Neav

[neav]

| ~ • ~ | Character Basics | ~ • ~ |

.:Name of Character:. Neav
.:Nick Name:. Often, he is referred to as “boy”
.:Age:. thirteen
.:Status:. Servant

| ~ • ~ | Appearance | ~ • ~ |

.:Physical Appearance:. Neav is small and thin as a willow wand. He has black hair cut short and uneven and his eyes are a chilling grey. His skin is pale. As often as not it will be riddled with bruises and even in winter his has a spattering of freckles across his face. Though his smile is sweet, it shows that he has a missing front tooth.
Neav is the sort of boy you never remember. He is unremarkable and seems to melt like a shadow into the background.

Neav wears the typical clothes of his status. His brown tunic is too large, his ‘belt’ is a thin rag of cloth and his breeches are too short. These clothes are always sprinkled with mud or hay and Neav always smells like horses.

.:Height:. 4 foot five inches
.:Portrayed by:. Timmy Smith

| ~ • ~ | Personality | ~ • ~ |

.:Personality:. Neav is quiet, watchful and wary. He does not like people because they have complicated natures; they lie and they cheat and the cause pain just for the fun of it. He only likes horses. Neav understands these creatures as he will never understand his own kind.

Neav is clever enough to know that if he keeps his head down he is less likely to get in trouble. He is good at playing the humble and obedient servant boy, good at hiding his feelings. Very quick with both feet and mind, Neav notices everything and yet says nothing. When Neav is angry, his temper is as cold as his ghostly eyes. It freezes his blood and does not forgive or ever forget.

.:Strengths:. Quickness of mind, quickness of feet. His unending love for horses. He is also very brave and fears little, though it is a quiet bravery and so never noticed.
.:Weaknesses:. His cold, unforgiving temper. His great distrust for people and the way he does not even try to like them. Neav does not like changes.
.:Magic Abilities:. Inborn ‘Enhancement’, inherited from Anhora, Keeper of the Unicorn.
.:Special Skills:. Neav’s relationship with horses lies somewhere between the lines of having a ‘talent’ and out-and-out sorcery. He understands them in a way no other person can. He senses their feelings and they can sense his. If a horse is near, Neav will know it. He can also sense their pain and though he cannot perform an obvious healing, he can certainly make most cases feel better. Neav also seems to have some influence over how horses behave. He has found that they will listen to him over any master, and that they will sometimes ‘catch’ his moods. If he is angry, chances are that any horse near him will be angry too.
It is impossible for these skills to go entirely unnoticed, but people assume that Neav just as a ‘talent’ for understanding them. Indeed, this is all he thinks that he has himself. Never once has he thought that his talents might be something more magical.

.:Accents:. English accent, but clearly low-born. Neav's voice is low and soft when he whispers to the horses, and nervously abrupt when talking with people.

| ~ • ~ | History | ~ • ~ |

.:Birthplace:. unknown
.:Family:. unknown (he is a descendent of Anhora, Keeper of the Unicorn. But he does not know this, and nor does anyone else)
.:Occupation:. Servant - horse boy
.:Current Location of Residence:. Neav sleeps in the hay loft of the stables.
.:History:.

Much of Neav’s history is unknown. He was found alone in the forest when he was about four years old. One of the horses of a hunting part had had a fright, thrown off his rider and dashed away. The groom gave chase and eventually found the beast nosing a small, black haired boy. When asked who he was and where he came from, the child seemed unable to give answers. The groom, who is a kind man under his rough and silent appearance, took the boy home and gave him to his wife to care for. His excuse to the others was that they needed a horse-boy, and that the best horse-boys were ones who had grown up to the job. It was assumed by the groom and the stablehands that this boy was a survivor of a recent raid on one of the nearby villages. They gave him the name ‘Neav’.
By the time Neav was six he was sleeping in the hayloft.
Now the stablehands know they can trust Neav with any horse and that his skill with them sometimes seems uncanny. But they are glad that they have a boy because they can give him the jobs that no one else wants and he never complains. And if he did complain, he is just a boy without a family; they can just wallop him and make him do the job anyway.

[Camelot]