Name:
Rania May (Rania)
She is only called Rania May when being adressed formally or in trouble, and usually goes by Rania.
Gender:
Female
Personality:
Rania loves to make others smile, and not once has she failed to cheer up a friend. But, while to her friends she may be cheery and upbeat, to others she's quite shy. She has a hard time trusting others, which is why she doesn't have many friends. The ones she does have see her true personality; an outspoken chimera who loves a good time.
Story:
Bright, red heat is all that can be seen as Rania gallops through the trees, searching for survivors. She turns a corner and sees two familiar pelts caught in the blaze.
"Rania, Rania!" they cry out as she nears them. The young male's voice still has some strength even though he is burned, but the fae's is weak. Rania picks them up gently in her jaws, careful not to exaggerate the injuries further. As she steps into the bright light of day, the fae's breathing grows weaker.
"Rania," she whispers.
"I'm here sister, don't worry." Rania replies, her voice muffled by the pups she carries. Her mother and father wait on the grass and Rania sets the pups down. The male manages to sit up, but the fae collapses on the green.
"I love you, Rania. I love you, Mommy. And you, Daddy. I love you, too." she says.
"I love you, sister." Rania says, nuzzling the fae's cheek.
"Bye, bye." the fae whispers, and her eyes forever close. A tear welled in the corner of Rania's eye...
Rania woke with a start, shaking her head to clear it. She had been dreaming about her sister again. Rania got up, oblivious to her parents sleeping beside her. She plodded into her brother's room. He was not sleeping, but whimpering in pain. Rania's brother survived the fire, and he had the wounds to prove it.
"Rania," he whined, "It hurts, Rania."
"I know, brother. But it will get better. You'll be fine. Right?" Rania looked at her brother with a hopeful smile.
"Right." he coughed. Rania licked his cheek, applied some of the weak burn medicine to his hot skin, and left, telling him she'd be back soon with breakfast.
Her parents were awake in the tunnels.
"How is he?" her mother asked.
"It's getting worse. We can only pray infection doesn't set in by nightfall." Rania responded, her voice full of sorrow.
"We'll watch him." her father said, "Go hunt."
Rania left the Glass Mountains, nodding to the guard and promising her parents a good catch. Outside, at the foot of the mountain, she caught a flash of movement.
"It's a rabbit." she said matter-of-factly, and set her sights on the goat grazing further away and bounded down the slope.
She stopped when she got to the bottom, and went into a stalking position. She crept through the grasses, making no sound, closing the distance between her and her prey. In almost no time at all, she had closed the gap and was ready to pounce. The goat looked up from the grass, looked around, paranoid, and went back to eating.
That was close, Rania thought. She shifted a bit, putting all her power into her haunches. Then she launched herself at the goat--and so did something else.
The goat, startled at the appearance of two predators, tried to run away, but Rania fell on it and broke its leg as she crashed into the other animal. So the goat sat there, helpless, as Rania bit into its neck, feeling the blood flow into her mouth.
"What are you doing?" an irritated voice sounded behind her. Rania looked up and unlatched her jaws from the goat's windpipe.
"That was my catch." said a female pantherberus, hackles raised and tail thrashing.
"But I killed it. Please, my brother is sick, and he needs to eat something. We all do." Rania said.
"I don't care if your brother's the king of Edhanastia! That's mine!" the pantherberus snarled, and lunged at Rania. Rania jumped aside and growled back.
"So be it." she said, and jumped over the pantherberus, landing on its back as it ran at her. It collapsed under Rania's weight, and Rania sat on top of the big cat.
"I need the kill for my family. Please give it up." Rania said, looking down at the creature.
"Never!" the pantherberus cried, and struggled under Rania's weight. The female wasn't strong enough, however, and Rania managed to keep her place.
"I'm sorry, then." Rania said. She howled into the clear autumn morning once, twice, three times until she saw more chimeras galloping down the hill. The pantherberus growled and struggled some more. Rania noticed the guard from before among the group.
"I wish you pantherberi wouldn't do this. You're all so stubborn." Rania watched as the group made it to the bottom of the mountain.
~Still a little bit of a WiP
Art:
~WiP
Three things about Chimeras:
1. Chimeras live on the planet Edhanastia, which they share with a variety of mutated creatures, including their enemy, the Pantherberi
2. The reason for their mutations is that a meteor crashed into Edhanastia, taking with it a, if I may use the term, radioactive crystal that broke apart when it hit the planet. The waves it released mutated everything in its path.
3. There are a few distinct differences between male and female (fae) chimeras: the male has spikes on its lower back and hind legs while the females do not, and the females have horns that curl at the ends, while males' remain straight.