Ariadne Hughes

"Beware the snakes in the grass."

Description
Ariadne is a Knight of the Black Roses, and Queen Kyra Elensar's personal bodyguard alongside her husband, Hector Hughes. She is a woman on the shorter end of average height with a muscular build and varying degrees of scars. Her red hair is typically kept up, for easier ability to shove into a helmet or a hood when the situation requires. Her steel blue eyes are typically hard, but soften only in the right circumstance (which either involves her husband or food... but mostly food).

Armor
Typically heavy armor with skirt as from her home world, but will either be seen in leathers when hunting or scouting, while when it is time for battle, she pulls out the full plate gifted to her by her husband with some alterations.

Arms
For the longest time she fought with sword and spear. She then gravitated towards shield and spear. Now a days she will fight with twin swords. When on the back of her horse Galatea, she switches between long spear and bow.

History
Ariadne was born in a land called Hellas. She spent part of her youth training as a warrior as was her family's custom until the Oracle made a prophesy that spoke of the ill that her life would cause. Escaping from narrow death, somehow surviving falling off of a cliff, she went on the run. Over the course of her life, she lived as a Misthios, a mercenary, taking jobs from anything from hunting to assassination, to put food on the metaphorical table.

She was continuously hunted by varying cults that wished her extermination on the word of the Oracle. When she had finally felt most of those who wished her dead had met their ends, she met a man named Lee who hailed from a distant land. After a lot of fighting with each other, they eventually married and she had twin children.

Her hunters found them eventually, staged an attack on a nearby town, to which Ariadne of course went to help defend. By the time she returned home, her children and husband were missing. She followed the trail of bodies decimated by a halberd only to find the children taken and Lee dead. She spent the next year methodically hunting down those who brought harm to her family and killed every single one. In time, she was able to find the children, but because she had little faith they would even be safe with her, she sent them away to another distant land with their only living grandfather. They were 6 months old the last time she saw them.

A few years later, she became lost at sea and washed onto the shore of Kullinzios, where she eventually met Kyra who gave her a home and food.

Skills
Acrobatics - Ariadne is fairly flexible and has a tendency to like to jump around areas instead of using perfectly good stairs.

Athletics - She is physically fit and has competed in numerous tournaments in her old world. Some she won, some she did not die when losing.

Hunting - She is a skilled huntress of either beast or man, whichever gives the most coin at the time.

Major Flaw/Flaws:
Vengeful - If someone she cares about gets hurt or killed, hell hath no fury like this one.

Overconfident - She doesn't think there are many battles in this world that will defeat her. Occasionally will bite off more than she can chew.

Bloodthirsty - Usually this comes into play when vengeful also is triggered. When she is angry and fighting, getting her to pull back from fighting is very difficult.

Minor Flaw/Flaws:
Stubborn - Pretty set in her ways.

Addiction - She compulsively eats food as if she's never ate before. She also carries a flask that belonged to Hector that she partakes in.

Doubt - She doesn't have a lot of faith in mortals or the gods. She expects everyone to have some sort of price or hidden motive. She also is highly skeptical of magic.

Personality
Ariadne is fairly blunt with her thoughts, if she chooses to express them. She takes some amusement in making others a tad uncomfortable with some of her more blunt comments. She is fairly open minded about sexual preferences and discussions, usually making some other people blush when they realize what she has said.

She tends to put on a tough, sassy exterior, very rarely showing any sort of emotion other than one the helps her fight. Only certain people see her softer side, but this takes a while to get to. She has a very difficult time expressing her feelings, though, even to herself.

Beliefs
Most everyone is in it for themselves. This includes the gods. She also believes that fighting is pretty much the only thing she's truly good at.

Quirks
She is usually seen eating sweets, preferably cake, if it is supplied anywhere near her.

Relationships
Hector Hughes - Husband. Sometimes love is found when you least expect it.

Queen Kyra Elensar - Employer and friend. Ariadne serves as her bodyguard when she is able. When she is unable, Ari has trained a hunting dog, Angelheart, to guard her in her stead. She also feeds Ari sweets.

King Amres Elensar - Employer. He makes good booze and occasionally shares.

Faolen - Old friend from when she was on Kullinzios who helped her get her bearings in that new world. He taught her a bit of horse archery, though she would never claim to now be an expert.

Kyne il-Reus - Friend. Thinks he has a good heart but made some poor decisions. Determined to have his back should he require rescue, but only if he asked.