A lean, spring-muscled young woman who holds herself as if the forest floor might shift beneath her at any moment. She stands alert but not rigid, weight set on the balls of her feet, and has a habit of occupying more space than her narrow frame suggests: people unconsciously step aside when she turns. Her warm, weather-browned skin is stippled with freckles across nose and shoulders; close up, sun and wind have left it faintly rough at the cheekbones. Pollen clings to her hairline like gold dust. Her hazel eyes track small movements before faces, leaving the impression that she has already noticed where everyone is standing.

She is generous with labor but guarded with affection, and her practical kindness can turn into stubborn authority when she thinks someone is endangering the woods. With frightened people she is patient and matter-of-fact; with officials she is clipped and watchful. Among friends, she laughs easily and tells stories with theatrical hand gestures, then catches herself when she has revealed too much.

Gavriela grew up at the edge of a settled farming valley, where her mother, Dima, taught her to read weather from leaf undersides and her father, Oren, repaired carts and never trusted a road that looked too clean. As a child she was sent to learn remedies from the reclusive druid Shai, who lived near the clearing locals call Pollen Hollow for the clouds of yellow dust that rise there in spring. Gavriela's first season under Shai was marked by a late frost. She had been told to keep watch over a stand of young trees, but left to carry a fever remedy to a neighbor. By morning, several saplings had blackened. Shai did not scold her; instead, they replanted the stand together, and Shai made her name each tree she had failed to protect. The lesson changed her from a helpful wanderer into a watchful guardian, though she still wrestles with the difference between protecting a place and controlling it. Shai has since gone missing after following a trail of unnatural winter flowers. Gavriela has taken up Shai's practical work, tending the valley's borders and helping travelers, while quietly searching for her mentor. Her parents want her home more often, and the local miller, Bas, has begun draining a wet meadow that feeds the woodland spring. She means to stop him without turning the village against her.