Legends of Belariath
Lumio
Lumio's life began as one of hardship right off the bat. His mother was human, and didn't survive to give birth due to an attack in the woods. Instead, Lumio's sister of midnight fur literally clawed her way out through their slashed mother's stomach, and dragged her silvery white brother along. She was demented from the start, and hoarded her brother. When a pack of wolven warriors came across the cries, they found the two little ones. Luna was strong, much larger than her brother, and Lumio was scrawny and tiny, taking after his mother more it seemed. So the pack took Luna, and left Lumio to perish.
Luna however had other plans, and screamed her head off until the pack returned for Lumio. She was his lifesaver, and his tormentor. The pack saw strength in Luna, naming her for the moon and night of her fur, whereas Lumio was named for the glow that followed the moon's shadow, and was named so by his mentor, Granshire. Being the runt of the pack, Granshire knew Lumio would be the pack punchingbag, if not also the pack fucktoy. That said, he was a shaman and artisan who consulted the spirits, and interpreted a vision of a tiny white rose growing among charred thorns to be a wolven runt with potential to bloom among chaos and a omen of destruction for his pack. Granshire was a firm master, but did so with knowing Lumio received worse when not in his presence, so he had to be toughened up.
Yet Lumio grew up fragile and delicate, but a trooper with will for trying. He was always in Luna's shadow however, and his twin sister bullied him worst of all with ripping out patches of his luminous metallic coat and verbally belittling him. But Lumio was a spiritual thing even while young, clinging to Rhe for hope, praying to her mostly, and respecting the world around him from each rock and bug, to each dewdrop and mighty beast. He failed at fitting in more often than not, screwing up group hunts, stabbing himself with practice weapons, and being clumsy and oblivious to even being bullied, which only aggravated his tormentors.
Lumio found solace though in his creative works, something Granshire nurtured in him from the start. He kept the runt busy that way, and thus not available to be tormented, raped or sold as some of the pack members often suggested for what they saw as dead weight. The thought of him being so useless faded though as Granshire taught him well, being the most skilled and admired crafter among the tribe, let alone among the pack as well. Lumio had a fondness for working with his hands, and was taught to pour his emotions and desires into his work, as if such would flow from his fingertips and take shape in his carvings and sculptures. Even that had a spiritual aspect, and Granshire made sure Lumio thanked the gods for his gifts.
Growing up, Lumio screwed up a lot when it came to rites of passages and so he never met any of the milestones and was often called the Perpetual Pup, and thus being a Pup was all he was seen as... until Granshire plotted. He passed off one of Lumio's works as his own, an ornate wooden bowl, carved with the pack's rites in a grand design that took many moons to create. When the Alpha approved and gave his appreciations to Granshire for his marvelous work, the old wolven pushed Lumio up to the front and announced that it was his doing. From that point on, Lumio found his place in the pack, though he was still lowest on the totem pole.
That night Granshire made Lumio his official apprentice in their own little rite of passage and ceremony, and for the first time, opened up to the younger wolven. Lumio learned that Granshire preferred males, and was born into the pack, though his own son, born of force, was not and was recently slaughtered--- by Luna. Lumio was mortified, but since Granshire hadn't known his son, the older wolven was very docile over it all. But he shared his visions and interpretations with Lumio, explaining what he thought was to come. Lumio didn't understand it, but that one act put into motion exactly what was feared. Granshire knew that his son's death marked the beginning of the end, and so he worked with Lumio as much as he could with his mentoring.
On the day Granshire expected danger, he sent Lumio out on collection duty to bring back some rare, needed materials found in remote parts of the surrounding woods. Oddly enough, his twin sister Luna also sent him off to gather a few rare flowers for her known as Death Lilies. When Lumio returned many hours later, he found everything he had known was destroyed. A dying Granshire had been left alive only long enough to be able to relay the message.. Luna had married in to a rival tribe, and war was declared with the slaughtering of her former tribe's most powerful warrior pack.. and she was a betrayer to them all. Yet, Lumio realized that both Granshire and his sister had kept him alive. After Granshire slipped away to the afterlife, the distraught Lumio entered life on his own, and walked onward to eventually the place where he would find his mate Dageus, and his future.