Concept of a Spirit Dweller

When reading myths and legends, many a person comes across hearing of beautiful, terrifying, vicious, cunning creatures that lived mostly hidden from men, showing themselves and disrupting village life only rarely, when it pleased them. The Rusalki dancing in the fields after sunset, the Leshii which will lead you into the depth of the forest and get you lost, the Domovoi that protects your house only if you feed him and are kind to your stock - all these were beings to stay away from, beings of whim and power too closely intertwined with the natural order of things. But not everyone stayed away. Some were drawn by the inexplicable, by the fleeting presence of nature in a concrete form - some came so close as to draw the spirits of those creatures within.
Those were the first Spirit Dwellers.
Harboring a live breath of nature does strange things to you, lets you feel things; if you forget yourself for a while and instead focus on all the sensation outside - the smells of the ground and foliage, the song of the wind and animals, the placement of water underground and the speed of an unfolding flower - you will cease as an entity and will become a seamless part of nature; and you will know nature, hear its creaks, its moans; will understand its health and mood as you would your own; will experience such freedom, exhilaration and peace as you could not possibly as as a tiny disconnected human.
It is addicting and mind opening; Spirit Dwellers became protectors of the natural world, spies of the wilderness in the face of evolving progress. And when the forests receded into themselves, the descendants of Spirit Dwellers, spread thin but wide, felt the dependency of their happiness on the state of the natural world and kept returning to look after the forests.

Naida and Ilaryi are from families that not only feel the pull of Dweller blood, but know the history of their circle. But in their contemporary age, when living by the land may mean poverty, when it is necessary to be in tune or ahead of the state of society to ensure a good life for their children.... it is often a choice: to deny the the need for the woods and meadows and mountains in one's backyard in favor of technology, mobility and people, or to deny the progress of their age and become static, backward-gazing.

The Spirit Dweller society is not well consolidated. Little circles exist here and there, and unification occurs rarely, because it is impossible to tell a dweller descendant from regular folk (although who's to call them regular; magic of different sorts if perfectly plausible) unless you see him interact with with flora or fauna. However, not too far from where Naida lives (Oh, a mere several hours of driving) there is a large patch of land that is legally owned by a dweller and has thus become a regular gathering spot.

When Naida was little, he family lived on the outskirts of a populous city; it was the strangest thing - two streets into the city, and no building less than 13 floors appeared and cars flooded the curbs and people walked with cellphones, briefcases and the like; it was a regular economical capital. And a mere ten minutes of walking past the scattered patches of farm land, a forest stood untamed and undisturbed by infrastructure. Being mostly home schooled by her mother, Naida grew up in that forest, and was taught not only the the socially accepted subjects of math, science, history and languages, but also the means to still yourself and tap into that inner ear that lent the connection with nature. Water picked Naida - she could feel the water best; loved the rain and swimming; could grow a jungle on their balcony. So when it was time for her younger sister, 4 years her junior, to go to school, her parents decided to move to a typical suburbia. Her sister started first grade only partially dependent on the forest, but Naida entered public school at the age of 12 with a very heavy attachment for her forest. Her parents had moved here specifically to increase her and her sister's chances of living well in whatever world they chose, but for Naida it was mostly a cutting off of options.
Suburbia had parks, some trees, but all man managed, controlled, limited. Nor did the sprinkle of the city offer the same society as that of the capital.
However, one thing turned out beautifully - her parents moved to an area where the population density of Dwellers was immense, a whole 4 families to their community complex. The children all become her good friends.
But the more Naida followed the common direction of any highschooler, the more she understood two things: she had to get an education that would allow her to get stable income while working far into the country side and would enable her to move easily; she had to get back to the forest.
Many weekends and breaks, Naida would visit new forests with whomever was willing to take her to pick one with which she would stay. This was the custom - if a dweller chose to protect a forest, he had to commit for a 5 year minimum. Anything less, and you just wouldn't do any good - it took most a year to 2 just to learn the forest. Furthermore, you could not pick the forest with which you grew up - otherwise no dweller would ever move. Finally, you couldn't just pick any location - the land had to approve you.
At age 17, Naida finishes high school and picks both a forest and a nearby university to proceed with the education that will ensure she won't be left behind just because she'll be focusing on her Dweller roots for however many years it'll be until she settles down and has kids.  It is in that forest she meets Ilaryi - it is his home forest.

A small note: the title of the story and a lot of the main action occurs on that Dweller owned land (mentioned several paragraphs above), where every summer in mid June, the Dweller parents can send their children for a month long camp. There, the children pretty much sleep in tents, cook for themselves, hike, swim, run around, have some lessons and bonfires and other entertainment, but mostly - have the freedom to train to make the most use of their Dweller blood. The adult supervision comes from grown up Dwellers that choose to give up their vacation time for the cause.