Laanta is a young Shilka who is not a natural citizen of the Village of Daya. However, compared to the citizens of the Village of Daya, she is very quiet and reclusive. She tends to not talk to other Shilka's because of anxiety and simply a lack of energy too. Despite her enjoyment for her work and those close to her, she still sometimes feels like an outsider. When this happens, she likes to swim and decorate her home.

Work and Life

Laanta is fulfilled through helping others. It is her way of "making up" for leaving her family when she was young. To do this, she works as an herbalist and medic with her foster mother and mentor Nilizali. Even though she is still learning, Laanta has a fantastic memory and a knack for working with the herbs and medicines. It brings her great joy to be able to do what she does.

Like all other Shilkas, she does remove the Scrap off of her tree. However, she likes sitting in the tree before she takes the Scrap off. Sometimes she'll decorate her tree with some of Nibbles' preened feathers. There are scratch marks on her tree from her claws when climbing-not due to negative emotions. Most of Laanta's negative emotions come from feeling immense guilt over leaving her family, or feeling anxious over underperforming or doing something wrong. In these cases, she is not easily comforted, and really only brought back to reason by Nibbles nad Nilizali.

Alongside her work, there are very few things that can make Laanta smile. However, her pet goose Nibbles is one of those things. Laanta found Nibbles when she first arrived to the Village of Daya. Upon finding him, she was able to identify him as a goose, and named him Nibbles because of the way his beak twitched when he walked. Laanta is very protective over Nibbles, and spends a lot of time telling other Shilka's that he is NOT a swam, but a goose. Another thing that makes Laanta happy is color. As a Shilka with very weak eyesight, she is really only able to see bright lights and color. Most of the time, shapes are too blurry and muted for her to see, but when she does make something out, she becomes very pleased with herself.

Before the Village of Daya

Laanta originally lived in the Chaotic City, along with her father and older brother. She didn't like them very much, and often didn't see them as family. To her father and brother, Laanta was not strong enough, quickly enough to help them survive. Despite this, Laanta's father felt responsible for her, and so took care of her as she grew up. As she got older, she had to learned to match their personalities in order to stand up for and protect herself. The crime in their area was rampant, so it was important for the three of them to be cunning, fast, and ruthless. However, as she got older, she found that she could not stand living in a crime filled city her entire life. So when she was due to plant her tree, she ran away. She traveled for an extended period of time before finally finding the Village of Daya. She was found by Nilizali and taken in to learn healing. Even though she hated her life when she lived with her father and brother, and she knows they are happier without her, she still feels guilty about leaving.

• Laanta isn't blind, but she can't see very well. This trait was present from birth and not really noticed when she was younger, as her lack of exposure to truely bright lights was minimal. However, we she left the Chaotic City, her eyesight got worse from all her days traveling in the sun. She's not fond of bright days despite valuing bright lights and colors to see. She often gets sun-blindness.
• Laanta thoroughly enjoys swimming, especially with Nibbles. She finds water soothing and tries to spend as much time in it as possible. She has a tendency to become depressed when it is especially sunny and the reflection of the light on the water becomes too much for her eyes.
• Laanta is extremely overprotective of her pet goose Nibbles. Many Shilkas will mistake him for being a swan, and Laanta spends a lot of her time correcting other Shilkas. She loves to collect his feathers for her living areas, and also to wear.
• Although mistaken for being mean, Laanta is not intentionally hostile, usually just tired. She suffers from night terrors and doesn't like to sleep much because of them. Many of them revolve around her life in the Chaotic City, when she had to fight to survive. The most reliable way for her to sleep is by doing so when it is cold and windy.
• Because of her poor eyesight, Laanta identifies things around her with hearing and feeling. Over time, she's become very good at object identification and is very proud of her abilities to identify different plants and medicines, as well as being able to tell the difference between Shilkas she sees reguarly.
• She is an avid enjoyer of the arts and of food. She dreams to one day travel to The Kingdom of Kanti to learn about Viri beyond her memories of the Chaotic City and the Village of Daya, but she knows that it is not a realistic aspiration, as she is prone to exhaustion and sun-blindness.