Amarië Ancalime - wanderer

das Äußere:
(Appearance)

The first thing people tend to notice about Amarië is her hair. When she was born her parents were quite delighted with the colour, but they expected that it would become darker in the years to come. She inherited the light colour from her father's side of the family and everyone expected the white blonde to turn the flaxen, golden colour of her father. Only it didn't. Her parents took that to be a good sign and Amarië believes that her unique hair colour is a gift from the sun God. She usually wears some braids in her hair for decoration, although the hair itself is quite damaged. Anyone can see from afar that her hair is unhealthy and brittle and oftentimes it isn't clean. Not that anyone from her family thinks it strange, after all, one bath in the river a week is all they need, taking anymore would be an insult to the river Gods.

Amarië has never seen nor has she heard of makeup. Her skin is dry and rough as common beauty products are foreign to her. She often has skinned knees and scratches on her arms and legs from climbing trees and falling back down from them. She always has dirty feet and she does not wear shoes or sandals.
In the first season (winter), Amarië wears thick furs fashioned from animals that were hunted and even hats and gloves made of furs. During the second season (spring, summer and autumn) she wears dresses, skirts and pants made of leather and sometimes, though very rarely, she also wears necklaces made of stones and pebbles collected from the river.

Amarië has very light, pale skin, due to spending her hours hidden in the canopy of the forest. Since she never leaves the security of the woods or the caves in which she lives, she is not well adjusted to sunlight and this shows in her skin colour. Her eyes are light blue, bordering on grey.

She is a slight, slender girl who looks well younger than her sixteen years. This plays out in her favour because it allows her to climb through trees without causing too much noise and to travel light footed through the dense forest without awaking any suspicion of travellers or wanderers who sometimes walk through the woods.

"Neij! Lo Shínen! Be silent! What are you saying? What do you mean, 'believes'? I know that my hair colour is a gift from the sun God! Everyone knows that and you would be wise to know it as well! Any hair colour is a gift from the Gods. Red, from the fire God, brown from the earth God, black from the wind God. You are very unknowledgeable. Your parents did not teach you well.
So let me tell you. I was born in the second season, which is very lucky indeed because it gets dreadfully cold in the first season and very few children survive it. I was born when the Gods make the trees change in colour. I have lived through sixteen first seasons.

Of course I do not wash my hair everyday. No one does it and not because it would insult the river God, you fool, but because it is a sign of vanity and filth is merely natural. I am cleanlier than the rest of my tribe, especially the males, mind you. I don't see why you make such a big fuss about it, either. My hair is quite fine, Noch Reid! I'll bet that if you wash every day, your skin falls off and wouldn't that be a pity? There!"

weißt du noch, du warst ein kind
(do you remember, you were a child)
als ich dir versprochen habe,
(when I promised you)
dass ich dir immer nah bleib'
(that I will always stay close to you)

Charakter:
(Personality)

Amarië is smart... well, not your average intelligent. She knows the way of the forest. She can tell by the sound of footfalls whether the approaching being is human, prey or predator and knows when to fall back or when to attack. She knows the forest in which she grew up like the back of her hand and could find her way back home in the pitch dark of night. However, she does not know much - or anything, really - about the world outside of the forest, the fields and the caves. She knows that there are other humans, strangers who are dangerous, because it what her father taught her and she knows that she cannot trust a foreigner. She does not know how to read or write because she never attended school and thus, never had to learn it. Her father taught her how to write her name, but that is as much as they was able to teach her.

She is fluent in english and in Merenuen, the language the woodland tribe invented. But more about that later. She is quite a skilled hunter and has a keen eyesight. She is also a daredevil, loving the thrill of climbing into the highest treetops with the speed and agility of a monkey. She can catch a fish with a spear but she cannot swim, so she never dares to go very far into the water. She can fashion clothing and although she loathes it, she knows how to string beads and pebbles to make passable jewelry... but only if they catch her first.

She is a bit of a wild child, growing up in the woods and amongst people who long ago decided to turn their back on society. However, she is very suspicious and afraid of strangers. Her father told her that anyone who is not a part of their tribe is an enemy and can't be trusted, because that is what he was taught by his own father. The members of the tribe are trying to protect and caution her from attracting the unwanted attention of foreigners or anyone else. But she is also quite curious about strangers, especially because they are forbidden to her and she often watches wanderers and even people from District 13 who visit the woods. Her father is sure that one day her curiousity is going to get her killed or kidnapped by an outsider.

Amarië is the type of person who seems to attract trouble without meaning to. If there is someone missing when the sun has gone down, you can bet that she is out causing everyone else to worry. Usually she manages to drag her best friend, Finwë with her as well. Amarië finds it very difficult to sit still. She needs to constantly be on the move. Since she is the daughter of the leader she feels that people expect her to behave more than any others. She is naive and still a child and not ready to accept the responsibilties that commonly come with adulthood.

Otherwise, she is a friendly, if somewhat shy, person. She's spirited and amiable. She loves to make her friends and family smile and laugh. She has never experienced excessive violence or war and since there are no other tribes nearby and her tribe live in complete seclusion, she can't even imagine it. She is peace loving and quite attached to nature. She is often a dreamer, preferring to live in her imagination as opposed to accepting stark reality. It is this that draws her to the strangers as well, because they are forbidden and they are different and she wants to know why.

O, ich hab' dich nie vergessen:
(oh, I never forgot you:)
meinen freund, nachdem ich rufe
(my friend, whom I call to)
wenn mich meine ängste fressen...
(when my fears haunt me...)

Geschichte:
(History)

"I feel bad now, for the way I spoke earlier. It was rash and perhaps you aren't that thick after all. I'll introduce myself. My name is Amarië Ancalime, daughter of Rafe Ancalime, our leader. I live in Megluwën forest with my family and our tribe. We do not like strangers and we like to keep to ourselves, this is why we live in the rock faces. I cannot tell you where exactly because it is secret. But even if you find it, for you it will only look like a rock, the side of a mountain and nothing like a home. But enough of that.
I was born in the second season, which is a blessing. It is also a blessing that my mother survived, for not all do. Teya's mother died, it was tragic really, but Teya's an annoying little snot now, always following Finwë and me around. Anyway.
My mother always wants me to do practical things, like stringing beads to make necklaces. I do not see how that is in any way a practical thing. Seems pretty useless to me. I prefer to hunt. I'm quite good with a spear. I've brought down deer before. I think father was proud. We're more in the tribe than there are fingers on my hands. There is father and mother and me, of course. Finwë's father died in the last first season. It does get quite cold, so it came as no surprise really, especially because he was getting old! Can you imagine, forty first seasons, really!

There's Eridiana, Finwë's mom. There's Teya, I told you of her. Her father's name is Maug. Then there is Resa, Ceyenn, Katalina, Sarafina, Elendil, Eeméla... oh, am I boring you? Well, we're a whole lot. Some outsiders joined us as well, only after father said that it is alright. They're usually wounded men or women, or they are young. Father always talks to them in private. I expect it is important. I asked him once, about the outsiders and why it is okay to take some in, but why we have to hide from the others... he always just tells me that 'you'll understand one day, Ami' which is not very helpful at all! I'll be old and rotten one day. I should like to know now. So basically, after I was born-"

Yes, I'm going to take it from here, before Amarië confuses you all.

Amarië was not born in any of the districts. She was born in the Open Forest, without ever knowing anything about the districts. But first, let me tell you how it came to this...

When the government first initiated the Hunger Games, many people were shocked, naturally. Some people did not think that they would actually continue with something so barbaric, after all, innocent children were being murdered on live television. As we know, a resistance managed to build in District Thirteen, though they remained undercover for many years. But there was also a resistance, one that is more obscure and more isolated and one that had no interest to battle the Capitol and its totalitarian regime.

You haven't heard of them? Well, they don't like to advertise. During the rebellion, some fifty years ago, a group of people realised that the outcome of the war could mean nothing good and they wanted to leave their district. These originally came from District four and they were a small group of give or take six or seven people. The Capitol was too busy fighting the resistance to notice that a few people had slipped from under their radar. The journey was long and difficult and many perished, whether from hunger or from exhaustion, I do not know. They feared the Hunger Games and the oppression of the Capitol government, but more than even that, they feared to live in a world where their future child may be forced to partake in a death game for the entertainment of privileged snobs. Upon arriving in an abandoned forest, they realised just how foolhardy they had been. They knew very little about surviving in the wilderness. When the first winter came, their will to survive was tested. In the relentless cold, even more of their group died and there was no time to mourn the dead. But those that survived the first winter, turned out stronger than before. They learned how to make warm clothing for the winter and practical ones to wear in the warmer months.

Two of this group were called Freyda and Ren. When Freyda got pregnant, they were tested again. They were all still relatively young and inexperienced and had limited knowledge about childbirth. There was no trained midwife around and so Freyda did not survive, but her child, a boy the group named Rafe, did. Ren raised the boy with the help of the others and they decided that if they were to be a tribe, they needed a leader. Ren was named leader and became in charge of ensuring the groups' security. As the tribe grew and prospered, and more wanderers, who were lost and starving in the woods, joined their ranks, the children began to shape a culture of their own. The adults did not bother to tell them about Panem, about the Hunger Games or about tributes. Now that Panem had Peacekeepers, who patrolled the forest sometimes, they were aware that they had to warn their children somehow. They said that all strangers are enemies and cannot be trusted. Furthermore, it was decided that the tribe leader tells his heir, once this heir comes of age, about Panem. This is to ensure that at least one person knows about the real dangers that exist out there.

The children began to speak in their own tongue, a language they named Merenuen. The adults soon were unable to understand what they were saying.

When the first generation, the one of Ren and the dead Freyda, also ceased to be, it was the second generation who was left. They were a lost generation. They only knew what their parents had told them, which was to distrust all outsiders and take in only those who accidentally wandered into their territory or seemed helpless and weak. They weren't savages. Just cautious. Rafe had found out everything from his father, Ren, unbeknownst to all the others who had kept silent.

There, you guessed it. Rafe is Amarië's father. Her mother's name is Jynessa, though she is called Nessa by everyone. By the time of Amarië's birth, the tribe had grown to a sizable number and only one of them knew anything about the outside world. They were still hiding from any foreigners, without quite knowing why. They learned how to blend into the nature and they vowed never to speak with any outsiders.

Amarië was a free and happy child. She learned how to live in the forest, how to start fires and hunt using spears. She was ever the tomboy, but no one expected her to be otherwise. Eridiana, one of their tribe, had given birth to a boy four years previously. His name was Finwë, who was called 'Fin' by everyone. He became her older brother, best friend and first love interest all at once.

There was no good explanation for how the world worked and the first obvious answer was that there is a higher being somewhere. Confused, they made up Gods. They simply made up a God for everything. One for the moon and the stars and another for the trees. The children accepted this without question. They became religious without even knowing what religion was. Time and again, Amarië would watch as foreigners, people who spoke with a different accent than she did - for she oftentimes had trouble forming the english words, unlike her father - and who wore clothes that to her looked strange. She ignored her father's warnings and together with Finwë, she watched them. She learned how to make herself invisible within the trees and how to move through the woods without making a sound.

Now, at sixteen years old, she is member of the tribe and the daughter of the tribe leaders. But with age she has also grown more curious and foolhardy, desperate to know what these strangers want and why her father warns her to stay well away from them. She does not know yet that in two years time, once she comes of age, her father will pass on the burden of knowledge to her.