Juno

Juno - The Wanderer
The lone dwarf sat still by the fountain, looking around at his work. He had built most of this town, a multi-race settlement on the border of a large empire. He had thrived here, but now the taxes were being raised, the men of the west district spoke against the emperor, and the world around his town seemed like it was going mad. Despite such accomplishment with his town, the work of his hands, the dwarf known as Miles Gnarus could still only barely afford his meals. He sat there, cold and alone, watching his fountain. When suddenly she came, the woman who would change everything! In fact this woman, a tall figure who wore a torn crimson cloak and featured tangled brown hair, Had obviously been running. Running very fast, for a very long time. Clutching her chest she ran right past his gates and smack into him, literally knocking him off his feet in her haste.

The woman collapsed, still clutching her now clearly rounded chest, breathing deeply she looked up to him with pleading eyes and mouthed the word "help" This was when Miles realized the full gravity of this situation. This woman was not wounded, she was in labor.

Sooo...... Miles swore, he swore loudly, he swore with words that some did not know existed, and he picked up the woman and carried her to his conveniently nearby house. He set her down on a table, and gave her a piece of leather to bite down on. (as was the custom to keep woman from breaking their own teeth.) Red markings on her arms Miles had previously thought of to just be a tattoo started to glow, and then the intricate design began to spread up her arms.

More then a few hours later she gave a loud, final scream, and then it was a new born girls turn to do the crying-out. But this was not a completely happy moment, by this point the markings covered the woman's entire body with a beautiful red design, but they then began to fade, the woman spoke her last words and then breathed her last breath, it was the end of her story.

Those words were, "Juno, live free my child."

Miles looked down at the woman in worry, one look and he knew she was gone. The design faded into a dull grey, still spread across her body. He gently lifted the new born child, now wrapped in swaddling blanket, towards his face and said, "I guess you are stuck with me now, young Juno."

He then checked the woman's pulse, put the baby down to sleep in a spare bed, preying she would not roll off. then of course he began freaking out as he realized that he, a single dwarf, had just somehow become a father. So he called the men of the town to dispose of the woman's body under human customs, and found a maiden to nurse the child till she could be fed by regular means.

Well, the dwarf kept her safe, he raised her as his own, he pulled his hair out every couple of days from one of her outrageous stunts, but still. That's life. But he was always there for her. Then came the war. Remember that silly west district? Yeah them, the ones with loose tongues against their ruler, They finally went to arms and began the fight, and city by city, town by town, they took over. It was a bitter civil war, cold, bloody. Pitting family against family, often the fighters had no choice, as the confederacy reached a town, they would draft everyone they deemed capable. While the loyalists held towns, they piled heavy taxes and recruitment drives on residents, forcing all the young men to enlist to aid the fight.

The now fourteen year old Juno lived under miles in his town, it was neutral, but very close to the fighting lines. Someone was bound to reach them soon.

Well, it didn't take long for an empirial scouting party to notice the town, return to camp with news of their good find, and march two battalions of soldiers to this new "Key Location" so near the ever changing front lines.

The towns sentries barely had time to yell before the gate was beat down and they were captured. The town was garrisonned without a single death. The commander congratulating Miles on his wise "cooperation" as the entire building Miles had built as his residency and town hall was casually confiscated for a banquet for the high ranking officers.

The occupation lasted about two weeks before the first artillary shell hit the city, exploding and taking out two soldiers and Juno's best friend, another young girl named Juliet, along with it as the fourteen year old Juno watched helplessly, nothing she could do.