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Name: Auri
Cert: Auri with Tiger
Co-owner: -
Gender: Male
Mated to: Naomi - agreement
Children: -
Sister: Pele
Likes: Running and Protecting those in need.
Dislikes: Pointless violence and Evil.
Personality: Auri is a sober wind. Grounded and determined to protect those in need. He will never fail to fight those who would hurt or exploit the weak. However, he does not enjoy fighting, seeing it as a necessity. Right now, he's a bit obsessed with discovering what happened to the basket that held his sibling, wanting to find the soq that emerged from the basket his dead mother had named Pele.
Back Story: After many days of rain, flood waters raged over the banks of the river near a single mother and her two baskets. The mother managed to get one of the baskets safely tucked into the roots of a great old oak, leaving a bear familiar to watch over it. As she returned to the thicket of bushes where she had birthed her foals and placed them in baskets, a thicket too close to the edge of the river, the bank gave way under her weight.

The mother and the basket she had been intent on retrieving fell into the cold waters of a raging river. Panicked, she swam as strongly as she could to get to the golden basket rushing along with the waters. Being lighter, and somewhat buoyant, the basket was difficult to reach. The detritus in the water battered the mother, breaking a wing and bruising most of her body. Finally she reached the basket.

Gripping the edge of the basket in her teeth, the brave mother swam against the current, striving to reach the shore. Her own familiar, a hawk named Tiger, kept pace with the pair, calling out encouragement, was unable to help. Finally, weakened by the cold and the pain, the mother was able to reach the bank. The side was steep, the flood having washed away what would normally have been a gentle incline which she could have climbed out of.

Placing the basket on the banks, the mother called to her familiar, bidding it to pull the basket farther from the edge, to safety. As the smaller animal dragged the basket away from danger, it saw the boulder being swept down river. Calling a warning to the mother, her familiar looked on in horror as the wounded and exhausted mare was struck by the rock, she went underwater as the boulder rolled over her. The hawk looked and called, but she did not resurface.

Anxious, Hawk rushed to the river banks, leaving the basket far enough from the raging waters to be safe from that danger. But there was another watching what had been happening. One who wanted the basket for her own. Her own dinner.

The Skinwalker Kimi had been flying low, the wind and rain making the higher altitudes treacherous. She saw the basket in the water and the mother's struggles to save it. As the basket was left unattended, she smiled. Swooping in, Kimi snagged the basket and took off again. Her laughter carried by the winds alerted the familiar.

In sudden horror, the hawk flew after the skinwalker, but wasn't able to keep up. Screaming, it hurried after Kimi, wanting to save the basket for it's lost mother. Felina, a mare with the chosen task of hunting skinwalkers, saw Kimi flying overhead. Intent on hunting the evil mare herself, she had already determined to follow the wicked Skinwalker.

When Felina heard the Tiger's cries, rushing after the skinwalker against any reason, Felina took another look. Sure enough, a brightly golden basket was being carried by the Skinwalker. Felina knew what skinwalkers did to stolen baskets and was determined to save this one.

No longer as worried about killing Kimi, Felina decided following wouldn't be enough. Throwing rocks and branches, anything she could, as she chased after the skinwalker, Felina managed to get Kimi to drop the basket. As much as she wanted to continue the chase, Kimi knew that her first priority had to be to the basket.

After convincing Tiger that she had no intention of harming the basket, she got the basket's history out of the little one. It took the pair two days to backtrack to the river, with the basket in tow for safe keeping. They found the body of the mother washed up on the banks and buried her under a cairn. The hawk went back to where the old oak had stood, and the other basket had been left. But the tree, basket and bear were gone with no traces left to follow.

Realizing there was no one else to care for the basket Felina determined to raise it herself. When a young Auri was born, Felina wasted little time training him to protect himself, to fight, to help others, and to watch for skinwalkers that needed to be slain. Auri grew up somber, but able to take care of himself.

He was told the story of how he came to be with Felina, his rescue, the sacrifice of his mother, and the loss of his sibling basket. And while he loves and wants to help his surrogate mother, Auri feels the need to find his sibling.