Curatio Ounce – Snow Stalker

When all you have ever known is snow and cold, being brought by force to sand and heat can be a startling change for anyone. This was the lot in life Curatio was given several summers after he reached maturity. Captured by poachers and sold to a noble in Sudd Tohst far across the sea from his home, he spoke no words of the tongues of men and was treated like some sort of exotic house pet for many years, declawed and doped up on a cocktail of sedative potions to keep him docile and tranced.

It was only when Curatio was sold to another noble in Baldur, given his new name and clasped in shackles inside a cart that he could make his escape. In a stroke of fortune or perhaps divine intervention from Markamin himself, did the lucky Snow Stalker manage to break free of his captors. The Baldurian guards were mostly drunkards, and often missed the sedative doses during the journey back to Baldur. This was all it took for Curatio to regain his senses for a brief moment, feigning sleep in the morning as a hungover guard opened the cage to dose him. It was this slight chance where Curatio leapt upon the guard, sinking his fangs into his neck, stealing his keys and quickly unlocking his chains before the other guards could awake from their drunken slumbers.

Into the hills he ran, familiar and cold. He hugged them as they travelled north, him following them until he came to Baldur’s north many days later, managing to subsist on the small mountain critters he could sneak up on in his journey. There he met an unlikely friend, Artizak, one of the Dragonkin of Zandoriel who he could share words with through the southern continents common tongue. It was Artizak who took Curatio as his own personal padfoot for his business throughout Tharador, teaching him the languages of the land and its customs and traditions, even though he too was a stranger to it.

The pair formed an unlikely bond, and Artizak’s research took them North to Greypeak’s capital of Vanlund, where Artizak spent much time cloistered and studying, while Curatio earned a living doing the odd jobs and contracts that might be required of a padfoot in such a city: private investigation, stalking, breaking and entering, thieving and just about anything that might be towing the line of the law to earn a hot meal. Though Curatio never much understood of what it was Artizak studied, he knew it meant a great deal to him and the Dragonkin had promised when it was done, he would have the Tabaxi returned to his homeland in Zandoriel when they sailed home together.