[content warnings for - minor reference to self harm]The youngest of four children, Rennuid Tathviel often felt he had a lot to live up to, to show himself as a worthy person to match his elder siblings. That is why he placed a terrible importance on the rite that would mark his passage into --
physical, only, mind you now -- adulthood, the
Ylthuun-Aut'torr. He went to great lengths to create a bow for the rite, that would be unmatched by any other - though he did not go entirely unaided in his endeavor.
Shortly after his 70th birthday, on the ancient founding day of the Tathviel clan, Rennuid Tathviel performed the
Ylthuun-Aut'torr - and was met by a wave of susurration from the audience. For the secret kept from those who had yet to perform the rite was that when a true heir of the clan fired an arrow into the ancient
Uunbanthe'adai tied to their name, they would suffer a phantom pain to match that felt by the living vine. And Rennuid? Why - he hadn't even flinched.
His mother approached him. "Rennuid, dear. You don't have to act so strong. It's fine to show you're hurting." The plea in her voice was terrifying - and telling. He hadn't known the secret of the rite. And he hadn't felt any pain at all. But Rennuid was clever - though as would become evident later, perhaps not terribly wise. He bit his tongue, and smiled at his mother - showing blood covered teeth to the many murmuring adults. Many of the whispers were satiated, and a proper celebration ensued.
Of course.. many does not mean
all.
The secret to why Rennuid went unharmed - he knew not at the time, but he was protected - for the strange presence that had guided him in the crafting of his bow had seen the nature of the rite, and knew that if Rennuid suffered the pain inherent, he would not be able to keep his promise: to bring the bow to the temple where they had met. For the bow was magnificent indeed - and where no other arrow had done so before, had pierced to the flowing heart of the
Uunbanthe'adai.
Rennuid's arrow had tapped into his family's lifeblood... who knows what might have happened, had the vine's vengeance struck home?
Rennuid, that night, brought the bow to the temple where he had met the strange presence. For the first time, he climbed to the top of the stairs leading to the temple's mouth -- and there, finally beheld the physical form of his benefactor.
It gave him a gift, after accepting his bow - a trinket, really, made from four eyes it plucked from its very own mouth. It told him to wear it as he pleased - but only here, at its temple, or only when alone.
By his 80th birthday, Rennuid's hair seemed... darker, didn't it? Perhaps it's a mere trick of the light. And a strangeness had settled on him, though not one anyone could name... but isn't that normal, in itself? For one to change and even grow awkward, as they truly come into themselves?
By his 90th birthday, it was a gamble where you would find him on a given night - sleeping safe at home, or gone again, on another sojourn into the depths of the forest? One could not deny he had lost the particular cloud gray hair he had been born with. It was something of a more foreboding sky, now...
Some precious little time after his 100th birthday, after which is when an elf may truly be called an adult, should they decide so -- Rennuid came home for the first time in over a week, declared that he had found a lost god - and been named as its new priest.
It was understandable, wasn't it, that he'd be living at his god's temple now, instead? It would be a hindrance to have to make the journey all the way from Aldua'denac every time he had a duty to attend.
Now, he openly wore a hairpin adorned with four -- orbs? They weren't jewels, surely -- and his hair was as black as the depths between stars.
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