Taneca

Taneca (Tan-ik-ah) never had siblings, and her parents were a pair of mercenaries who fell in love while fighting for opposite armies, got married, and traveled the world together as sellswords. Because of their busy and dangerous lives, she mostly grew up being watched over by her father's closest friends, the Hanlins - a married couple of farmers without children of their own. Her parents visited her frequently for years, but the last time she saw them was her 10th birthday.

Despite being raised primarily by the Hanlins, Taneca's parents made it a rule as mercenaries never to take on jobs that would last more than a week or so, to allow them to see their daughter as often as possible. As a result of being around two sets of parents so often, she's very comfortable talking with older people, but actually has trouble fitting in with children her age. But like most kids, she has a strong mischievous streak, and learning to avoid getting caught by double the number of adults most kids deal with has made her rather skilled in the art of stealth.

As a young girl, Taneca had always wanted to learn to fight with swords and axes, like her parents had. She dreamed of joining them in battle when she was older, but her parents strictly forbade it. Instead, she ended up taking interest in the art of dancing, a specialty of Mrs. Hanlin's. Under her instruction, she quickly became a talented dancer, and would prepare a new routine each time her parents returned. Her dance practice also made her nimble and light on her feet, allowing her to sneak away even more often. Still dreaming of fighting alongside her parents, she began slinking outside at night to practice knife-throwing, using a kitchen utensil that just happened to vanish mysteriously one day.

Her most cherished memory is a conversation that took place during her tenth birthday. Mr. Hanlin had made a remark on how quickly Taneca had grown in the past decade. This prompted her mom to tease her father about a few gray hairs adorning his chin. Her father fired back with a wry grin, threatening to retire and leave her to fight alone. Taneca knew it was just a joke, but it wasn't until that moment that she really realized that some day, both of her parents might really retire and spend more time with her.

But that day never came. For the first few months, the Hanlins were insistent that nothing was wrong. They told Taneca her parents were simply busy, or they had come in briefly, but only during the night while she had been asleep. But as her eleventh birthday approached, their reassurances changed to things like "We're a family" or "You're like a daughter to us". It was the first time in her life she realized what it felt like to be treated like a child.

Even so, she was mature enough to know better than to ask. The Hanlins were just as concerned as Taneca was regarding the fate of her parents, after all. She didn't want to stress them any further, and she suspected she knew the truth anyway. But during one dinner, almost three years after her parent's disappearance, she snapped. She burst into tears at the dinner table, calling the shocked Hanlins a barrage of nasty things, blaming them for her the disappearance of her parents before storming to her room.

That night, under the dark of a moonless sky, Taneca vanished from the Hanlin household, driven by a mixture of shame at how she had behaved, and a burning desire to discover what had happened to her parents. She knows better than to expect to see them happy and alive, but even knowing how they died would give her a measure of closure.

These days, Taneca can be seen dancing in pubs and clubs across various cities. She enjoys her job - dancing hasn't lost its charm for her, and between dances she listens in on the sailors and merchants, questioning anybody who might've known her parents. Of course, getting a sailor to talk generally requires her to oil their lips with ale, first. Whenever funds get tight (and they often do, as dancing doesn't pay terribly well), she's got a nasty habit of vanishing into the night, along with some poor sap's wallet. She usually shows up a few days later in the next town over.