Phoenix

The daughter of blacksmiths from a militarized Light clan, Phoenix was a skilled and respected young warrior within her birth clan, a strong candidate for a leadership position within their ranks and well loved by her fellow recruits. As her and her teammates were stationed further and further away from the lair, they garnered a reputation for how efficiently they were able to dispatch Beastclan threats, their prestige growing with each passing day. But, as she would soon realize, the fame and glory she earned in the day would only come back to haunt her during the night.

At first, the dreams were vague and hazy, blurred shapes and noises accompanied by a feeling of dread and terror. She was unnerved, but chalked it up to the stresses accompanied with warfare and did her best to put the dreams out of her mind, but every night they grew clearer, and every morning the feeling of dread would be harder to shake. As her dreaming became more vivid, she began to recognize a pattern: she would always be in the forest outside the lair, she would always be chased by ominous towering figures, and as the dream drew to a close she would always die, alone and surrounded by these massive, hulking beasts.

But, one night, something changed. Again, she was chased through the wood, and again, she was chased, but as she realized to her horror the creatures chasing her weren't just faceless apparitions conjured by her sleeping mind: they were her squadmates, only... not. Their faces were the same, certainly, but there was something undeniably wrong that she couldn't place; their smiles were too toothy, their faces rough like jagged stones, and their eyes glowed with a bright, predatory gleam. She wanted to call out, to beg them to stop chasing her, but her body was not her own, and in her heart she knew that these being weren't her friends, but monsters.

Through some miracle she managed to outrun the creatures and hid behind a giant redwood to catch her breath, her chest tight as she tried desperately to gulp down the air. And then she saw her. Herself, but not. Smile too toothy. Face rough like jagged stones. Eyes glowing bright and predatory. And then, as the her-that-was-not drew it's sword and closed in, she screamed a familiar scream, in a voice that was not her own- in a body that was not her own.

And then the dream ended, as it always had.


She'd recognized that scream. It was that of a Serthis woman who'd been giving them trouble for weeks, setting traps along nearby roads that had on multiple occasions nearly ensnared passing merchant caravans. Her squad had managed to finally dispatch her the day prior.

She didn't know what the dream meant- she didn't want to know- all she knew is that she never wanted to have a dream like that again. And so, turning in her equipment, she left the clan behind, hoping that doing so would leave her nightmares behind as well.