Aderyn Mewn Cyffion

The gods had left their pack. Her foolish mother, still hoping that they would return. Cyffion was born when their pack was still lush with life, vibrant with the life inside it, but as she grew? The days grew darker. There wasn't enough food, sickness ran rampant, more deaths than ever before. The spirits of the pack - Neidr the old stud, Pren Pwdr, the first, and Peth Cors, the vengeful - they started to fade. Melys a Melysach could not interpret what this meant, did not understand any more than the rest of them.

And so, Aderyn Mwn Cyffion grew up in an age of neglect. Of death, famine, and sickness. Her mother would soon pass, pushing herself to breaking point as she continued to traverse their home, slowly becoming more and more aware that whatever had happened meant that their god would not be back. Not in true, in any case - there were signs, time to time. But nothing more.

Cyffion fought, determined to ensure she would bring their pack to their best once more. She followed the scouts, breaking off to find her own way through sweltering rainforest, frigid glaciers.

She pushed and pushed and when it all came crumbling down, she climbed her way back to stability.

Cyffion culled the pack, choosing only the best to accompany her into the depths of the forest. Her body changed, the antlers she was born with twisting and spiralling much faster than they ought to have. The pitch-black wings, unfolding from the flesh of her back, spilling rivulets of blood down her coat.

The second queen, Arwain, was told to be an explorer. She pushed away the gods, taking her pack to travel in the lunar lands. Every lead had been there but she became mutated, twisted, with lunar... additions.

Llechi was next, a place holder for Fy Anwylyd. The she-wolf followed in her mother's footsteps.

Cylch o Sêr was the last to reject the gods, Ilawen Broga pulling the pack away from destruction and allowing the gods to take an amount of control once more.

She was the smartest. But there was no balance to be had this time.

Cyffion did not wish to leave the forests but she did wish for a strong pack and a proud rule... which meant leaving the gods behind. And so she did.