Gunnleif has failed her purpose. Gunnleif is a failure. Knowing this, Gunnleif is no longer sure what to do with herself. The villagers have scattered to the wind, buildings left abandoned. There's no one to protect and nothing to protect them from. Her ancestral sword was stolen by her former apprentice. All in all, Gunnleif is a disgrace. A worthless, useless, failure.

Staying in the village is not possible for Gunnleif. She is haunted by the ghosts of all her failures. The eyes of her Ancestors judge her from the cave. In the end, she left like everyone else. She travels around the Mainland, sticking to the edges of smaller villages, still too wary of the new world to venture into larger towns and cities. Everything about the Mainland is a mystery to Gunnleif and she is slowly trying to integrate herself into the new world she's been all but thrown into.

The Tradition of the Firstborn Leader dates back further than any living Fulgora can remember. The title has been passed down from Firstborn to Firstborn since the First Leader who saved all of Fulgora-kind. While the title of Leader is now more symbolic than a true position, with most decisions of the village being made by a council of Elders rather than a sole individual, many still look towards the Leader for advice and protection.

Gunnleif was the latest edition to the ancient tradition. Ever since she hatched, Gunnleif has known her purpose, her father made sure of that. Since she was old enough to walk, Gunnleif has trained and trained til she knew nothing more. She barely had time for anything else. She never attended the crèche, like all other hatchlings would, never had the chance to interact and learn through play with other hatchlings. Instead she was taken straight into her apprenticeship, under her father of course. Swordsmanship, shield work, archery, her curriculum alongside a detailed history of the First Leader. It was only because of her mother that Gunnleif learnt to read and write, for her father would have forgotten that crucial skill, so wrapped in combat and the past. She was raised apart from the other hatchlings, never forming meaningful relationships with her peers - something her Father encouraged, for in his eyes friendships did nothing but cause distractions, cause biases. Father had everything planned - at least that's what Gunnleif thought.

Then he fell ill. Just as her first sibling hatched. Without father's orders, too sick to leave his bed or have visitors, her sibling spent the first year of their life just like any other hatchling. Gunnleif watched them with an aching heart. She was already a teenager on the cusp of adulthood. She knew in her gut that the moment she completed her warrior trials, her father would start training her sibling - as harshly and as lonely as he had trained her. Her sibling was bright and enjoying life, making friends and playing like every other child. It broke her heart to think of that bright, sparkling joy being snuffed out under the pressure of their father. She told herself, once her father recovered, she would ask him not to train her siblings. But he would never get better. While he would live to a ripe old age, he would never be well enough to train or even leave the Healer's.

All responsibilities of the Leader then fell to Gunnleif. Which meant she could choose to apprentice her siblings. The mere idea of her siblings being set down the same lonely path as her made guts twist. Her siblings deserved to have choices in their lives, not to be forced into a mould that might not fit them. So Gunnleif took another apprentice - a young loner called Fredvör. Who she chose as an apprentice didn't matter to her, Gunnleif just needed someone to occupy that position until her siblings were apprenticed elsewhere or grew too old to be apprenticed any more. Of course she felt guilty for misleading Fredvör, especially as the young girl seemed so eager to prove herself to Gunnleif, but Fredvör was destined for the keepers, not warriors. Even under Gunnleif's mentorship, Fredvör would never pass her warrior trials. But Gunnleif chose not to tell her apprentice this, even when she dropped Fredvör as her apprentice. Better the anger be directed to her rather than onwards.

For years Gunnleif protected and guided the village. Her father passed peacefully and was given the send off he deserved. She spent her time completely consumed by her work, avoiding her siblings, family, and former apprentice to the best of her abilities. Keeping busy kept them at arm's length most days but Fredvör often got into trouble that required Gunnleif's intervention. It was all going smoothly.

Well mostly smoothly.

It was well known that the Leader would need to pass their title onto their firstborn. A firstborn which Gunnleif did not have. In fact, she had no meaningful relationships at all. For most that wanted a child yet had no partner, a quick trip to the crèche for an unclaimed hatchling would solve that problem. But for Gunnleif, she needed a firstborn. No one would accept it if she tried to pass her title to an adopted child. It wasn't as if she was lacking opportunity; plenty of Fulgora who would practically throw themselves at her for the 'honour'. But Gunnleif dealt with this gracefully, in the same manner she dealt with all her social problems; she avoided it. Any time the subject of marriage or children came up, something would conveniently require Gunnleif's immediate attention and she would retreat from the conversion. She kept this up for years, and would have done so for the rest of her life, but outside forces were at work and the gods were about to play a cruel trick on her.

Without warning, the barriers fell. Not one by one but rather all at once. Suddenly the village was thrust back into a world it had long since been separated from. Gunnleif held her breath, preparing for what she thought would be the inevitable war and conflict with the Lopdiemis that once hunted them. Yet none ever came. They would all learn in the coming days, how much the world had changed. Lopdiemis no longer hunted the world as they once did, new species have evolved in their place. The world on a whole, was at peace now, it was safe to rejoin.

Gunnleif did not trust it, however. To her it felt like a trap, a disaster waiting to happen. At first she was able to convince most of the villagers to stay put, stay where it was safe and she could protect them. But as more and more Kamishiba came to visit them (some even mysteriously converted to their species) they would leave with more and more of the villagers. Even Gunnleif's own siblings left - some of them even being the first to leave. Eventually, only Gunnleif was left in the village, alone with her guilt and her failure.