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[b][u]Nephele Pyresky[/u][/b]
(Image not my original work)

[B]Barney the barn owl griffin [\B]
(Image not my original work)

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Nephele is a roguish tomboy who can't hold onto a coin or a relationship. Growing up in the aether kingdom port city as an orphan thief, she searched the stars for the smugglers who groomed her without ever combing her hair, as much as searching for her parents who even today she naively believes lost her by accident instead of abandoned her at Port. 

Nephele is more street wise than booksmart. She has her own chaotic moral code, but her loyalty is as boundless as the sky if she's under your employment, your roof, or your bed sheets for the night. Unfortunately even as a Ranger of the Realm she tends to sleep with the scoundrels she's supposed to police. But if they're spending the night with her, they aren't committing any crimes at least. Right? 

She loves gambling on everything from her life to rolling dwarven dice to drinking card games and betting on aether jousting. She used to avidly bet on cockatrice fighting and dragon racing but due to the empathic nature Ranger training has opened her main mission as a Ranger at the moment is shutting down black market beastiary rings and returning the creatures to their homes. She's been guilty of releasing animals the Rangers Guild instructed her needed to be slayed because slaughtering them only slays her. But so far, there were only one or two reports of burning villages and reports of children and maidens gone missing ....

As a recently certified Ranger she's received a mix of magical and martial training. She's gotten better at using her elven bow made with combinations of Pegasus and harpy-fletched feathers and it's arrowheads are dipped in poisonous basilisk venom which stuns whatever target it pierces. For other weaponry she has throwing knives, duel wielding daggers, and a number of explosive flasks (which she's thankfully never mistaken for alcohol) throwing powders and dwarven firecrackers dangling from her tool belt. 

Nephele became a Ranger of the Realm rather by accident.  She met a mysterious stranger in a tavern where she worked as a serving wench. After a few passionate nights and drunken flings, the stranger tried to vanish from her life as mysteriously as he arrived. 

And to make a long story short, Nephele utilized her pirate port city underworld above world connections. She hunted and tracked him down and stalked him as game so impressively, he revealed he was a Ranger of the Realm when she uncovered him camping by the Rangers headquarters atop mist covered mountain ranges of dense enchanted forest. Part forest sages, guardians, hunters and beast masters who forswear allegiance to their kingdom to serve the entire realm and every magical creed or creature, but protected the nature of whatever land their feet stood upon above all.

He asked her to join the call of the wilds (even if he never really wanted to call her again) and undergo apprenticeship to become a certified Ranger of the Realm. She took his elven crafted bow as a trophy because the arrows of love he pierced her with yet did not pull out still stung. 

Nephele knew she would never let another man pull the hood over her eyes again. Because she'd be hooded then too. 

Every Ranger has their own animal companion and flying mount gifted to them as eggs who imprint upon them when they're hatchlings to form an unbreakable bond. Barney can't speak in the human or common tongue, but Rangers are trained to telepathically communicate with their mounts. 

Nephele's flying mount is a male barn owl griffin named Barnabas, or Barney for short. For some embarrassing reason, Barney thinks he's a unicorn instead of an owl griffin, and tries mating with unicorns whenever he sees them (but he's skittishly scared of normal horses) which makes Nephele's encounters with holy pure paladin knights being humped whilst  astride their  white mystical steeds rather awkward since Rangers and Paladins frequently converge in council meetings.

 In spite of being a chubby, lazy, most cowardly uncombative during actual combat unicorn mating mount ever, Barney is Nephele's best friend. And he's given her more than just a mount. He's given her a family and a home no matter where she goes. So she gives him belly rubs and marshmallow treats shaped like the clouds they soar high above.