Nana Hunter
Introduction
Nana is a red-cloaked girl who used to live in the Lupine Forest with her mother. After meeting Jack, however, she winded up growing fond of the farm boy and making the move to live with him and the rest of the Fabled Five in Briar Patch. She has low vision but the cane crafted by the Boar Bros helps her get around just fine. Just...don't wave your hand in front of her face. She will break it.
Personality
Nana comes off as an introverted individual but once you get to know her...she's still pretty introverted. It takes her awhile to actually warm up to people as she's so used to seeing strangers as potential dangers. To her close friends, she's an extremely loyal companion. Nana is extremely reliable and rarely gives up on a task. She's very blunt at times and rarely hesitates to state her opinion. If she is angered in any way, there really isn't much stopping her from reigning hell.
History
Nana was born with a human mother and a fully lupine father in the Lupine Forest. Growing up, she was a happy and carefree little girl. She spent a lot of time around her father, where she'd learn lots about being a lupine as well as learning about her roots.
When she became 7, her vision problems popped up for the first time as she'd often rub her eyes upon her sight occasionally becoming blurry. Her mother and father took her to Miss Nancy for help and learned that she was suffering from the same illness that her grandmother had. The lupine genes had sped up the process, causing it to effect her at a much earlier age than average. The most that could be done was treating her eyes with eye drops to help with the dryness from her constantly rubbing at them. Often, it was her mother who had to give her the drops while her father held her still as her lupine strength was beginning to develop.
Not wanting to get her hung up on her illness, her father refocused his lessons towards teaching her proper techniques for relying on her other senses instead of just her eyesight. Much of this was nighttime hunting with an added spin. She soon picked up on these new hunting techniques. Along with these lessons came self-defense, something that was increasingly necessary increasing amount of stains entering the forest.
When she wasn't learning how to be a proper lupine from her father, she was learning human mannerisms from her mother to help her when it came to interacting with people. Much of this involved warnings that not everyone would accept her and she would have to learn to ignore the fear from people deemed her different. Although this was done with love in her heart, her mother unknowingly planted a seed of fear into Nana that would stick with her far into the future. Something her grandmother would lecture her mother about, fearing Nana was far too young to truly understand the good intentioned warnings. To help soften the blow, her grandmother would give her the more optimistic view of humans and lupines interacting with her own parents often being used as examples. Often, these talks would take place while she taught Nana how to cook and bake.
Her grandmother also introduced her to Baba Blacksheep who taught her more about the world outside of the forest and Upon. Her fear of the unknown was replaced with wonder and she approached life with a new interest in traveling the world.
When she was 10, she had an encounter with a boy in blue who was hunting deer. His hunt was quickly cut short as Nana chased the deer off, ruining any plans of bringing home a stuffed buck. In his tantrum, the boy had introduced himself as Prince Charming and warned her that she would pay greatly for her actions, only to flee in absolute horror over seeing the large towering lupine approaching from behind her. Since that day, Nana took up the habit of ruining hunter trips and bringing home the point that the Lupine Forest wasn't spot for hunting for sport.
At 12, her vision lowered to a blur. The only thing Nana was disappointed about was that she still needed to take her eye drops.
Some time after, she had an especially interesting encounter with a young boy in the forest. Having been frightened by her father, he accidentally fell into a river. Before her father could be stop her, Nana leapt in after him and fished him out before he was dragged completely under. Her father snatched the two up and, while being led by Malt, returned Jack to his mother. There, they were given some recently picked crops as thanks. However, the two left before Jack could meet his savior. There were plans for the two to return but life had other plans.
When Nana became 13, when she found herself being hunted along with her father. She was quickly shoved into a den under a tree while her dad worked on distracting the hunters after them. The last thing she heard was a loud bang before everything went silent. Her father never came back to retrieve her. On her way out from her hiding spot, she was immediately found by her mother who was in tears, already aware of what had happened.
Life afterwards became gloomy and void of the same optimism that was present when her father was still alive. Nana had abandoned her dreams of exploring the world and instead remained in the Lupine Forest. There, she served as its small red hooded protector. Upon becoming 19, Nana ran into another break in her patterns. One that was signified by the distant sound of something heavy hitting the ground and the earth shaking.
Skills and Abilities
Nana's has heightened smell, hearing, and super human strength packed in a small body due to being half lupine. A punch from her could easily break a jaw, while her own jaws could shatter bone easily with a single bite. When filled with a large amount of rage, Nana will enter a feral phase.
Full Moon
Whenever there is a full moon of any sort, Nana's body automatically shifts into her wereform. This form is much large than her default state.
Lupine Shifting
Being half lupine, Nana is capable of shifting her body as a defense mechanism. Her already sharpened teeth grow and elongate to the point of stretching her mouth. While like this, they can shred and tear through flesh like butter. One Nana latches on to a target, there's little chance of her letting go. Nana's arms and legs also sprout fur and morph into those of a lupine to allow her to reach high speeds, aiding in the pursuit of quicker opponents. She can also sprout claws that could chip rocks.
Märchen
The Shield Shroud is an invincible piece of enhanced clothing that was originally given to her by her grandmother and got enchanted by her Märchen. The cloak seemingly grows in size and drapes over her and anyone else nearby, creating a red orb. It can withstand any attack so long as Nana can take the impact without faultering.
Trivia
- Nana has low vision. Although her sight is blurry, she can see shapes, colors and differentiate light and dark and people based off a combination of all of the above but nothing is sharp and details are nonexistent. This is why she can sometimes look around and move her eyes to follow people as she can still pick them up, even if they are fuzzy mish mashes of color. It does get more difficult if they’re farther away and/or if they’re darker. She has a foldable wooded cane made by the Boar Brothers she can use with picking up some obstacles and changes in and on the ground she may miss, especially in settings that are new or dark. And she has a magic mirror that can read aloud writing to her as she can’t read due to text being too blurry.
- While Nana has heightened senses, they come from her lupine genes. And even then, she uses her cane to help her detect where to go. She is prone to headaches and sensory overload more than the average lupine.
- Nana naturally smells like cinnamon apples.
- Nana's name comes from her father wishing to name her cinnamon due to her naturally sweet scent and red hair. Her mother of course said no and thus, he tried to improvise. The "Na" of her name basically comes from cinNAmon.
- Although Nana is great at making sweets, she's not too big a fan of them herself.
- Nana is allergic to silver. Making direct contact with it gives her a light red itchy dry rash. While it's not not life threatening, it's irritating to deal with. Warm milk makes the rash fade away in no time however.
- Nana nearly didn't exist due to me struggling so hard on coming up with a design for a Little Red Riding Hood character. On a whim one day, I approached her differently and she stuck. Even then, it took me a while before she became the half-lupine we know now.