Creative Corner

@AnaliAmber He never quite catches a break, even if it's something as innocent as bringing home familiars. XD

[sub][sub]@StrykeSlammerII @WhoDoVoodoo @NewHope @Talonr @CrypticGirl @Gwineira @Solaristigres @ike9899 @Gryphillian @TheArcaneKitsune @ShadowsFIAL @Alethia @Kodaic @Almedha @VictoryInSolace @Neige @PYR4LSP1T3 @Soupalicious @Lyel @benriya @Taffine @quailheart @FlyingNorth @nindeanwa @Hawktalon @murklin @Melia @Azurite @Shiisiln @Exsanguinate @msjanny @KingDoge @HallowDarkfrost @Altarf @Bolfir @ArgenteaMoon @Slyphire @stealthclaw @Ulta @Kizmetto @LeahR95 @IcefireStarfire @feroxia @Gallows @Survivors @Sulka @raya @Lambflop @Tedium @HazelJade @Kaial @Gabbia @Cewientje @Izakadu @daird @Misplaced @Snowstreak @Feldoras @Fliychiell @JinxMoonstone @NinjaKitty @Twelvewishes @Aloysius @Orenildur @snailcall @rosie115 @Scyras @hoglolly @CopperRose @Leelyloo @Praeter @RedWood @WingedElf @psychocanes @typoAdventure @Rileykins @Katerrn @KallaStromuel @Arii @Braixen @dragonfly @ToxicHeart @RandomShmoe @FireLordAzula @chlomaki @greyyourwarden @Cerastes @AnaliAmber @Jes @Nihilo @Dovalore @mintSMASH @GhostPepper @dragonicmaster @Pookasaur @pensandink @OrchestralAscent @owlstar7 @ZephyrWindSpirit @Baekhyun @QuickSilvr @RizuChan @POTaDOS @DuskySpark @GunmetalJane @Eyelet @Solar @silvercatshadow @Sprogog @Ephyra @Kaesa [/sub][/sub] [b]Clan of Tigers[/b] "Hey, Clan Leader! Notice anything [i]different[/i] about me today?” Verona grinned broadly as she pranced around me, her tail wriggling through the air eagerly and her head held high. I squinted unintentionally, trying to focus on her even as she orbitted around me in her squirmy manner. "I don’t- wait… Are you… Are those[i] stripes[/i] fading in?” It was hard to know what she could be talking about at first, especially with the way she kept moving and wouldn’t stand still long enough for me to properly take in whatever could be different, but after about the third rotation she made around me I was beginning to realize there were dark patches on her scales that were never present before. They weren’t too obvious, and could have easily been brushed aside as just dirt or ash smudges, but the more I looked the more I realized that there were far too many and that they were far too patterned. Verona whirled around to face me, absolutely beaming with pride. "Yeah! Yeah they are!" Her tail continued to wriggle around as though it had a mind all its own. "They’re my stripes and I’m finally gettin’ them!" I frowned, just as confused by her statement as I was by the concept. “Your markings would have grown in long ago,” I puzzled out loud. “I mean, you’ve been traveling with Tonka and Shadow for [i]how[/i] long?” Though I didn’t know her exact age, I had always assumed Verona was easily as old as I was. Certainly not as young as Gilda, regardless of how similarly energetic the two seemed to be. Dragons don’t typically get their markings in after adulthood, with a few very rare exceptions. Exceptions like Deesha, who told me that sometimes it takes a guardian finding their Charge before they might earn their markings. I suppose I myself was an odd exception, but my markings weren’t genetic and didn’t come from my parents. They were… their own sort of special. Just like Gilda’s wings had been. "Yeah! That’s the point!" Verona nodded at me eagerly, and I frowned all the more, confused as to how my questions could elicit such a response. As if my asking about her wandering had answered the very mystery. She resumed her happy prancing. "I couldn’t grow ‘em while I was wandering! Been waiting all this time to finally get my stripes!" Wait… [i]what?[/i] "Verona," I started with a frown, "sometimes, when you talk…I just get confused." The brown mirror laughed out loud at my statement, throwing her head back with the uproarious commotion. "S’alright, Clan Leader! You wouldn’t be the first!" She grinned openly at me. "But what I mean is- Oh, hey! You’ve got mail!" She darted in a full sprint toward the front of the cave and I stared after her, my expression still caught in that same bewildered frown she had inspired just moments earlier. I finally shook my head and stood to follow, giving a low sigh as I plodded through the den after her. In our main cavern I passed by Shadow who appeared to be speaking to Cray from his coiled, bundled seat on the ground, as well as a very active Livy who had finally begun to master the art of solidifying the amber she was bringing home and was beginning to craft for herself a most impressive “fae” den. Not that it was masterfully sculpted or highly detailed, no, the impressive part was how it was as though someone had taken a regular fae den and had blown it up to something three times the size. Livy had been steadily growing the past few weeks, her size finally large enough to wear the green wing apparel that had been sent to her from our mysterious Arcane friends, and she matched our tundras in her size, so the nest she had to build for herself was quite a bit larger than the typical den Ash and Elysia had. Her huge structure hung worrisomely off the wall, it’s mass already so great that I couldn’t fathom how it was holding itself up, and those moments when she would crawl into it and add her own weight to the entire thing had me pondering how long it would be before we would all hear the thunderous crashing and shattering of tough amber tumbling to the ground. Beneath it even the three janustrap plants had shuffled to the side, leaving themselves greatly cleared from the looming hazard. Verona was already seated outside, staring up at the sky as she usually did. I let out a sigh as I stepped out and took a seat next to her, muttering a low “You did it again.” She merely hummed pleasantly as she watched skyward, her crests moving about as she appeared to be listening. Before long we were both greeted by whatever it was she was waiting for as a dark bird swooped down from the sky, a small omen seeker, carrying with it a pouch and a rolled up scroll with a unique runic symbol on it. It looked like none of the typical Flight runes, and so I could only assume it must have been the symbol for another clan. I took the items and the bird landed on the ground before us, settling to rest after its travel. I read the note to myself, though Verona craned her neck about to peer over my shoulder. “Clan Orodres,” I finally said outloud as I went over the message, “A Fire clan from the north sends us a greeting. Seems Mephit and the others must have crossed into their territory during the whole talonok fiasco, when they brought home Kalikakka.” “‘P.S.,’” Verona read out loud as she continued to peer over my shoulder. “‘Keep the bird. It’s good eating and we have too damn many.’ Oooh! So they sent us a little snack with it!” She stated, licking her chops eagerly as she turned her attention down to the dark bird. The little creature hopped about and stared up at her, oblivious to the fate that had been assigned to it by the letter. I frowned. "Don’t… don’t eat the bird, Verona." I gave a sigh. "Don’t eat the messenger." "Whaaat? Why not?" She raised her head up to pout at me. "The letter says to! [i]Orodres[/i] commands it!” "No, Verona," I said more sternly with a frown. "Look at it, it’s basically tamed." I gestured down to the bird who continued to stare up at is, like it was waiting for some form of instruction. "I’m sure we could use it for our own delivery. Besides, we have plenty of other food already." "But it’s so fresh-" ”[i]NO.[/i]” "See…" Verona stated with amusement in her voice as she watched me scoop up the bird and head back into the lair. "This is why your hunters are always bringing home familiars!" She followed after me, calling out even as I pretended to ignore her. "You’re always like ‘Food! Not Familiar!’ and here you are being all ‘Oooh, nooo Verona, don’t eat the cute little birdy bird bird!’" I gave an exaggerated roll of my eyes and could hear Shadow chuckling as we walked past. Behind me, Verona stopped to let the spiral pull himself onto her, Cray having already left after whatever discussion they had shared was complete. "Tormenting our new Clan Leader is no way to get yourself in with his favor, Veronaaah," I could hear him hiss quietly to her. "You should know better than to go teasing the kind-hearted mirror…" Verona chuckled at the crackled-pink dragon who was now sharing this little joke with her. I stubbornly handed the bird off to our flock of sakura and wildwood owls that we now had; a small collection that was gradually growing with the more young hunters we sent out. "Well, you never know," I grumbled, "It’s just a little one. It could still grow into a larger Seeker." Was that possible? I didn’t know how Storm Seekers and Squall Seekers and Death and Omen Seekers worked. I just knew that they were all related somehow. I suppose it [i]could[/i] be possible that our little message delivery bird could always develop a third eye… Mather help me, why was I trying to defend a bird from being eaten? This was ridiculous. "Besides," I turned my attention back to Verona as the cluster of owl familiars moved off to their tunnels. "More importantly, you [i]still[/i] need to tell me about how you always seem to know when these things are coming.” "Oh, yeah, yeah…" Verona stated, giving a dismissive wave of her hand. All at once her demeanor changed and she looked at me like someone who’d just had a grand idea, a grin splitting her face once again as her tail waved behind her. "Hey, I’ll be happy to tell you all about it, Clan Leader. Maybe we can talk about it…over dinner?" I frowned, giving her a mildly confused look. Was this another joke about the omen seeker? My expression apparently daunted her, because though she maintained her grin I could still note a slight shift in her mood, a twitch at the corners of her mouth as she shifted from foot to foot. Shadow leaned up, whispering something in her ear that this time I could not catch, and I watched her jerk her head around to shoot a glare at him. "Hey!" She barked loudly at the spiral, "My wiles are plenty womanly!" Shadow’s jaw moved again as he appeared to whisper something else, at which point he turned to face me and gave me a wide smirk, his hat shifting a little where it sat on his brow. It took me a moment to realize he was waggling his eyeridges at me. The revelation only served to deepen my frown and cause more confusion as I wondered what conversation or joke they must be sharing that I wasn’t quite privy to. Verona just sighed loudly and rolled her eyes, the gesture so grand that her head moved along with it. "Whatever. Doesn’t matter. Anyway, Clan Leader, yeah, sure, we can talk about it." Verona suddenly braced herself and started shaking her body like she was trying to dislodge water, and Shadow’s expression turned to one of annoyed indignation as his coils were knocked loose from their hold around his brown partner. He fell into an unrefined lump on the ground before moving away in the strange, looping manner that he pulled himself around with. "That was sudden," I stated as I noted the motion and watched the spiral leave. Verona gave a shrug of her shoulders. "It’s the quickest way to get him to let go, and he knows I’m not suppose to talk about this sort of thing a lot around him," she admitted casually before motioning to me to follow her back out of the den. "Not supposed to?" I frowned all the more for wholly different reasons now. "What do you mean? I thought Shadow was your friend? Don’t you trust him?" "Yes, you’ll understand in a moment, yes, and I’d like to, sure," she listed off, and it took me a second to realize she was actually answering each of my questions in order. She grinned at me as she saw the realization dawning on my face, like she enjoyed how I would go from confused to understanding to confused all over again. "Shadow’s good enough, I think, but you know how weird everyone gets around him when they found out he’s Shade-touched, right? I mean, you yourself nearly screamed us out of here at first." Verona turned her attention skyward as she usually did, and I wondered if staring up through the clouds of ash and smoke was more calming for her. As a Wind dragon, I supposed that could make sense. "Sometimes even the Wind isn’t certain if it’s just a spiral listening to me speak or if it’s something else, so I’m supposed to shake him off when I talk about these things, just in case." More questions were coming to mind as she spoke, but I kept my mouth shut this time, stubbornly waiting for her to resume speaking. I didn’t have to wait long. "It’s the Windsinger, by the way. That’s the one I’m always hearing," she stated as her head shifted a bit from side to side, like she was watching something move through the air. "He’s not so hard to hear, you know. I think every dragon hears Him, they’re just not certain that they do. But He’s always talking. A song on the wind, whether it’s the way it whistles or howls through holes and over valleys, or just how it carries the chirps of birds and insects, they’re all speaking for His voice. I don’t think He’s any louder or quieter to some verses others, I think it’s just a matter of learning how to listen for Him." I was silent for a completely different reason now, taking in what Verona was telling me. So, she hears the Windsinger? Was it anything like how I hear the Flamecaller? Did He give her orders? Instructions? My silent inquiry was graciously answered as she spoke again. "I been hearin’ Him for most of my life, you know. Started when I was a little pup runnin’ around through the reeds and grass. Others would be out hunting, but I was always off singin’ and listening and trying to hear what the wind was telling me. Most of us Windies grow up being told about how the Windsinger’s always out there on the breeze, I mean, it’s in His [i]name[/i] after all, but not all of us grow up actively trying to hear Him. I think a lot of us do, though, so it’s not really too weird,” she stated casually as she turned her attention back to me. “Sometimes, when I was little, I would go and sit and talk to Him about all the stuff on my mind, but He never really talked back, you know? I didn’t think that meant He wasn’t listening, I just figured He had a lot of people speaking to Him. But I really believed He heard us all, so it was enough for me to just talk.” She stared skyward again, a pleasant look on her face as she was lost to some warm memory of her childhood. "One day I just remembered saying that I didn’t feel like my family’s clan was the right place for me, so I packed up and left. I would just walk on, singing to the wind, and then one day I heard this voice very distinctly telling me that I needed to go northeast. It was weird at first, like … I knew it was [i]Him[/i], but I’d spent so much time never expecting to actually hear Him speak to me that it was still a shock when He did, you know? And so I asked Him why, but He never said. Just that I needed to go. And I started, a really did, but I would always get side-tracked by other clans I would meet. I nearly wandered up into the Scarred Wasteland for a bit, and there was another month that nearly had me in the Starfall Isles, which is most definitely not to the east.” She chuckled. ” I think He must have gotten a little fed up with my wanderin’ around, because that’s when He sent Tonka to me, and she had a way of getting me back on track. "When I finally made it to where He wanted me to go, that’s when I found Shadow, all spittin’ mad and going crazy. And I was like ‘Aw, heck no, I ain’t getting tangled up in something this dangerous,’ but the Windsinger was all ‘Yeah. Yeah you are,’ and He told me to go find the dragons that would get the bandages on him to calm him down. And I was like ‘Well, that’s great and all, but now I’m just leaving this crazy spiral here and going back to wandering, right?’ and He was all ‘Nope!’ so the next thing I know I’ve got this dragon all wrapped around me and I’m going ‘Hey, Windie, where in all of Sornieth do you want me to go??’ and He kept sending me around and around…" Verona paused to shake her head, looking a mixture of amused and exhausted. She gave out a brief laugh before resuming her story. "And I remembered there were nights I would get so fed up with Him for sending me from clan to clan just to have us be turned away… You know there are some folk who can just sense the Shade, right? Not just dragons, but some creatures, and bleastclans too, I guess. Sometimes there would be ambushes waiting for us, and sometimes we couldn’t make it through an area without every single woodland critter tryin’ to chew that damned spiral off of me, and I admit, Clan Leader, I really do, I admit that sometimes I just wanted to throw him down into some pit and walk off and leave him. Let him be someone else’s problem,” Verona admitted with a reluctant frown and a look in her eyes that seemed deeper than I had ever seen in them before. As if admitting her past frustrations still weighed on her now. She turned her head down to stare at the ground, something like shame in her eyes as she recalled to me the feelings of distain she bore. “And I would be all ‘Windsinger, what do you want from me? Why am I taking this Shade-touched around?’” There was a long pause and I finally hazard to prompt her with a soft “Did He ever tell you why?” Verona shook her head, her gaze still downcast. I heard her take a breath and she craned her neck back up, forcing herself to look at the sky again. "He didn’t, no. Still hasn’t. But what He did tell me was this: He said ‘Verona if you just keep up with this, I’ll give you something, alright? The moment you and Shadow find yourselves a real home, I’ll go and give you your marks. How about that?’” "Were your parents striped, then?" I asked, still a bit uncertain. "Were yours just not growing in?" Verona shook her head, reaching up to itch under her chin with a hand. "Naw, my folks never had such pretty patterns, to be honest. We were all fairly plain little things. But I’d always been wantin’ some of my own. I used to tell it to the wind every day, about how I’d love to have wings like a birds, or ferocious stripes like a tiger. Windsinger was just like ‘Hey, put up with my direction for a little while longer, and you’ll get ‘em, alright?’ and I admit, the offer was tempting enough that I decided to stick it out. It was a long time, though." She put her hand back down and scratched at the ground lightly. "He’d made that offer to me over a year ago, so Shadow and I kept traveling. We’d find clans and I would ask them if we could stay, but again and again they would turn us away. Either they’d find out about Shadow, or they’d be too put off by him, or it just didn’t… feel like a ‘fit’, right? You know what I mean? Anyway, after enough times, that’s when I just stopped asking. I told Windsinger ‘Hey, I’m really tired of us being shot down again and again,’ so we’d walk into clans and I’d give it a few days and if I never heard anything from Him I’d be all ‘Welp, time to move on!’ and we’d go. Tonka would take us to another, process repeated." Her tail gave a quick flick as she turned to look at me. "When we made it here to yours, I would come out here every day and sit and listen, waiting on His word, but it never really came. Then one day I was about to say ‘Alright, time to go’ when I just heard Him telling me ‘Wait’ and that was it. So I did, day after day… And then your clan mates brought home that Talonok and we all saw you fightin’ Diego for her, and that’s when I thought that maybe we had a chance…" She gave a soft chuckle and looked at me with an expression of …well, I guess I would have to call it hope, and I felt a tightness in my chest from it as she smiled at me. “‘Course, then I told you about Shadow and you were all screaming at us,” her gazed turned upward again as her words brought a sense of embarassment and shame to me, and it was my turn to cast my look downward as I recalled the way I had swatted at her, yelling at them to go. “But the second we stepped outside I heard Windie just saying a loud ‘No. Give him a moment.’ So we sat out here and waited… and sure enough you came along after us.” She smiled at me again and this time I felt a small blush rise to my scales. I shook my head, regaining control over my fluctuating feelings. "Well, that’s… quite the story," I admitted finally. It was also a lot to take in. "So, I’m the reason you’re getting your stripes then, huh?" "Oh, yeah, you sure are!" Exuberance exploded back into Verona’s voice as she lept up from where she was sitting and started prancing in place. Apparently the energy was too much for her to stay in one spot and she was quickly orbitting around me all over again. "Finally getting my stripes in, Clan Leader, and I bet those pretty wings will be next! Oh, I can hardly wait!" She bumped me with a strong nuzzle, catching me off-guard with the motion and I nearly toppled over from the force of her contact. "I… okay? You’re welcome?" I had to throw an arm out to lean against in order to keep myself balanced and she drew back with a laugh. "Sorry, sorry," from her tone I couldn’t tell if her apology was genuine or not, and she grinned at me. "When you spend more than a year with a guy who has absolutely no personal space issues, you kinda forget to mind that, so… sorry." She stepped back a bit, though still just as full of energy. "Anyway, Clan Leader, that’s it. That’s all it is, I promise. I always know when these things are coming because Windsinger whispers it, and I just know to listen. I could probably tell you how to listen for them too, if you wanted." Her tail lashed about behind her. I shook my head. “No. No, that’s not necessary. You can just… you can be the one to let me know, I suppose. My harbinger, in a sort of way, to let me know when others are coming.” Verona grinned all the more, barking out another quick laugh. “Well, alright, then! Not so much the Harbinger for Rising Embers as I am the Harbinger for folk [i]visiting[/i] Rising Embers, but I can do that just fine!” I gave her a nod and we finally made our way back into the den. Shadow was off to the side in a pile of his own coils, still looking rebuffed by his traveling companion. Verona seemed to pay him little mind, although I couldn’t help but note the massive amethyst eyes as they watched us walk through the den. Livy crawled down from her nest to join him, though she was a bit too small for the spiral to comfortably coil around, but she sat beside him and I heard her say a few words to the silent spiral. Over the next few days Verona’s stripes grew in more and more pronounced, until she was proudly displaying them around for all of the others to see. [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=9272871][img]https://31.media.tumblr.com/005a03d35160fbfd9ca6a8856152bb56/tumblr_inline_nkwhbbhnJD1t2f6de.png[/img][/url] And then a most curious, or perhaps simply coincidental things occurred: Livy started growing some as well. [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=9555849][img]https://31.media.tumblr.com/db243d940f78bf0cb6b3e7ac904fa6c9/tumblr_inline_nkwhcjvF1j1t2f6de.png[/img][/url] "Is this just a nocturne thing?" I found myself asking Shadow, whom I’d come to rely on as the local expert for the curious breed of dragon. "She mimicks all other things, is it possible she’s just mimicking with her markings as well?" Shadow gave a soft chuckle as he lay in a heap beside me. “It isss posssible, Clan Leader,” he breathed out in a labored-sounding tone, “but I can’t say I know for certain.” His head shifted to grin up at me from beneath the brim of his hat. “You do have quite a few tigers running about your lair here, so if it is just a matter of her mimicry, it would make sense…” I gave a small nod; the fact that Shadow himself was decorated in the same dark pattern was not a detail lost on me. “You haven’t been out hunting much more,” I said, changing the subject quite suddenly. The spiral beside me gave a distasteful frown but said nothing. "I see you talking to Cray from time to time," I continued speaking, "Has he been helping you with meditating and focus?" "A bit, yes." Shadow’s answer was brief and curt, like it was a subject he didn’t want to speak about, and I noticed as he pulled into himself, his coils tightening up as his head sank back into their depths. "And is it helping?" I turned my attention directly to him as I pressed the question. "It is a work in progress," he stated so softly I could barely hear him past his own knotted body. I gave a frown, reluctantly allowing the conversation to end there, then stood and walked away. Any answers I couldn’t get from him, I could likely just ask Cray. Either way, we had a den full of young dragons eager and ready to be allowed out to hunt and scout. Between the three young mirrors and Livy, as well as Ash and even the tundras, there were plenty of others I needed to concern myself over as well, and many other things, like bringing over the coals and awakening our forges. As reluctant as I was, I had to accept that pressing our new spiral into his training would simply have to be lower on the list of things that needed my focus. ((Recognizing @Meridok, who sent the letter and some food from Clan Orodres. They… they sent more food than just the omen seeker who brought the letter, I swear. There were plants, too! And some fruit! But also, a tastey, tastey bird that Garr refuses to eat. XD ))

@LagMonster yay update! Yay Verona explaining her hearing things! Yay Verona... trying to get a date with Garr...? Baha ^^ ah, this'll be interesting to follow.
Oh, Garr... Verona is right about the Familiar thing.

@Lyel He just couldn't do it... he just couldn't eat the little thing...

@Meridok That is almost a disturbing side note there, I must say. XD But at least Azaril has no knowledge of and is not necessarily aware that Garr has spared the little creature.

@LagMonster
I knew it! I knew she could hear the Windsinger!

And those stripes look so lovely on Verona and Livy!

@dragonicmaster It's not even my favorite primary! I just can't help but look at some of them and be like "... yeah. You need Tiger..." XD So many...

I'll admit Verona usually came off as a bit of an airhead, now that we know more about her struggles she certainly has more depth and I'm admiring the enriched capacity of her character.

@Solar (Pun noted.) I could see how that would come off about her, yeah. XD We'll see how much Garr gets to know her in future chapters, and if we get many more glimpses as just what all is going on inside that head of hers. There's certainly more than just the whistling wind there, I can say for certain. :3

@LagMonster
It is my favourite primary. Majorly so on darker dragons. And even a few lighter dragons look amazing with it.