Nuala | Hunter Avant Garde

Alias(es): N/A

Gender: Female

Age: 5.2 years

Pack: Au'Dar

Rank: Hunter Avant Garde

Name: Fion

The most imposing feature of the huntress is a jagged scar that runs perpendicular to her left collarbone from skirmish with a mountain cat. The silver huntress can always be identified by that mark. It trails partway down her left foreleg, but at the moment, fails to hinder her movements. Her coat is a dusty silver speckled with white, and her eyes a deep chestnut. Though hardly noticeable, she is slightly larger than the average female, her figure, while not quite intimating, is one of power and pride. Outwardly, she carries herself just as her rank demands. A clear display that she is fully aware of her place. Her stance is often firm but distanced. 

Nuala is a pretty mature wolf. She isn't one to crack too many jokes and often maintains her composure even in the most troubling of situations. On the outside, she appears to have everything together and remains unfazed by others. On the inside, that is far from the truth. She often doubts herself and if she is doing enough, a remnant from her experience with the death of her father.  Known as ironhearted, praise is rare from her and most often, she appears to display an immovability in her emotions.  In truth, her first priority is to ensure the well-being of all under her care and does not allow for any slackers. 

Nuala was born to a family of renown among the Au’Dar. They had one of the oldest bloodlines and had served the Royal family for generations. It was expected that she and her siblings would do the same. She and her siblings were fiercely competitive. Their family was one of hunters and warriors. Often times, at least one of their bloodline would be holding the rank of Avant Garde. At the time, her father held the role of Hunter Avant Garde, a rank she would later inherit. Seeing as there was not enough ranks for each of them to be an Avant Garde, the siblings each worked fiercely to one up the other. They began training almost as soon as they could walk. Nuala was not quite of the same vein. Though she was competitive, she did not spend as much time as her siblings training and chose to focus on enjoying life.

She was ten months old when the attack happened. Some rouges had infiltrated the border in the dead of night. Nuala was awoken by the warning howl. She had always been quick to react. Her alertness was her undoing. Had she slept more deeply, she would not have had to witness the tragedy. While her mother saw to the safety of her siblings, Nuala slipped off after her father. She tried to kept up but wasn't even a yearling. It wasn't long before her father left her behind. Nuala arrived at the scene just in time to see her father fell one rouge only to be done in by another. Most of the invaders were done in, but a few escaped, the one that had slain her father being one of them. Her mother found her at the scene later unresponsive. She was dazed and shocked but had shed not a single tear for her father's death. Others remarked that she was bizarrely composed during the attack despite her father's death and young age. To that, they whispered that perhaps she did not have a heart. Such whispers had not gone unnoticed by Nuala.

After that night, Nuala, having witness the death of her father, redoubled her efforts. She was racked with doubts. If she had trained harder, as hard as her siblings had, would she have been able to help? If she hadn't slacked, would her father still be alive? Nuala resolved to prevent such a tradgedy from ever happening again. From that point on, she no longer rested. She trained for nearly all the hours in the day. If she wasn't training, she was studying and learning battle tactics. Her efforts bore fruit and she was quickly recognized for her strength. Others noted that, though she said that she had been slacking before, she had still been extraordinary. It was only Nuala that did not acknowledge that fact. 

Nuala's mother grew distant after her father's death. Her mother constantly visited the place of his defeat and was often away from her family. It seemed as if she was obsessing over something. Something she refused to talk to anyone about. No one could figure out what she was so obsessed over. Eventually she started neglecting her duties, something very much unlike her mother. A month after her father's death, both she and her tafa disappeared all together. The pack tried to find her but it seemed her mother had not wanted to be found. Her mother had been a master tracker, if she didn't want to be found, she wouldn't be. Losing both her mother and father before she was even a year old, Nuala's heart only grew that much colder. Without anyone to guide her, she felt that only she could be to blame.

As life continued, though she and her siblings remained close, there was a noticeable distance between them. The death of their father and disappearance of their mother had dampened their fires while igniting Nuala's. The difference only widened the gap between them.

When it was announced she would be a hunter, she despaired. She had dedicated herself to protecting the pack, but now, she was relegated to being a hunter. Try as she might, she could not get the ruling changed. With no choice but to become a hunter, she resolved to follow in her father's pawsteps and become Avant Garde. As Avant Garde, she could do much more for the pack even if it was as a hunter. Her extra training paid off as she quickly proved herself top of her group, beating out every other apprentice.

When it came time to graduate to Garde and claim her tafa, she was wracked with nerves. A nervousness she hadn't felt in a year. Would the tafa accept someone like her? Who didn't have a heart like the whispers said? As wolf after wolf went in, she became increasingly more nervous as each returned with a fine tafa. When her turn finally came around, she was, for the first time since the attack, the wide-eyed pup she used to be full of clumsiness  and uncertainty. She had no idea where to start and wished she had someone to guide her but this was a trial one had to do alone. Her mother had had a raven and her father a white-napped crane. Birds ran in her family. Two of her siblings had come out with birds. The third had yet to go. That being the case, Nuala tried to approach the avian tafas but all turned her away. She had begun to lose hope when Fion appeared. What she hadn't noticed was that Fion had been following her the entire time, but she had not been ready to accept him. Now that she was no longer preoccupied with what she should be, she could finally form her bond with Fion.

In the following years, she would demonstrate the tremendous skill she had honed through her training. It would be the defeat of a mountain lion that would earn her her scar and the right to challenge the Hunter Avant Garde. Her hunting party had encountered it after taking down an elk. Nuala was able to sound the alarm just in time for some of the party to escape the initial attack. They could not leave the kill behind though with the onset of winter, they would need all they could get. Nuala drew the attention of the mountain lion while the rest of the party secured the elk before joining in the attack. Though the other party members managed to wound the beast. Nuala was the one who held it off long enough for them to secure the kill and deal the finishing blow. She was the most injured from the attack, gaining her scar.

Almost as soon as she had recovered, she challenged for the Avant Garde rank. In the time allowed, she brought down a both a boar and an young elk. Marking her indisputably as the winner. Becoming Avant Garde gave her a chance to slow down. She no longer trains with as much fervor nor does she push herself to as many extremes. The doubts still remain in her mind, but she has found a small semblance of peace.