Nate - the feral kid

Wears a pocket knife on a chain around her neck. It is engraved with the name “Nathan”. As a result, she is jokingly called “Nate”. Her given name was Annabel, but nobody knows this. She is 9 years old.
The kid introduces light hearted silliness to the story.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Nate has dark tan skin from long hours outdoors. Her hair is long, straight, black, scraggly and very dirty. In fact, Nate is very dirty everywhere and dislikes baths. Even when cleaned (say after swimming across a river) she will roll around in the dust to reestablish her patina. She smells like more like a dog than a human. Her racial/ethnic background is unclear, and she seems to be of some kind of mixed ancestry. She has a small, pug nose, big brown eyes, and a wiry build. Her small hands are rough and calloused from frequently running on all fours.
Her clothes are a random collection of whatever junk caught her eye. Since her tastes remain frozen at her time of orphaning, she favors items which are brightly colored, pink, sparkly, silvery, or costumy in some way. After a few days she loses interest in her finds though, and items which stick around are items which do not fall off easily or become destroyed by her vigorous lifestyle. When she does wear shoes, she prefers barefoot shoes so she can keep her long toes free.
She often wears a stiff wire tail which she bends by hand in order to communicate with dogs. (too stupid?)

Specialized Equipment

The knife with the name on it was her father’s, who was named Nathan. She responds positively to the name Nate because it reminds her of him. She will never give up this knife.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Nate and her older sister were orphaned when they were 4 and 6, respectively. The family dog stuck with the girls, helping take care of them. Eventually other feral dogs joined up with them until they had a pack. The pack hunted, scavenged, and fought other dog packs. While inept in some ways, the girls were extremely useful to the pack because they could open doors, climb ladders, and use simple tools like can openers.
At one point a small band of raiders captured Nate and locked her in a cage. The rest of her pack tracked her down and attacked. The fight was very bloody resulting in the deaths of most of the raiders, the retreat of the survivors, and the deaths of the entire pack except for Nate (who, being stuck in the cage, was unable to take part in the fight).
Unable to pick a lock or force the cage, Nate began to starve. She loudly howled every time she heard a noise, and after several days one of these noises was the crew of the truck. They investigated the pitiful, strange howling and discovered an emaciated, severely dehydrated Nate locked in a filthy cage. They released her, giving her water, which revived her enough that she snatched a knife from her sister’s dead hand and began viciously stabbing the corpse of one of the raiders. When coaxed to stop, she started crying and hugging the corpses of her sister and family dog. The crew of the truck buried the remains of her pack.
Despite their best efforts, Nate seemed unable or unwilling to talk to them. Eventually Luckner returned with his dog and Nate immediately dropped to all fours. Nate and the dog growled briefly at each other before advancing tentatively and sniffing each other. Satisfied with each others’ smells, the two became fast friends.

Intellectual Characteristics

She grows bored easily and responds by taking a nap. She has no fixed sleep schedule, sleeping when she can and working when she needs to. (When part of the pack, they would frequently travel and scavenge by night.)

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Nate has no complicated goals. She merely wants to live, be comfortable, enjoy roaming the countryside in freedom, and be part of a good pack. She has everything she wants as part of the truck crew, and usually feels utterly contented.

Virtues & Personality perks

Nate is as tough as they come, and a natural born survivor. Her numerous scars bear witness to her ability to survive injury. She has an extremely robust immune system, excellent physical fitness for her age, and is extraordinarily nimble. She can climb trees and rough stone walls with ease. She knows many tricks for climbing some types of brick walls safely.
She is able to charm nearly any dog and get them to do what she wants. This is because she intuitively knows what dogs are thinking, how they would react to various situations, and what their desires are. She can go for long periods of time without food or water and does not complain. She is also extremely resilient in the face of heat or cold, sleeping comfortably in temperatures that would kill many kids her age. She is a strong swimmer. She prefers dealing with dangerous situations by hiding from or sneaking around them.
She has very sharp survival instincts, sensing dangerous situations on a subconscious level.
Her eyesight is extremely acute, having spent little time indoors reading books.

Vices & Personality flaws

Nate has a very weak grasp of the english language. (It is not known if she has a stronger grasp of any other language.) She understands english pretty well, but struggles to speak it. Her longest sentences contain three words. When excited or frustrated she communicates in yips and barks.
Her understanding of man-made objects is rudimentary. She can understand using a screwdriver to remove the screws from something, but that’s about as sophisticated as she can get. She cannot pick locks, drive vehicles, or use electronic devices.
She is unable to read.