Name: Sarai
Age: 27
Sex: Female
Orientation: Unexamined
Place of Birth: Kantabin, Arendann

Appearance: Sarai is taller than the average woman, all long limbs and serene softness. Her hair falls in lilac waves around her shoulders, littered with thin braids, and her eyes are a haunting, pale blue that stand out against her brown skin. A crisp, clean scar arcs around her right eye – an image of a crescent with a line slashing down through it.

Sarai's left leg is covered with fresh burn scars from the shin down to the sole of her foot, the bones within slightly deformed and crooked – an injury that she did her best to treat, but still healed imperfectly. She now walks with a limp, leaning heavily on a branch that she turned into a half-hearted walking stick.

Personality: Gentle, quiet, and reserved, Sarai is one to listen often and speak rarely. She's well educated and has a compassionate air about her, but her life up to this point has led her to be detached from the people around her. She's more observer than actor; when seeing an atrocity she's more likely to record how it unfolds than she is to intervene – and as of recently, she's more and more prone to seeing what she has to gain from the situation.

Skills:

• Foraging – B-
• Cooking – C+
• Medicine/First Aid – B
• Sleight of Hand – D
• Star Navigation – C

Inventory:

• Ceremonial Knife
• Simple Clothes and Shoes
• Cloak and Scarf
• Silver Jewelry
• Makeshift Walking Stick
• Worn Leather Bag
  
  • Half-Filled Journal
  • Pens and Graphite
  • Stone Mortar and Pestle
  • Four Glass Vials
    
    • One vial filled with a blood coagulate
  • Cloth Bandages
  • Thin Braided Cord
  • Stolen Flint
  • Stolen Water Flask

Background: Sarai never knew her family. She, along with dozens of other infant girls from the isolated town of Kantabin in southern Arendann, was claimed by the Moon Gazers – women who served as healers, scholars, and historians. Their cause was to record the ever-changing phases of life, to bear witness to the day-to-day goings-on of Kantabin and to record them – to remember. Thus, the Moon Gazers were called to moments of import in people's lives: birth, death, marriages, apprenticeship graduations... Sarai was once called to witness a man ending his relationship with his fiancée, and write it down in one of her many notebooks. The role of the Moon Gazers eventually evolved to include medicine work and healing.

Sarai lived a controlled, simple life of wanting for little and observing everything. But then she started writing more and more about rumors whispered in the streets and little shops about the fall of the king of Venirin and his ambitious successor. Then there were the first confirmed reports of battles along the border. Then Hell came to Kantabin.


Pokémon: Scizor
Nickname: Esa
Gender: Male
Ability: Swarm

Item: None

Moves:

• Fury Cutter
• Iron Head
• Counter
• Endure

Bond: Sarai never intended to have a Pokémon. As a Moon Gazer, it was forbidden. Esa was a Scyther, and the loyal companion of a man named Taryn Faider. Taryn, a member of the Kantabin town guard, was a quiet man, just and dutiful – and hopelessly in love with Sarai. He'd go out of his way to escort her from the Lunar Library to whatever event she was to witness, presenting her with little purple flowers, complimenting her intricate penmanship... Sarai didn't know how to return his affections. But she didn't discourage them, either. As with everything else, she observed with a detached sort of fascination.

When Venirin's hunger finally reached Kantabin, Taryn took up arms along with the rest of the guard – but Kantabin was a quiet town, unprepared for war. A mere hour before Venirin soldiers planted their flag in the layer of ash that covered the cobblestone streets, Taryn, bloodsoaked and panting and with Esa following quickly behind, ran to the Library. It was burning. There'd been screams before, as loud as the furious blaze, but they'd since quieted. Moon Gazers lay dead on the library floor, felled by the smoke and consumed by the fire. Taryn ordered Esa to wait outside, before dashing into the building. It was several long minutes before Taryn came crashing back out into the open air, Sarai's limp body thrown over his shoulder. Her left leg was a mess of charred black and red, bones crooked and unnatural. Taryn dropped her in Esa's arms and ordered him to take her away – keep her safe. Taryn cupped the side of Esa's face and pressed his forehead against the Scyther's. He closed his eyes, his jaw clenching tight. Then Taryn pulled away, grabbed his sword, and charged back into the heart of Kantabin to meet the Venirin soldiers once more.

The days following the fall of Kantabin were challenging to say the least. Both Sarai and Esa were weak, injured in the attack; Sarai's foot was mangled and the act of treating herself was painful and difficult without any of her supplies from the library. Meanwhile, Esa had a shard of a Venirin sword lodged in his thorax. Day by day the red stain grew, frighteningly fast. Sarai thought it was infection – that Esa was dying. But then he finally allowed her close enough to examin it to find that the red stain wasn't blood or an infection. It was metal. Soon enough there was no more green on Esa's body. Instead he'd changed completely, evolving into something new – something stronger.

Esa didn't understand Taryn's decision. He still doesn't. He belonged with Taryn, not this woman who nodded and smiled but never loved him back. But Esa could never go against his partner's final wish. Ever loyal, he serves as Sarai's guardian – but nothing more. He resents her, rarely listens to her, but will follow wherever she goes and will do everything in his power to protect her.