Name: Wild Kids

Sientific term: Homo enfantei wildosa

Pronunciation: home-oh an-fahn-tay wild-oh-sah

Description: grown wild kids have the appearance of a thirteen year old, with hair and skin colour ranging as differently as humans’, about four to five feet tall and with tails. They wear clothes of animal fur and are known to carry weapons such as bows, arrows, daggers and slingshots. They travel in packs. Wild kids over the age of ten are known to turn into a variety of animals, depending on the kid.

History: Wild Kids were created by Mother Nature as a way to link mankind and the animal kingdom. This was when humans were drifting away from their hunter-gatherer ways, like in ancient times. Mother Nature, in an attempt to rebond the two sides, went down to the Earth and sat on a rock. Using clay, she sculpted the very first Wild Kids (see Myths, Legends, Gods and Rituals) as a picture of innocence, bonding and togetherness between humans and the rest of animal kind. But her plan didn’t work. The children were turned away by the human race. The leaders of the ancient world called them ‘tainted’ and ‘impure’, the ‘spawn of the devil, from beast and human who is treacherous to our race’. They used the Wild Kids as an excuse to get rid of the people they didn’t like, claiming they were treacherous and had ‘bonded with wild creatures like no human should ever!’. Then they ousted them into the woods. The wild kids were also forced to flee mankind, though they were happy to. The men encouraged all who came across those ‘foul filthy animals’, aka the wild kids, to kill them. This stuck with humans for hundreds of years, and now, even with the evil leaders gone, humanity still despises the connection Mother Nature has made betweeen them and the animals.

Myths, Legends, Rituals and Gods: The wild kids worship Mother Earth, their patron. They also revere the First Children, Mother Earth’s first wild kids, who live for as long as the Wild Kids are not extinct. They are not as godly as their mother, but they are still respected as the wise elders of the tribes. Know the turning I told you about? They have a whole ceremony on the first day of summer, where all the Wild Kids gather in a gargantuan clearing in the woods, which has a huge boulder in it. The children who are Turning transform into their animals on that rock. The stone is the place where Mother Nature is said to have created the Wild Kids, so they find it sacred.

Diets and Daily Lifestyle: the Wild Kids live in packs, as I have said before. They have different positions and roles, and the young are much protected and supported. There are hunters, some healers, foragers, babysitters for when the older Wild Kids are out, and, of course, there is a Chief and Chiefess. They are the leaders and are responsible making a new batch of kids every few years. They do this by praying to Mother Nature, who gifts them with the babies, leaving them in the leaders tent.

Young Wild Kids: I know it seems silly. Yeah, I know. Young Wild Kids? What’s the point? I mean like, _really_ young. Like babies and toddlers.

There are five stages before a child in a Wild Kid clan can become a True Wild Kid. There are the Calves, children who are ages 0 to 3, Colts, ages 4 to 6, Cobras, ages 7 to 9, the Turners, (10) those who are Turning that year, and finally the Apprentices (ages 11-12). The Turners spend their time learning all about being a true Wild Kid and go through severe training to be ready for when they are put into a position in the tribe. When they have completed the training they Turn, and become apprentices. When they turn thirteen, they move on from apprentices and become regular members of the clan, doing their job and being thirteen years old physically, until they turn ninety mentally. Then they become the animal they often turned into and live a normal animal life before transitioning back into a new wild kid.