Name: Ruth Howling Wind

Species: Wolfdog hybrid

Breed: 50% Gray Wolf, 50% German Shepard.

Sex: Female

Fur coloration: Dark brown primary coat, dirty white coat secondary with black-tipped ears

Hair color: Raven black

Eye color: Amber yellow

Date of Birth: March 22nd, 1846, eastern Colorado Territory

Height: 5’ 9

Tribal affiliation: Southern Cheyenne, by way of her mother

Trade: Hired gun and bounty huntress

Born on a stormy March night in a simple sod cabin on the endless planes of the eastern Colorado Territory to a trapper father and an Indian mother, Ruth’s early childhood was sadly marked by tragedy when cholera swept across the plains in 1849 and took her mother from her and very nearly took little Ruth as well, leaving the 3-year-old pup in a badly weakened state.

After that tragic day, it was touch and go for a while, but after a week or so and perhaps a little help from above, the little hybrid’s father, Russell Hays, slowly nursed her back to health. From that day onwards, Russell swore to raise and educate his daughter into a woman he and his late wife would be proud of. As such, little Ruth had quite a bit of growing up to do to help her father around the homestead.

It started with tasks a three-year-old pup could easily handle, such as helping in the garden and learning how to forage for edible berries on the prairie. At the end of the day, her father would then teach her the basics of reading and writing by the light of the hearth.

As Ruth grew, her father began teaching her the art of tracking and trapping small game. But most of all, she began to build up her upper body strength by helping split wood during the fall and winter and tilling the garden in the spring.

Eventually, she would accompany her father on hunting trips and trading missions to the various trading/military forts and Indian villages.

It was during one of those trading missions at the age of six that Ruth encountered her mother’s people for the first time in her life. Enthralled by the sights and sounds of village life and intimidated at the same time by the sight of the wolven giants that milled about the village, it was an experience that would last the rest of her life and would leave her curious to know more about these people as she grew older.

By the time she turned Ten, Ruth had been trapping small game for the better part of four years, and her father knew that the time had finally come to begin teaching her the skills she’d need to hunt and kill deer and elk with a traditional bow. Ruth at first protested at having to use a bow while her father got to use a rifle, though as Russell pointed out to her, not only do rifles take a while to master, but you’ve also got only one shot to work with before having to reload, so if you missed, there went a valuable hide, and that about a week’s worth of fresh meat. On the other hand, a bow was easier for a first-timer to handle, and arrows were much cheaper to source than powder and shot, especially way out there on the prairie.

So it was that Ruth began her training as a huntress with a large hand-made oak hunting bow, dreaming that someday she could take up the rifle alongside her father. In Time, though, Ruth would grow to like the sturdy oaken bow for its relative lightness and ability to shoot prey without giving herself away. However, she still disliked the bow’s relatively short range compared to that of a rifle, which required her to get closer to prey to land a hit, pushing her to improve her concealment techniques and to start using ambush tactics.

For the next three years, Russell would aid Ruth in honing her large-game bow-hunting skills until the fall of 1859 when, at the age of 13, he decided that she was ready to put her training to the test with a solo hunt.

Excited to show her old man what she could do and prove herself worthy as a huntress while also nervous at the prospect of having to track down and killing prey by herself that was not only larger then her but faster as well, she none the less did her best to get a good night’s rest and before dawns first light, she was awake and raring to go!

After tucking into a quick breakfast, she sheathed her mother’s knapped stone knife, slung her loaded quiver over her shoulder, and took hold of the bow propped up by the front door, and with a proud, approving nod from her father, she opened the door and set off into the per-dawn gloom on her right of passage.

She’s laid-back and easygoing when not on the hunt but will shift into no-nonsense mode when a bounty or contract work becomes available.

Despite her profession as a hired gun and bounty huntress, she takes no pleasure in killing and simply views it as the only skill she has that’ll put bread on the table. And yet, while she’ll never admit it publicly, she quite enjoys the thrill of the hunt and the rush of battle. A fact that troubles her very deeply.

On some bounties, if her target is a small-time offender, she’ll try to talk them out before resorting to shooting them out, and if it comes to that, she’s not above killing if it comes down to only one of them leaving that firefight alive.

Underneath her hardened exterior, is a person that’s willing lend a helping hand to those she comes across in her travels…thou whether or not they’ll accept aid from a Wolfdog varies a bit

She’s rather weary of strangers and tends to keep people at arm’s length until she gets to know them and vice versa; only then will her hardened exterior start to crack, and she’ll begin to open up a little and show her lighter side.

While not overly violent, Ruth has a nasty temper that she inherited from her mother that flares when sufficiently wound up, which has landed her in hot water several times over the years since striking out on her own.

Ruth has pushed herself long and hard over the years to prove her worth in a male-dominated field, pushing her body well past the limits of what it can normally handle quite a few times. As such, she doesn’t take crap from those who discount her abilities just because of her sex. However, her efforts to prove the naysayers wrong have led to her biting off more than she can chew, often at the expense of her physical health and well-being.

While she does abide by the rule of law, that does not mean she isn’t above playing dirty and using less-than-legal and underhanded methods to accomplish her goals when all other legal pathways have been exhausted.

She’s very protective of those she cares about on a deeply personal level, and woe betide anyone wishing them harm…

Another surefire way to get under her skin is to belittle and mock her wolven heritage, and if you really wanted to twist the knife and risk a broken muzzle for it, insult the memory of her mother and father.

She’s slightly taller than the males of most domestic breeds due to her wolf heritage.

She has a black saddle of fur on her back that runs from between her shoulders to the base of her tail. It’s one of the few things she genetically inherited from her father.

Ruth’s mother died before she fully grasped the Cheyenne language and culture. So, while she can speak it to some degree, the complete language and history of her mother’s people remain an enigma.

She has to rely on an interpreter when conversing with the other native groups of the territory outside of the few remaining Cheyenne wolves, If they’ll even talk to her in the first place.

She’s primarily a long-range fighter, relying on her skill with the rifle and bow to keep her enemies out of arms’ reach.

If she has to duke it out, she’s pretty adept with a knife and willing to use her claws and teeth if necessary. As such, she can hold her own for a little bit in single combat, though the odds of her making it out of a close-quarters slugging match start dropping off as the number of assailants increases.

She’s an alcoholic lightweight due to her wolven heritage and can barely make it through four shots before she’s completely plastered. Anything more than that, and she’ll be wishing she was dead by sunrise.

Outfit’s, Left to right: 1864 age 18, and circa 1870 age 24.

Image drawn and colored/shaded by the ever talented MasterDoodleJoe80062 ! Look him up for commission information

Character’s and setting are the property of gh22

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