was born to two strong wolves in a strange pack far to the south. She was born under the first full moon in April of her year. Her parents- Reed and Colorado- were strong wolves of their people. Her kind was a small group, a pack of about three breeding pairs. The larger clan they served connected several packs like Sabine’s across a great swamp floodplain. Sabine’s puphood was one of cattails and palmettos, just like her parents and her parents before.

 Her pack were seasoned witches- that being observers of the occult and purveyors of fortunes. They called themselves any derivatives: Soothsayers, Dreamreaders, Fortune Tellers etc. Both of her parents were experienced in predication and acted as the official tellers of the clan. Sabine was very excited to follow in their footsteps.

 Her sister, Finch, was the first born of the litter. She was large and healthy and mewling for milk hours before Sabine would make her appearance. Sabine and her smallest sibling, Minnow, did finally show. Though, all was not right with the two. They were identical in appearance, but Sabine was far larger and healthier (though still significantly smaller than Finch). Minnow, on the other hand, was small and barely moving when they were born. Before the night was over, Minnow would be lost due to failure to thrive.

Despite the complications at birth, Finch and Sabine grew fast and with fervor. Despite their sickly sibling, the two seemed to show no lasting ailments. Reed and Colorado mourned the loss of their pup, but knew losing themselves to mourning would cause more pain for the family in the end. Soon, Minnow was a memory called at night with the rest of their lost.

 In whole, Sabine and Finch’s childhood was uneventful. They grew, they learned, and they thrived. That said, they were not without their own strife. In Sabine’s eyes, Finch always seemed to be the ‘better’ sibling. Finch was larger, stronger, faster. She learned quicker and looked prettier. Sabine’s large nose and awkward proportions made her feel inadequate- especially compared to Finch’s popularity amongst their cohort.

 Eventually, this disparity would go to Finch’s head. What started as a playful sibling rivalry evolved into meanspirited jabs at Sabine. Sabine found herself using mud to flatten out the longer fur on her head and nape, lest she face the jeering wrath of her sister. Though, this just changed the nature of insults from porcupine-inspired to various words for mudkin critters.

 After a particular rough day, Sabine got caught by her sister and her lackeys. The wolves pestered Sabine for what felt like hours as she tried in vain to get away from them. Her ignoring of the jeers only drove them further to anger, and Finch pushed Sabine into the mud. The young wolves’ laughter filled Sabine’s ears as she pulled herself from the muddy water, covered head to toe in the brown-black clay. Finch looked at her with scorn, “You’ll always just be a damn filthy mudbug.”

 In spite of this, Finch and Sabine both grew to have a knack for the divine. Where Finch found success in dream reading, Sabine found her niche in interpreting messages from the other (often utilizing bone casting or mud reading). They also felt that she had a connection with those who have passed on, and even cited details about Minnow that she would not have known. Her parents took great care to nurture this, as mediums were not commonly born into their pack. Sabine felt a great amount of joy to be the center of someone’s affections.

 It wasn’t long before the siblings hit adolescence. Sabine’s prowess in their art only increased the amount of bullying she received from Finch and their peers. Sabine found herself often spending time alone staring at things that weren’t there.

 One day, shortly after her first birthday, she came across the large form of her sister stuck up to her elbows in thick mud. Sabine watched her struggle from the shadows for some time. Eventually, the wind shifted. Finch raised her head and caught the faint scent of her sister. She called out and Sabine brought herself out of the thicket. Sabine watched her sister more now- struggling against the unforgiving mud. She took a step forward and stopped. For the first time in her life, Sabine had a power over their sister. She watched her sister fight and thrash, and a sick part of her enjoyed that Finch needed her help.

 But what would happen if Sabine did help? Would Finch make such a foolish mistake again? You see- as pups they were warned about the delta’s pension for burying your secrets. Sabine made the decision when she saw Finch stuck that her sister would be the next secret buried in its tomb. Finch called to her again, and Sabine turned and walked back into the ticket, allowing her sister’s cries to fall on deaf ears.

 After the tragic death of her sister, Sabine’s life began to change. Her parents mourned the loss of their daughter. Sabine mourned her too- in a way, but mostly she felt guilty. Seeing her parents and her pack so distraught…

 Still, life should go on… right?

 First, there was the drought. It had been months since Finch died, and the rains that normally soaked the land were nowhere to be seen. Like their kin to the north, the wolves of the delta relied on the rain as other snows to make hunting more in their favor. Deer sink into the mud, but the wider feet of the wolves allow them to stay on top of it. In times when there were no deer, the rain widened the rivers and supplied them with fish (and Sabine loved her fish).

 But now much of the floodplain had all but dried up. Their people were calling it a curse. Sabine did her best to communicate with those lost- to try and find a solution, but no wolves would take her council. In consulting the bones and the mud, Sabine begged for mercy, but none came. It had been a long time since Sabine’s pack had made a significant kill. Despite the lack of rain, the air changed from the typical soupy-thick humidity but to a different sort of heavy- like the feeling of coming down from a high altitude, though more like you were falling and crashing. Bone-worn and skin thin, some of the older members of her pack began to grow so sick that they died. Their bodies were taken to the river, desperate in sacrifice that she may bring more rain.

While suffering from famine, another pack in the clan brought word that their entire pack had fallen ill and died. In the time of the clan, even the oldest elders could not recall an event that would cause an entire pack to die. Sometimes, packs would merge to grow stronger, but a plague? It was unheard of. Their land was fruitful and their luck was good. However, exacerbated by the drought, the plague soon fell on her own people. Sabine watched with horror as one by one her family- weak from starvation and sick from pestilence- began to fall as well. Soon, her pack of 20-or-more became just her and her parent, Reed.

 Then Reed became sick. It was not long before Reed’s strength totally failed them, and they were no longer able to even stand. With a heavy heart, Sabine brought Reed to the water- what used to be a wide aorta of churning water was hardly a springtime brook. She laid the sick wolf down at the waters edge, and brought her head down so that Reed could look into her face. “Go.”

 Sabine didn’t understand at first- she stood in shock and stared at her near-lifeless parent. But she trusted in their experience. Sabine said a quick prayer and turned, walking away from everything she knew.

 In leaving the delta, Sabine followed the river until it truly was nothing more than a trickle of runoff from the nearest mountains. When the river failed her, she went north, following her gut and asking the bones when she felt unsure. Soon, she became adept at hunting small creatures on her own, and was able to recover from the months of famine, slowly nurtured by the prosperity of a home that wasn’t hers.

 Months of travels brought her to a low valley she had never been to before. The second she entered the valley, the weight of the air changed. The somewhat lighter mountain air shifted into the heavy miasma that reminded her of home- and not in a good way. Still, Sabine pressed forward. She wouldn’t stay here anyway, and it was a lot easier than going up and over a mountain.

 When the scent hit her, Sabine wished she had gone over the mountain. Rotten flesh and death brought her back to a place she did not wish to return. She wandered through this wasteland, trying to connect what caused all these deaths. Bodies of wolves- more than she could count- caught under rocks and bent in all sorts of horrific ways. While studying a corpse, a bit of movement caught her eye.

 Sabine looked to see what it was and saw a small, pale wolf. The stranger looked incredibly thin and sickly. They raised their hackles and let out their most threatening snarl. However, their diminutive frame and sickly demeanor did nothing to concern Sabine. Instead, she just raised an eyebrow, and asked a question. The stranger was not quick to trust, but soon Sabine got a bit of the story of the tragedy here.

 After a while in each other’s company, Sabine happened upon a trail of rocks leading from the carnage. She asked her partner about them, and they explained that it was a trail the survivors left to bring their lost home. Sabine thought on this for a moment. Her new friend- Edelweiss? These were their family. Sabine weighed her options, and convinced Edelweiss to go with her on the trail to Hintertomb. Edelweiss was not quick to agree, but Sabine did not leave much of an option.

## Trivia

* Sabine's feet are wide and webbed, like most wolves, and she is an excellent swimmer and decent fisher (for a wolf, that is!)
* The fossil that Sabine found in the the tunnel was a fossilized scute of *Deinosuchus riograndensis.*

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Arrillaga's deviantART Gallery