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It was a beginning of an autumn in Austria Empire when a baby was born. A baby girl to be exact. She was born into a family of tailors. Beránkovi was their name. They loved and cherished their only child. They couldn't imagine to live without her.
The family lived quite a good life, probably thanks to the job they held. However no one could predict what curse would be put on their daughter. At least that's what parents thought of it, a horrible curse.
It was year 1866, the girl was just eleven years old, when the curse showed itself for the first time. She was in her room, where you could always spot her either painting or drawing, her mother called her for dinner and as she walked out the room, she felt lightheaded and the whole world spinned. Suddenly she heard a scream, it was from her mother she was sure of it. But why was she screaming?
The tailor's daughter quickly realised she saw the word from a different perspective. It wasn't human's perspective, it was from something smaller. She turned into a bird. And as quickly as she transformed into the bird, she turned back into a human.
Her mother was pale with terror in her eyes, her father, who ran into the kitchen when he heard his wife screaming, had unreadable expression on his face. Mariana looked down on the floor, it was full of feathers. No one understood what happened in that moment. But when it kept repeating, Mariana's parents decided to keep the poor, scared and confused girl in her room and never allow her to come out.
A few days after they locked her in her room, the parents agreed to call a priest. However it didn't help. Her parents started to hate their daughter, for she had to do something horrific, to be put in this condicion by God. Or rather by something demonic.
Her parents despised that thing, that was in their late daughter's room with every bone in their body.
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It was year 1868, when Mariana got lucky. Her parents forgot to lock the door, because they were in hurry. Those two years the girl was locked in her room, she secretly practised her turning into a bird and her flying. She flew out of the house as quietly as she could. She didn't take any things with her for three reasons. One, she had wings not hands. Two, she wanted to forgot these people she once called parents. Three, she didn't have any possession to take with her. Her 'parents' took everything and her clothes were too small for her anyway.
Mariana was now fourteen years old. She survived a whole year on the streets and trees. Her food was either stolen, from the dustbins or animals she could hunt in her bird form. She was observing a squirrel from a tree, when she felt a branch sink a bit. There was an avocet next to her, which was quite peculiar, because there wasn't any water near by that Miriana knew of. They looked at each other for a while, Mariana jumped slightly when the bird next to her croaked. Suddenly it flew away and as if Mariana knew what the bird wanted, she followed it. Her snack could wait a little longer.
The avocet flew down on the grass, Mariana was just behind the bird. However it wasn't a bird anymore. It was an older women. Mariana was amazed, there was someone else like her. She didn't have to be alone in this world. The girl turned back to human, her blonde hair with some white smaller streaks all over the place due to one year of not brushing it. Her whole body had a little bit of dirt on it, she washed herself a few days ago when it was a warmer day, but the next days were a lot of colder and she didn't want to get sick.
''Hello, dear. My name is Miss Avocet.'' the women introduced herself, the problem was that Mariana didn't know any english. She looked at the older lady puzzled. Miss Avocet seemed to remember where they were and repeated slower her name with a finger pointing to herself. Mariana realized what she meant and smiled.
''Mariana Beránková,'' she put her hand in front of her to shake the older lady's hand.
Miss Avocet managed to explain to the young girl who she was and where she could take Marianna, if she wanted of course. Mariana without a hesitation accepted the offer. Mariana learnt she was something called a syndrigast, a peculiar in english. Each of them have a special ability, some more powerful than other. Or that you could see it the moment you look at the person, sometimes you couldn't recognise it. She also learnt she was a peculiar called an ymbryne. An Ymbryne is really important for the peculiar world, she takes care of peculiar children, protects them and teaches them. She learnt a bit of english too.
When Mariana first entered Miss Avocet's loop she finally started to realize what's going on. She met a lot of peculiar children, some of ymbrynes in training and even another Ymbryne, her name was Miss Bunting. She had loop in Sweden, but she ran the Ymbryne school with Miss Avocet.
Miss Avocet showed Mariana her bedroom and told her, she'll have a roomate. Mariana didn't mind. She spend some time isolated in her old room and since then she didn't like being alone in a room. Her roommate was Alma LeFay Bentham.
They quickly became best friends, they understood each other and took care of each other, especially when Jack, Alma's brother, bullied his own sister out of jealousy. They became inseparable, there wasn't a moment, where they'd be seen alone without the other one.
That's how Mariana and Alma built their relationship. On care, trust, love and understanding. That was all that mattered, wasn't it?
