Milva

"Don't you fret about me, can take care of myself."

Maria Barring, better known as Milva (Elder Speech: red kite) by the dryads and Sor'ca (Little sister) by the elves, was an archer from Upper Sodden and one of the few non-dryads tolerated in Brokilon. Eithné was said to be rather fond of her. She led four fictional crusades against the dryads in the hope of reducing the number of volunteers for their expeditions but when her true part in this was discovered, she vanished.

Biography
Milva came from a long line of hunters that lived in Upper Sodden, though she wasn't initially trained by her father until her brother died in an accident. After her father passed away, her mother re-married but Milva didn't get along with her stepfather and so she ran away at 16 years old and headed north. For a time she made a living as a hunter, but being young and a woman, she was constantly hounded by various gamekeepers and so turned to poaching in the Brokilon forest when the dryads came across her. However, instead of killing her, they took her in. Indebted to them, Eithné tasked Milva with going out and luring would-be dryad scalpers into an ambush so the young woman went and gathered several expeditions under the pretense they were going to go kill dryads. The ruse worked for a time, as sometimes she'd carry a survivor out on her own and be praised for her courage. However, after causing the deaths of roughly 100 humans, on the fourth expedition someone finally questioned how only Milva appeared to survive in one piece, causing her to disappear before they had a chance to kill her.

Meeting Geralt
When the second Northern war started in 1267, she began to act as a guide for the Scoia'tael, leading the shattered commando units to the safety of Brokilon. During one such trip she was asked to go see one of the dryad healers who requested Milva to gather outside news for one of her patients, Geralt. Milva was initially angry at this, as it would put her life at risk to ask around as everyone was wary with the war going on and the fact that she was still wanted for her earlier expeditions. However, she relented after Eithné talked to her and soon found herself caring enough for the witcher to soften any news she heard over the next few weeks. Sometime later, when she returned to the forest with yet another worn down Scoia'tael unit, she informed Geralt she'd learned Ciri was in Nilfgaard and that the emperor was planning to marry her, causing Geralt to suddenly decide he was going to leave that night to get to Ciri, despite Milva's protests that he was still healing. After he left, Milva then went and hunted down a deer in the woods, with the idea that she could at least catch up to him and give him some food, as he'd left with hardly anything to eat.

On her way south though, she ran into an unusually large band of Scoia'tael and deduced they were planning a massive fight on the same route she was taking. Realizing she needed to catch up with Geralt quickly, she gave the elves the deer so she could move faster and continued south.

She was one of Geralt's companions. Later, her friends discovered that she was pregnant by an unnamed elf who was presumed dead. Unfortunately when they tried to reach the far bank of the Yaruga on their way to Caed Dhu, the Nilfgaardian armies attacked them as did the Rivian army. Milva was seriously injured causing her to miscarry. She was shattered after that and didn't speak at all due to her depression. Then, one day during the journey she cut off her hair and returned to her old self.

In Beauclair she met a baron with whom she went hunting quite frequently. On one occasion, the baron proposed to her but she refused and again was shattered.

She died at castle Stygga when she and an experienced enemy archer simultaneously shot each other. Her last words were "I love you too, Dad.", referring to a final-breath flash-back of her father teaching her archery.