Name: Myara Ahnri
Age: 18
Homeland: Saldaea
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Weapon of Choice: Hand-to-hand and short swords.
Weight: 104 lbs
Height: 5’1”
Personality:
Myara is the type who sets her mind on something, and no matter what gets in her way, she tends to remain determined to reach the goal. She can be rather strong-willed at times, believing that if she works hard enough at anything, she can get what she wants. She is always seeking the purpose of her being, feeling from early on in life that there was more to her future than she had been able to uncover. At times she may appear to be a bit distant, mostly the effects of the past two years of her life. While for many, the loss of a loved one brings great sadness, it has added more determination and fire to her personality, seeing as she often feels she has nothing to lose should she go up against the odds and lose.
Description:
Myara spent her share of time in the training yards with her twin brother, Erik, and their friend, Nyrin. While she is small, she can stand her ground in a one-on-one encounter by relying on her agility and quickness, rather than pure strength. She prefers to keep her hair free from any bindings, leaving it in a mass of loose, dark waves that fall nearly to the middle of her back. It would be polite to say that she attracts more attention through her skill and personality than by pure looks, though she is definitely not hard to look at.
Biography:
[OOC Note: The time between the first moments of the events recalled in her dreams (at age 16) until the time she approaches the Tower is 2 years.]
“Myara, we must rest. By now I doubt anyone is bothering to chase us. I’d be willing to believe they think us dead. Night will soon come and we need to find somewhere relatively safe, and warm,” the last thought was added as Nyrin felt the wind kick up again, reminding him just how cold the evening would be. He sat tall in his saddle, quite the sight to behold, perhaps the reason Myara had made the mistake of announcing to her parents the fact that they would wed, rather than requesting permission. This, of course, was the reason the two were on the run. Khyrin Ahnri did not approve of this one bit, and would probably have killed the boy, had he caught Nyrin.
“Perhaps you are right; perhaps they will stop chasing us. Perhaps they don’t even care that we are gone. We both know well I was never the daughter my father wished I would be,” she gave a soft sigh as she slid down from the back of the gray, leading him into the break between the trees after Nyrin. It was true; Khyrin had wished his daughter would spend more time learning how to be the one who would run his fur and lumber business when he was too old to do so. Myara, on the other hand, wanted to spend more time training with Nyrin, her childhood friend, learning the ways of hand-to-hand combat. While her father dreamed of his daughter following his steps, Myara dreamed only of riding into battle at Nyrin’s side.
After a bit of searching, the two had managed to find a small clearing, well surrounded by trees and heavy brush where they would be protected from the winter winds. After the horses were tended to, Nyrin set to the task of gathering snow to replace the water they had used, hoping it would warm enough by the small fire they were able to build. Myara cleaned the small game they had caught along the way and was preparing enough of it to make a small meal before they slept for the night. By the time Nyrin had returned from his task, the food was ready and the two ate by the warmth of the fire.
After spending most of the meal in silence, Nyrin finally spoke up, “Myara, if you had known this was the way things would have ended, would you still have told your father we wished to marry?” He looked at her with such adoring eyes, though they hid the guilt he was feeling about their situation.
She almost laughed at the sound of his question, but she managed to hold it back as she answered, “If I had known it would have ended up like this, I’d have planned for our trip a little better. You should know well enough, silly man. I had no plans to be the keeper of my father’s estate. Let Samira do that, she had no plans to marry, no plans to ride into battle, she’ll never see things the way you and I do. I will marry you, Nyrin Mharil, just as soon as we decide where we are headed and get there.”
He smiled as he listened to her speak, hearing exactly what he had so wished to hear. He was proud of her, and knew he had found his mate in life, and giving her a small kiss on the cheek he whispered, “My Myara, know this, never look back, for it’s what’s ahead of us that truly matters now.” With that said, he went back to finishing the meal she had made for them.
After everything was cleaned up and packed neatly away, so as not to attract unwanted attention, they made a small bedding out of the blankets not being used for the horses, keeping as close as was possible to the fire and finally catching some sleep. That night was rather uneventful, as were the next couple of days. The two had traveled south, hoping to find a place in the southern woods where they could make camp for a bit, while they made their plans for a destination and gave the search parties a bit to give up on finding them. During this time, plans were made for the pair to ride southeast, making their way across the open land and into Cairhien. Nyrin had heard of the city from traders who had come in search of Saldaean peppers, a product his family traded.
After four days in their small camp in the woods south of Saldaea, the two were once riding. As the weather became better for travel and rest, they made camp for longer periods of time each time they stopped. Nyrin had plans to find his place amongst the guard in Cairhien once they made it there and he began taking time to teach Myara the basics of swordplay. This wasn’t her strength, as she preferred to fight without a weapon, but she was a quick study and became a good sparring partner for Nyrin. Often times, she’d take some time after their sparring to work on her own hand-to-hand style, and more importantly her flexibility. Being as small as she was, she was light on her feet and quick enough for Nyrin to have trouble landing a tap on, but this was something she practiced at with every available moment, knowing there was no such thing as being good enough.
The two had grown much closer as they traveled together, often repeating their intentions to marry. They mused over what life in Cairhien would be like, and how they would live a comfortable life, raise a family and never look back. If there was such a thing as a soul mate, Nyrin was Myara’s. He became the provider for the two, spending the afternoons out hunting for small game, which she would turn into the best possible meals two traveling people could hope for. This particular afternoon, things were different. Nyrin had gone out to hunt as he did most afternoons, only he had been out much longer than usual, and Myara was quickly beginning to worry.
Deciding she could wait no longer, she pulled her gray mare loose from the tree where she had been tied and tugged herself up onto her back, not bothering with the saddle, heading off to find Nyrin. The answer came all too soon as she came within range of where Nyrin had been hunting, seeing what appeared to be a pair of roaming thieves who had just finished killing him. She pushed the mare hard into pursuit of the two men, throwing herself from the mare as she was in range of the slower of the two, catching him from behind in a grasp that ended in a loud crack and the man’s neck snapped.
Gaining her footing, she took off running after the second man who had made the unfortunate mistake of watching in hopes that his partner would take care of the girl. Myara would a quick runner, and with the fury of finding her lover killed, she had no trouble catching the second thief. As she closed the gap enough to where she could lunge at him, she took a forward leap, catching him around the waist and using her forward momentum to take him down to the grass. Once she had him under her, she proceeded to make sure he’d never have the chance to do what he had done to her Nyrin.
After the rage subsided, she made her way over to where Nyrin was laying, hopelessly praying what she believed to be true not to be. As she dropped to her knees beside her only friend, and lover, she let out a scream of pain, mixed with anger….
And that scream once again woke her up. It was the same dream over and over again, yet the truth was, Myara and Nyrin never did marry. He was killed while out hunting one of the afternoons and Myara was left to travel the rest of the way to Cairhien by herself. Some day she would finally be able to make her mind accept this fact and perhaps the dreams would quit haunting her. She had learned to live as one half of the whole, and now she was here in Cairhien alone, and definitely feeling the missing half. During her first months in Cairhien she survived off the goodwill of other people, doing menial tasks for bits of food or a place to stay for the night. She was even forced to sell the gray mare, her most prized possession, exchanging her for food and enough coin to have a place to sleep for a couple days. Finally, after a bit, she found ways to provide for a small living, hiring herself out as a bodyguard here and there for merchants while they were in the city, yet she was still struggling to find a purpose for her life.
Then, as luck would have it, she was having a meal at one of the inns when a fight broke out amongst the patrons. Myara saw that it was a group of ruffians hassling one of the merchants, who was obviously not from Cairhien, and decided to come to his aid. When all was said and done, the ruffians, the merchant and Myara all found themselves tossed out of the inn; however, Myara had also found herself with quite a proposition. The merchant was grateful for Myara’s assistance and requested that she travel back to Tar Valon with him, which was his home city. He expressed his interest in having her as his own personal bodyguard, giving her the chance to see much more of the world, while guaranteeing she’d always have a warm bed to sleep in and food in her stomach. She accepted his offer and the next morning they were on the road again.
Once they were beyond the gates of Cairhien, the merchant finally began to speak some, first telling her a bit about himself. She was in awe at the places he had been in his life, after she thought she had seen so much of the world. He had a wife and daughter in Tear, but they were both killed while watching his shop as he had gone out to get them all lunch one day. This was what had led him to leave Tear, and the reason why he would never return there. Ever since then he did his work as a traveling merchant, bringing things from one place, to a place where those things were hard to find, therefore earning him a high sales price. He told her of Arad Doman, and how he preferred not to travel there, as he never seemed able to reach a good deal on prices, and she laughed, knowing what she knew of the Domani women.
Finally, after a bit, he stopped and turned to her, a curious look on his slightly wrinkled face, “Tell me, Myara, you are from Saldaea, so you say. Tell me of Saldaea; it’s a place I’ve never had the chance to travel to. You must have had an interesting childhood to be this far away from home.”
She sighed softly; as thinking back on her homeland was something she hadn’t done since the day she left. She remembered Nyrin’s words, yet she complied with the older man. “Saldaea is a harsh land, both for its weather and for the trolloc raids, yet it’s every bit as much of a home as I’d suppose any city is. I have a twin brother, Erik, an older sister, Samira and I had an older brother, Myrik, though he was killed during one of the trolloc raids. My father had a very successful business in selling wood during the warmer months and his hunters provided furs to sell during the winter months when the trees were bad for harvesting. I was often left to be cared for by Samira while my mother was out doing whatever it was she did with all the other women.”
She winced a bit, realizing where this story was going, but continued, “That was how I met Nyrin, as his mother would often leave him with Samira to care for while she was busy with other matters. Samira would always try to keep us doing chores and such around the house, but Nyrin and I would often grab Erik and play around in the sparring yards. I had no interest in being anything like Samira, I didn’t want to be the one to manage an estate and run the family businesses, I wanted to be like Myrik had been, and I wanted to ride to war as more than just a wife. Nyrin understood this, and through this understanding we became the best of friends.” She felt as if she went any further with the story in the direction it was headed, she’d not be able to contain her emotions, so she simply found a way to bring it to an end. “That was what led Nyrin and I to leave Saldaea, we wished to marry, and he wanted me to be the woman who would ride with him against the trollocs, and my father said no. Knowing if we went ahead and tried to marry against his wishes, father would kill him, we hurried off.” This seemed enough to answer the merchant’s questions, and the two returned to riding side by side.
She spent the next six months of her life traveling with the merchant, seeing so many cities and meeting people of all homelands. The older man often chuckled about the odd pair they made, with him being the larger and probably more imposing in appearance of the two and her serving as his guard. She learned much about the world from this man, and used the pay he gave her to train further with the sword. She trained mostly in one-handed styles, though she took any free time she had to play around with the idea of wielding two swords. In fact, this was what ultimately led her to the Tower. The man she had been learning from was rather adamant about the fact that a woman with a sword would never be much use to the world, and had convinced her that once this merchant passed on, she would once again be out on her own. He told her many times that the only reason he trained her was for the coin she gave him. She had finally had enough of him talking down to her and challenged him to a duel, and after winning it, he suggested she seek information training within the Tower. He told her it would probably be the only place she’d be accepted, and even appreciated for her talents.
The merchant she had been traveling with was quite sad to hear that she would no longer be traveling with him, but being of Tar Valon himself, he understood the need for more people to put themselves in service with the Tower. As a parting gift, he presented her with an outfit to wear on the day she traveled to the Tower. It was made up of loose fitting black pants, tied tight around the waist by a dark blue sash and a blouse of a lighter blue with a high collar and tighter cuffs around the wrists. When worn together, the outfit looked much like the dresses worn by the women of Saldaea, only it was a bit more fitting for a woman who would fight with her fists or wield swords. With that, he bid his friend and guardian a final farewell and told her to never look back, almost in the same way Nyrin had told her when they rode out of Saldaea.
The next morning, Myara carefully washed and pulled every last tangle and knot from her hair and then careful dressed up in the outfit the merchant had bought for her. She gathered the few personal belongings she traveled with; including the sword the old merchant had bought her on one of their stops, and then made her way out of the inn she had stayed at for the night. While the merchant’s home was not far from the inn, she remembered his words and never looked back. Her future was ahead, in the Tower and that was the direction she went, seeking information on how she could join the cause of the Tower.
Her days changed greatly upon being accepted into the Garrison of the White Tower, mainly due to the fact that she now had a schedule of activities to follow, which kept her rather busy, but also kept her from dwelling on her past. Not even a full week passed before she met Robert Laurel, the [I]Gaidin who would mentor her through the majority of her training with the Tower and prepare her for what was ahead. The weeks became months as she trained with the saber and horse bow as her primary weapons, also working on her riding skills and learning what she would need to know to protect those who were loyal to the Light.
Along the way, many people had a hand in not only her training, but also in the development of a woman who could stand toe-to-toe with a Trolloc as quickly as she could attend a dinner party and not seem to stick out. Robert had introduced her to Erin, his sister, who taught her the finer side of being a Gaidin including the ways of ettiquete for dinners and fomal events, dancing and these such things. After Erin came Elaine, an amazing woman of few words, though the lessons Myara did learn through their conversations were the type that will stick with her for many, many years to come. Finally, there was Nevira, a Recruit like herself, and a young woman who Myara learned much about life from. Myara had never figured she would have met another female in the Garrison who she could discuss the past with, look forward to what their futures would hold for them or anything like that, yet that was exactly what she and Nevira had done.
When the months had finally led up to the day when she was tested for her skill and dedication to the Tower, Myara found herself with the title of Youngling, and with that the next chapter in her life began.