Name: Deliran
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Can you get past my swarm to try?
Role/rank: Wher Trainer
Origin: Ruatha
Appearance: Beginning to wrinkle at the eyes, this woman has had much time in her craft, raising and managing whers for interested parties. The craft has left it's mark on her figure, drawing a great gash over one eye from a wher who had reacted poorly to a wherkeep's training and she'd needed to step in. The eye is not permanently closed, but it is permanently blind. She's found it less unnerving to others not to open it, and hates wearing eyepatches. Other scars include the rake of clawscars along her left thigh and right calf, a bite on her right waist, and another deep gash on her left pectoral. You can kind of barely see it poking over the outfit she'd held over from her days as a holdless b*****d there.
Personality: : Deliran is a creature that is beyond patient. Willing to sit and wait for a wild wher to be her friend, Deli has proven capable of hunting not only for herself, but for enough to share with a pack to earn a few extra steps closer.
She has proven that she's not willing to give up her position on a particular stance, and will many times fight for it tooth, claw, and sword. She doesn't speak much, unless she has something to say, and being mostly nocturnal means she doesn't have to; the only people awake are the guards on the parapets, and most of them seem as though they could care less about the wherkeep.
Being nocturnal, and not seeing people at most intervals of the day, Deli can be reactive to encounter. She can't see as well in the dark as her whers, and relies on them to give her an impression of others approaching. When surprised, she can be something of a dangerous creature, bearing a quick reach for her sword and a faster alert to her attending Whers. She very much more prefers it when the grounds are predictable. Changes mean something's wrong. Or better, anyways.
Positive: Controlling, Understanding, Unwavering
Negative: Stubborn, Wher-brained, Aggressive/Impulsive
History: Once a holdless warrior brute near Ruatha, Deliran had seen dragons and flits many times. She was used to them as a threat to her freedom. It wasn't until she came upon a den of wild Wher that she found her true love in life. With two adults standing guard and growling viciously at her, she watched the hatching from afar. She imagined that must be what a dragon hatching is like. But this... These cubs were absolutely adorable.
Deliran would not be pulled away from the pack. So heavy was her dedication that her 'clan' left her to the 'wolves', expecting her dead within a season. What happened was quite the opposite. She hunted for herself and stayed near the wher pack. As near as they would let her, and she got nearer every night. If she got too close too quickly, they chased her off, and she returned to her first distance, where they only growled and tolerated her presence there.
She began to add gifting into her attempts to get closer, bringing fresh kills to the pack in hope they'd let her closer. Well... It didn't NOT work. They let her make more strides closer when she brought food, and would chase her a shorter distance if she moved too quickly.
Finally, she was allowed by the denningspaces, and could see the most dominant of the greens she'd been tailing was gravid again. Three turns of solid work, and the skinny woman was so close. It was those damned Ruathans that got in her way, though. She hadn't been aware the pack had moved into Ruatha's land until the hunting party came to deal with the new menace. Apparently the whers had begun preying on herdbeasts for one of the local farmers for easy meals.
Deliran joined the pack's defence of the wher's laying cavern, her big b*****d sword in use for her new family. She hadn't been something the Ruathans had been expected, and changed the formula for their efforts. Not much, though; she wasn't any more wiling to talk to them than the hounds she now lived with. They came to understand why when they asked the right question. A clutching Wher could scarcely be convinced to move where she was laying her eggs! So... They left, but with promises they would return. Deliran hoped they'd all go run off a high bridge
So, wishing she could move the pack out, Deliran joined the patrol for the pack, standing for it as often as she could and keeping close. She tried to explain to the pack what was going on, but... You still can't move a clutching wher. A clutch isn't exactly easy for a pack, either, and Deliran was only too pleased to be invited into the den with this one, watched constantly by the mother. The then-17-year-old had heard that dragons allowed touching of their eggs, and she wondered if this wild wher would.
She drew one hand towards the nearest egg, curled towards herself so it seemed less threatening as she led her knuckles towards the egg's soft hide. The mother didn't look like she'd tolerate much of that nonsense, but Deliran was allowed to touch the egg she'd approached. All at once, the Green growled, stood, and walked to the cave's entrance. Deliran could hear talking outside; the Ruathans must be back. And with the green no longer gravid-
~LEAVE!~ boomed across the clearing, and with a great noise, the Wher's pounced from the den. Deliran could hear the noise of battle outside, but stood with the mother and her eggs when the voices finally reached her ears again. "Keep an eye out. There's some holdless brat that was running around this pack. Looked ready to fight with them earlier." It was as if they'd given her the best queue in the universe when one of them tried to come into the den. Found the point of her sword against his neck.
"Get. Out." She snarled simply... and he did. She had taken the time to become part of that pack. She'd taken the effort to befriend the green mother and get so close to the eggs. There was no way in hell she was letting them take that away from her. She knew what holds did with wild wher clutches. But not this one. This one was hers now they'd chased off its mother and her defenders.
To her surprise, the rider understood the mentality to some degree. The gold he rode was less willing to put up with the behavior and began demanding she leave the wher and her eggs to the Ruathans. "Go between yourself, dragon." she growled back. "You're trying to chase a mother from her eggs and leave those to people who'll do nothing but stomp them. How would you feel?" The dragon was torn between the information presented and the suggestion she go Between. The rider wasn't in a much better mood, but he had a much cleverer idea than flaming the whole den... which the dragon couldn't do anyways.
"Doesn't Ruatha need a new wherkeeper?" she heard his voice offer. "You've got a more-than-willing individual with a wher's attitude and a whole nest in front of you. Use it." 'I-... But she's Holdless!' "Then put her in a hold. Can't be that hard to get someone so willing to defend a wild wher nest to take to rules to keep it."
And he left. Deliran never saw his face; didn't care to. Sure, why not. Rules were a fair exchange to keep her hard labor. And Siransk's. She wouldn't let them stomp the eggs for any reaspon she could prevent, they would be her own adorable balls of wrinkly goodness, now. Her own vicious attack beasts.
The rules were an adjustment. So were the lessons from the experienced wherkeeper they'd brought in to teach her. Admittedly, she was more patient at getting into a nest, since she'd done it without instruction once already, and she was better fed for future attempts, but the bonding with the wher pups when they came about, that she hadn't quite expected to be so easy. Shortly after her eggs hatched, the green returned to the wild, in the hopes she might find a new pack. It was certainly overwhelming in the first days. Between the fourth egg not hatching and working to impress all three of the others, Deli's day was well-filled.
Now, followed everywhere in the evening and night by Desk the Green and Ransk the blue, Lirsk the brown patrols Ruatha's grounds to keep them safe. Deliran has also been known to deal with some of the packs that invade Ruatha's borders, 'chasing them off' with her own pack, mixed as it may be. She hopes, but has yet to have impressed to more females to encourage her wonderful Desk to run, and there is noone on the great planet of Pern who can convince her that her Whers are not wonderful creatures.
Other: This character is dedicated to the whers I got in my starter package
