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The before for Integrity was uneventful. They lived in a house larger than any family needed- unless the family had seventeen children and a large number of close relatives who stayed over often.
Integrity's family was not like that. Their family was them, their mother, their father, and their two twin brothers. The twins were younger than them by two years.
Integrity had a pretty much normal family, but for Integrity's family, that was a loose term. They came from a long line of mages, and Integrity was the newest. The twins might've developed magic later in life, but Integrity didn't find out. Instead, Integrity fell down a hole in the mountain.
When Integrity was thirteen, they had their parents enroll them in ballet. Of course, this was something that made their parents happy, so they were signed up faster than the twins could break something. They took to the sport quickly, rising in the ranks, despite the difficulties that came with not being one gender or the other.
(They'd gotten used to seeing the confusion on people's faces after telling them that they were nonbinary. It was annoying.)
The brutal honesty of the teachers appealed to Integrity's SOUL, and they soon decided to make that a more obvious part of their life. It didn't change much, just helped their parents out when Integrity had done something wrong. They'd never been one for lying, anyways.
At the age of sixteen, Integrity was having a harder time in their sport than they'd like to admit. They'd recently been training for a spot they wanted desperately, and the competition was tough. Used to being ahead of everyone else, they'd had to take a break before they snapped.
They decided to climb the mountain. A good hike couldn't hurt, so off they went, feet laced tightly in stiff boots to prevent the spraining of an ankle that would serve devastating to them.
They made it out perfectly safe, and it was just what was needed to let Integrity get the spot they wanted. From then on, whenever they got upset, they'd take a hike on the mountain. It was almost a sanctuary of sorts to them.
After a particularly rough day, Integrity stormed up to the mountain, ballet shoes in hand, tutu that some misgendering mother had brought them dangling from one fingertip disgustedly. The mother acted like she'd been doing good, giving Integrity a tutu because obviously the "little girl" couldn't remember or afford one. When Integrity had shouted that they were nonbinary- they didn't need a tutu, and they weren't a girl- the mother had the gall to call them only confused!
"The only confused one here is you, stupid cow," Integrity hissed as they stomped up the mountain, ankles safely ensconced in hiking boots.
They were so angry that they stopped paying attention to their surroundings. When they finally looked up, they were in an area they'd never been to before. It was heavily wooded, and the ground was covered in rocks and sticks. Integrity was glad for the boots they were wearing.
They were next to a large hole in the ground, and they looked at it carefully before chucking the blue tutu into the hole. They then flung their shoes over their shoulders. Looking around, they studied the terrain, trying to find landmarks.
When none were found, they decided to climb up a tree to see where they were at. Once at the top, Integrity could only see green and the faint impression of a trail. They decided to aim for that, and began to climb down when a crack startled them. The branch they were on had snapped and Integrity was falling.
They were high up, so they expected a quick fall and then the crack of broken bones, but instead they hit the side of their body on a ledge. Fingers scrabbling at the edge, they called for help as they tried to pull themselves up out of the hole half their body was in currently.
But it was too late. Nobody was around, and the pull of gravity was too strong. With a loud scream, Integrity was pulled through the hole in the ground.
The last thought in their mind before impact was that their ballet teacher was going to be so mad when they didn't show up for rehearsal tomorrow.