Kira's childhood home:When Kira's mother and father had only begun thinking about settling down and raising a kit, they set off in search of a clan to settle in. A lot of thought went into selecting the perfect clan in which to raise a kit, after all, they'd likely stay here with their kit and potentially grandkits someday. As explorers themselves, they needed a beautiful land they could enjoy, an enriching community for their kits, and welcoming neighbors they could make friends with. The clan in which they chose fit the bill perfectly, there were tall woods to explore, large, flowering meadows with lakes that reflected the distant mountains, and rich lands with plentiful harvests.
Here, Kira's parents built a den all on their own, as a labor of love. All of the digging, construction, and forging of furniture and decorations put a strain on their bodies. The thought of the family they would someday have kept them going. Once the den was complete, the entrance was at the foot of a beautiful cherry blossom tree, and led directly into a large sitting room, where they would eat, host guests, and spend their down time. Branching off from the sitting room were two bedrooms, one for themselves, and a large one for their kits to share and grow in someday. Kira's mother had crafted beds stuffed with cottonballs and covered in the pelts of rabbits for each room, as well as couches made of fallen trees, upholstered with the same materials as the beds. She crafted tables and vases for the sitting room as well. Her mother always kept the vases filled with an assortment of wildflowers. Her mother most loved to fill them with sunflowers, as yellow was her mother's favorite color, and she felt that it brightened up the room.
Kira and her father would often sit on these couches, and her father would tell her of all the adventures that her mother brought him on, and how he was so grateful that a vixen so beautiful, selfless, and ambitious could have chosen to spend her life with a todd like him. He would tell her not only of the adventures they had, but also of the way he would look at her mother, with such gorgeous locks, and consider himself the luckiest man alive to have one of her kits on the way.
These stories of her mother's incredible beauty made Kira start to appreciate her own looks a little bit more. Kira yearned to someday have her beautiful mane talked about by a todd the way her father had talked of her mother. From the age of four, she began teaching herself to keep up with her mane. She would always use the reflection of the pond outside her den as a mirror, and brush her fur every night and morning. As she grew, Kira began to teach herself more complicated hair styles, with twists and braids.
Kira grew up well, and became quite close with the local boys. She was especially close to a young todd named Todd. Todd and Kira became great friends, and would often sneak out late at night to explore the woods. There was a large tree with thick, intertwining branches overlooking the settlement. Todd and Kira would sit in the branches and talk for hours on end, staring into the night sky, and finding shapes in the stars. During the day, they would often scour the creek for 'friendship rocks' - river stones with holes through them for strings - and exchange them with one another.
She became quite the tomboy, she just loved how chill the boys were with one another, and loved playing all kinds of fun games and taking hikes together. Kira found herself feeling better connected with todds than the vixens, as she found the local vixens to be very petty, shallow, and not very adventurous.
As she grew older, Kira became very close with her father and Todd. She and her father had developed a very friendly relationship and would tell one another just about everything. Todd and Kira became the best of friends, and were on the verge of becoming more than friends. Their late night stargazing trips often lasted very late, and they would just sit and talk about their futures, what they would do someday when they 'grew up.' They wished to run away together and explore the world. Kira wished to see new lands, and Todd wished to meet new foxes and immerse himself in new cultures. They had decided to travel together someday. Though neither of them would be the first to admit it, they had huge 'puppy love' crushes on one another.
The Move:By the time Kira was eleven years old, her father decided he wanted to start a new life and move away from the old home. It harbored too many sad memories of the excitement he and Kira's mother had shared when deciding to begin a family there. He had wanted to start over with Kira for years, but until now he had been afraid that she was too young to understand that they were moving, and he had feared that a move may have been too rough on young Kira. Kira was now physically capable of handling the journey that comes with a move, though she was not emotionally ready to abandon her old friends back home. At first, Kira resented her father for pulling her away from her friends, especially Todd.
And so the two of them were off to start a new life, on of Kira's first ventures outside of her childhood clan. Upon their departure, her father gave Kira one of the spare keys to the home that her mother had helped to create for the family she was so excited to start. Kira has but a few memories of her old home, and keeps the key around her neck as a reminder of the den, with the seating room where her father told all of the stories, and Kira's tiny room with a bed of cottonballs topped with a soft, handmade blanket of rabbit fur. She remembers little from her childhood home, but very well remembers the stories her father would tell her in their old home, her old friends, and all of the places they would explore together.
Along the way, Kira and her father passed through many mountains, valleys, and rivers. They passed through many a clan, staying for a few nights, but never feeling quite at home there.
Until one day, they stumbled upon a clan located in a beautiful, open valley with tons of space for Kira to run and play. The DVFs there had manes and tails resembling Kira's, which made her feel at home, and as though she fit in with the community. Her father did not know much about her mother's heritage, as the two had met wandering as loners. He had heard her speak of a large, open field, and due to this and Kira's similar appearances to these DVFs, he suspected that this clan may have been home to Kira's mother someday long ago. Though Kira's father had hoped to escape the memories of her mother, he really did love the community here, and knew that Kira would be happy here and fit in well with the other kits. The two of them eventually decided to stay here with this clan.
