Salt

"Please, take this map and follow right into the nearest chasim."

Salt enjoyed an unremarkable upbringing.
He was born into a sedentary seaside tribe, where his childhood days were spent catching beach-dwelling animals and collecting the peculiar things that washed up onto the shore. His family life was typical. He had two brothers, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles who were all an active part of his life. Of course, back then--no one referred to him by the name of Salt. But back then, things were significantly different.
Like his family life, his skills and talents were nothing that saw him stand out against his peers. He had a brilliant sense of direction, and his hobby for finding and trapping the more beautiful and rare of the seaside creatures he could find meant that he'd often wander off, hot on the trail of some exotic specimen. He found joy in documenting the locations around his villiage, and used his knowledge of the surrounding landscape to his advantage both in work and play. He became so familliar with the lands around his home that he was certain he knew every rock, tree, lizard, and bird in the area. 

He was wrong, of course.

It was during one of his longer ventures out, away from the safety of the villiage, that he came across something he had  never seen before. A small, pink rabbit with the face of a bird, crossed his path before darting into the bushes. Curious and enthralled, Salt tracked it as far as he dared to before giving up and returning home. But even has he laid in bed that following night, he played in his mind the different ways he could go about capturing such an incredible looking creature.

It took several tries, and he attempted many methods but it was a lethal trap that eventually ensared the unusual animal he'd not, until then, been able to catch a second glimpse of. Broken and dying, the creature he had captured wasn't the unusual chimera as he had first observed it to be. This was an Akriri; an all but mystical creature that he knew existed, but had only ever heard tales of. His people adored these creatures of pure magic. To kill one would be grieviously immoral. 
Panicked by the possibility of being ostracized by his entire villiage, Salt struggled to untangle the bird's body from his trap. It made no difference, as the Akriri perished in his grasp. It ran through his veins; the burst of energy that escaped the animal's body at it's moment of death passed through him--and for a brief moment he felt absolute euphoria.
It was fleeting; gone as quickly as it had occured. It left Salt cleansed of the guilt and fear he had felt just moments before, and even as he stared down at the blackened corpse produced by his string of unfortunate choices, he felt only hunger.

And so, a new hobby found him. Salt became quietly obsessed with finding and hunting the Akriri; a practise he kept a secret to himself. He horded the resources their bodies were made up of; a stoney, magic-conductive obsidian material that he stashed away, outside of the villiage. His collection was small, the birdfolk proved to be consistantly difficult prey to find and capture, but his sparse successes were invigorating enough to keep the hunt alive.

Until he was discovered.

It was a family friend who had followed him out one day by their own mischevious sense of adventure. Their motivation was honest curiousity, there was no intention to cause harm--they didn't expect ill of their fellow tribesman. However, had Salt known he was being followed, he wouldn't have approached his traps, nor would he have triumphantly retrieved his Akriri prey. His witness, appaulled by the murder, outed Salt's grievious hobby to the other villiagers--initiating Salt's eventual transition to 'outcast'.

Nowdays Salt travels far and wide, meticulously documenting his journey in the form of beautifully detailed maps. They fetch a high price, but the craftmanship alone is well worth it. He introduces himself by a different name to every person he meets, and never stays in one place for very long.
His aimless journeying saw him cross paths with a cether who introduced herself to him as "Pepper", expressing absolute conviction in the fact the she had observed him practising some manner of advanced magic, and that he was going to teach her how to do that. For the first time in his life, he introduced himself as "Salt", and denied her claims--asserting that he's absolute rubbish at magic and would be more likely to set himself on fire than to complete any manner of spell casting successfully. 
His assertions were, apparently, unconvincing.
Since their meeting, Pepper has never left his side. Nor has she been granted the opprotunity to catch a second glimpse of his magical prowess.

He continues to hunt Akriri, unbeknownst to Pepper and anyone else who makes his aquaintence. Salt's most prized possession is a map that he continues to work on, roughly estimating the location of Akriri villiages he suspects to exist. He considers it his finest work, and reserves it for his eyes only. His success in finding and luring out the elusive birdfolk remains spotty at best, but his efforts bear fruit on frequent enough occassion that he continues the practise. The materials harvested from the tiny creatures is a boon to his (habitually understated) magical dealings and, when needed, they fetch a lovely price.
He keeps this aspect of himself close to his chest, out of fear of being ostricized by his peers. These addictive hunts of his see that its not uncommon for Salt to disappear for days on end only to return again, behaving as though he had never left.

Anyone who know Salt via his business dealings or by simple aquaintence might describe him as an open, energetic, amiciable sort with a cheeky sense of humor and an entertaining sarcastic streak. But anyone who's traveled with him for months or so at a time may be confronted with a rare glimpse into his more bitter, jaded, fatigued, and brooding inner workings. This side of him is rarely pleasant to bear witness to, and exposes a dark cynicism that his witty, sarcastic humor artfully disguises. It paints a two-faced portrait of him, and fosters doubt towards the authenticity of his sentiments, moods, and motives. Perhaps it is only Pepper who has stuck with him long enough to fully understand that...almost everything Salt jovially explains about himself to others is a bold-faced lie.