With a final glance at the small house that had been her home for sixteen years, Firany stepped out into the yellow sun and locked the door.

She lived in the busy City of the Lost, always lovely and lively and full of people. Merchants, missionaries, soldiers and travellers, there was never a quiet moment in the Untamed origin. This place was well known for its dry lands and bold sunsets, as well as abundance of ores, sandstone and other crafting materials. You only had to take one step outside the city to find pig iron to dig. It was also full of farm life: rabbits, horses, house cats and dogs, along with rams just in the outskirts. This city was always living, much like its animalistic inhabitants: the Venomancers and Barbarians.

According to the legends of the world's creation, the Untamed were formed from Pangu's body. Stories say the Untamed were originally animals living in the terrain of barren desserts, but when Pangu's own flesh came to the earth, these animals acquired the forms of half-beast, half-human beings; they had the intelligence of a human and the strength of a beast. Pangu's flesh moistened the land, making it fertile as a gift for the new race to cultivate.

The Untamed were strong in stature, had great vitality, and lived healthy lives to old age. Their women had the appearance of human women with additional animalistic features linked to their spirit animal: cheeky furry ears, a fox's teasing smile, bodies flexible and sinuous, movements fluid like water. They had mysterious, sensuous demeanours that made them so very alluring to the ones around them.

Their men stood upright with bodies of human men, but were so close to the land that their heads and skin took on the appearance of their spirit animal. Some barbarians had particularly large stature, physical strength, skill, and mental conviction. In the first days of the Untamed society, these barbarians took on the role of pack leader, akin to an animal king.

While the men had the traditional role of protecting the women and the young, the women were no weaker than the men. Venomancers were proficient apothecaries, with generations of knowledge in traditional Untamed brews. They also tamed animals, whether as a protector when travelling to the outskirts, or as an assistant in everyday life. They utilised magic of the woods to defeat unwanted enemies, be it an overexcited wild boar, or poison for the pests. The Untamed were a capable, strong race.

Firany was born thin and small. Because of this, she was often bullied by other Venomancers in the school of the Untamed. Fox spirits with fat, luscious tails; voluptuous and mysterious. Devilish bat spirits with little horns of mischief on their crowns: the troublemakers. Dingos, agile and flexible. Rabbits, intelligent and highly cherished as future priestesses with connections to the moon. Cheetahs, calm and reserved even as youth. Firany was no alluring beast. She did not have the teasing confidence of Venomancers assured in their femininity, nor did she look very animalistic in the first place. She was deer-spirited, with small, pink, delicate horns and no tail.

But that was okay, because Radial was there. He was her older brother, six years her senior. A roaring tiger, strong, loyal and kind. He encouraged her, guided her, taught her skills and crafts. He also protected her from dangerous rocks, caught her when she tripped, took her outside the city to catch frogs. If Firany being small was a punishment from the gods to their parents for producing such a strong barbarian, someone that could be a pack leader, she would gladly accept the consequence. Firany didn't hate her own kind. She resented her classmates' teasing, envied the fellowship of Barbarians. But Firany didn't hate anyone. Everyone was born innocent and faultless, treasured and cherished by their mothers as the most precious jewel of the world. She believed that people were naturally good, that there were multiple sides to every person, and nobody deserved to be totally despised for a one time mean-spirited act. She was a kind child.

However, she only knew how to be kind, not how to be clever. She was naive and innocent, sheltered and shielded and protected her whole life. She wasn't at all alike to Radial, who had a heart as wide as the sea but simultaneously possessed talent and skill so raw and potent that he shone brightly amongst the giant sea of Untamed soldiers. She was just a little girl who relied on her brother a little too much, a child who would feel lost if the world around her was disturbed, who was afraid of change and did not truly understand what it meant to change herself and adapt to the new world.

On Firany's fifteenth birthday, Radial disappeared.

On her sixteenth birthday, she left home to search for him.