Personality

Anthea is still a bit unsure of herself and the world she lives in. She's in awe at everything around her, and loves taking the time to appreciate it all. While she might not be the best crafter, warrior, or healer, she can bring joy to others through her kindness and her words, and that's good enough for her.

She spends her time in the camp, cultivating flowers and bringing joy to others. Even though she isn't much for conflict, she's always the first one on the scene when a fight breaks out, to stop the argument and get everyone to work together. Although there are many lions who are good at peacemaking, none are quite as suited in the role as Anthea. She bravely puts herself out there to keep the Regiment running and a friendly place, and though she doesn't get much acknowledgment for her job, she's glad to do it.

History

She was going to restart her life, turn things around. Her life, at present, had been long and hard, and now, at the end of it all, there was a chance to learn how to be the best version of herself.

Anthea's paws were new, still clumsy and unsure, but she appeared before the Regiment anyway and declared that she intended to be a healer. Perhaps being so forceful about that hadn't been ideal. The group's leader, Brontes, said no. She balked at that - what was she supposed to make of herself if not that? He told her to start small, that being a medic could take years of training that she simply hadn't had. In the meantime, he offered, why not be an artisan? Why not create things to brighten the lives of others?

She learned how to make art from an older, gruff lion named Okeanos. He tried to show her how to bend metal into beauty, to shape glass into shining pieces. Anthea couldn't do any of it, and she wondered if any of this was worth it at all - if there was even a place for her in this world. What would she end up doing?

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D2

That night she ran and hid near the river that ran through the territory, and she shouted at the sky and cried in frustration. She was supposed to be better than this, do better than this -

- from her tears, butterflies formed. Ethereal, blue things, the creatures seemed to be woven out of a hundred tiny spiderwebs, or drops of water. She watched them appear, in sudden awe. One of the creatures landed on her paw as she reached out for it, and dissolved into a hundred tiny raindrops. Was this what making something beautiful felt like? For hours, she stayed and at a wave of her paw butterflies would appear. She walked back to the main camp that night more at peace than she had been since arriving.



The next morning, she traveled to the river to get a drink of water and found there were flowers everywhere. In pinks and purples and yellows, the shoreline was covered in greenery that hadn't been there the night before. Had this been Anthea's doing? How?

The next night she tried it again - she made butterflies appear in an area where no flowers grew, and by the next morning, the flowers were all over. She couldn't help but laugh in delight - maybe this was it. Maybe this was how she could live up to all she wanted, needed, to become. Anthea brought Okeanos over to see, and the old lion smiled, warmly.

"Maybe the art you make isn't out of metal or stone or glass," he told her. "Maybe it's in the flowers you grow, or the butterflies you made." Anthea simply shrugged. She didn't think that flowers were art.

She asked Brontes again, later, if she could be a healer now that she had spent some time learning to be an Artisan. Surely, with the plants she could grow, she would be good enough now. But, shockingly, he told her no once again. "Train to be a duelist," the leader said. "Learn how we fight, and why."

Anthea was mad, of course. She didn't see anyone else being forced to do things they didn't want to around here. Still, she reported to the best fighter in the group, an ominous feline named Phaedra. The lioness set her to duel the others. Her paws slipped out from under her and any armor she wore weighed her down. It was just so hard, and she didn't know what to do about it all.

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. . . .

D2

She almost went back to the river again, to hide her feelings away from scrutiny, but the other fighters in training cheered her on, and she finally achieved a victory when she sent a torrent of butterflies into the face of her opponent, catching them off guard.

A good fighter Anthea was not - but she got to know lions, friends, while trying, and after several months doing her best and making flowers grow around the camp, she returned to Brontes. "Can I be a healer now?"

Brontes only gave her a cryptic smile. "Sure," he said, and she went at once, energy thrumming through her, to do the thing she had always wanted to do.

She was a terrible healer. Radha, the medic who tried to teach her, couldn't stand her. She couldn't learn what plant did what, and she got mixed up on what was where in the den, and on how to treat certain injuries. Anthea was a mess, and they both knew it. She felt dejected - this was the end of the line. There wasn't anything she could do if she couldn't be a healer. She wasn't a fighter like Phaedra, and she wasn't an artisan like Okeanos.

One day, though, she found that she could grow other plants besides just flowers if she tried, and grew the herbs that Radha needed. The two formed a friendship, despite Anthea's horrible medical skill. After another long month had gone by, Anthea returned to Brontes, confused. "I don't know what to be. I can't heal, or fight, or make art. What can I do here?"

Brontes brought her outside and showed her the camp. It was peaceful, with lions chattering, and flowers sprinkled in various spots throughout. "Your strength isn't in any of those things because it's not you," he explained. "I had you try everything because I wanted you to see what life was like here, to see the small things. You're a healer, I can tell - but just maybe not in the way that you think."

Anthea sniffed sadly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you've healed hearts and minds, not tails and paws. Your flowers bring life to everyone, I've never seen these people so bright. Even the old grumps!" He laughed, and gestured to the old veterans down below, with smiles on their faces. "So, how would you feel about being the first of a new position? I've always thought we've needed a Peacemaker in this place."

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