Sharu Backstory

Sharu is a smart "barbarian" as many would call her people. Though smart Barbarian doesn't quite mean a smart person. Something that Sharu finds intolerable. However, Sharu lived most of her life not on the surface of the planet and under the overbearing sun. Sharu grew up in her clan in the Glowing Caverns, called such for the moss that grew along the top of the cavern. There she lived in a clearing with others of her kind, some of different race, but a majority of them Tieflings.

Life was "good" in a sense. Plenty of game to hunt, other tribes to trade with. Splendors of wealth, in their sense. She was a daughter of a hunter. And as such, she was trained to be a hunter herself. She took up the glaive as her preferred weapon and prayed to their goddess for her blessing. Little did she, or her clan, know that their protecting goddess was Shelyn.

She was given a dream that night. In which she imagined her glaive as if it were a brush. And that she should use it as her brush to paint the world in beautiful colors. When she woke, she sought out the village elder and spoke of her dream. They spoke softly for several hours on the meaning of this dream and she was given paints and was removed from the hunt.

Her father was furious at her removal from the hunt, especially after all of her training. He protested to the Elder that she be allowed to hunt. Sharu was given the final decision, and she chose her vision. Her father cursed her and fled into the jungle alone, against tribal rules. And the Elder forbid her to follow, saying that the jungle will make him understand.

Sharu grew more worried when her father was not back again that next night and prayed to Protecting Goddess once more, beseeching her for some protection for her father and went to sleep. That night her dreams were painted with dark colors and a sense of urgency arose. She escaped into the jungle, following mere instinct as she sprinted.

By the time she had been sprinting long enough for the adrenaline to end and her legs to burn, she'd traveled far from the village. And she realized her mistake. She'd been in such a hurry that she'd forgotten her weapon. But she didn't have time to let her legs rest, and she pressed onward, towards her instincts. She traveled for several hours more before she stumbled upon the scene from her dream. She panted and about near collapsed as she mentally cheered.

But her celebration was cut short when she spotted her father. He was treed by a young Tyrannosaurus. His spear lay shattered below the encroaching beast. The amount of blood was disheartening. But she got closer, foolishly likely. She had to think quickly if she wanted to protect her father. Even with a weapon, she'd be useless against the sheer power of the dinosaur.

She approached when finally she decided it was time to act. She threw a stone at the dinosaur's head and yelled. Just screamed at the dinosaur. All of her anger just vented at the dinosaur in some false hope that it would flee. Of course, it didn't. Instead it turned on her. And began to chase.

Luckily, it was young, but unlucky, she hadn't rested. She sprinted until her legs were just limp and numb. Her skin cut and bruised from the overgrown flora. The tyrannosaurus was still full of energy and she stumbled upon the cliff-side. In a last ditch effort, she treed herself in hopes that the thing would leave her be. It didn't, leaping up and trying to eat her legs and pull her down. The tree slowly breaking and pressing her closer to the edge.

She sent up a quick prayer to Protecting Goddess, but was interrupted by a snap and a sudden feeling of falling. She opened her eyes to see the cavern ceiling getting further away as her and the young dinosaur went down. She heard a scream for a short bit before realizing it was her own and then pain and she was knocked out.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been out when she came to. She hurt everywhere and sitting up was wracked with pain. She looked down to see parts of her abdomen impaled with small branches. Her already red skin turning a coppery color from the drying blood. She snapped the branches so that they were shorter, but still inside her and carefully made it to her feet. Her ankle was probably broken, and with the amount of blood and injuries, she was lucky to be alive. Though, likely soon to be dead.

She thought about ending it there, to save herself the slow bleeding out death when she heard a whimper. Figuring her life already over, she decided she had nothing to lose. She approached the noise and found the T-rex that had forced her over the edge. It was crushed under some trees and would be trapped to ultimately starve to death. A part of her mind danced in glee at the animal's suffering, but her heart sunk. She sat there and talked aloud to it, mostly to herself.

"This is your fault, you know?" "We are both going to die because of you." and other similar words escaped her lips in pained spats. The creature would look at her with pleading eyes, but she knew that it would eat her as soon as she freed it. So she just kept talking to it as she figured she was dying. To pass the time and to distract her own thoughts of pain and death.

Eventually she felt tired as she talked, but she knew sleep likely meant never opening her eyes again. She sat their quietly and exhausted, thinking of if she wanted death. She remembered her dreams, her prayers, and thoughts. She questioned what her purpose was. Was she truly to become the next meal of some grazing predator? None of it sat well with her. She started talking, just to hear her own voice and sometime after that fell asleep.

She was surprised to find herself still alive when she woke. No predator had killed her in her sleep, even though she had to smell delicious to them. She sat up again, the pain still great. She yelled at the T-rex and it looked at her. She cursed its existence again, walking away from it. However, she spotted something new from the other day. Tracks. She crouched down and took a look at them. They were clearly predators, and they'd gotten close enough to see her yet hadn't fed on her.

It didn't make sense to her blood deprived brain. She stumbled to the cliff edge and looked up it. She judged that it had been about fifty to sixty feet from the top, and she was probably ten feet higher than that in the tree. She cursed the cliff for not ending her life instantly. She cursed her father for leaving. She cursed the elder for not letting her follow. And lastly, she cursed herself for being so foolish.

She made her way back to the pinned dinosaur and found some smaller predators trying to feed on it. She stood there for a moment before she just acted, scaring off the smaller beats. Ones that would never be able to harm a non-injured version of this dinosaur's kind. She wasn't sure why she decided to scare them off, eventually agreeing it was because she wanted it to die a slow death. But as much as she told herself that, it still didn't quite feel right to her. She leaned against a tree, careful with her wounds and stared at the creature staring back at her.

Hours passed of this staring contest, with every now and then shooing off the smaller predators. Finally, tired of this stalemate, she approached the beast. Contrary to her thoughts, the dinosaur did not flail as she approached. Simply adjusting its head to keep at least one eye on her at all times. When it could not, it growled and would stop when she moved to where it could see her. She investigated its wounds to find that it likely had several broken ribs, one eye was bloodied so bad it clearly couldn't see all that well out of it, though still could follow her. For the first time, she expressed pity for the beast.

She laid down against it, sharing what little contact both could physically tolerate before the pain was too much. She began to talk to it again, nicer things this time, sharing her memories of youth, though she was still young. At some point she passed out again, only to be awoken to a loud snarl. She blearily woke up, needing to blink several times for her brain to focus. She was sure she was starting to get sick or at least was already. When her eyes focused, she began to see the beasts that had caused the tracks the previous nights.

Circling their food like she was some lowly meal. That struck deep, the thought of encroaching death. And something snapped. She started yelling with her snarling friend, but the creatures didn't seem to step back away for a few seconds. She looked at the tree fallen on top of the dinosaur company she had. She looked to the beast's eyes and could see fear. She stood, adrenaline pumping, and stepped to the tree. She began pushing, but it was far too heavy for her. After a few struggling attempts, she could feel some of her wounds tear open once again and cried out.

The circling dinosaurs chirped in excitement, toying with their soon to be meal. She pleaded to Protecting Goddess to give her the strength to live. She begged and cried out for a miracle. There was no vision, but the dinosaur seemed to understand her as it struggled with the tree. She pushed with the assistance of the new strength and managed to get the giant log to budge slightly. She cried out with excitement as she rushed the dinosaur, seeming to forget that the beast could easily, and likely would, eat her.

But it wouldn't budge further. She glanced to the other side and saw why. The log was caught on a large boulder like rock. Her risen hopes sank as she stopped struggling. Though the dinosaur didn't. She mumbled about how it was over for her. Over for the dinosaur. She sank to her knees. Instead, she was met with a sudden pain as her knee struck a rock.

It was a small rock, about the length of her forearm, but it was pointed. She hoisted it up with her last remaining strength, tearing open the last of her closed wounds with a cry. She struggled to run around the dinosaur, bringing the rock to the log. She began to throw the rock as hard as she could at the log, crying and begging for it to break. One smash. Two smash. Three smash. Each successive smash lowering her hopes when finally after her final desperate attempt, the log cracked.

She stared wide-eyed at the crack and then began bashing the crack over and over again. When finally it broke, rolling off the dinosaurs back, with several cracks as it crushed its tail. It let out a tremendous roar as it staggered to its feet. Sharu struggled to the beast and clung to its back. The Tyrannosaurus charged forward, snapping up one of the small dinosaurs in its maw, shaking it into a rain of blood and throwing it at the others. A few brave ones darted forward, their easy meal now needing a little more effort.

The first was swiped away by the tail, which lead to a pained roar. The second bit into the T-rex's side. Sharu panicked and began kicking the beast in the head as it tried to tear out a section of the beast. Eventually, freeing the beast she was riding. It took down the third with a chomp over its neck, struggling for a second before falling limp. The remaining ones began to swarm and she yelled at the dinosaur to run. Maybe it listened, maybe its flight instincts kicked in, but it did just that.

They ran and ran and ran before the beast began to stagger and collapse. She freed her leg and began to fret over its wounds. A part in her head told her to run, but she ignored that part. She used vines to tie up the dinosaur’s wounds and her own before she passed out on the creature.

For the fourth day, or so she assumed, she awoke, but she could hear talking. It was familiar, but yet distant in her foggy mind. She called out for the dinosaur and help. Someone grabbed her hand and she remembered the word "Rest" before the world faded again. There were a few more of these blurred memories, one of being carried, another of some distant talking, and just laying there. But none were clear enough to know what was happening; confusion rampant.

A week, maybe two, maybe more, passed when she finally awoke without haze. She sat up with a start, blinking as she realized she was in a healer tent. She ran her hands along her stomach. There was no wounds. She breathed out a very long sigh of relief, but her moment of relief was short lived as she didn't spot her savior animal. She ripped the blanket off of her and stumbled onto the floor, crawling out of the tent.

She was met by big red eyes. Attached to said eyes was the rest of her savior. She held a hand over her heart, breathing heavily and openly wept. The elder approached after several minutes of her crying and the dinosaur nuzzling her. He spoke quietly. Her father had survived and brought a search party to find her. He spoke about the dinosaur that refused to leave her side until he was sure that she was in good hands. They called him her protector, even though he had tried to eat her.

But from that day on, they trained together. Hunted together. Played together. For several years as he continued to grow until he was far larger. They began to ride together on hunts. They were almost never separate. She named him Chompers, and he grew smarter as time went by. Soon he was very big, very strong, and her closest friend. But time for her pilgrimage would start soon, and she would be out in the jungle on her own for some time. Her goal to bring knowledge and beauty back to the tribe.

It was during this time that she found out about the surface world, and sought to learn as much as she could to return home with. It was clear that this world was far different, and she was worried about her people being harmed by it, so she chooses to keep her home secretive. She would collect pieces of the world she found interesting to take home later.