Ruanna is a young woman from Combe, who grew up under her father, a lumberman, for most of her life. She is very close to him, and for beginning of her life, the two were very happy. He would take her into the Chetwood most mornings, and teach her how to track and stalk and hunt. She loved that time, and her mother always encouraged her. 

However, when Ruanna was twelve, there was a bandit attack from the growing numbers of the Blackwolds, and her mother was killed. Ruanna almost had her throat cut by one of the filthy criminals, earning her the scar across her cheek. Her father was never the same after that, and Ruanna was forced to continue her forest training in secret until a man named Theron appeared out of nowhere, settling for a short time in a small house on the outskirts of Combe. 

He never said where he was from, but Ruanna suspected he was perhaps one of the Dunedain, or a man of Gondor, and she could never seem to put an age to him. He looked perhaps in his mid-forties, but moved like a very young man. He was a brilliant swordsman and archer, and after a month or so spent trying to stalk him, she went to him and begged for him to teach.  After a time, and many passionate pleas from Ruanna, he agreed to take her on as his apprentice. 

While her father wasn't very pleased, Theron seemed to be fond of her, listening to her mischievous stories and snappy retorts with comfortable air of silence, usually waiting to rebuke her with a quiet air of amusement. He let her live with him, in the closest house to the Chetwood, and had her accompany him almost wherever he went. 

After two years, she was very close to him, nearly worshiping him as the best man in all of Breeland. She even accepted his teasing nickname for her "Flycatcher", after the small woodland bird that would always catch prey in midair. He was everything to her. And then, he disappeared without a trace. 

Ruanna had noticed a few things beforehand - times when he would slip off for a day or so at a time, or when he would sit for a time simply listening to the sounds of the forest - but none of these things gave any sign of his intentions. He simply vanished between one night and the next morning. 

For two months, at her father's bidding, Ruanna waited for his return. It didn't come. Chafing under this uncertain puzzle, she couldn't stand to stay in Combe any longer, and decided to travel and find her beloved mentor. That has taken her to Bree, where she is currently staying at the Prancing Pony, searching for some sign of Theron. All she has left of him is a small wooden carving the size of her hand, of a forest flycatcher.