Blythe

Two Sisters (NPCs)

Nanuk (Cousin)

## Application Sheet

Blythe was a dark charcoal-furred she-wolf with half a tail and pale lemon-yellow eyes. She arrived in Xassa in the midst of the Hive Wars, where her story is ongoing. Blythe was created and RP'd by Lotus-Wolfdragon.

## Personality

* ***Reliable*.** When Blythe gives you her word, she means it. She is not one to spin a falsehood in order to gain anything out of it. She is genuine and will always do what she is asked, or make promises she knows she can keep. When in a pinch, Blythe is a good partner to have as she will always have your back.
* ***Altruistic*.** Blythe knows what it means to suffer, and therefore would not like to see others suffer in the same ways she has. She is giving towards others, whether it be her shelter or food. Blythe asks for nothing in return. She merely does this because it's the right thing to do.
* ***Adaptable*.** Blythe is a fast learner and tends to pick up on things very quickly. While she never applied this fully in her upbringing, Blythe will find growth in Xassa as she struggles to find a place among strangers where she has no sort of 'safety net' to hide behind. Despite the badlands being a different environment than what she grew up in, Blythe does not struggle to get used to the extreme weather, only the heat due to her pelt color.
* ***Patient*.** Blythe is very patient and slow with her time, so she feels no need to rush or rush others. If things are set back than as planned or something occurs that disrupts the routine, Blythe is okay with it. None of these things bother her because it will be done, even if that's eventually, so why worry over it? It helps to balance out others if they become more flustered in such a situation because Blythe will at least keep an even head on her shoulders.
* ***Awkward*.** Having been under-socialized and beaten down in her youth, Blythe lacks charisma and the charm to be of any use in a social situation. A part of her is desperate to be extroverted and social with others, but the trauma of her youth has molded Blythe into believing she will always be excluded and unwanted.
* ***Eccentric*.** As she has no skills with interacting with other wolves, Blythe instead has coped with her loneliness through talking to herself and making up companions in her head. Her favorite things in the entire world are her collections of rocks as they are 'spirit-holders'. However, Blythe assumes this behavior is normal and that there are other wolves like her who do similar things.
* ***Compliant*.** Owing more to survival tactics that she has learned, Blythe is quick to obey and along with any declaration without question. While this makes her a good pack mate in that she will not cause any problems, it also means she does not ask questions if things seem sketchy. She just assumes everything is done with the best of intentions and there are no alternative answers or options.
* ***Quiet and Shy*.** Blythe is not a talkative creature by nature. If prompted, she will speak but does not go out of her way to have conversations with others unless directed or in dire need to (ie. needing a task). Often times she will need to be prompted to speak. Blythe is shy with those she does not know and will often hide behind those she does.
* ***Self-Deprecating*.** Blythe has incredibly low self-esteem thanks to the counts of abuse she had suffered in her life. She tries to do the best she can and be the best that's possible, but it never feels it's enough. Like she's never enough. She'll make jokes about herself, but the truth is all those jokes is how Blythe truly feels about herself.
* ***Cynical*.** Blythe expects any and all bad things to happen to her, no exception. In her life, she could count on one paw how many things have been good, and that's just the way she expects things to be. She has low standards of what will come of her life, and that's just how it is. She has no hope that things will ever become better.
* ***Lacks Self-Agency*.** Unfortunately due to her abuse, Blythe has no confidence and drive for herself. She lives for others as well as for others to tell her what to do. She is great at performing and following orders, but this is for others, not for herself. Blythe has no wants or desires of what to make out of her own life except to serve and be good**.**

## Pre-Group History

Born from a bloodline of fear and cultism, Calysta witnessed the horrors her mother and aunts partook in, and wanted nothing to do with it. When Lennart passed through the land their pack, Shardik, had deemed their home, she was quick to beg him to take her along. She needed an escape from this life before her family turned upon her much like how they did with her cousins Nanuk and Orso. Being a young, unestablished male, Lennart allowed Calysta to join him in his travels as he searched for a pack to join. It would be easier to hunt and protect oneself with another set of eyes watching your back.

It was not love at first between them - Calysta's upbringing and trauma clashed with Lennart's easygoing and stable nature, to the point where the pair felt they would never be compatible together. But funny things do happen with time, and as the pair fought, hunted, and slept beside one another, their chemistry developed. There was no grand declaration or anything fancy with it - they simply fell into a comfortable routine that led to intimacy and eventually to them becoming mates.

Young and foolish, they were quick to have a litter that was poorly planned for. With no pack to provide for them, Lennart did most of the hunting as best as he could, but his meals were paltry in feeding his pregnant mate. Then Calysta became afflicted with illness that lasted for the rest of her pregnancy. They had talked about it many times before, but had always let the topic go in favor of something else. Not this time. They needed a pack more than ever and fought against the winter for reprieve, hopeful to find safety before Calysta was due for birth.

It did not happen that way. Calysta had a long, hard birth under the shelter of a fallen log while Lennart scouted nearby for help. The combination of sickness and poor diet resulted in a litter of three where they were all tiny and weak. Calysta tried her best to get them to nurse and live, but by the end of the day the younger two had already perished. Miraculously, the oldest hung on but by a thread as she struggled to nurse. Broken-hearted by her sudden losses, Calysta did her best to keep her only pup thriving until Lennart returned to her. And he did not come alone.

As fate would have it, Lennart had found the pack they needed to live. It was not under the kindest of conditions, as Lennart's face was bloody from the initial assault, but a deal was forged between the father and the pack. He would give his life to their cause if they could take his mate and children in. The alpha of the pack was a powerhungry leader who desired to bolster his numbers as much as he could, and the more allies he could keep close to him, the better. Pleased with the offer, he allowed the small family join the pack called Murwood. With the help of midwives and healers, Calysta and Lennart's surviving pup overcame all odds to thrive. The center of her parents' world, the name Blythe was bestowed upon her.

However, what Lennart had failed to realize was the extent of Murwood's 'conquer all' mentality. While they survived, it was not without consequence. Lennart was practically pulled away from his family to serve unconditionally under the alpha and his circle (one which included a cougar!), so Calysta and Blythe barely saw him anymore. And once her health strengthened and Blythe was old enough, Calysta was pulled to help with the pack with hunting and teaching. This left barely any time for Blythe and therefore little guidance in how she was to behave with the other pups in the pack.

It spelt disaster from the very beginning. Too shy and meek to make friends on her own, Blythe took to playing with imaginary friends and objects like sticks and rocks, which she would create stories out of. Born small with lackluster health, Blythe was the outlier among a group of pups who were sturdy and strong. Despite being somewhat older than them, she quickly became a favorite plaything of theirs. She was pushed, bitten, and insulted many times. In the beginning she tried to stand up for herself by fighting back, but was quickly shown that she had no strength to rival her bullies'. No matter how much she tried to hide from them, they always found her and beat her up.

Calysta did not know of this at first. Blythe kept quiet about her sores and bruises whenever she had a chance to talk to her mother, who was too busy being trained as a Huntress. However, Calysta was no stranger to figuring out something was amiss by seeing how withdrawn and nervous her daughter had become, and sought to find out what was going on. No one spoke up and no mothers outed their children as responsible, so the cycle continued until it had escalated into something horrible. They were older and the bullying had worsened to where they were now drawing blood from Blythe with cruel snaps. One particular individual decided they wanted to try a fighting technique that they had learned from their warrior father, and took it too far. Upon hearing her daughter's ear-piercing screams, Calysta came running only to witness the horror of her daughter's tail mangled and nearly cut halfway.

Rushed to the healers, Calysta begged them to save Blythe's tail, but in the end there was nothing they could do except to remove the half that had been ripped. Tending to the injury was extensive and left Blythe on bedrest for a long time. Confined to the healer's den for monitoring and medicine, Blythe was ignorant to what was going on outside the den. She did not know that Calysta had stormed to the alpha demanding an explanation and for the instigator to be barred from the pack. She did not know that the alpha denied these things and threatened Calysta her place in the pack while keeping Lennart silent to protest. And she did not know that Murwood's foundations were crumbling.

After that, Calysta had plans to leave Murwood behind. Damn the pack and their arrogant alpha, no one was going to hurt her daughter anymore. She wanted to wait until Blythe had received the clear, and then they would go, all three of them. It just happened to be, when Blythe's wound finally healed and she could leave the healer den, that Murwood was beseiged by its rival pack. Swarmed all around, Calysta and Lennart rushed to get Blythe out of there as fast as possible, but it was not without sacrifice. Wolves noticed the fleeing family and circled to attack them, only for Lennart to intervene to give his mate and a child a chance. Calysta and Blythe did not look back, but they heard Lennart's death cries in the far distance.

There was no time to mourn or rest - they needed to put as much distance between them and Murwood as possible. Broken from the death of a father she barely knew and the loss of a life she had grown in, Blythe struggled to keep up with the pace Calysta set. She wanted to grieve, but her mother would not allow her to do so. In order to keep her content and moving, Calysta gave her a rock and said, **"Here, this is your father. His soul rests in here for eternity, so keep it close to you, and you will always have him there, okay?"** Comforted by something familiar, Blythe accepted the rock and complied in her mother's request.

Having depended on a pack for so long, Calysta was unused to being a loner again, especially now that she was protecting her daughter who was young but very inexperienced with the world. She tried her best to make sure Blythe would survive, even if it meant giving her life up in the process when a vagabond from the pack that destroyed Murwood found them. In the same manner as Lennart, Calysta begged and chased Blythe off to give her daughter time to escape. What she didn't know was that Blythe hid nearby, witnessed the bloody fight that only ended once Calysta was down, and came to her mother's side in her very last moments with a new rock. Placing it on her mother's stomach, Blythe watched as mother passed, her spirit collected in the rock. It would be difficult to travel with two now, but Blythe would not be without her parents.

Inexperience left Blythe skinny and hungry, too weak to continue on for much longer. She had no friends among fellow loners and sometimes these encounters ended with a sharp cut to the nose or face that etched permanently into her face. Her hunting skills were paltry mimics of what she had seen her mother do, so she staved off her weakness long enough to make it to Xassa's border, collapsing in it. Xerxes must've been watching over her for a hunting patrol had stumbled upon her body, and from there she was taken back to meet the Cyrus.

## Trivia

* She only has half of her tail, due to a puphood injury. Unfortunately, the damage done to it means that Blythe is unable to wag it, and sometimes it causes issues with her balance.
* Due to her mother being in poor condition while pregnant with Blythe, she was born with a weak immune system. She tends to get sick very easily with colds. Any worse than that may put her down on bedrest for a while.

## External Links

* Official Application Sheet
* Lotus-Wolfdragon's deviantART Gallery