Fevra
		Servals
		Lions
		Leopards
		Felines
		Canids
		Birds

Fevra was my very first roleplayed character, played on The Lion King MUCK from December 1996 to 1999.

You and me we were the pretenders
We let it all slip away
In the end what you don't surrender
Well the world just strips away

— Bruce Springsteen, "Human Touch"

Fevra is a female Serval. Orphaned as a cub when her mother disappeared, Fevra found her way to the pridelands. She was taken in by a pair of dark-pelted Leopards, Desani and Zalira. After Zalira died, slipping away in her sleep, Desani became the mate of the Lioness Nalia. Fevra found herself suddenly part of a huge adopted family. She became close to a number of her unlikely kin; perhaps the strangest of these, and the closest, was her brother Bomogo, a Hyena.

Fevra was grown to adolescence when she got to know another Serval (he too adopted kin to her), Shenryyr. Some time into adulthood, the two became mates. Fevra frankly adored Shenryyr, despite all his oddity and how they clashed at times; issues of territory and Shenryyr's tendency to wander were sore points between the pair

The news that Fevra was carrying cubs by Pajadi, the very rival male whom Shenryyr had violently driven off, and spent so long away to find, left them shattered. Abandoned by her beloved mate, Fevra increasingly drew into herself, grieving, even as she tried to pretend she did not regret. She found friendship and support from two Leonine kin: Jumoja and K'aaria, heirs to the Kopje Valley where Fevra had grown up and made her territory. They died a mere day before the cubs were born.

Herself an only child, Fevra hadn't expected to bear a litter of four: Zalirah, Masali, Jadyyr and Kwafeli. Fevra found herself fiercely loving her cubs, for all that they were overshadowed by loss and conflict. What kin and friends did not drift away during the following months, Fevra seemed to do her best to alienate. In addition, a number of the creatures she had met as cubs were growing into adulthood, and had their own lives to lead. Ajia left to found his own pride, as Lions so often do. Fevra's Leopard "niece-cub" Zillah pulled away as well, hurt by the Serval's chill attitude. Fevra found it easy to think that she had been abandoned.

By this time the cubs were half-grown: talking clearly, weaned, and even clumsily hunting, though some distance from being able to fend for themselves. Walking a familar path thorugh the grasslands with her young, the last creature Fevra expected to see was Shenryyr. Their shockingly vicious encounter goaded Fevra into leaving, without any intent to return.

Name: I chose Fevra as Latin for 'Wild Beast' (Fera) with an added letter, and simply because I like the sound. It is pronouced [ Fehv-rah ]. Short e, short a.

Fevra's Description:

A female Serval, long-legged and delicate. A small cat--barely a meter in length, discounting the short black-ringed tail which hardly reaches her hocks. Caution evident in her slow, deliberate motions.
       Her pelt, a deep copper, is patterned with black. Broken lines stream down from behind the Serval's ears to mark her shoulders and back, then fragment into round blotches on her flanks, scattering into smaller marks where copper fades to off-white on throat and belly.
       The coat is less than glossy, due to periods of weakness and hunger that can be inferred from the way it hangs loosely in places still. Some acknowledgement, in the curved line of her pale belly, of a previous a litter or two of cubs.
       Not many scars, or obvious ones. Muted reminders of past encounters. A skin-pink score near her left eye, and on the same side, the oval ear's outer edge is nicked. Also a less recent, patchy semicircle of scar tissue on one foreshoulder.
       Expression more evident staring outwards through the slit-pupils of deep amber eyes. If expression it might be called, haunted, lonely, most thoughts concealed behind a carefully blank mask.
       The spirited grace and peace of content that a trick of the light can bring--is that a memory of the past? Fevra could have been a beauty, a laughing example of loved content, or a proud mother to successful children. Perhaps she was, once, but she is none of those now. Merely a wanderer, returned but without clear thought of settling, who has seen time pass but never found peace. Never closure, and the strength to move on.
       She had chances, and decisions to make. From the haunted, world-worn attitude of this Serval comes the irresitable thought that she has chosen wrongly, over and over.
       It is too late for comfort.

Selected Artwork:

Preview	Filesize	Description	Medium	Date
	[44 K]	My first try at drawing Fevra, as an adolescent.	Computer paint program	September, 1998
	[52 K]	Fevra doesn't seem especially thrilled by Shenryyr's lazy snoozing. Cutting off her circulation, he was.	Pencil crayon and black fineliner pen	June 14, 1999
	[64 K]	Fevra, looking utterly poleaxed, with her newborn cubs.	Pencil crayon and black ballpoint pen	April 21, 1999
	[107 K]	A portrait of Fevra, after moons of travel. She is scarred, weary, and worn.	Computer paint program	January 04, 2000

Logs:

Shenryyr explains "stubby".
Fevra's mate tells the story of his scars, gathered before the Servals originally met.
Date: November 11, 1998
Location: Fevra's Form
Characters: Shenryyr, Fevra

"Perfectly fine."
Fevra attempts, without much success, to convince her mate that flopping bonelessly and purring very loudly is a normal reaction to social grooming.
Date: January 16, 1999
Location: Gentle Savannah Slope
Characters: Shenryyr, Fevra

Fevra gives birth
Date: April 16, 1999
Location: Mohatu's Cave, Central Cave, Savannah Grasslands, Grassy Spot Downslope
Characters: Fevra, Mohatu, Fateema, Jumoja, K'aaria, Pajadi, Mashaka

Fevra names Kwafeli.
Date: April 23, 1999
Location: Grassy Spot Downslope
Characters: Fevra, Jadyyr, Kwafeli

Naming family.
Fevra is visited by Inkosi, one of her Lion kin, and names her other son.
Date: April 24, 1999
Location: Grassy Spot Downslope
Characters: Inkosi, Fevra, Jadyyr

Jadyyr to get a bath.
Date: June 12, 1999
Location: Further Savannah Slope, Remote Jungle
Characters: Fevra, Jadyyr, Zillah

Zalirah begins to talk. Her first word is "Mum". Her second is "Mine".
Date: June 14, 1999
Location: Grassy Spot Downslope
Characters: Fevra, Zalirah

Seeing Pajadi once more.
Date: June 19, 1999
Location: Remote Jungle
Characters: Fevra, Jadyyr, Pajadi, Zalirah

"Jus' bored".
Fevra speaks to Jadyyr about his father.
Date: July 18, 1999
Location: Grassy Spot Downslope
Characters: Fevra, Jadyyr

Ajia visits, unexpected.
Date: July 22, 1999
Location: Grassy Spot Downslope
Characters: Fevra, Kwafeli, Zalirah, Ajia

The greyish pre-dawn.
Starving, despairing, and alone, Fevra is visited by the spirit of Jumoja.
Date: Set sometime in October, 1999

Written Pieces:

Fevra Leaves
A short vingette which describes how Fevra came to leave her birthplace as a cub.
Date written: 1997

She Woke
Sometime in Fevra's wandering after she left her cubs.
Date written: December 2002

Last updated September 2009.