Damaged but Unbroke
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Prologue:
This story is set in a world of monsters and magic, in a land of kings and queens and petty lords, and in a time of peace following a long and brutal war. This world has dragons, manticores, wyverns, feral wolves as tall as man, and all manner of nightmare beasts. Though humans have been hunting them for a thousand years, their numbers never seem to wane. The only upside to living with them is that monster parts can be used for powerful potions and healing salves through the practice of Alchemy.
The protagonist is a 26-year-old adventurer named Avalon Frost. He was raised by a single mother close to the capital city of Tempeste. He started training with sword and bow since he was old enough to hold them. His dream is to make a name for himself out there, in the vast expanse of the unknown world. For the past 8 years, he's been travelling the countryside on the back of his adult female starwing griffin, completing monster bounties, saving towns and performing all together heroic deeds. Starwing griffins have a base of black fur and black wings, but their lustrous fur has streaks of purple, blue, greens and reds, like nebulae frozen in time. The feathers are pitch black too, but that only makes the luminous points of light that pepper the wings look even more like stars. About 2 and a half years into his journey, he met Circi Blackwater (36 at the time, about 42 in the present day). At the time, she was head of a city patrol unit. It's important to note that in this society, women are allowed to enter the military but are often viewed as inferior soldiers. Even her patrolmen viewed her as a woman first and then a soldier, and certainly no one they expected to go very far in the armed forces. On their first meeting, he looked past her gender and treated her with the respect that her rank and experience commanded. That very night, they faced a particularly nasty water wyvern. Together Circi and Avalon managed to save the patrolmen and Tempeste city from its wrath. They went for a drink to celebrate, and their friendship was cemented.
Circi had short, red hair and golden eyes that seemed to glow when she got excited. Her pale skin, although well taken care of, was riddled with the many scars she had accumulated in her time of living dangerously. She was tall, standing at 5'10". Her time as a soldier had broadened her shoulders and fleshed out her arms, which gave her a vaguely tom-boyish look. Her overall figure, however, was toned and lean without any visible musculature. She mostly wore the red and gold armour of Tempeste city with a red-maned Hoplite helmet. She fought with spear, sword and shield though she was trained to use most readily available weapons.
