Leomin
Inspired by Aldric's drawing Leomin and Zatis ^o^
Once when Leomin was gone fishing, his village was attacked and burnt and everyone was killed, all that he found when he returned was the dead corpses of his friends and relatives. It happened as if it was a dream, or more precisely a nightmare. Leomin refused to believe it...
But the killers were still near and they began to chase him, but Leomin knew the forest better than them and managed to escape. He was found by Zatis, a man from another, quite distant village. Zatis was very kind and let Leomin live with him, he found the right words to comfort his new friend and over time they became as close as brothers.
But sometimes Leomin would just disappear for several hours, nowhere to be found. Once Zatis tracked him and was hiding behind the bushes, and what he saw really amazed him: the boy went upon a tree stump and did a handstand, then he started bending his body so much that his back pretty much snapped in half and his body fully folded! The man couldn't believe his eyes and he went out of the bushes and quickly ran to the boy, shouting that the help is near, but the boy was really shocked and surprised of Zatis' sudden apperance.
Leomin then explained that it was a custom in his old village and he was trained to be that flexible since the age of 3 because in his village contortion was seen as a beautiful and very difficult skill that increased one's endurance and concentration which is very good for hunting, a very flexible spine was also considered the most healthy, so parents very often stretched their children but only Leomin could sit on his own shoulders and he was the source of inspiration for many.
Even now, he still loved doing contortion because it reminded him of his home village, and he would close his eyes and imagine all his friends and their parents sitting in a circle around the tree stump and watching him, as they very often did when they were still alive...