Name: Kialynka
Age: 13 Turns (will be 14 in spring)
Gender: Female
Rank: Wherhandler Candidate
Appearance:
With a narrow, pointy face and her quick, darting mud brown eyes there is no doubt Kialynka is a predator. She watches and takes note of everything going on around her. Her no-color brown hair is kept cut short around her ears. A slightly crooked nose reveals it’s been broken at least once. Numerous light scars criss-cross her forearms from previous knife fights.
Kialynka stands a short 4’11” from years of malnutrition. Her body type is thin, also from not enough food, and wiry from doing physical activities like hunting. Despite her appearance there is strength in her. She has a strong grip one might not expect from a girl. Rarely does she relax her guard, and only then when she feels she’s in a safe location. Tension keeps her taunt and on her toes. Kialynka wears cast off men’s clothing usually.
Personality:
Kialynka is not exactly far from a feral thing. She’s certainly rough around the edges. Hands are a perfectly acceptable way to eat. Forks and knives take too long, whilst spoons are acceptable for soups when she doesn’t slurp them from the bowl. She doesn’t stand much on pomp or formalities. Only one thing matters to her and that’s herself. She’ll look out for number one first. Don’t expect much charity from her. One has to look out for oneself. Kialynka is more than able to stand up for herself in a fair fight. That doesn’t mean she’ll fight fair.
One thing she doesn’t like is authority. She resents someone thinking they can simply reorder her life just because they want to. Kialynka is a girl use to make her own choices and decisions, for better or worse; only the "captain" of her band can order her with some impunity. Someday she has dreams of leading her own band of followers. She could be a leader if she had the opportunity and resources. Despite her wariness around people, when her mouth gets going she has a tendency to speak before she thinks. It often results with her foot winding up figuratively in her mouth. Kialynka has developed a cunning sense of survival to help counter this. It tells her when she's said too much and to stop before she gets hurts. Also, a little bribery never hurt either.
She is something of a packrat assuming she can get away with it and keep her belongings from others. She collects little odds and ends, but she values material possessions and most especially money. Kialynka likes to gather "spares" as she calls it, and her bed will often sport more blankets or pillows than strictly needed by her. This is a particular problem once she learns where the stores are.
Not much can make this girl talk if she doesn’t want to tell you something. Kialynka is willing to take her secrets to her grave. When under pressure to comply, or simply to save her own skin, she is known to lie. She would rather lie and have that believed than tell her secrets. With her attitude toward authority figures, she won’t be the first to run and report a wrong-doing. She might smirk and take note of it then, but she won’t tattle. Just because she didn’t report it, doesn’t mean she won’t use her knowledge. Under her calm exterior there’s a little bit of treachery in her. Kialynka uses it to better her own situation in things like food, items, or marks from either you or your chief rival.
Living wild most of her life has taught Kialynka valuable survival skills. She is excellent at knife fighting, tracking, and silent stalking. Right up there as well is her hunting and archery. Several times she has heard of others hunting with a firelizard, and wondered how useful they actually were. She would much rather rely on her own skills that she can be sure of. Kialynka displays calm persistence and patience when hunting, whatever she might be hunting.
History:
Turn 189: Born in early spring
191: Parents marked Holdless and banished
199: Family forced to leave Holdless and joined with bandits
200: Parents killed mid spring
200-1: Traveled during summer, wintered at a hold, then moved on again in spring
1: Joined new bandit group in summer
Late 2- Early 3: Kialynka and bandits captured in late Fall. Trial held one month after capture. She was let off and sent to foster parents, shortly thereafter she moves to the weyr
Kialynka was born in a medium sized hold in Nabol territory. Her parents had been working there since they learned they were expecting. Her father helped with the herds of cattle. In her second Turn, her parents were caught aiding a rival group in cattle theft. The adults were marked Holdless and banished from the hold with their daughter.
With a young child to look after, her parents soon joined up with a group of holdless. Scrounging a living as best they could, they did their best to see she had what she needed at first; parental love, food, and clothing. As Kialynka grew older she was put to work doing chores suitable for a child of five Turns. She helped with women with washing and cooking what food they did have. Her father got into drinking when he could get ahold of alcohol. Thankfully he didn’t get it often as he turned mean when drunk.
In her tenth Turn, her father under the influence badly hurt another holdless man. They were evicted from the small community of holdless. The family traveled for a time then joined up with a local bandit group. Life became harder. Her father drank away any extra marks they earned. For Kialynka, she spent her time learning to hunt for the pot, learning to sew, and helping tend camp. On the sly, one of the younger bandits also taught her how to fight dirty to protect herself.
It was well that learn she did. Just after her eleventh birthday the bandit group turned on her parents. They only had a moment’s warning. Her mother told her to run, and run she did. Running through the forest she heard the bandits yelling, and then her parent’s screams. Kialynka knew she’d never see them again. It was a long time before she stopped running. Fear the bandits would come after her next kept her going. Unknown to her, her father had been hiding more than his share of the loot for himself. The bandits found out and took their usual action against him. Her mother was innocent, but guilty by association and caught in the attack.
That summer she eked out a living mainly in the forests, and a few small homes along the roads. That fall she made a small camp for herself in the woods. Kialynka found a large-ish hold nearby and started visiting it. With winter coming, she knew she had to do something. Her forest shelter would not protect her. That winter she barely managed to survive. She struggled on her own trying to look small and pathetic in the hopes someone would take pity and give a free handout. Often she went to bed hungry and tired. When she couldn’t earn enough she would turn to a bit of thievery. Kialynka never stole a lot and nothing expensive, just enough to help her get by.
When spring came the young girl left the hold and moved on. She traveled, staying at small cotholds or a night or two by doing odd jobs to earn her bed and meals. Though offers were tendered at nearly every cothold she visited, she turned them all down always making up some excuse or another. The biggest problem was that she didn’t understand these settled people and it frightened her. Bandits and their ways were more familiar and she knew what to watch for. Kialynka never missed an opportunity to add a few 1/64 marks to her pocket if they were left lying around carelessly. She knew better than to take anything that would be greatly missed, like a full mark. This worked for a time.
In midsummer she heard of a bandit band of the local area belonging to High Reaches Hold. It was a risk, but she couldn’t continue on like this for very long. Kialynka promised herself she wouldn’t trust anyone. If it began to look dicey for her, she’d split and not look back. She spent several days scouting the bandits and their lair to decide the best way to approach. Her usefulness had to be proven without a shadow of a doubt to them. They needed her. Picking her day, Kialynka approached at midday to say she wanted to join.
After a brief talk, she was brought into the group. It had ten to fifteen adults with several handfuls of children between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Here she practiced and perfected her stalking, tracking, bow and arrows, and knife fighting. Kialynka spent most of her time hunting as her contribution. She would keep the best pieces of meat from her kills to bargain for better things, like blankets or clothes. She did her best to keep her distance from the others.
Less than two Turns passed. Her band had made a nuisance of themselves too much and the holds called in the dragonriders. The raid came one evening. Kialynka, like the others, fled into the forest. It only took two days for the whers to round up the whole group. She had been trying to sneak deeper into the forest in the hopes of slipping away. The teen heard the people coming after her before she saw them. Darting past some bushes in the hopes of losing them she found that she had run right into someone else. Realizing it too late that it was a trap the young teen went to wrench her arm free. As she turned Kialynka found herself almost face to face with a snarling wher.
She snarled back at the wher when she realized that she had been well and truly caught. Others emerged from the foliage. It wasn’t the people that caught her eye, but the beasts they worked with. Kialynka thought she felt a connection with them. There was something there that she felt she could almost grasp. Her mind was pulled back to the situation as the bandit band was taken away to High Reaches Hold to await trial. On the way though, she saw more whers, but these didn’t seem nearly as fierce as the ones in the forest.
It was a month before the trial was scheduled. For the first sevenday, Kialynka cursed and yelled at her captors; angry at being confined and forced idleness was not easy for her at first. Once that passed though, she began to think. Mostly about the beasts that had helped with her capture. Somehow she wasn’t angry with them. Time passed slowly for her in the tiny cell of the prison.
The time for the trail approached. Men came to talk to her. Offering deals for information. At first she wasn’t going to, and then reconsidered when they explained her options. She did not want to be assigned to a work gang! With her testimony against the others of her band she was cleared of all charges. When asked of her family, so that she might be returned, she said she didn’t know. Though she told them what fuzzy memories she could remember there wasn’t much chance of them finding if any of her extended family was still alive.
Without direct family, Kialynka found herself annoyingly with foster parents. She did not appreciate the way these jumped up parents ordered her about. Trying to tell her what she could or could not do. She didn’t need them to tell her what to do. The teen did her best to make them see things her way. It was easy to avoid them for the most part.
A sevenday passed as she tried to adjust to new ways. Kialynka observed the whers whenever she had the chance, still remembering the ones she’d first met. One afternoon, haven been dragged into cleaning by her foster mother, an unexpected visitor arrived. Kialynka went to answer the door to find an old-ish woman with muscular arms standing outside. It took her several long minutes to recognize her as one of the riders from the trial.
Warily the girl let L’ris into the house guessing she wanted to talk with her foster mother. Instead the rider sat down to talk to her. The teen remained standing as she listened. L’ris offered to bring her to the Weyr to work. At first she thought to refuse thinking only of the dragons that lived there. Then an image of the night she was caught flashed in her mind.
“They got them beasties there?” She had asked. The pampered racing whers at the Hold didn’t appeal to her. The rider had then yes, and explained the process. Kialynka was dismayed. Five Turns before she could even apply? Five Turns doing a drudge’s work. That almost stopped her. Is it worth it? she had asked herself. Glancing around the house, anywhere but the rider, she tried to sort her mind. This for the rest of her life, or she could spend a few Turns doing domestics to get a wher?
Her mind settled Kialynka faced the rider. She would go to the Weyr. A half hour later, all the time she’d needed to pack her few things, and she left High Reaches Hold behind.
*L'ris used with permission by Con.
Theme: Shiver My Timbers
