[carmineflyer]

The travelling stranger stumbles out of the night, seemingly out of nowhere. The shadows under his eyes speak of long nights without sleep and long days of travelling, and when he asks for a room in your inn, you can't help but say yes, ignoring the fact that there was almost no situation you'd refuse a customer.

The shear amount of weaponry hanging at his sides and the rusted, though still functional armor he wears also leads a hand in your speedy agreement. He is straight up about that lack of coins in his pockets, and tells you that he can work off his debt if necessary.

The weapons he has though are worth a fortune, and you can't help but eye them. He notices your stare, and sighs, placing a few of the smaller daggers on the table, though his sword remains at his side.

After a moment of bartering, he hands over two of them and trudges up to his directed room. Eyeing your payment, you notice a scrap of paper on the floor, and picking it up, you see an elegant script, beautiful handwriting. A quick glance tells you it is a letter, and you can guess who it belongs to. It could have fallen out as he was pulling out his daggers.

You know you shouldn't read it, but you doubt it will hurt anyone, and besides, you can return it to him in the morning. Opening it up, you begin to read...

Nalin,
There are so many questions I must ask of you, many I know you may not be able to respond to, but I hope I can find answers somehow or another. It has been three months or so since you have been gone, and we all miss you, it is the truth! I swear it on the bluebirds feather that I still have, remember that day? You gave it to me, and I found the feathers that I hope you still carry, the purple ones, you said you'd never seen a bird with purple feathers before. You thought I had dyed them, and I promised you I didn't!
Do you still carry them? You promised, though I would understand if you didn't want to, you always spoke of the trophies you'd take off your enemies, and surely feathers stolen from some evil warlord are so much greater then those given from a girl in a home you always wanted to be rid of. Sometimes I like to imagine you still have them. You told me that the little one, the one with the soft down feathers, that was your life now, and the big one was your life when you would come back, all those great deeds that a knight wins, the legacy that would surely outshadow anything the rest of your family could ever achieve.

But my questions, I have almost forgotten about them, apparently I am still the same. What was the war like, the battles? Are they as we imagined them? Father says you were a fool to ever think of war in such a way, but I know he worries about you. How did your training go? The knights you left to go serve, they never brought back news of you. They wouldn't speak to us at all really, though they did say you were still alive, it made me worry, why would they ever speak about you in such a way? I want to tell myself that you are okay, you will be home in a little bit, and if I just wait long enough, I'll stick my head out our window one day, and you'll be riding home on that big warhorse you told me about, hero to your town.

I bought some of the small good-luck charms from that bric a brac stand, they didn't cost much, don't worry. The merchant says the glow comes from the spirits of long deceased heroes, and they would help me become greater then I ever imagined in my time of need, but you know how those merchants are. I just thanked him and made my way back home. I strung them up on a string, like the daisy necklaces we used to make before you said you were too old for that, and they are in this letter. If you would like, you could wear them, as a gift from home?

Please write back. We have not heard from you in so long.

The rest of the letter is torn off, and you know for a fact there is no beads in the letter. Was he wearing them? You presume this was a letter to your customer.
Shrugging, you pocket the letter. You can ask him that in the morning.




Nalin
"the lotus, a beautiful flower that flourishes in muddy waters, is symbolic of enlightenment found in difficult situations."

[frogpaws]

username:
kia name:
gender:
what the feathers/beads represent:

marking

[yeena]

res name christophe.
he is a mercenary and he found the featers and beads while robbing a house, that being said he took an interest in them and stole them also
- bisexual
- collects needles and pinecones

[Chimericect]

Marking c:

[ADVENDIR »]

Marking.

[nymx]

[center]
By Queenie On Dragons Den ( IT Server)
snip

[Valute]

username:
Valute
kia name:
WIP
gender:
Male
what the feathers/beads represent:
WIPPPP

Ressss

[pouty]

xxxxxxxxxx

what the feathers/beads represent;;xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

xxxxxxxusername: Hopeful.xxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxkia name: Shiina
xxxxxxxgender: Female

This. This moment was what Shiina had been waiting all of her life. Possibly the second,
and last, feather she will ever need to chase after. They represented hope and
determination and faith and the last feather was just inches away from her crouching
body. The bird didn't move, as if wanting to make her job easier - she didn't hesitate. With
a simple kick off the ground and not a doubt in her mind, she made as much of a racket as
possible to send the bird flying towards the sky - and it did. So much so that it left a large
feather behind. The feather that still stands for hope

[get scared]

....................................................

username: Hoshizora
kia name: Durell, meaning strong, or simply Relle for short.
gender: male
what the feathers/beads represent: Durell adds a new amethyst bead whenever he helps a spirit. He got the idea from the first spirit he managed to help. This spirit had given him feather's in payment, saying that they matched his eyes.
Yes, Durell can (or at least believes he can) see spirits. He's yet to encounter another Kia like himself, but commonly finds himself encountering other creatures. He lends them a hand in finishing said uncompleted business, so they can pass on. Within reasonable terms, anyway. Relle may feel that it's his duty to help these (generally annoying) lost souls, but he's not going to aim for world domination simply to satisfy an aggressive squirrel or vindictive turtle's needs.

[Pyromaniacal]

Username: I am Sno Leopard, a non-owner who has stalked kiamaras since almost the beginning of my existence in mid-2013. I have always wanted a kiamara but there was something about this design that... suited me, I suppose. The first time I glanced at her, I must admit I didn't like her as much as other kias, but I have to say she really grew, and thrived, on me because I seriously can't get past looking at her now. I don't know what I'll do after I fill my form with art after I write this, because then I won't be able to get off this page to do other things that my mom has nagged at me to do. And think of all the other forms filled with art of this beautiful kiamara... yeesh....

Name: I am naming this kiamara Cranberri. If she happens to come into my ownership, she will thereby dubbed Cranberri with no questions asked. Cranberri was named her name for her purple coloring. No, cranberries aren't purple, not unless you put way too much purple food coloring in them. Turns out, that's exactly what Cranberri's great-aunt did, and every Thanksgiving when her mother was a girl she had violet cranberry sauce. Seems kind of a weird thing to name your only kid after, or any kid for that matter, but the holiday was so prominent in her mother's mind that when she saw her daughter's purple features that was unfortunately all she could think. Anyway, Cranberri was a pretty name, or at least was cute, so that was that.

Gender: Cranberri is female and female all the way. She prefers pronouns such as she and her and is normally referred to as a "girl." She was born female and has lived her whole life female. No more questions needed.

Sexuality: Cranberri is bisexual but not really in a "romantic mood" at the moment... she figures if the perfect person comes along, he/she/they/zhe/etc will eventually be drawn to her and they can get to know each other. She's not the most romantic of people and has never gone on a date, but she knows that there may be someone out there who'd really be good for her. It's just the matter finding that person, and she'd rather not draw at straws with a dating site and let it flow naturally.

Personality: Cranberri is a serious introvert. Sure, she doesn't like to be alone, but she's the kind of person who just... doesn't deal well with crowds. According to witnesses, once when she was at a party she hid in a closet the entire time. Her introverted personality doesn't hinder her in making friends, however — she has many friends and loves to hang out with all of them. Just not all at once.

Cranberri is also very sarcastic. Not so sarcastic that you never know what she means to say, but enough to get her thought of as a permanent pre-teen. She sometimes interjects sarcastic comments into conversations, never meaning to be hurtful but unfortunately it has upset acquaintances in the past. She has sometimes tried to change her sarcastic ways but has never succeeded and to this day uses just as much sarcasm as yesterday and the day before.

One of the triggers for her sarcasm is the fact that she is very easily annoyed and can even get angry during arguments. She cools down and forgives very quickly but her temper still has followed her throughout the years and dubbed her as a mean or bullying kiamara. She never tries to upset anyone but when annoyed can easily say things she really doesn't mean. She always tries to apologize for anything hurtful or unkind she had said but some people don't forget about that kind of thing easily and hold a grudge with her that she constantly tries to break, often unsuccessfully.

Cranberri all but makes up for her temper in her cheerfulness and general happy demeanor. She is forever the optimist, and almost always has a positive or uplifting thing to say. Many people like this about her and hang around with her just to get the happy vibe that seems to flood off of her in waves. She's always happy to see her friends and rarely seriously complains about anything (although sarcasm is common, like I've said).

She is also very kind and helpful to many people around her, and has a warm, open heart to whoever comes her way. Even if someone has held a grudge against her for a long time, she will still be glad to help and her kindness can undo things words cannot. Cranberri doesn't like people who are unkind and mean it, and will shy away from them in favor of nicer friends.

Likes: Cranberri has always loved winter best of all the seasons. She never knew why, and while all her peers were basking in the sun, laughing and sharing cold fruity drinks, she would be sitting sadly under the endless blue skies of summer. However, when the leaves began to turn and the sky clouded over, she always began to skip and smile, and then when the winter solstice rolled around she would practically have a party. Not that she has anything against summer, but winter's much more her thing and she has always preferred it.

Cranberri likes warm drinks in a scary sort of way and that may be part of why she likes winter so much. She doesn't really care what it is — hot cocoa, black tea, coffee, chai lattes, espressos, and herbal tea are only a few of so many unique and amazing options — and likes to snuggle up with a mug of warm what's-it-again and a book in long winter nights.

Cranberri also really enjoys many winter fruits, such as satsumas and persimmons. She likes all fruit and has always preferred vegetable matter to meat or candy like most other people she knows (although she'll never turn down quality chocolate), but winter fruits always hold something special for her, whether it's in their flavor, size, shape, or the fact that they always seem to be such bright, wonderful colors in contrast to the gray worlds of the land around them.

Cranberri has always loved jazz more than other music because it is such bright, happy, interesting music. There is so much variety within the genre in so many ways, yet they are all jazz and all wonderful. When Cranberri was a youngster sometimes she'd try to dance to fast-paced jazz and would tie herself in knots after trying to keep track of the swung beat. She has always wanted to learn an instrument and has decided that, if in fact she ever does learn how to play, she wants to play tenor saxophone.

Cranberri's favorite colors are bright and happy, like orange, teal, yellow-green, and magenta. Their vividness brightens her up and makes her smile. as a little one, she always wanted her feathers to be bright colored, and would even try to sneak back colorful feathers for herself, but her mother was determined that her feathers would match her eye and horn color and gave her purple ones instead, after removing all the vivid feathers from Cranberri's personal space.

In contrast to her liking of bright, happy music and colors, Cranberri always loves rainy days best. Perhaps it's the calm, rhythmic beat of the rain pattering on the roof, the cool weather, the smell, or the calmness of the gray days. Cranberri has always suspected it's all four of those, and more. Rain is special to her, and she'd rather not give it up — even for chocolate.

Dislikes: Cranberri dislikes hot weather, one of the reasons why she dislikes the summer months. Part of it is that Cranberri is bothered by sweat not produced by work, but by heat, and another part of it is that her fur gets awfully itchy when it gets too hot. She's fine with sitting in a sunny patch to read, but hot weather at length isn't particularly her thing.

Cranberri is normally fine with bitter things, but she thinks bitter vegetables such as kale and sometimes eggplant are absolutely repulsive. Her normally polite table manners are shattered when she takes a bite out of something bitter and green, sometimes even to the extent of her spitting the food out across the table.

Cranberri is irked out by rodents, like mice, rats, hamsters, gerbils, squirrels, and all their other relatives. She isn't grossed out by them, exactly, and she isn't afraid of them, she just doesn't like them. The only rodent she's found to be fine with so far are the capybara at zoos, perhaps because they're big enough to be more vaguely dog-sized and less vaguely rodent-sized.

Ironically, Cranberri's least favorite color is purple. It is too blue-and-red for her, too brownish, too.... too purple. She had always went to great lengths to avoid getting purple feathers and of course failed. She doesn't care too much about it now, but it is the source of many jokes between her and her friends.

On the beads and feathers: I never liked the color purple.

Honestly, I know my eyes are purple. I kind of expected to be given purple feathers. But did I want them? Not particularly.

I wanted my feathers to be teal and scarlet, bright and beautiful, sleek and shiny. But my mother said that they would be hard to find and besides, purple looked just beautiful on me.

Yeah right.

So on my second birthday I was given my feathers and they were the same dark violet hue as my eyes. I put them on out of respect for my mother and that was that. I had my feathers.

I never really thought about having them — they didn't stand for anything in particular, although the big one that was haphazardly tied to my tail was awfully cool (where does my mother find these things? I probably don't want to know) — and nobody really noticed them either. My birthday was later in the year than most other kiamaras and they all had their feathers before I got mine. So they were nothing special. The violet feathers blended into me, the same way I blended into crowds, how people's eyes would slip away from my dark form as if I were nothing but a shadow.

My ghostly effect on everyone else could be good when it made bullies forget about teasing me and peers forget about tagging me out in large games organized by the physical education department. But it also meant that I was always picked last, my only friends were strange, creepy kids I barely knew, and that I never seemed to be able to buy movie tickets.

Sometimes I wanted to be noticed more, but I didn't particularly mind being on my own so much as it didn't hurt me. I got good grades, could play basketball fairly well (though I was always better at running and individual sports), and didn't have my mom angry with me that often. By my later years of junior high eventually people began to realize I was there without my doing anything just because that kind of thing happens in junior high.

By now I was a high schooler, maybe junior, maybe senior, maybe even a little bit of both. I had decided to volunteer at my old primary school, the one where nobody noticed me except the teachers when they decided to give me a D. There were many very young children there and I was so big and important-looking that I couldn't be ignored if I tried. The second grade began to pester me with questions. I tried (and failed) to push my way through the crowd of young, hyper kiamaras. Eventually their excitement wore off and they left me alone long enough for me to find the school office where I could sign in as a volunteer.

I signed in and left the office, walking efficiently to the fourth-grade classroom I was to be working in. I passed a large oliander growing next to the parking lot and noticed something sparkling. Upon closer inspection, I found it to be a string of glittering purple seed beads, made of such find glass they practically glowed, probably some mother's necklace. I went to turn it in at the school office and realized it would be a waste of time, because nobody would ever remember to pick the necklace up and the secretaries would end up wearing it. I hooked it over my tail, the most convenient place for it at the time, and went to help my classroom.

When I got home, however, the necklace was too tangled to get off my tail, even after I clipped the ends. It was a knot, a never-unknotting knot, I would likely be stuck with it forever. Somehow, that made me smile.

So that's the end of the story. Yes, I end with feathers I don't like and a necklace hopelessly entangled with my tail. It seems like an ending that suits me, almost, weird and out-of-place. But that doesn't matter.

But what do they represent? I don't think about that much, even now, because they really don't matter in who I am. If I had to choose, I think the feathers represent love, the love my mother had for me, so sure I was going to think those feathers were great. They represent chance, predictability, and not liking yourself, my feelings after knowing the feathers would be my least favorite color. They are a symbol of me, but I'm not the me everyone thinks I am. Just like my feathers aren't really as important to me as everyone thinks they would.

The beads represent accidents, the accident that everything in my life was purple and the accident of whatever lady left them in that bush outside the elementary school. They represent invisibility, the natural invisibility I've had all my life and the invisibility of them hiding in the oliander. They symbolize a feeling of lostness, hopelessness, the way they're tangled over my tail. The feeling I've had, deep in my heart, all my life.

The feathers and beads, I decided, symbolize that you really aren't what you are on the outside on the inside. No matter how invisible, bland, or purple I become on the outside, I will always be me on the inside. Your looks don't matter at all, not mine at least. As much as my feathers aren't me at all, as much as I've never liked violet, I will always be teal and scarlet, bright and beautiful, sleek and shiny, on the inside, in my ideas and loves and quirks. Just like the feathers I had always wanted. And I really can't believe it took me twenty-something years to figure that out.

I, Sno Leopard, promise that if it somehow so happens that this kiamara falls into my ownership, she will be pampered in every way possible. She will have tons of art, roleplays, stories, and a key place in my signature, character thread, and heart. I will introduce her to the fanclub as soon as possible, and make an account on the fanforums. I may eventually find a mate and even children for her but I'll really take it as it comes.

Credits:
x by me
x by me
x by KenazRavenTooth
x by *Starshimmer*
x by randyc
All art will go to winner.

Entire form coding and writing by me. Please do not take any ideas or concepts.

Large fonts are, in order of appearance, No Name Sans Regular, Top Secret Stamp Regular, and Waybroye Medium from 1001 Fonts.