Grief

Grief, as imagined by user FaolaThe Wolf

Grief was created for a drawing challenge between users FaolaTheWolf and KnightOwlet. She was inspired by FaolaTheWolf´s character Shadak.

## Description

The owl who calls herself "Grief" is an Ambalan Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) from the border with Kuneer. She is heavily scarred on her chest, and the feathers have grown back in ugly patches. One of her eyes is milky white and blind, and the dark spots on her plumage have faded to a dull gray. At first glance, she looks for all in the world like a vengeful scroom.

Apart from a badly scratched set of battle claws taken from a dead Tytonic Union soldier, Grief eschews any kind of wargear; she goes without a helmet or armour. So far her skill and the ferocity of her attacks have kept her alive.

## Personality

Grief hates and despises all Tyto owls. Bitter, full of anger and rage, she has been known to lash out brutally. She and her loved ones have suffered at the Pure Ones´ talons during the war, and she lives for vengeance. Even though not all Tytos were Pure Ones, she suspects them all to be sympathisers, and would kill them at the slightest provocation.

There is not much more in her soul. Once, she was a loving and caring owl, but the Pure Ones took that all away. She often feels she is a hollow shell only held together by her purpose and her hate, that if she were to feel even the tiniest shred of love, she would fall apart.

## History

Grief (then named Peony) lost her mate, her sister and her three branchlings to the Pure Ones when their legions diverted to Kuneer after the disastrous Siege of the Great Tree. She helplessly witnessed the torture of one of her branchlings by Ruthven (a Pure One commander), who tried to get from him the location of the other owl communities in the vicinity. She hears his pain-filled cries every day in her sleep. The scars on her chest come from her plucking out her own down and feathers in despair.

Her sister Stef was cruelly pinioned, with wooden stakes through her wings to prevent her from escaping, and, together with other enslaved owls, forced to excavate a system of tunnels for their captors. She was killed afterwards. The Pure Ones wanted to make sure no one would divulge their new hideout.

Changing her name to Grief, Peony took up a wandering existence. She sold her services as a hireclaw on the fringes of the Kingdom of Tyto, working for those groups of owls who hunted down Pure One stragglers. Since a few moons, she has been more or less permanently attached to Shadak´s slink melf, which she found to be full of kindred spirits. Shadak himself finds her strength and size useful, but is leery of her violent nature and boiling anger. He is just realising that she is a dam ready to burst, and Glaux be with those in her vicinity when that happens.

And there is something else growing inside her, Shadak feels, something un-owlish that feeds on her hate. Maybe he is imagining things, but does that blind eye take on a slight yellowish glow when she is enraged? Her husky voice breaks and becomes raspy, almost like a crow´s. And she is uneasy around open water, he notices. So far, he cannot make anything of these changes, but they leave him troubled.