Umeko Zhilan; Eden of the East [0-2]

» Name: Umeko ([梅子]: Japanese name meaning "plum blossom child.") Zhilan (Chinese name meaning "iris orchid," from (芷) "angelica, a type of iris," and (蘭) "the epidendrum.")
» Titles: The East's Eden, Child of Beasts
» Gender: Female
» Age: Three-hundred and fourty-eight years old. (348)
» Orientation: Pansexual, Monogamous
» Date of Birth: May 18th, 2086
» Zodiac Sign: Taurus
» Origin: Authority
» Spouse: N/A
» Kingdom: Eastern Kingdom
» Affiliation/Rank: Queen of the Eastern Kingdom

» Appearance:

Umeko is a petite woman, commonly mistaken for being much younger than she really is. She has a youthful face with wide, emerald-green eyes and hair that curls up on the ends. She wears a formfitting black dress with long sleeves and four high-cut leg slits that show off her legs and low-heeled black shoes.





» Personality:

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
-Helen Keller

Umeko always has an impact on her immediate surroundings – the best way to spot her at a party is to look for the whirling eddy of people flitting about her as she moves from group to group. Laughing and entertaining with a blunt and earthy humor, Umeko loves to be the center of attention. If an audience member is asked to come on stage, Umeko would volunteer – or volunteer a shy friend.

Theory, abstract concepts and plodding discussions about global issues and their implications don't keep Umeko interested for long. Umeko keeps her conversation energetic, with a good dose of intelligence, but she likes to talk about what is – or better yet, to just go out and do it. Umeko leaps before she looks, fixing her mistakes as she goes, rather than sitting idle, preparing contingencies and escape clauses.

Umeko is the likeliest person to make a lifestyle of risky behavior. She lives in the moment and dives into the action – she is the eye of the storm. Umeko enjoys drama, passion, and pleasure, not for emotional thrills, but because it's so stimulating to her logical mind. She is forced to make critical decisions based on factual, immediate reality in a process of rapid-fire rational stimulus response.

This makes schools and other highly organized environments a challenge for Umeko. It certainly isn't because she isn't smart, and she can do well, but the regimented, lecturing approach of formal education is just so far from the hands-on learning that Umeko enjoys. It takes a great deal of maturity to see this process as a necessary means to an end, something that creates more exciting opportunities.

Also challenging is that to Umeko, it makes more sense to use her own moral compass than someone else's. Rules were made to be broken. This is a sentiment few instructors or supervisors are likely to share, and can earn Umeko a certain reputation. But if she minimizes the trouble-making, harnesses her energy, and focuses through the boring stuff, Umeko is a force to be reckoned with.

With perhaps the most perceptive, unfiltered view of any of her peers, Umeko has a unique skill in noticing small changes. Whether a shift in facial expression, a new clothing style, or a broken habit, Umeko picks up on hidden thoughts and motives where most would be lucky to pick up anything specific at all. Umeko uses these observations immediately, calling out the change and asking questions, often with little regard for sensitivity. Umeko has trouble remembering that not everyone wants their secrets and decisions broadcast.

Sometimes Umeko's instantaneous observation and action is just what's required, as in some corporate environments, and especially in emergencies. If Umeko isn't careful though, she may get too caught in the moment, take things too far, and run roughshod over more sensitive people, or forget to take care of her own health and safety.

Umeko is full of passion and energy, complemented by a rational, if sometimes distracted, mind. Inspiring, convincing and colorful, she is a natural group leader, pulling everyone along the path less traveled, bringing life and excitement everywhere she goes. Putting these qualities to a constructive and rewarding end is Umeko's true challenge.

Umeko's personality is usually perceived as calm, reserved or even cautious. However, such an exterior can be deceptive – even though Umeko can be somewhat cautious, her inner flame and passion is not something to be taken lightly. Umeko is really affectionate, a trait not often seen in a lot of others. This compassion can be really fervent and long-lasting – but Umeko will use it quite cautiously, directing her energies towards a few selected people or a worthy cause. Idealism is the banner of Umeko's personality – and she is proud of it. Unfortunately, it also means that Umeko can often feel misunderstood and isolated.

Umeko has a clear sense of honor, which inspires and motivates her. If someone wants to get to know her, it is crucial to know what drives her, to understand her chosen cause. She seeks harmony in her life and the surrounding environment, often feeling dejected because of all the bad things happening in the world and trying hard to create something positive. Umeko tends to see things and actions from the idealistic perspective, rather than the prism of logic. She responds to beauty, morality, virtue rather than utility, effectiveness or value.

Umeko can easily speak in metaphors and parables, and she also has an amazing gift of creating and interpreting symbols – for this reason, Umeko often finds it natural to write and enjoy poetry. She may also often retreat into her "hermit" state, withdrawing from the world and getting lost in her deep thoughts – her partner may then need to spend quite a lot of effort to energize and "awaken" the woman.

Umeko possesses a trait common among her family – their aptitude for foreign languages. Umeko also often writes, as she can easily reflect and convey her own personality using fictional characters. Generally speaking, she has a personality type that is extremely creative, innovative and goal-oriented – she can be a great advocate for a cause she truly believes in. Finally, Umeko has the ability to notice even the slightest hint of good in other people. In her eyes, even the most revolting person will have something worthy of respect or, at the very least, sympathy.


» Likes: Travel, Rain, Coffee

» Dislikes: Bullies, Demons, Heretics




» History

Long ago, before the Sugiuran lands were divided into the four kingdoms, when Guardian Beast territories were interwoven with those of the Sugiurans themselves, it was considered a part of life for the occasional, more aggressive guardian beast to lay considerable waste to any number of unguarded villages within this realm. The process of pillaging and conquest was not one reserved for human history, and many a time had destruction come to an entire series of towns simply because of the power of a wayward beast being used toward unsavory ends.

This is how it came to be that on a day in Zha'til three hundred and fourty three years ago, one such attack had an entire village in a panic. Buildings had been lit ablaze, soldiers had been cut down. A guardian beast unlike anything the village had ever seen had gone on a rampage, having apparently gone entirely conquer-crazy as the beast had begun destroying towns at a whim, leveling buildings and slaying whomever was in the way.

This small village was named Hujishiro, and it was the home of a clan known as Zhilan. This family had only come to the village about six years prior, but they had been around for as long as anybody could remember. They were generally viewed as strange and taboo based on their tendencies to stray from the village's common religious practices, instead focusing on science and experimentation to achieve desired results.

The reasoning for their being so estranged from their peers is that their last home, the village of Yenshu in the far east, was destroyed by a guardian beast even after their attempts to stop it. Their family had been working on a serum for decades that was going to combine a formula consumed by the user with a ritual to create an aura that would quell and subdue guardian beasts, allowing for sugiurans to protect themselves from the ravages of the ones whom weren't at all friendly. They had drafted up a prototype, but had been finding it troublesome to find anyone who was willing to test the serum for them. Before they were able to find a suitable candidate, a day came when in the early morning.. the invasion alarms began to sound. Loudly, and clearly, the wailing horn pierced the air. The village was under attack.

Explosions and screaming filled the streets as those whom were not already caught in the crossfire of this destructive rampage were scrambling in all directions, fleeing for their very lives. Instead of joining the panicked running, the Zhilan clan decided to try out their invention. The current family matriarch, Teio Zhilan, downed the whole of the serum, readying herself to go out and face the creature. Instead, Teio fell unconscious almost immediately, a green glow enveloping the woman's body before her very life force seemed to leave her. Unsure of what else to do, her husband Izuya gathered her up and fled, following the path of the others who had evacuated as he left the village to the guardian beast's mercy. As he reached the edge of the forest surrounding the village, Izuya turned back to look at the village's dying breath, the town ablaze. If he didn't know any better, Izuya would've sworn he saw someone standing amongst the fire, watching him as he turned and dashed into the trees.

As they traveled west, Teio eventually woke up, able to go between walking and riding on Izuya's back for the duration of their travels. It had taken them about five months, but at last they had found a village that in their minds would not be found by anyone due to its location at the bottom of an incredibly deep valley. Over the course of the next month, Izuya had searched for and eventually found a laboratory that he could reasonably be able to sneak into. In the dead of one cold night, Izuya took a vial of Teio's blood to said laboratory, wanting to examine it to see if he could isolate what had gone wrong in the consumption process. To Izuya's surprise, the results showed that the chemical hadn't worked because it was unbalanced. The measurements they had taken for the formula was only enough to account for one person's metabolic needs. And Teio... was supporting two.

Knowing now that his wife was carrying a child, Izuya gave up on the formula and returned home, confronting his wife to which she shocked him by telling him she had known, and simply hadn't wanted to say anything for fear of disappointing him by telling him that this child could not function as a true heir.. as Teio was having a girl. Izuya was not mad, he was ecstatic. He loved the idea of having a daughter, as he did not believe himself equipped in his dwindling health to deal with the roughhousing-filled upbringing of a young boy.

Over the course of the next few months, Izuya focused on designing armor, clothing, and other such things out of the house he had built for them on the outskirts of the village, using the money to support his betrothed through the last trimester of her pregnancy. And at the end of the process, when they held their baby girl in their hands, they felt something truly amazing from her. She was a completion to their unit that they didn't know they needed. They named their little girl Umeko, and they raised her together while Izuya continued working as a crafter from home.

Umeko was a curious child, her entire upbringing being generally summed up by the phrase "what do you think you're doing?". Which Umeko learned just meant stop. From infancy, she had a passion to touch everything, to learn how everything worked, to understand the world around her. She felt drawn from the moment she was born to know all of the workings of the things her dad worked with. She wanted to know, and when she was told no, she got unreasonably upset. This was the beginning of her lifelong pull toward control, as this urge to know all would slowly turn into a need to make sure that she had control.. That things were secure and in order.. That she had the authority to make things as she thought they should be.

As she grew, so too did this need. "Trouble child" didn't even begin to cover it as Umeko's reaction to not getting her way was always a lot more explosive than most developing children. Her terrible twos started at birth, and never really ended. While this was seen as bratty and exasperating behaviour, it wasn't something Umeko was doing out of malice. Even as a baby, Umeko had a gift for seeing a way to optimize the layout of the world around her, as well as her own productivity. So, whenever a decision her parents made got in the way of the path that she saw as best, of course she threw a tantrum. She didn't have any other way to communicate at such a young age that they were impeding her progress.

As Umeko slowly began to form words, the true gift that this nature was became more and more apparent to her mother and father. It was an intimate understanding of the best possible layout in any given situation. As young as age four, Umeko was able to help her father Izuya rearrange his workstation in a way that was more efficient than he ever could have imagined. So much so, that it doubled his product output, and the family was thriving for a period of time. However, life is a series of train wrecks interrupted by brief commercial breaks of happiness.. and after six years of Izuya and Teio's life in their new home, five of which spent with their beautiful daughter, the longest break they had gotten was finally at its end.

On a cold night in the harvest season, Izuya and Teio were awoken by a sound that surged from their memory to haunt their very existence.. a sound that called to mind the worst of possibilities for what was in store for the two.. the sound of the alarm bells screaming into the darkness.. Once again, thousands of miles from where they had escaped death six years ago, there was a guardian beast attacking their village.

The couple hustled, struggling to get together enough supplies to survive the journey to another new home as they scrambled around amidst the sounds of horrified, sickening screaming and fiery explosions from the village outside. They were getting dangerously close, and packing was taking longer than last time because they had an extra head to account for. Realizing at the same time what had not yet been gathered, Izuya and Teio panicked at once, rushing to Umeko's room. As the door opened, Izuya immediately bolted downstairs to the sound of Teio's mournful wail as she stared into the room. Their daughter's bed was empty. Izuya hurried downstairs, throwing open the door and rushing into the street. What he saw there would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Standing in the middle of the road, only a silhouette shadowed against a backdrop of flames licking the night sky, was Umeko.. staring upward at a towering female figure clad in armor.. a figure who weighed down on the area around her with a power so dense that Izuya was finding it hard to breathe. This.. was the guardian beast.. sword in hand.. ruins of the village behind her.. looking down at his daughter. Izuya yelled aloud, screaming at the beast to get away from Umeko. The blonde being looked at Izuya with piercing eyes, scaring the hell out of the sugiuran as he prepared to rush the woman. Before he could even move his feet, the beast had sheathed her sword and collected Umeko in her arms.. leaving Izuya to watch helplessly as she ran off into the depths of the forest with the young sugiura in tow.. her father standing out in the night air.. the glow of the burning village illuminating the absolutely shattered expression on his face as he lost sight of the guardian beast... as well as his daughter.

She had gone, and even as her parents aged and eventually died searching for her over the course of the next seventy years, she was never found. No trace of Umeko remained, and as her parents had her in a cabin outside of a burnt down village, no one else knew of her.. meaning that with the death of her mother and father, any record of her ever having been born or existing was gone as well. This crafted her story into legend. The child who was carried away, whose parents had searched every corner of the realm, the one kidpnapped by a rampaging guardian beast. Some would've sworn she was dead, others believed her to live on as a child of the Beasts.

Eventually, the legend itself was even lost, as the eventual founding of the Kingdoms and separation of the lands to grant the Guardian Beasts their own sanctum took priority in the minds and hearts of the sugiuran people. The girl was lost to time as hundreds of years passed by.. eras passing and royal families rising and falling.. until finally, three hundred years after the day she was kidnapped.. Umeko returned.

During a meeting between the kingdoms, Umeko chose to make her entrance. She walked into the meeting room, baffling those who would've sworn that there were guards outside, followed by a blonde woman in black armor who was immediately recognized as the guardian beast Avalon.. one worshipped as a God among the sugiuran people.. Some bowed, others only stared. Umeko stood before the kingdoms, and stated her name, telling everyone the story of what had happened to her.. how she had stopped the guardian beast Avalon and helped her to calm and subjugate a large number of guardian beasts to try and prevent attacks in the future, which had become unnecessary once the southern lands had been dedicated to the beasts. Umeko told of her and Avalon training relentlessly, about their partnership.. and finally, about her plan to optimize the workings of the eastern lands utilizing the skills and abilities she had learned and developed with Avalon.

The fact that she had with her someone whom the sugiuran people literally worshipped made it hard to tell her no, but it seemed as if she had the whole thing worked out.. and the more that she talked about the improvements that could be made, the more sold that those in power truly were. The Eastern Kingdom brought her and Avalon into their court as advisors and over the course of the next fourty years they aided in all manner of affairs from rebuilding projects to dam creation, resource management.. her eye for the most efficient utilization of space, tools, and components making her an invaluable asset in the Kingdom's thriving reign. Eventually, as the curren't patriarch's reign came to a close without having having been able to sire a true heir, Umeko was the only one who had the unanimous approval of the entire court as well as the citizenship itself. Umeko's optimization plan finally paid off in full as she was brought into the position as Monarch of the Eastern Lands, ready to carry the Eastern Kingdom with her into a golden age for the sugiurans. Three years later, Umeko still holds this spot, never being seen without Avalon far behind as she continues to work toward

(A/N: All of what happened during the time Umeko was missing can be found within the history of her Guardian Beast, Avalon.)




» Name: Avalon
» Titles The Beginning, The Holy Virgin, The Black Knight of the South
» Age: 15,000 Years Old
» Date of Birth: October 26th, 12,584 B.C.E
» Zodiac Sign Scorpio
» Gender: Female
» Orientation: Bisexual, Polyamorous
» Origin: Glory

» Location of Resonance Marker:

The Resonance Marker that signifies the partnership between Umeko and Avalon is a crest that rests on the back of Avalon's hand. On Umeko's person, said symbol is just below the small of her back.


» Appearance:




» Personality:

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crack-pot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost.
- Thomas J. Watson

Avalon is the ultimate devil's advocate, thriving on the process of shredding arguments and beliefs and letting the ribbons drift in the wind for all to see.Avalon doesn't do this because she is trying to achieve some deeper purpose or strategic goal, but for the simple reason that it's fun. No one loves the process of mental sparring more than Avalon, as it gives her a chance to exercise her effortlessly quick wit, broad accumulated knowledge base, and capacity for connecting disparate ideas to prove her point.

An odd juxtaposition arises with Avalon, as she is uncompromisingly honest, but will argue tirelessly for something she doesn't actually believe in, stepping into another's shoes to argue a truth from another perspective. Playing the devil's advocate helps Avalon to not only develop a better sense of others' reasoning, but a better understanding of opposing ideas – since Avalon is the one arguing them. This tactic shouldn't be confused with mutual understanding. Avalon is on a constant quest for knowledge, and what better way to gain it than to attack and defend an idea, from every angle, from every side?

Taking a certain pleasure in being the underdog, Avalon enjoys the mental exercise found in questioning the prevailing mode of thought, making her irreplaceable in reworking existing systems or shaking things up and pushing them in clever new directions. However, she'd be miserable managing the day-to-day mechanics of actually implementing her suggestions. Avalon loves to brainstorm and think big, but she will avoid getting caught doing the "grunt work" at all costs. 

Avalon's capacity for debate can be a vexing one – while often appreciated when it's called for, it can fall painfully flat when she steps on another's toes by say, openly questioning her boss in a meeting, or picking apart everything her significant other says. This is further complicated by Avalon's unyielding honesty, as she doesn't mince words and cares little about being seen as sensitive or compassionate. Like-minded types get along well enough with Avalon, but more sensitive types, and society in general, are often conflict-averse, preferring feelings, comfort, and even white lies over unpleasant truths and hard rationality.

This frustrates Avalon, and she finds that her quarrelsome fun burns many bridges, oftentimes inadvertently, as she plows through others' thresholds for having their beliefs questioned and their feelings brushed aside. Treating others as they'd be treated, Avalon has little tolerance for being coddled, and dislikes when people beat around the bush, especially when asking a favor.Avalon is widely respected for her vision, confidence, knowledge, and keen sense of humor, but often struggles to utilize these qualities as the basis for deeper friendships and romantic relationships.

Avalon has had a longer road than most in harnessing her natural abilities – her intellectual independence and free-form vision are tremendously valuable when she's in charge, or at least has the ear of someone who is, but getting there can take a level of follow-through that Avalon struggles with.

Once she's secured such a position, Avalon needs to remember that for her ideas to come to fruition, she will always depend on others to assemble the pieces – if she's spent more time "winning" arguments than she have building consensus, Avalon will find she simply doesn't have the support necessary to be successful. Playing devil's advocate so well, Avalon finds that the most complex and rewarding intellectual challenge is to understand a more sentimental perspective, and to argue consideration and compromise alongside logic and progress.

When one first meets Avalon, they may find themselves enchanted by her looks and once engaged in conversation she does not disappoint. Avalon is a very pleasant person to talk to. She often seems very kind and sometimes even over-bearing in the interest she takes in others. This trait goes to her very core as she is always interested in what others have to say. If the Guardian Beast was in school she would most likely be the biggest gossiper ever known. The problem with this is, as with most gossipers, she can be a drama queen.

Avalon is very passionate about what she believes and when called into question she may try to act friendly but she quickly becomes defensive. Further, she begins to take what others say out of context and blow minor things out of proportion. When this happens she tends to become obsessed with finding resolution to the issue that has started and from this point she often instigates. In truth, her intentions are almost never benevolent. She doesn't want to find a middle ground, she wants to be right.

This causes other issues to come to the surface en masse. When Avalon finds herself in the defensive mindset she becomes steadily more cruel in her intentions. She begins to see the other person as an itch that must be scratched and if they do not submit it is similar to having a mosquito attacking relentlessly. She quickly loses all patience and seems to not be able to help being somewhat aggressive. Verbally this is only apparent with those who rub her the wrong way but physically her unstable nature can get the better of her. She strikes out before she thinks - like a 'refined' lady slapping a 'brute'.

Additionally, it becomes quickly clear that this woman is quite flirtatious. Another's sex is of no relevance, there are other things that attract her outgoing affections. Hair is in fact one of the biggest things. Avalon absolutely adores hair and the longer one's hair is, the more she tends to like it. On the contrary, she is absolutely sickened by baldness or a general lack of hair. For some odd reason she seems personally insulted when around someone without hair. It's as if they mock her glorious hair with their lack. As could be expected, she is also far more tolerant of those with hair and will let them get away with murder as opposed to her lack of patience for the baldies.

Beneath the surface, Avalon is actually quite the wicked soul. She has this off-putting paradox about her personality. It's as if she both loves and hates almost everyone. It could be called bi-polar to an extreme with a hint of the sadistic nature many warriors share. The more she likes someone, the more possessive she becomes. She wants to keep them close but she also wants to shred their bodies from off of their bones. She would rationalize this by saying she needs to test their love for her but in truth she just gets a thrill from making them suffer. In a sense, it's a form of emotional masochism. On the other hand, when Avalon does not like someone she simply wants nothing to do with them. She has no interest in fighting them, she just wants them gone. She actually gets rather stuck up when around people she doesn't like in a way. Race has no bearing on if she likes someone, it's all their personality and their hair. It is good to note though, even if they are one of the dreaded baldies, she always respects a good fight.

» History:

Far beyond the most distant memory of most guardian beasts alive today, the time when the Sugiuran World was still whole was a time when legends thrived and shaped the very society in which they lived, One such legend was of a pantheon in which a number of guardian beasts stood, held on a pedestal and revered as Gods. Whether or not they were classified as actual deities remains unknown and unclear, but it was a certainty that these beings existed, that their powers stood head and shoulders above the rest, and that they were worshipped by a large number of beasts and early sugiurans alike once the first of them appeared.

One of these deities was one worshipped as "The Beginning". The legend told of a woman who had been born to rule. Who had fought tooth and nail for her entire life, conquering land after land in glorious battles to expand her power and influence until she had claimed more battle victories than any other warrior in history. For this feat, she was awarded unimaginable power by the Gods themselves and offered a seat among them in Godhood. Thus, the Pantheon gained its first ever mortal who had ascended by her own merits into a Godly being.

Whether or not this guardian beast was actually like a God in terms of being or power was unclear, but what was certain is that she existed, and even as the myths and legends became more and more grandiose and overblown, the beast herself persisted within the Sugiuran World. It was a fact, not a myth, that she had been involved in the Tig-Ani war, and had gotten pulled along with the rest of the pantheon when the Sugiuran World was forcibly seperated from their multi-verse by the sugiurans.

This being was Avalon, and having been pulled wholly from her home, from her territory, and from her conquests put her in a very foul mood. This culminated in a rampage that cost thousands of lives. Avalon would travel from place to place, finding any area in which no guardian beasts were currently dwelling and destroying any sugiuran settlement within. For the most part, these "visits" resulted in a mass loss of life. However, the ones she remembered the most were the ones that got away. In particular, one village she attacked roughly three hundred and fourty years ago where she watched from the street as a sugiuran man carried a woman off into the forest, disappearing into the night before Avalon could even react.

After that, Avalon spent a period of time in waiting, gathering as much information as she could about the whereabouts of her fellow pantheon members. She managed to find hints and clues here and there, but nothing concrete. The information had to be somewhere, and Avalon had to find it. So, it seemed her solution had to be going back to the original plan, which was to keep blowing through whatever she saw until she found what she was looking for.

Re-opening her can of proverbial whoop-ass, Avalon targeted another village for the fall. She decided to strike at night, hoping the surprise alone would keep them from reacting fast enough for anyone to escape. Things started off optimistically. It seemed as if her surprise attack was gonna result in another complete wipeout.. That is, however, until she noticed the house on the edge of the forest. No survivors, she thought, her mind casting back to the couple that got away. She made a beeline for it, following the road up toward the two-story abode. As she neared, she noticed someone in the road. Avalon drew her sword, speeding up until the moment she stood in front of the person. And it was.. a little girl. Avalon looked down at the child, her green hair long and wild, her bright emerald eyes cast upward at the guardian beast. Avalon scoffed, raising her sword, intending to strike the child down before lighting the house ablaze. Suddenly, the child's eyes began to glow..

"Stop."

The word echoed from the child's lips, the small voice seeming to resonate through the very air itself as it traveled to Avalon's ears... and stopped the beast in her tracks. Her eyes widened, finding herself unable to move to strike this child. Avalon clenched her jaw, swinging downward at the child, but she found herself striking only the air next to the girl's head instead. Again, and again she tried.. Each time finding her strike diverting itself from a course that would damage the young sugiuran. Avalon yelled in frustration, holding her sword as she began to breathe heavily. Suddenly, the door to the house swung open, and a man stumbled out into the street. Avalon looked up, her eyes meeting his for one long moment.. when the child whispered.. her voice so low that only Avalon and herself would've known that she had spoken at all..

"Run."

Though her movement had returned, Avalon made a split second decision. She reached down and swept the child up in her arms, turning and bolting into the forest as fast as she could possibly move, vanishing from the man's sight in moments. They fled for miles, Avalon's high speed making the distance close rapidly as they approached somewhere that Avalon felt safe hiding out... the last village she had leveled.. the one where this child's father had escaped her last.

When they arrived, Avalon returned to one of the few houses that hadn't completely burnt down, setting the child down. She expected the girl to be hysterical, to be crying or begging to go home, or throwing some form of tantrum. However, this was not the case. The child was calm, collected, her face neutral as she and the beast locked eyes. She introduced herself to Avalon as Umeko Zhilan, and Avalon responded in kind with her name, and her legend. Umeko had commanded Avalon's presence in a way no other had. She had been the only one Avalon had ever faced who could stop her. For this, Avalon carried a massive amount of sudden respect for the girl. The two formed a partnership then and there, as Umeko told Avalon of the vision she had.. a perfectly functioning sugiura kingdom.. a ruling class run like clockwork.. the plan was intricate, and would take years, but they had time to plan, and adjust.. and despite Avalon's anger, she couldn't help but see the benefit in standing alongside someone who planned to ascend so high. Maybe, just maybe, this would be the fastest way to find her brethren.. and even if not.. Avalon could never resist the kind of glory that came with ruling a people, especially when those people worshipped you.

Umeko and Avalon lived in the deepest shadows of the Sugiuran Realm while they structured their moves. The first order of business was to get Umeko strong enough to face the challenges that came with trying to build a nation. Avalon's hundreds of centuries of battle experience as well as experience training veteran soldiers was applied in the teaching and training of Umeko herself. While Avalon's school was the blade, Umeko's latent abilities from their partnership as well as her natural skills as they developed made her own kit mroe suitable for use with hand-to-hand combat. So, Avalon taught Umeko the basics, and then taught the young sugiuran how to improvise and adapt. As the young girl grew in age and strength, the power of the bond between the sugiuran and the guardian beast grew exponentially as well. They learned to fight in total and complete unison, even when seperated. Avalon taught Umeko how to harness and control her psions, forging a Matul Ispiritu form in the process. This process of training and strengthening lasted over the course of two-hundred years, until both Umeko and Avalon had reached new heights of power that neither of them would've been capable of on their own.

As they had trained, they witnessed the birth and growth of the three kingdoms, as well as the separation of unpartnered guardian beasts into the southern region of Zha'til. Finally, it was time to put Umeko's plan into action. For roughly the next hundred years, Umeko began involving herself in a number of battles that would be some of the major conflicts that helped shape the sugiuran lands. She did this in complete secrecy by disguising both herself and Avalon in cloaks and masks, and using weapons borrowed from armories. Finally, after over three hundred years of being missing, Umeko and Avalon returned, telling the sugiurans of their plan to forge a kingdom that would be the strongest that the sugiurans had ever seen. One that would guarantee their home would never be threatened again. And thus began Avalon's journey as a knight to the Eastern Kingdom's monarch, one whom was loyal to a fault, and never let the queen out of her sight. One who was determined to follow Umeko until she had found those whom had been taken here with her.