Yatima Engle, also known as Sings-in-Harmony-with-Stars

This day is ruled by Eshtarra, the Songteller

Yatima Engle, Sings-in-Harmony-with-Stars

Cliath Metis Galliard of the Uktena

One beautiful day in October of 1987, Spirits-Peace, an Adren Uktena Theurge was running in the snow of the vicinity of her home-sept, White Water. She paused, her senses warning her that something was amiss, but before she could locate the danger, she was attacked by the Black Spiral Dancer pack "Revenge on the Mother", led by homid-born Fostern Ahroun Caligula. She managed to howl out to warn her pack that was in the vicinity, but before they could reach her, they had managed to capture her and fled through the umbra to their Hive.

When she woke up again, she was lying naked and spread-eagled in a bed, her wrists and ankles bound with silver chains to the bed. Then a man entered. He was perhaps five or ten years her senior, so somewhere in his thirties. He had black hair in a pony tail, sharp green eyes that almost devoured her naked body and made her flinch, which she immediately regretted as the silver bit into her arms and legs. He smirked towards her, there was a cruel look in his features, as he unbuttoned the shirt to reveal a muscular body criss-crossed with scarring, and she tried to avoid looking at him, but in her fascinated horror she could not.

He forced himself upon her, only laughing when she screamed in pain and horror. It felt like it went off forever, until she mercifully passed out and woke up a few hours later. A woman in her early twenties entered with a bowl of soup and a rag.

"Wake up," the woman said, wiping off the Uktena's brow.

"Please... Help me..." Spirits-Peace begged her, but the woman only shook her head.

"I can't. I'm Caligula's mate, and I can only do what he tells me." She started cleaning her wounds. Suddenly the door was slammed open, and Caligula walked inside. He turned to the woman.

"You're talking too much, Kit!" And without even skipping a beat, he smacked her over the face, she slumped down by his feet, and then he turned towards Spirits-Peace. "Now, I assume you wonder why you're still alive?" A smirk on his face.

"I spit on you, Wyrm Spawn!" She proceeded trying to fulfil her threat, but all she got for that was a slap over her cheek that would've downed a lesser person.

"Aren't you flattered, Gaian?" He leered towards her. "You're going to have my cub, and then you'll Dance the spiral."

She was a prisoner of Caligula's for two months of constant rapes. The only thing she had to keep her sane was Kit, his mate. Kit was a shy woman, bitter and resentful, but at least she was semi-sane and could spare a kind word from time to time. She had just realised that she was pregnant, but she realised that no matter what she did, Caligula would win. If she kept her state a secret, he would keep raping her until it was obvious. If she told him, he might stop his rapes, but he would have won.

She had known for two days when the door was slammed open. She was prepared to scream it out to Caligula, but instead of seeing his far too familiar face, it was her pack alpha Runs-like-the-Wind who was standing there in crinos. He howled out in rage as he saw her pitiful state, and ignoring his own pains, he tore the chains off the bed and left with her. On their way, she saw the unmoving form of Kit, and she shed a tear for her only friend in the Hive. They never confirmed that Caligula was dead, but perhaps he was born lupus, so that his body was not homid.

Spirits-Peace hated the life that insisted on living inside her weak body, but she could not make herself wilfully kill the child, but she fled into the umbra, hoping that the passage between the worlds would kill this intruder, but she had no luck. In the end, she gave birth to her child in Hakahe's realm, with her pack and some jagglings as her midwives. The baby girl was big, ugly, hairy and with three eyes, all blinking confusedly at her mother. The only thing her mother ever gave her was a name; Yatima, which means 'Orphan'.

Spirits-Peace kept her child for six months, but as soon as she could, she gave her over to an elderly metis Philodox, who raised the little girl. In a way, she was probably treated better than many metis, since the other children around didn't pick on her. Partly it was her third eye that made it, but also her friend. Yes, she had made a friend during the day she had been in the umbra; a Star jaggling born while her own mother was in birthing pains.

Now, just because the children didn't pick on her, that didn't make her childhood happy. She was watched carefully for any sign of her father's taint, and by the adults she was constantly pressed. She was never told about the prophecy they had found in the hive, proclaiming her as a child of both darkness and light, to find or create an item that would be important in the End Times. The question is which side will use said item, since it was important enough to have her born for those Black Spiral Dancers.

She trained the Art of Memory and was given singing lessons, especially after she once was heard singing duet with her star friend, mimicking the flutelike tones perfectly. It would later grant her her deed name: "Sings-in-Harmony-with-Stars".

Her first change came in her 7th year, when she was practicing with her javelin. It was late in the afternoon, and high over her, Katanka-Sonnak spread his warm light. Suddenly she heard a howl closing in, and she recognized it as the demented howl of a Black Spiral Dancer, so she rushed towards the sept to warn them. She's not sure -what- happened, but suddenly she was running in lupus. A long story short is that the sept managed to beat down the threat, and Yatima started the long, long travel to become a full garou.

She already knew those things a newly changed homid or lupus garou would be taught, so instead of learning the basics, she was given a deeper training, preparing her for her rite of passage. She had showed a knack for the mysteries generally reserved for the Crescent moons, and one elderly Stargazer that passed the sept on her 9th birthday explained why, as he detailed the stellar influences on her. She was born in the Year of the Dragon, showing her to be intuitive and also stubborn, and also in the sixth lunar month, ruled over by Hakahe, the Patron Incarna of the Uktena, granting her the aura of mystery and also her strong connection to the Crescent moons, since that is the auspice he favours. He smiled as he traced the planets in his mind, and told her that she was born during an auspicious time, as Jupiter, Mercury, Mars and Venus were all rising. He then continued to study her time of change, and commented that she changed during Katanka-Sonnak's rule, showing her to be a great Galliard that would inflame those that listen to her. But he then shook his head, as all the planets were descending. "You are a child of paradoxes, girl," he told her. "There are both good signs on you, and bad signs."

Now, this could've had plenty of effects on Yatima, but the major effect it had was that she became almost obsessed with watching the heavens, so she wasn't very surprised when she one day had her teacher approach her and tell her to pack lightly. She was sent off to the Aetherial realms, to quest for Sunfire at Katanka-Sonnak's realm. She was not welcome back without it, but if she did succeed in getting it, she would take it to a theurge by the name Spirits-Peace.

Yatima had her javelin, a container to keep the sunfire in, a backpack dedicated to her and her best friend, the Star jaggling Neema with her when she set out to the quest. It took her quite some time to reach the Aetherial realms, and she spent a little time with the Sept of the Stars, healing up her wounds and exchanging news. When she reached Katanka-Sonnak's realm, passing through fire, burning her skin to a crisp, that wasn't the end of her trials. He seemed duly impressed that a cub, and a metis cub, to that, had managed to find her way to his realm, and survive, but of course he could not grant her that for nothing, so he sent her off to the Wyld reaches to retrieve an object, a spear lost by a garou hero hundred years earlier.

She stayed a little too long in the Wyld reaches, and it touched her very soul, tainting her forever. But she managed to get out, and deliver the spear to Katanka-Sonnak. He was pleased, but still not finished with the quest. He sent her off to a Wendigo sept in the far north, to deliver the spear to Luna's-avenging-hand, the descendant of said garou hero.

She returned to her own sept after four years, scared, changed, but ultimately worthy. She had survived through hell, with a good portion of luck, and she knew enough to thank her lucky star. She was told the way to find Spirits-Peace, and she was told to stay in her homid form. It was no troubles finding the old cottage of the theurge, and when she called out, a black woman with braids down to her waist, and pieces of bone and feathers braided into the hair. She looked her over and asked:

"What is your business here, mule?" Yatima swallowed a sharp retort, and offered her gift.

"I am Yatima, cub of the Uktena, born under the Gibbeous moon, and I have come with sunfire from Katanka-Sonnak's realm, which I now offer to you." The woman looked her over, and then nodded.

"Come inside. Do you want tea?" Without waiting for a reply, she started to boil water. "How much do you know of your parents?"

Yatima shrugged. "I haven't been told much. I guess they were exiled after my birth."

"That isn't quite what happened," Spirits-Peace said thoughtfully and gave her a mug of hot tea. She sat down and told Yatima of the story of her conceving, and... well... suddenly everything pretty much made sense to her. She was given her acknowledgement during the moot a week later, where she was given the deed name "Sings-in-Harmony-with-Spirits".

The following two years (that is, up to now); she’s tried to establish some kind of “mundane identity”. She managed to convince a Glasswalker to create an identity for her (since you can't survive in our world without lots and lots of paper stating that, yes, you do exist), and using her knowledge of Garou astrology, she got a badly paid job as the horoscope writer for a monthly magazine. In fact, officially it’s not even her writing it, but a man that looks awe-inspiring enough. Not that she cares, she gets a tiny pay check a month, enough to pay her living costs in the studio she has on Long Island, with the only advantage being a breath taking view. Apart from that, it’s so bad that not even rats would stand living there.