Introduction:
Requiem: Auction House Escape
"Just... a little... bit more..." the Nocturne was almost to the end of the Auction House, where he had been in for the past couple days. His clan leader,
old clan leader had told his parents to sell him and his sisters almost immediately after they were hatched. None of them even had names! His two sisters had been picked out immediately, so he didn't have time to convince them to come with him.
Few enough dragons were around that he was able to make his escape fairly easily, or at least the first part. A sign promoting his price and name, really lack of a name, clacked against his chest as he ran further and further from the center. He wasn't more than a day old, and his lack of physical training was really taking its toll. Not even out of the 'house and he was ready to collapse. Maybe he shouldn't have tried to run... No, he had to keep moving. They weren't going to buy him like some cheap familiar! "I can do this, I can do this," the nocturne repeated over and over to himself as he ran and ran.
Suddenly, a massive foot came out of nowhere, knocking him backwards into a nearby pile of crates. "What do we have here? A little hatchling trying to run off without paying?" The Imperial bowed his head to be almost even with the tiny nocturne. "Ha!" His head shot upwards with a burst of laughter, "Without paying for himself it seems! Child, this is theft, and I am fairly certain you did not intent to commit a crime here today. However, what you are doing
is illegal and I feel I must bring you back to where you belong."
In a surge of panic, the nocturne launched himself towards the imperial. Claws out, teeth barred he attacked the most vulnerable part he could think of, the Imperial's eyes. Hitting their mark, the Imperial cried out, left eye blinded from the assault. "You INSOLENT..." but the nocturne hatchling didn't hear the rest, he was already flying away, using the imperial's height as a launch pad to get further away from the Auction House.
~@~
It was three days before Requiem, as he decided to call himself, stopped fleeing from that Auction House. His flight had led him away from the Shifting Expanse and towards the Tangled Woods. He knew he wouldn't be able to go back. That Imperial was right, he was stealing, and now he had semi-blinded another dragon. But Requiem couldn't bring himself to regret that, not when it had given him his freedom. It was worth it, the Imperial was a danger to him, so he did what he had to. Nothing else mattered then, just his own safety.
As he was landing, Requiem thought he saw movement in the consuming darkness that moved throughout the Tangled Wood. Shaking it off as just a trick of the dark, he pushed onward, looking for a place to rest. Soon he found a nice soft bed of moss, but before he could pass out from sheer exhaustion, he noticed two other shadows, no dragons, in a nearby clearing. He roused himself one more time, and decided to investigate. If these two were a threat, they would not continue to be so for very long...
Eridanos: Just Another Day
A moth landed on Eridanos' snout, the perfect perch found on the statue-like ridgeback. He didn't even blink, instead continued his assessment of the lair entrance in front of him. Nearly concealed in shadows, the young ridgeback could make out the entrance, but not much more. His stomach growled, loud enough to startle the moth into flight, leaving him alone once again. No, this lair wouldn't do, it was too well guarded, even if he dug, they would probably find him before he got to their food stores to "borrow" some seafood.
Turning away, the ridgeback headed back to his makeshift burrow. It was barely big enough for him now, he would have to either dig it out more or move on very soon. Whelp, better to move on now than later. This place didn't have enough seafood anyway. There was always better luck near the edge of the Tangled Wood anyway.
As he was filling in the hole he had been living in the past couple days, his mind wandered to his birth clan. He had been unwanted from the very beginning. His mother did not care for hatchlings, but he and his brother happened anyway. His brother was always more loved too, or at least as loved as their parents could give them. Quickly selling at the Auction House, his brother went to a caring Nature home, but he hadn't sold. His father was angry, blamed Eridanos for not being wanted, so he was attacked. His father threw a nearby poison his mother had just finished brewing. It shattered right in front of his feet, and Eridanos ran. He had kept running until he could no longer smell any scent he recognized, other than those which were native to the Tangled Wood itself.
Shaking his head, Eridanos realized he had finished filling in his burrow. He didn't need to remember that, not his father's abuse, not how the unintended fumes from the poison had gotten into his lungs, not that he couldn't speak, couldn't make a sound. Taking a look around, he took to the skies, making sure that he hadn't been followed for the hundredth time.
~@~
A short flight later, Eridanos spotted a clearing below him. Considering the options, it was probably the best place to rest, at least for another day. Just another day, that's how he lived. Day by day, there wasn't enough time to plan foward, he needed to survive. A rustling behind him, and another just to his left. Were there other dragons already here? He wasn't going to be able to avoid a confrontation this time. Turning towards the closest sound, he prepared to fight.
Voodoo: Gathering
"No no, that will not do at all. We need fresh ingredients, not dried out shrub you find just outside the lair!" Voodoo's father snarled at his assistant, his recent alchemical experiments hadn't been working right recently, and he blamed this on the ingredients. Voodoo was watching from her usual perch, she was supposed to be her father's apprentice after all. Well, her sister was too, but she was obviously the better alchemist. "Get out of my sight! Take Voodoo with you, and don't return until you have managed to find something actually useful!"
"Of course, make me take the child! That'll be useful." The wildclaw muttered to herself, "How is she gonna be able to help!" Voodoo followed the elder dragon closely behind, she didn't want to be left behind. The Shifting Expanse all looked the same to her, and she wasn't well traveled enough to find her way back home. Turning to face her, the wildclaw said, "You don't have any ideas, do you kid?"
After a little bit of thinking, she responded, "The Sunbeam Ruins grow have a lot of things living there, and near the Tangled Wood there's lots of useful mosses and insects." The wildclaw nodded, adjusting her path slightly. Voodoo, feeling quite pleased with herself, continued to follow along, humming as she went.
After a long journey, and almost as long spent gathering, the wildclaw uprooted a final plant and looked towards Voodoo. "Ah! There we go, that should be enough to placate your papa, now shouldn't it kid?" She beamed, it was nice to finally be recognized for her work, Father usually just glanced at it, his head shaking slightly. "Of course, there is still how we're going to get back. You must be exhausted, this far from home..." The wildclaw now had a wicked grin on her face, and for the first time, Voodoo was scared.She shot into the sky without another word, leaving Voodoo in a mess of leaves and discarded plant parts.
~@~
It had taken her longer to reach a safe spot in the Tangled Wood than she had hoped for. This place creeped her out, but there was something else about it. Something that had called her here, something beyond her. Voodoo believed it to be some ghost looking out for her, she had always been interested in what happens to a dragon when they die, not that she had really been around that long, having only been hatched a few days ago. But still, this place felt more like something that could
become her home than her old one ever had.
Pressing onward, Voodoo found herself on a cliff overlooking a clearing. Two other dragons were nearby, she could smell them. That didn't worry her though, they wouldn't hurt her. She had fate on her side now, along with a ghost. Gliding downwards, she settled herself on one side of the clearing. One of the two she had seen before had already entered, and she could no longer tell where the second one was. "Here goes nothing..." she whispered to herself as she moved to meet the other two.
