Name: Balara
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Rank: Wherhandler | Patrol & Tracking Hunt
Appearance: Balara is tall and slender with well defined muscles. Her hair is long and dark red in color, and she keeps it tied back in two low pigtails near the bottom of her head. Her skin is caramel color, naturally a little tanner at birth. Freckles dot her face under her eyes, which are a soft blue. The wherhandler prefers to wear more practical clothing - pants and tunics as opposed to more fanciful things. The one thing she allows herself to pamper herself over is her hair. Balara's hair was her mother's favorite feature, and growing up Pella made sure that the young girl had the best possible care for it that she could. This feeling toward it is shared by the wherhandler as a result.
Personality:
- Modest
Intuitive
Gentle
Fussy
Gullible
Anxious
Anyone who knows or has spent time with Balara will tell you that she is a modest young woman. She never speaks highly of herself, nor does she brag about events or achievements that have happened to her. To do so, in her eyes, would be considered not only rude, but disrespectful toward others around her. She wants to be neither of those. Yet Balara isn't just modest in terms of her personality: she is modest in other aspects of life as well, such as how she dresses and even lives. Her clothes are simple, and she keeps her living area clean and well-kept as well, with not a lot of personal items or decorations. She doesn't believe in showing off, nor does she care to be particularly flashy and extravagant with how she dresses. It would just draw attention to her, and she'd rather just fade into the background.
Balara has been an intuitive person from the time she was young. Quick to react or to catch on to things, some might claim that Balara has a six sense of sorts. This isn't true, of course, she merely follows her intuition and goes with her feelings. She seems to catch on to things that others might not even see or think about. Balara's intuitive nature isn't just directed at things or events, either -- she's good at picking up the emotions or thoughts of other people as well. This can be useful, especially, when out working with members of her hunt.
Out of the members of her hunt, Balara seems to be the most gentle. She is a kind and caring person who generally likes to look out for others before herself. At the same time, she is also not prone to acts of anger or lashing out. When it comes to settling disputes, she prefers to do them verbally rather than with physical altercation. Her gentleness also seems to roll over and effect how her wherlinghood and job now go as well. The wherhandler was never much one for combat-based jobs. While she learned to fight and can defend herself if necessary, she would much rather help in other ways as a supportive role.
Much like the wher she has bonded to, Balara is a rather fussy person when it comes to various things. She is very sensitive to taste, and is thus quite picky about the food that she eats. There aren't many vegetables that she likes, and grains like rice are hard for her to eat due to their texture. She also doesn't like to be dirty, and she keeps her room and herself as clean as she can. She is not so much a perfectionist, but everything in her room has a place. If something is out of place, she can easily notice. If something is lost, she is not above tearing her room up and down in order to find the item. If one of the things she is sensitive to isn't what she's used to, the wherhandler can get very anxious or irritable. She may even snap verbally at others, if taxed enough.
Unfortunately, Balara can be a bit too trusting of others. She is quite gullible. If the person talking to her has a way with words or can lie really easily, she is likely to believe whatever they say. This has often gotten her in trouble during her wherlinghood, where the other candidates would tell her one thing when she was supposed to do another. Despite her intuition, Balara is inclined to believe what people tell her, because she doesn't really see why anyone would have reason to lie (or why they would want to). When she finds out that she has been duped, the wherhandler often feels not only foolish, but saddened by the fact that someone lied to her. She knows she should probably be a little less trusting of people, but she can't bring herself to not believe others, especially if they are in a position of power over her.
Anxiety has plagued Balara for as long as she could remember. Her family often jokes that she worries about not having something to worry about. There are a number of things that trigger the young woman's anxiety to flare up. First and foremost, being called on in front of others to answer or discuss things leaves her frozen and often unable to think on how to answer. Being in large groups of people can overstimulate her and leave the young woman exhausted. Engaging in combat situations is often difficult for her, as she questions whether or not she'd actually able to do well in a fight. Balara also seems to be hesitant around dragonriders as well, as she finds true dragons to be quite intimidating creatures. She is much more suited to handling her wher and dealing with firelizards. However, if she needs to work side-by-side with a dragonrider, she will suck it up for as long as she has to in order to do the task at hand.
History:
It seemed to be destined that Balara was born into a life of servitude. She was born and raised by a single mother - a woman named Pella - who worked as a maid in an upperclass family within High Reaches Hold. Unfortunately, her mother never spoke of her father, so she grew up not knowing who he was. This didn't seem to mind the child, though, as the family Pella worked for was very kind. They even allowed Balara to take private lessons along with their own children, so that she could learn to read and write. She was also trained to do the work that her mother did from a young age.
Everything changed, however, when Balara reached her mid-teens. With the staff that the family had already at full capacity, there was really no way that they could hire on the teenager as a full-time member of their staff. They also didn't want to see her go to some other family, as they cared for her too much. It was at this time that they made a suggestion: sending Balara to the High Reaches Weyr to work as a lower caverns worker. While she wasn't particularly fond of the idea of leaving her home, it was better than working for some other family, where she had no idea if she'd fit in with them or not. After that, she took the family up on their suggestion, and went to the Weyr to do various jobs within the lower caverns of High Reaches.
Balara continued to work in the lower caverns for another 8 years, predominately as overseer to the laundry drudges. Putting her head down, she would just focus on the tasks at hand to her, and would do her work without much complaint. It was around age 23, however, that things started to get a bit old for the young woman. She wanted to do something more; something aside from just odd jobs. Knowing that she'd be unable to get a dragon (and not really wanting to, frankly; dragons were intimidating), Balara expressed interest to the recruiter on possibly becoming a wherhandler. The recruiter seemed to think she'd be decent enough, because she went to basic training shortly after that.
The intellectual and fitness aspects of training weren't so difficult for Balara. She got through those with relative ease. It was the combat portion of basic training that she initially struggled with, finding anything combat related to be a bit too stressful for her. It took some time, but she managed to get over this enough to get through basic training and to learn how to properly defend herself, should the need ever arise.
Becoming a squire was the next stage of life for Balara, and she was quite fond of her time spent doing such work. Her squiremaster was another female wherhander - a jovial, gregarious woman by the name of Rean. It was during her time as a squire that Balara saw her first real combat. The experience was quite jarring for her, and she was almost ready to call it quits, but Rean got to her first. Her squiremaster told her that she put in too much work and came too far to just quit then. Besides -- the senior wherhandler knew that Balara had what it took. She would be a good wherhandler, when the opportunity arose for her to get an egg. It was all thanks to Rean that she stayed, and Balara still feels that she owes the woman quite a bit in thanks.
Finally, the opportunity arose for Balara to impress upon a wher of her very own. It was quite an eventful day, and the other squires of her hunt were just as eager as she was. A handful of candidates stood to take an egg, and Balara was one of the few that managed to grab one.
Balara couldn't have been more excited when her egg finally hatched. Upon his hatching, the young woman blooded her wher for his first meal, hoping that it would develop their bond more quickly as she had learned in candidacy. It took a few weeks for the wher to get used to her, but after that, the two became inseparable. With her new companion, Balara took to training her wher very seriously, and found that he not only excelled in the field of tracking, but enjoyed it immensely as well.
Before graduating wherlinghood, Balara and Balarask's huntleader moved away. After this incident, the two then moved on to join a patrolling and tracking hunt, which they continue to be in to this day.
Both seem to enjoy the work that they do, and they also love being with one another. The young woman couldn't have been happier to join the ranks of the wherhandlers, and she feels that it is the best decision she ever made. Not only did she raise her station and find a higher purpose for life, but she made a lifelong friend to cherish for years to come.
