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Student's Name
Astrid Cronhielm


Student's Age
Thirteen [currently]


Student's Path
A bond with a deity : the norse god Loki.


Before the Academy
Astrid's life before she left for the academy was a somewhat quiet one. Her parents ran a simple used book store in a quaint part of town ( specializing in rare or out-of-print volumes ); business was usual, although nearly all the patrons knew each other. Her mother had a little hobby with making candles, which would also be sold in the store. Astrid and her older sister were merely expected to help with the work, and were not sent to school. They were instead home-schooled, their parents believing it to be better for them ( as well as the issue of money, but they didn't want to talk about that. ) They made it by, and that was all that mattered.

When Astrid was allowed to work in the shop, she began causing trouble. Her parents were continually at a loss at what to do with her. Often she would take books from the shelves because she wanted to read them, or because they looked interesting. Attempts at trying to explain that the books were merchandise and not hers only upset her in the wrong kind of way.

Eventually, she was causing trouble just to cause it, because she was angry at her parents' stance on the issue. It was clear she could no longer be of help to them; she was causing more trouble than she was worth. Exasperated, the parents had her stay upstairs most of the day while they took care of the business. On breaks or at mealtimes, her older sister would go upstairs to stay with her before going back to work.

During that time, Astrid amused herself by exploring. All of the houses, quite cozy things really, were connected to one another. By forcing open a board in the attic, she was able to travel through the attics of any of the houses in the row with hers. She did this often and began collecting a bit of a treasure trove of trinkets and knick-knacks : things she wanted for herself, things she thought would probably cause mayhem if they went missing, things that were just weird and she wanted to examine more closely. Being the attic of various neighbors' houses, she could also eavesdrop on conversations, only to astonish her family at dinner about what Ms. So-and-So really thought of the man whole sold fruit every Tuesday. This gave her a reputation for telling tall-tales, even though every word was indeed true.

Needless to say, her parents had to do something with their daughter, before she got any more out of hand.


Personality
Astrid is a bit...interesting. She generally gets along with people, that is, until she gets curious. Curiosity reigns in her mind, and if she wants or is interested in something, she won't hesitate to investigate or explore. She get along well with animals for the most part; anything sentient can sometimes prove a challenge. Astrid likes to stir up trouble, to prod people into reacting, to just in general cause chaos to see what the outcome will be. She's a bit of a kleptomaniac. Anything she sees that she wants, she'll try to take. Sometimes it isn't even for herself that she takes it -- she wants to see what will happen if it's found missing, or she wants to see what it does, or wants to take it because it can be taken. If it looks important, Astrid will probably try to play her "borrowing" game with it. Secure your valuables.

As for aliens, none ever entered her village at home. The area was almost exclusively humans or altered-humans. All she knew of them would be snatches of conversation, what she read in old books, or what she could extract from people -- which wasn't much. Astrid isn't afraid of aliens; in fact, she finds them quite fascinating.


Looks
She has silvery hair, usually kept braided or pulled back in a loose ponytail ( when alone, she may leave it down ). She is fair skinned; one might even suggest she has a pale complextion. Her eyes are golden, flecked with what appears to be red. Usually she wears a long, dark tunic and plain black slacks. She wears around her neck a necklace that resembles something like chain links. She's fond of a hat that she brought from home, and a band that she will occasionally let hand over one eye. Because she is an Altered human, the strange color of her eyes may be due to the infusing of red-tailed hawk with her human body. At the age that she enters the academy, her eyes and what appears to be a short hawk's tail are noticeable.

In the center of her forehead is a birthmark, an inverted black cresent moon, something each person in her family is born with.


Getting to the Academy
It was Astrid's sister that actually brought the Asylum Academy to Astrid's parents' attention. While her parents really only tried to find an answer to the problem by constantly asking or debating with each other, Astrid's sister went out and began asking. While inquring about speciality schools in a little "magical items" shop near the market ( many people in the town thought it was all hocus-pocus anyway ) the owner brought up the subject of the Academy. Interested, Astrid's sister began questioning him. Apparently he was an alumni or an uncle of one, she couldn't quite get the story out of him straight. However, it sounded like just what Astrid needed. Her sister returned to the house that night, and explained the news. Astrid was fairly unimpressed; anything her parents thought good she was only likely to disagree with. However, the papers were signed and the bags were packed. Taking her to train station, they waved goodbye, honestly hoping the place would benefit her. Astrid, instead, was eyeing the ticket-man's pocketwatch, wondering if he could tell time in his head if it happened to go missing suddenly.

The Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is a large hawk which breeds from western Alaska and northern Canada to Panama and the West Indies. Males are typically smaller than females, generally weighing between 800-1100 grams and measuring 45-56 cm in length. Females typically average between 1100-1300 grams and measure 50-65 cm in length. It is one of two species colloquially known in the United States as the "Chickenhawk."


Description
Birds of this species have a dark mark along the leading edge of the underwing, between the body and the wrist (the patagium). Most but not all color variations have a dark band across the belly. In most, the adults' tails are rusty red above, and juveniles have narrow brown and pale bands. The main western North American population has bands on the adults' rusty tails as well and has varied plumage, organized into three main color types or morphs.

Immature birds, or birds that are only a few years old, can also readily be identified by having yellowish pupils. As the bird attains full maturity over the course of 3-4 years, the pupils slowly darken into a reddish-brown hue.

• Light-morph birds are mainly brown on the upperparts and very pale brown or buff on the underparts and underwings; they show a belly band.
  
• Rufous-morph birds are darker and redder, with reddish-brown rather than white on the underparts. The belly band may be barely visible.
  
• Dark-morph birds are very dark brown on both upperparts and underparts; they have lighter parts on the underwings.

Almost all of the main eastern population are light-morph, with whiter underparts and paler markings than western birds and with solid rust-red tails as adults.

Other variations are:

• Harlan's Hawk usually has blackish plumage contrasting with white undersides of the flight feathers; the tail may be reddish or grey and is longitudinally streaked rather than barred. It breeds in Alaska and northwestern Canada and winters from Nebraska and Iowa to Texas and northern Louisiana. It is sometimes considered a separate species, Buteo harlani.
  
• Krider's Hawk is paler than other red-tails, especially on the head; the tail may be pinkish or white. It is mainly found in the central prairies of the United States.

Resident breeding birds in Central America have cinnamon underparts which enables them to be easily distinguished from the paler-breasted wintering migrants.



Behavior
Their breeding habitat is open country with high perches. They build a stick nest in a large tree, in a cactus, or on a cliff ledge 35m or higher above ground; they may also nest on man-made structures. Both sexes build the sturdy nest, made of different sized twigs and sticks, lined with fresh green foliage and evergreen sprigs. The fresh sprigs are regularly replaced during incubation. Up to four eggs may be laid at daily intervals. The shells are colored a dull or bluish-white with a granulated or smooth surface, never glossy. There may be some some splotches of various shades of brown. Incubation is by the female from 28 to 35 days, during which time she is fed by the male. The young are able to fly at about 45 days.

In most of the United States, Red-tailed Hawks are permanent residents, but northern breeding birds migrate south in winter. Throughout their range in the U.S., Red-tailed Hawks receive special legal protections under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. They have a complex relationship with humans, capable of both controlling rodent and other mammalian pests, and of on occasion being one, taking valuable fowl (which has led to them being one of the species described as a chickenhawk).

Red-tailed hawks prefer to wait on a high perch and swoop down on prey; they also patrol open areas in flight. They mainly eat small mammals, birds and reptiles. Their favorite prey varies with regional and seasonal availability but includes most types of rodents, rabbits, pheasant, grouse, quail, rattle snakes, copperheads, lizards, and, when near the water's edge, carp and catfish. Those that live in cities may prefer pigeons and starlings, both of which are plentiful in many urban areas.

In flight, these hawks soar with wings in a slight dihedral, flapping as little as possible. They sometimes hover on beating wings and sometimes "kite", or remain stationary above the ground by soaring into the wind. When soaring or flapping their wings, they typically travel from 30kph to 65kph but when diving, they reach speeds as high as 195kph.

The Red-tailed Hawk is common and widespread, partly because it has benefited from the historic settlement patterns across North America. The clearing of trees in the east of North America provided hunting areas, and the practice of sparing woodlots left nest sites. Conversely, the planting of trees in the west provided nest sites where there had been none. The construction of highways with treeless medians and shoulders and with utility poles alongside provided perfect habitat for perch-hunting, so Red-tailed Hawks are now a common sight along highways. Finally, these birds have moved into New York and other US cities, as in the successful non-fiction book Red-Tails in Love: A Wildlife Drama in Central Park, by Marie Winn. Winn wrote about one of the most famous of them, Pale Male.



[Information courtesy of Wikipedia :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_hawk]