Shifters are more of the Earth than any other known sentiment being. The legend is that the first human to ever change into the form of an animal was Cain's first wife, Avani. She was a beautiful, intelligent woman, but never failed to question authority when she felt it necessary, and therefore was considered dangerous to the patriarchy that had been established in the world at this time. According to the ancient lore, passed down orally, Cain was ordered by Adam, his father, to kill Avani and find another wife. Cain assumed he had the upper hand with the Lord on his side, and led Avani into the desert that surrounded their camp with the promise of renewed passion in their marriage. What Cain and Adam did not realize was that Avani was one with the Earth. She spoke to the rabbits and whispered to the trees. Everything that was in the world at the time told her of Cain's plan, but she had no way to thwart it. So Avani prayed. She prayed to God that he would make her strong enough to resist her husband without hurting him. When the sun rose the next morning, entering the folds of the flimsy tent they had set up on the outskirts of the scorching desert, Avani knew something had changed within her. Instead of simply being able to see and understand nature, she now was a part of it. She felt herself moving with the grace of an antelope, but the ferocity of a wolf. Many hours later, when she was preparing the evening meal, Cain moved behind her with a rock, similar to the one he had used to slay his brother. He raised his arm, prepared to strike her, when the roar of a thousand beasts ripped through her throat. Her entire body turned to sand and disintegrate, only to reassemble itself within seconds into the form of a creature that hadn't even been imagined until this very moment. She had the body of an African lion, and the head of a shaggy grey wolf. The wings of a scarlet macaw protruded from her massive shoulders, while the hooves of a bison adorned her feet. She now stood at least 7 feet tall from the top of her head to the tip of her hooves. She let out another terrifying howl, and her golden eyes, one of the only things unchanged from her human form, bore deep into Cain's. At this moment he knew he could either face this beast that had emerged from his wife and almost certainly die in the process, or he could flee back to his village and return with reinforcements. However, his thought process was interrupted when Avani placed a massive arm atop his shoulder, her hoof boring into his collarbone. Suddenly Cain's mind was inundated with a deep, gravelly, commanding voice.
    "Go, Cain, run away and tell no one what you have witnessed here today. You are free to remarry, I have a union with the land and it's creatures now. If you reveal to anyone my new form, there will be no supernatural power to strike you down where you stand. However, I will not be alone for long, and when I have more under my rank we will hunt you, and your children, and the children of your grandchildren down until your generations are no more. If this is clear you need not say anything, your silence is your consent. Now go, before I see fit to strike you down where you stand."
    And he did, Cain ran until he reached his village. There he told his father his wife had been disposed of, and he later remarried. Avani was not seen again until 300 years later, during the creation of the second shifter. The only records of her existence are oral, through word of mouth. She only appears to shifters, whether they are born or turned.