Ember Rose had always been somewhat of an outcast in nature.  She was born and raised in Eldur Ljos, built up on top of the clouds themselves.  Her family, like many others of Eldur Ljos, were Vaengjakindurverja.  They herded the large, flufffy Vaengjakindur in the cloudy fields, keeping them out of trouble most of the year, and then during hibernation, keeping them sheltered from the intense snow and wind.  They milked the large creatures for their milk for drinking and making cheeses.  During the warmer parts of the year, they sheared the animal's cloud-like wool, and spun the product to make the some of the softest fabrics in existence.  The job was full time, 24/7, and the thought of this bored the young Ros (as she was called back then), and many of the adults and other children criticized her for it.  The young Falkimanne dreamed of adventure and magic, which no one in town was able to understand, much less teach, guide, or accompany.

Ros very quickly became a social outcast.  Her own family seemed to at best tolerate her presence.  At her and her brother's 1st birthday, her parents showered her brother with attention, while forgetting about Ros.  She decided to leave the house shortly after, despite not having had a single flight feather at the time, and crashed into a lake, then learned to swim very, very quickly.

And now today, she turned 2 years old.  She still had a couple of patches of chick down on her arms, but her wings were equipped with the feathers necessary to make the necessary short bursts of flight with her secondary wings, the flight feathers enlarged  though her primary wings were still incapable of the long stretches of flights the Falkismanne were known for.  Her physical body had stopped growing at a measly 40 centimeters, making her somewhat shorter than most of her family, but was otherwise "grown up", as they say.

Happy birthday, Styrku.  Hope you're having fun.  She thought to herself, gazing at the quiet natural paradise she found herself in.

The island she had found herself in was beautiful, with lots of plants she never would have imagined seeing in her life.  The faint orange and red on her feathers had been more than the whites, blues, grays, and purples anyone from her hometown had seen, and now the vibrant  greens of the leaves, the dark brown tree trunks, the deep oceanic blues, the aquamarine shores, the yellow and white, and even pink sands, and the rainbow of colors of the various flowers was common to Ember Rose.

But now it was time to move on, and explore the ruins she had heard so much about on the island.  Ember Rose fluttered from tree branch to tree branch, keeping the smoke-gray road in view, taking breaks every now and again to rest and replenish her energy, snacking on small bits of food she had stolen from people in the town down the hill.

A giant basket of food?  Don't mind if I do...  Ember Rose thought to herself when she spotted a basket filled with breads, berries, and cheeses, swooping down onto the middle of the road.  She settled down in the basket, grabbed the large fruit, and munched to her heart's content, feasting on bits of the bread with bites of the large berries in between the slices of cheese, not paying any mind to the sound of approaching footsteps in the distance.