Nolla was born into a humongous family in one of the many villages close to Vale. The majority of her family were farmers, and coincidentally, the majority of them were also bison Faunus. There was the occasional human or other ungulate-type faunus, but when mentioning the Ayani family, ‘bison’ is usually the first word that comes to mind. The words ‘Big Family’ didn’t just mean widespread either; the majority of the Ayani were fairly large in stature. Thick boned and often barrel chested, the majority of the Ayani family were often physically strong, both from hereditary traits, and from the gruelling work they put in to make their lien.
Nolla was different though, and not just because she dreamed of becoming a huntress. She was born with a condition known as melanism, which essentially darkens all the pigments in her body to the point where her iris’, hair, nails, and skin are all pitch black; she was the metaphorical ‘black sheep’, a nickname given to her by her siblings and cousins. Unlike the moniker given to her by her family, she shared very little traits with the sheepish animal, and remained ready to shut down any notion that she was anything but ready to embrace the life of a huntress, to experience glory and valour in the defense of her fellow countrymen. Whenever she was done with her chores, she’d read about the exploits of the huntsman and huntresses any chance she could. She would memorize the stories, the fairy tales, the legends, and recount them to her extended family whenever they had a gathering with as much flair and enthusiasm she could muster.
Nolla’s family wholeheartedly encouraged her to follow her dreams. Many of the Ayani family were simple folk who had little desire in the way of grandiose adventures, skirting the edges of life and death with every dangerous encounter. But they were more than willing to support one of their own who had such a burning desire within them, potentially somebody who could make them proud and bring honour to their family name. Very few of the Ayani strayed from their paths as farmers, and of those who would become huntsman/huntresses, Nolla was only the fourth in their lineage to aspire to such things.
After a certain point, Nolla stopped reading so much about the tales of the huntsman and huntresses, and began actually training for her entry into Signal Academy. She knew nothing about weapons or fighting or dust…but she had certain tools available to her, to condition her body. She took on extra chores that were intended to push her limits. She started running every day, stretching, and lifting weights. When she was nine years old, she even began to wear weighted clothing, every day, nearly all day. At first it was difficult to really manage anything after the first few days of wearing the weighted clothes, but by the time she was old enough to apply to Signal Academy, she was already accustomed to wearing over sixty pounds of evenly distributed weight.
Throughout her training at Signal, she continued to wear her weighted clothing underneath her formal wear, during study, when she slept, and even during exercise and weapons training. Many of her fellow students thought she was a bit peculiar for choosing to slow herself down with such heavy weights, but her instructors saw potential in her choice of extreme conditioning. They encouraged her to add even more weights throughout her time at Signal, pushing her past her limits during training.
One day during a rudimentary obstacle course, Nolla came last, as she usually did. Frustrated and exhausted from such heavy weights always slowing her down, she threw a fit in the middle of the course and began to cry. One of the instructors came up to her, smiling, and told her to run the course again. She didn’t see the point, but then he told her to run it without the extra weights. It was a strange thing. She’d become so accustomed to wearing them, it skipped her mind she could even take them off during training. When she ran the course again, however, she’d managed to set the record time for that obstacle course. It was as if she could fly, moving was so easy. She was lighter than even a feather, able to jump higher, run faster, and roll out of every landing as if she’d leapt down at half the height. It was for this reason that from that day onwards, Nolla continued to wear her weighted clothing without complaint, eventually supplanting it with armour.
It wasn’t until she’d entered Beacon Academy that she’d earned a new nickname; The Black Knight. Fitting, really, considering her prior nickname and desire to leave it behind. Of all the students who passed the entrance exams, Nolla was one of the few who had conditioned herself to wear heavy armour into battle for extended periods of time, and of those who had, none had trained to the same extent. Wearing armour wasn’t exactly a skill per say, but when she entered her first sparring tests wearing her full gear it was hard not to gape in awe. The most peculiar thing, however, was that despite all of her training, all of her dedication, all of her own exploits were earned without the use of her semblance. She’d trained meticulously to earn proficiency in a number of applications of Aura, but that was the most she could manage. It is her highest hope, that in her fourth year of training at Beacon Academy, that she’ll finally be able to unlock her semblance.
Topic: Nolla Ayani (Read 9973 times)