PHANTOM - Founder of the Distant Echoes

TRAITS

- A fairly quiet wolf, she prefers to not start up conversations with those she doesn't know unless there's something to gain from it
- Phantom is a medium sized Cnitharian wolf, who was exiled for reasons unknown to her
- She's a very caring leader, though she doesn't show affection openly very often
- Usually has a tired look on her face, often staying up late and travelling to the dreamlands to search for her origins
- Cautious; prefers to think before taking action

BACKSTORY

Phantom does not remember her origins, but she was born a Cnitharian wolf in the dreamlands in a small family pack. Her parents were very strict, and she never really learned to play. As she grew, her pack noticed an increasing amount of unusual wolves in their territory - lacking the frills the wolves of the Dreamlands were so acquainted to.
Her pack grew aggressive, chasing out any non-cnitharian wolves they found in their lands. Phantom at first didn't realise how wrong the things they were doing were, and not speaking up against their acts. On the day of her first scouting mission with her grandpa, the lead scout, they encountered a non-cnitharian wolf and she was ordered to kill it. Shocked, she refused her grandfather's command, but he decided he would take action himself; lunging towards the confused wolf, aiming to kill. Without thinking, Phantom charged into her grandfather, pushing him over to his side and killing him with a swift bite to his throat, her superior dexterity overpowering his weakend bones.
By the time she realised what she had done, she was standing ontop of his dead body, the other wolf nowhere to be seen.
She stayed with his body, her paws not wanting her to take her back to her territory. But only half a day later, her pack found her. Her parents' screams and yelling barely got through to her, felt completely empty. Her father, having a magic gem able to send wolves to another realm, exiled her from the Dreamlands with no known way to return.
When she woke up, all she remembered was her name, and the haunting whispers of her grandpa still lingered in her head, though she did not remember what had happened, or what she had done.
She grew up in the cold forests of the taiga, any wolf seeing her usually giving her a cold stare before running off, or chasing her away from their territory. The calls of the birds comforted her as she grew, and eventually her grandfather's whispers grew almost completely silent, but were still present. Every day felt the same, only doing what she could to survive, before she ran into a she-wolf around her age. The female looked stunned as she saw Phantom, though Phantom couldn't quite understand why. Her gaze was distant from the disgusted or scared looks of the other wolves she had ran into, but before she could say anything the she-wolf spoke in a soft voice. ''Are you... the wolf who saved me? In the Dreamlands?'' Dreamlands? It sounded so familiar to Phantom, like the smell of an old friend she never had. When she met the white-coated wolf's gaze, memories suddenly hit her like a storm. She remembered the she-wolf, and her grandpa. Though her memories were fuzzy, she could still hear the yelps. She ended up staying with this wolf, Ayeka, eventualy seeing her as family. They hunted together and listened to the raven's caws together, trying to keep their distance from other wolves. But, one night when she was unable to sleep, she saw a group of crows, all perched on the same tree, huddling close together to keep away the cold.
They cared for each other like kin, something that seemed so distant to Phantom. But as she listened to their silent chirps, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. When she slept, she saw a vision -
many silhouettes of wolves running together, hunting together, and howling together. From that night on, she and Ayeka befriended more and more wolves, and eventually established a pack. Phantom made a system; sorting every wolf into a Grasp, each named after a bird.

Recently, she befriended a new wolf on the outskirts of their territory. He was almost shaking when he met her gaze, though he tried to keep a stoic stance. The male was a wolf named Shin'ya, who had recently fled from his pack. He was around her age, maybe a few moons younger. The pack was constantly busy, so she decided to personally teach him about their pack. He tried to act serious, but his caring and enthusiastic personality eventually started to shine as he felt more and more comfortable around her.
One night, she woke up in a strange yet familiar place. It was the Dreamlands, but how was she here? She spent the whole night exploring before falling asleep, huddled up under a tree, weary. When she awoke, she was back in the pack's camp. At dusk after Shin'ya had returned from his hunt with The Herons, she told him about the previous night. He convinced her to bring him there with her, after she told him about the fuzzy memories she had and the familiar scents of the realm. From that day on, with the help of Shin'ya she explored more and more of the Dreamlands, and eventually she would go there every night, but usually now prefers to do it alone to give Shin'ya time to sleep.
As of now, she's leading the Distant Echoes towards a hopeful future, along with her now-mate, Shin'ya, and her close friend Ayeka.