Ariani Cairawyn

Name (first and last): Ariani Cairawyn
State whether this is a Traditional or a Salidar character: Traditional
Age (Traditional = 14-19 / Salidar = 20-70): 15
Nationality: Andoran, but found in Cairhien
Description
Hair: Chestnut brown with blondish highlights
Eyes: blue
Skin: sun bronzed
Height:5'4
Voice:soft and melodic
Other:Due to the life that she has led in the last couple years, her appearance is very rough. Her hands are calloused and she has as many cuts and scrapes as a young boy. Her hair is uneven, appearing to be hastily hacked at with a dull knife and then interrupted in the middle of the process, leaving the job unfinished. Her clothes are too big, and the pants have several holes worn through them.
(This character's personality and appearance will change dramatically as she progresses. She will become an intelligent, confident woman.)
Personality: Desperate times call for desperate measures. This young woman tries to emulate the appearance of a boy because she thinks that it will make her life easier. She has been self dependent for a couple years and distrusts anyone who offers her any help. She rarely speaks to anyone and when she does it is as if she spits the words out of her mouth as if they were disgusting. She has also taken up swearing, and this habit is prominent when she becomes frustrated or angry.  This is usually the only time she speaks at full volume. Frustration also causes her to throw whatever she has in her hand at the time. She is quick tempered. She does have a good work ethic and will perform whatever labors given to her with little complaint. Having to resort to less honorable ways to survive, she carries a mountain of guilt on her shoulders and feels that she is a horrible person.
Optional
Special Skills: She has an extremely sharp mind and the ability to pick up quickly on skills, however frustrated she gets. She is also very resourceful. She is quiet, having learned how to hide in plain sight and sneak up on most anyone without being noticed. She has keen observation skills, and notices every little detail. She can also sing very well, and does so when she believes herself to be alone, as a method of comfort.
Weaknesses: Quick tempered.
Illiterate, save for a few small words.
Distrustful of others.
Hates feeling "caged".
Fears death.
History
Ariani grew up on a small farm outside of Caemlyn with her father and her older brother, Thomas. Her mother had passed away when Ariani was only a year old, leaving her father to take care of the two children and the farm. Their distant neighbors would sometimes make the trek to come and help her father with the land or the house, but the visits were far from frequent. Usually the men would help father with repairs or the crops, while the women came inside and tidied up the house and tried to think of suitable matches for Ariani's father. After they would leave, the family would sit outside and Ariani and Thomas would listen to their father talk about their mother.
"Such a pretty little thing," he would say, his eyes becoming misty as he smiled at the distant memory of her, "but she had a sharp tongue. I used to tell her that she was beautiful when she was mad and that just seemed to spur her on. "  He'd chuckle, and then go on, "Did I ever tell you that she came from up in Cairhien? Your grandfather moved them here, hoping to make a better life. When I first saw your mother....I just knew....that dark, wavy hair of hers.....but it was those eyes. She had me the moment she batted those beautiful blue eyes...." a short pause, and he'd wipe his eyes, "Light, but I miss that woman. She loved the two of you. How did I get so lucky?"  He would go on like that for awhile, and then suddenly realize how late it was and rush them both off to bed. It was during these late evening talks when Ariani would see the exhaustion on her father's face. Her brother noticed it as well.
"We need to start helping him some more," Thomas said once they were in the house, "I'm nearly 18, and plenty old enough to start making the trips into the city alone.  And I think that 13 is old enough to start taking over all of the responsibility for the home, don't you?"
With a solemn nod, Ariani agreed, "I think that it will have to be." And with that, they both went off to bed.
The next morning, Ariani woke early and couldn't find her father anywhere in the house. "He is usually banging pots and pans this early. Where could he be?" she wondered. Deciding to check outside, she opened the front door to discover her father fast asleep in his chair outside. She shook him gently and then scolded him for sleeping outside again. "Now you sound like your mother," he said with a gentle laugh as he tried to stand up. He didn't make it far before he fell back into the chair again and Ariani noticed how pale his face was. "And you're burning up!" she said as she laid her hand on his head, "Thomas!"
The two helped their father back upstairs and into bed.
The Wisdom had come and gone more than once and a week later, Ariani thought she had never been more exhausted in her life.  Her father was only getting worse. He had gone from not eating to not even drinking water. She and her brother hadn't slept in their own beds once since he had fallen ill, both taking up a semi-permanent residence in the two chairs that they dragged into their father's room. The neighbors had been coming around again, and that was a help, but it wasn't enough. Their father passed away shortly thereafter.
Thomas knew that the two of them couldn't keep the farm up, so his idea was to take Ariani into the city and find some sort of work. Reluctantly, the two packed up a little food and a few personal things and made their way into Caemlyn. The city was huge, and so full of people. Ariani remembered how much she used to love to visit the city, but now it just seemed scary and she wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed. Thomas must have sensed her worry and he gave her a small hug and a reassuring smile, "Don't be afraid. I'll take care of you." They stopped at the first Inn they saw and Thomas ran inside, leaving Ariani to watch the wagon. She felt as though the people passing by on the street were staring at her, so instead of looking around to study her surroundings, she elected to study her shoes. It seemed like days before Thomas came back and bid her to get her things. There were no empty rooms, but he had managed to get permission to sleep in the stables.
After dropping their things off, they wandered into the common room and to a table where there was already food waiting for them. Ariani's stomach growled so loud that she was sure that everyone in the common room had turned their eyes to her. She folded her arms across her stomach and dropped her eyes, rushed to the table and shrank down into her chair. After making sure that no one was staring, she helped herself to two helpings of everything in front of her. The food made her feel a little better and so she dared to sit up a little more and take in her surroundings. There were some men playing dice in the corner and opposite that, a small stage with a man wearing a familiar looking cloak. A gleeman! She had only ever seen one once, and she used to pray one would pass by the farm. Her spirits elevated a little more at the sight of him, until her brother ruined it by sending her to bed. Sighing, she made her way to the stables just as the performer began his act.
Inside the stables, she realized that she could faintly hear the story being told through the wall. So she climbed up into the loft, and found that she could hear it better. She fell asleep listening to the sing song voice of the man in the patchwork cloak in the next room. The next morning, she awoke and almost fell out of the loft at what she saw. Thomas laying on a pile of blood soaked hay, his cold eyes staring towards the ladder that led to where she slept. She choked back a scream and began backing towards the door. So great was her shock, that it didn't register with her that someone had grabbed her shoulder and when it did, she darted across the room and tripped over her brother and fell face first into the wall. She turned in time to see the innkeeper walking towards her and she grabbed her brother's knife from his body.  "Stay away!" she yelled with a trembling voice, she held the knife towards him with a shaky hand.
"Sssh, now. Calm down, girl," the man said quietly, "I'm not going to hur..."
Ariani didn't hear anything he said, she was too hysterical. "What did you do to him?! Why! You bloody goat-feathered Light forsaken......STAY BACK, I said or I swear it I will have your guts for saddle girth!," she managed to get onto her feet.
"If you will just listen," he tried to explain again, "I'm just trying to help you." He had gotten close enough to make a grab for the knife, but missed and Ariani planted it in his shoulder.
"Oh, Light help me," she gasped as she eased away from the innkeep and edged to the door, "I...I am sorry..." and she ran as fast as she could on trembling legs, not knowing where she was going.
She managed to make it out of the city, hiding in crowds and shadows because she was convinced that the guards would be looking for her. Outside of the gates, she stuck to the treeline until she was well out of sight of Caemlyn.
Over the next year and a half, she wandered, begging rides from passing wagons and begging for work in exchange for food and a place to sleep. When she was turned away, she would pretend to leave and then return at nightfall when people were asleep and take only what she needed. Occasionally, she would find someone who seemed to be willing to help her but in turn only wanted to take advantage and from them, she would manage to escape and run until she was sure that they would never find her. Eventually, she found herself in Cairhien. More specifically, the Foregate.  It was there she stayed, making a little coin by running errands for various merchants or caring for the horses at the local Inns and stealing only when absolutely necessary.  The Foregate proved to be anything but safe for a young girl on her own. There were many unruly characters about, most probably wouldn't think twice about plucking her up off the street and disposing of her in a gruesome fashion after using
  her. She could hide when she needed to, and she had learned how to move around the city without being seen, but what if she were caught? She decided that it would be safer to pose as a boy. She had decided that her current clothing would pass, but had had to steal a knife away to do something with her hair. Getting the knife was easy, and ducking into a darkened alley was easy, however; cutting off the hair with what she found to be a very dull blade was difficult and painful. She was also chased out of the alley by a couple shady men halfway through the whole ordeal and they took her knife and she never did get to finish what she started. The result was an uneven mess of tangles and jagged edges, but it would have to do for now.  And she wouldn't be staying in Cairhien too long.
Several days had passed and there was little work to be found, and what had been found was given to her by some goose-brained jackdaw who refused to pay up when the job was done. Her empty stomach tormenting her, Ariana had to resort to pickpocketing.
She merged with a crowd of wanderers in the street and began searching for a mark. It wasn't long before she found one. He was a tall man, well built and wearing well made clothing. He had longer hair, bound tightly at the nape of his neck and he wore a fine wool cloak and a sword. Ariani had never seen such a sword! This man probably wouldn't miss his coin purse, he must have whole rooms full of coin at home. Briefly, she wondered what such a home would be like. "It must be as big as the palace, with gold floors and silk tapestries. And everyone wears the finest clothes......."snapping out of her fantasy, she followed the man through the crowded streets. When he had stopped to look at a weapons stand, Ariani made her move. In an instant, she ran up to the man and then ran into him. As soon as she had the purse in her hand she began to bolt, but a sudden jerk of her arm and she fell flat back on her rear. She looked up defiantly and then gasped at the man standing over her. "
 Blood and ashes, that's no man, that's a tree!" she thought to herself. The man hadn't looked that big before. She realized that she still had the coin purse and tried to leap to her feet and run again, but he picked her up and carried her off into an alley and sat her on an old crate.
"I knew someone was following me," he said in a gruff voice, "Not bad if you can follow me without being seen." He pried the coin purse from her fingers. Ariani said nothing, only stared icily at the giant.
"Who is your friend, Gascard?" a female voice said as she stepped carefully over some debris laying about. She turned her eyes on Ariani, and she felt her skin crawl. There was something odd about this woman. Her eyes were piercing, as if she was looking straight through her, but she smiled eerily all the while.
"A little thief," the man named Gascard replied.
"Perhaps you are right, Gascard. Or perhaps there is something more," the woman said as she approached Ariani. "You have tried to deprive my companion of his hard earned coin, but we do understand the need to eat. This will be forgiven, and we will ensure that you are fed today if you will do one small thing for me."
Confused, but refusing to speak, Ariani shot the woman a questioning look as she placed a small stone into her hand. She studied the gem as the woman spoke, "Close your eyes and envision a garden....."   Ariani listened to the woman's soft, sing song voice and without realizing it, she was seeing this vision the woman was describing. It made her feel calm, joyous...why the closest she'd come to feeling happy was before they had left their farm. It was like.....what, wait? The stone flashed brightly and then returned to normal. Ariani held it at eye level to study it and the woman laughed.
"It is just a stone," the woman said, "there is nothing special about it. You are the reason it flashed. Child, you have the ability to channel."
Ariani's first instinct was to run as far and as fast as she could away from these people, but it only took one stern look from that big oaf of a man to make her stay right where she sat. She willingly went along to Tar Valon with this pair, only because she was sure that this Gascard fellow might break her in half if she refused.
Category:Novice Bios