The Wind Whispers Through Rustled Branches

A moody urban gryphon who stalks the dark alleyways and seeks justice

Description:

There is no denying that Whisperwind is a Gryphon. The long black hair falling from a falcon’s face with the spots of a snow leopard, ears perked forward on her head and curious but suspicious eyes, are enough without the broad, dangerous-looking beak and the lean, muscled body she hides beneath an XXL hoodie and leggings. Not to mention the large, fluffy tail that curls around her legs. It’s that face, lacking in expression except for the large eyes, that make humans she encounters on the streets turn and walk the other way, but there is no helping it. Her nature is, after all, her nature.

And despite the fact that it’s exactly that nature that makes her a drifter among the alleys of King George City, Whisperwind never looks as if she’s been rummaging through a garbage bin – although some might suspect she has been by the half-eaten McDonald’s fry container at her feet. Instead, she is well-groomed and clean, smelling not of trash but of earth and fur and the musk of animals. It’s not unpleasant, but it is wild, a wildness that cannot be hidden beneath human clothes, no matter how hard she tries. A wildness that runs deep into her Gryphon bones.

Pictures of Whisperwind

Bio:

Her dirty paws and furry coat, she ran down the forest slope
The forest of talking trees, they used to sing about the birds and the bees
The bees had declared a war – the sky wasn’t big enough for them all
The birds, they got help from below
From dirty paws and the creatures of snow

- Dirty Paws, Of Monsters and Men

The Fae

Name: The Wind Whispers Through Rustled Branches (Whisperwind)

Family

Father: Setting Sun Rising Moon
Mother: Where the River Dances Crickets Sing

From the moment she had hatched, The Wind Whispers Through Rustled Branches (or Whisperwind for short) knew that she would live a life of service. Born into the noble family of House Talus, in loyal service to House Artegal, she accepted her duty with what can only be described as a Seelie sense of Honor. Due to that, Whisperwind was a solemn cub, serious and soft-spoken, asking questions and treating the vulnerable and downtrodden with compassion and infinite care. Because what was the purpose of nobility, if not to serve, to help, and to aid? And so she did.

When she came of age, as is expected of gryphons, she left her parents’ den to find a territory of her own. Like many apex predators, her kind marks out a territory as either a solo member of her species or a mated pair – a part of her life that Whisperwind never found in Tir Na Nog. The Grove, a large wild area tucked inside Gorias’s tall golden buildings, was given to her as territory due to her noble blood, and for three-hundred or so years, she kept watch over it alongside its Forest Guardian king – Feris Springthorn – caring for those “beneath her”, the meek and innocent; animal spirits, tricksters, crafty runts, and other beasts wishing to escape the towering wealth of the golden city and find a more peaceful, more humble, home.

Life was easy. It was peaceful. It was calm and serene and beautiful, and she watched it from underneath the eternally spring branches, or perched high among it’s towering trees. That is, until on one fateful Lughnasadh, Murias attacked the city while Whisperwind was out celebrating the holiday in Findias

The Grove was close to one of the walls and was, unfortunately, among the first areas to fall as it was breached. When she returned to her home, it was already too late. Feris was slain, The Grove burned, and as Whisperwind held the broken bodies of animal spirits in her paws and wept, she knew that a great injustice had occurred. And because she was House Talus, no one but she could right it. And no one but she was guilty of it. Because what is nobility, as a gift, if she could not save even but one of those precious lives from the suffering they had endured, if she had not left them to endure it without her? Humbled, heartbroken, she swore that she would leave Tir Na Nog on a quest to redeem herself, and that she would never return until she had proven not that she deserved to be a steward of The Grove, but that she had, in fact, earned it.

She spent the next thirty years crossing the Endless Sea, wandering about Demos Oneroi, and searching for a task that would help ease the thorn in her soul. She found it, in a dark Nightmare forest, where a human woman dreamt of being caged in towering brambles she could never escape from.

The Human

Name: Melissa Roberts (Missy)

Dark-haired and bright eyed, Missy Roberts was a smart, serious, and caring child. She knew at a very young age, around five, when she put a bandaid on her pet cat’s nose scratch, that she would live a life of service. That life quickly became a bane to her single mother, who was as equally soft-hearted as the child, as Missy brought home stray after stray, from rescued puppies and kittens, to rats, snakes, and even a goldfish from a toilet.

Her room in the small apartment was covered in animal cages, book shelves were stacked with Scholastic and National Geographic magazines on wildlife and domestic animals, and her love of the creatures pushed her through wanting to be a veterinarian in elementary school, a horse trainer in middle school, a farmer for her Freshmen year, and finally a wildlife zooologist, which she received a Master’s degree for when she was 24.

The Fatebound

After Fatebinding, she stayed in Boston for about a week. Long enough to learn some of the ways of the Fatebound, before hitchhiking across the country. After two weeks of careful planning, Whisperwind – choosing that name for herself – finally stepped foot in the largest city in Washington state.