Gwyneth Calvert

Gwyneth Calvert is a citizen of the Vale, who returned to Westeros towards the end of the seventh summer, after spending seven years in slavery.

Early Life
Walter and Alanis Calvert met in Winterfell and married young, before leaving the city to start a new life together; fate took them to a quiet hamlet not too far from the city walls, where Walter set up his business as a blacksmith, and Alanis used her skills as a cook to feed themselves and their neighbours.It wasn't long before their first child, Rylas, was born. Rylas was an adventurous child, and when his sister Gwyneth was born six years later, she was no different.

Gwyneth and Rylas were immensely close in their early years, regularly running out into the woods surrounding their home to chase jerboas and explore the dens left abandoned by various beasts of the wild. Many days were spent climbing trees and exploring the world around them, and Gwyneth found herself developing a fascination and a knack for tracking and following animals for she and her brother to watch; she learned the cries and calls of many birds and beasts, and taught herself and her brother to mimic specific bird cries for them to use as secret signals in their games.

As the siblings got older, they drifted apart; Rylas became more disciplined and began to apprentice under his father as a blacksmith, whereas Gwyneth's fascination with the forests and the beasts within only grew. Shortly after her tenth nameday, Gwyneth's mother fell ill. Alanis was bedridden, and unable to feed the village let alone her own family; the people's only source of food was now the hamlet's hunter, with whom her father had to trade. In order to earn the gold to buy their meals, Walter and Rylas had to push themselves further, working night and day in the forge to craft weaponry, armour, and trinkets to sell; but scarce was the opportunity to travel to Winterfell and trade their goods. Seeing her father and brother work so hard to care for her and her mother, Gwyneth felt a pit grow in her stomach, and early one morning she stole a knife from her father's forge, and crept out into the sun-hued forest.

Under the canopy of trees, Gwyneth followed a small set of tracks to a burrow hidden under an old, decaying log. From the foot prints she'd found, she knew there to be a family of at least five jerboa living in burrow under her feet; and so she sat and waited. Silent, and perfectly still, Gwyneth waited until the jerboa emerged from their den to forage for their morning meal, and with a knot in her chest, she leapt into action and killed the creatures. Tears in her eyes and guilt in her heart, Gwyneth brought the creatures home and threw herself into her father's arms, wailing and profusely apologising for killing such a gift of nature, but explained that she only wished to help. Her father comforted her, and calmed her down, and over the following week Walter enrolled her to apprentice under the hamlet's hunter, Malcolm Gold.