#moonstrider

-DAY 15-

This drawing is late because life

You mean besides the whole war-with-the-human-lands bit, for which I was a long-time glorified mercenary?

Well, there was my years-long feud with the moonstrider breeder-turned-baker. He never took well enough care of his pups, I thought, and yet he refused help in raising and training them - help I was willing to provide for free, by the way. And he categorically refused to let me raise one myself! He was having none of his precious pups tainted by my "violent, bloodstained hands," as he put it.

Every litter his moonstriders bore, I would visit them. Secretly, of course. One might even say illegally - but I felt justified. They loved me, truly, and I never felt judged by their tiny pink tongues. But he would not let me have one.

Ah, that hurt me more deeply in my soul than I cared to admit.

Over these years, I met and fell in love with Ethari, and one day he finally noticed my feud over the pups. We talked about it at length, and he offered me an interesting option, which I immediately began to put into practice.

Instead of sneaking in (quite so much) to see the breeder's pups, I stopped by on the days he made himself moonberry surprise. It is considered Silvergrove etiquette to offer a silce of moonberry surprise to any family or guests one has, and so I knew he must offer me some. I counted on it.

And it was, I begrudgingly admitted, very good moonberry surprise. So I said so to Ethari, and he may have mentioned it a time or three around the village. Soon, the breeder had so many guests stopping by his house that he began a small bakery. Then he expanded it. Then - at long last - he left his moonstriders to his niece to care for.

The very next day, I came home with a small and wiggly moonstrider pup in my arms. I named her Lachir.