Perhaps once in every several generations, there is a member of the Mycorzhan bird clans that exhibits powers beyond what the residents of the Isles fully understand. Able to summon clouds and lightning to their command, those few across the years who have demonstrated such power have come to be known by the colloquial name of “thunderbirds”, given both their abilities and the influence they typically have over the course of their clans and tribes. Whether through natural talent, or merely by dint of being so visibly “chosen” by the Isles, most thunderbirds become leaders and elders, shouldering the weight of responsibility and stepping up to guide the path of countless others in their charge.

Myra just wants to run

From the time that she could walk, the weight of expectation has tried to crush the young roadrunner. Naturally talented, she quickly learned to downplay her own brilliance, learning quickly that it led only to higher responsibilities and more and more folks interfering in her life. Instead, she pushed herself to move faster, leap further, and to excel in feats of athletics and physical prowess. Racing across the barren, dusty plains of the Sun Dried Sands, she found peace in constant movement; so much so that her relatives began to jokingly refer to the plume of dust that followed her everywhere as "Myra's Tail". Rocky canyons became places to practice jumping and parkour, the young roadrunner throwing herself into complicated acrobatic moves that sent her careening off rock walls and over boulders. The wind in her feathers, the song of her blood in her ears, were exhilarating, a place where she felt she could think straight. They were a place of solitude, away from having to navigate the complexities of social relationships. And given the well-regarded nature of playing messenger or courier amongst the bird clans - particularly in the Sands where far removed outposts only had so many ways to get news and supplies - Myra was content to accept the encouragement of her family, and to hide from them her other interest. Away from the weight of hopes and obligation, she began to dabble in exploring the strange, half-bured ruins that dotted the south-eastern deserts, and found herself intrigued by the strange mechanisms that she found there. Myra knew that many creatures in the Sands relied on these leftover remnants of past ages to survive, collecting water or re-directing it to different areas to provide for crops. She did not dare to show anyone her interest and talent regarding these systems however; past experience had taught her well, and she shuddered to remember the disapproval of past summers when she skipped out on responsibilities that others had attempted to weigh her down with. Better to tinker in secret, and if a few settlements suddenly found their supplies more plentiful than before, than Myra was happy to help. Just in her own way.

Myra’s life wasn’t to remain peaceful. On her sixteenth hatchday she was racing home from a messenger job, tearing across the desert ahead of the looming front of a sudden thunderstorm. She danced among the falling hail, and put on a sudden burst of speed for the final stretch when the heavens themselves joined the race. Unable to outrun lightning, Myra’s world disappeared in a blinding light and world-ending noise as her relatives and band looked on in horror. The flash left spots in before their eyes, which cleared to show Myra miraculously unharmed, rising up into the air with eyes glowing white and electricity arcing from her outstretched wings. Thunder roared, and wind swirled dust around Myra in a tight spiral as she came into her new-found power. The creatures gasped and shouted and whispered, and before Myra could stop it the word had spread to the Sands and beyond. She had inherited the powers of the thunderbirds.

Born once every three or so generations to the Mycorzhan bird clans, thunderbirds could be any hatchling across the Isles. All of them exhibited some power over lightning and wind and cloud, and the stories told of past thunderbirds flying the length of Mycorzha twice in a single day. Beyond that, the only other thing known about the thunderbirds of the past was that they had been great leaders and elders, sitting on councils and bearing the weight of story and tradition on their back. Tradition that Myra now stood to inherit, and responsibility that she wanted not a single part of.

The calls for Myra to join the council of her own band started immediately, but she ducked those easily - she always seemed to have a message or a package to deliver, and she was out the door and gone before any could say otherwise. Things came to a head when members of the Eagle clans from the Crescent Mountains arrived, having heard of the newly blessed thunderbird. Suddenly, Myra was pulled into the world of Mycorzhan tribal politics, and before she could escape it had ensnared her in its clutches. Tasked with sitting on the councils of the Sands, overseeing all the many desert bands and family groups to ensue their voices are heard, Myra is not only expected to shoulder the weight of leadership, but to welcome it. Further, her secret interests had been discovered; inopportune timing revealed that she had started to tinker with how her newfound powers, bringing life to the odd, half-buried mechanisms in the Sands. Joyous cries followed her everywhere, begging her to work on this system, that irrigation pipe; Myra ran, ran as fast as she could, but never seemed able to escape.

Her grouses and grumbles gave way to near-despair, and she likely would have done something uncomfortably drastic had it not been for Wil. Older than her by only a few years, the coyote had been pushing to have his own voice heard at the Sands council meetings for several seasons already. His passion for tinkering and inventing mirrored Myra's own interests, coupled with an archaeological bent - Wil was as excited by social dynamics, politics, and how other creatures thought as Myra was definitively not. But he had found himself voiceless, turned away from councils and ignored by others due to his youth and "inexperience". Bumping into Myra changed both their lives, giving her a companion who was willing to listen and to understand her, and him someone eager to support his ideas and test his inventions alongside him. Where Myra had sought solitude, now she and Wil spend hours racing across the desert together, or having discussions long into the night.