Ashaad

His mother was a gypsy, cursed to have a son who turns into a beast. As he grew older his mother could no longer handle his strength and size. He traveled alone until he came across a traveling merchant selling a shikra, although he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that the shikra was not a normal bird, so he bought her. He let her out of her cage and realized her wing was broken. He tended to it until it was healed as best as possible, and he soon found out the shikra was a young girl, a human who could transform into an animal like him. She followed him after and he started to consider her like a sister. 

Then he found of another man, or the man found him. He could train him to controle his powers as easily and be conscious as a human during, as the shikra was able to. This man was a tiger, a similar animal to the one he had the ability to transform into. Ever since he lived alongside the tiger man with a collection of other bandits and outcasts who could also animate into animals of their nature.