Creative Corner

[center][img]http://i68.tinypic.com/20pox1j.png[/img][/center] Here is the lore for my clan The Marble Taiga. I won't be hurt if no one reads this, but I wanted to have lore for my clan and this is the easiest way to keep track of it all ^^ This story will be written in chapters starting with the hatching of the leader of The Marble Taiga, Frigus, and follow him through his journey of creating and maintaining his clan of misfits as more dragons join the clan. If anyone is interested, I will update as frequently as possible. Chapters will be added to the table of contents as they're written. ^^ [font=Courier New][size=6]Book One: The Marble Taiga[/size][/font] [indent][size=5]TABLE OF CONTENTS[/size][/indent] ----- [indent][LIST] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889464]Chapter 1: A Frigid Beginning[/url] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889575]Chapter 2: Melody of Lies[/url] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889578]Chapter 3: From the Ground Up[/url] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889581]Chapter 4: [i]Freeze[/i]tastic[/url] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889583]Chapter 5: Hunting[/url] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889588]Chapter 6: Viral Additions[/url] [*][url=http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/cc/1663964#15889593]Chapter 7: A Light in the Dark[/url][/list][/indent]

[center][b]Chapter 1:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18505893] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/185059/18505893_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b]A Frigid Beginning[/b][/size][/center] Frigus’s first moments were spent shivering in a shallow cave deep in the Cloudscrape Crags. Alone, he managed to break his way through the razor shell and hoarfrost that had incased him and slunk, shivering to the back of the cave. There he slept until a weak light began to creep its way into the entrance of the cave. The only thing Frigus new was that he was alone. He had no way of knowing who his parents were or where exactly he belonged in this world. He was not even properly Frigus yet. There was no one to witness his first moments, name him, or even teach him how to speak. When he first emerged from the cave, Frigus was awed by the blankness of the mountains before him. There was little to see but mountains and heavy snowdrifts for miles. The snow stuck to his tiny claws and he soon found himself scampering about the odd, cold ground unaware, if only for a moment, of his dismal situation. He slid down the smaller crags around the cave and kicked up snow sending even the sparse, resilient creatures of the area running off annoyed. Small flakes landed on his nose and coated his wings. Only when he had sufficiently lost all feeling in his scaly toes did he retreat to the cave again, belly rumbling. His second day was not so joyous even for a moment. Frigus awoke before dawn to his stomach growling. Unaware of what the sound meant, he at first thought that he had somehow angered the cave that sheltered him and began trying to apologize in the few yips and squawks he knew how to make. It was not long though before the growling turned to dull hunger pains deep within his stomach and he realized instead that it was his own small body making the noise. Just two days old, Frigus did not know what he was supposed to eat or how he was supposed to get food. He was only aware of the worsening hunger within him. So he ventured from the cave again in search of something to satisfy his angry stomach. The Crags had little to offer a young dragon in the way of food however and he spent many hours wandering before finding himself on the edge of the Snowsquall Tundra. Were it not for the pain in his stomach, Frigus would have been enraptured by the massive trees of the evergreen forest and the strange patches of barren ground between the snowdrifts. What caught his attention instead was the movement of a small tundra grub slipping out of a hole in one of the snowdrifts. Unsure of the instincts that drove him, Frigus ran at the grub before it could retreat back into its frosty burrow and chomped it clumsily. The grub’s strange texture was not pleasant to Frigus, but having even a small amount of food in his stomach outweighed the squishiness that made him scrunch up his snout. The grubs soon became Frigus’ top priority. He used his small claws to dig into snow drifts gobbling up the few grubs he found deep in the ice. It was only when he had given up searching for grubs that he began to wander the forest. He found that it housed more strange things for him to eat, many of them less tasty than the grubs. One of them was a strange red berry. Its surface was textured in the bumps of small sphere-like bits of juicy berry. Frigus would later learn that the berry is well-known as Winter’s Delight and grew sweetest when the weather turned even colder during the winter. The berry was still not enough for him however, but the other creatures that ate the berries proved to be more than filling. An arctic lemming crossed his path searching in the small patches of tundra grass for seeds. Frigus did his best to pounce on the small rodent, but its darting maneuvers proved too much for him. It quickly disappeared back into its burrow beneath a pine tree. The snowshoe rabbit that followed did not prove to be so fortunate. Frigus remembered the quickness of the lemming when it escape him and carefully snuck up behind the rabbit. He narrowly missed the fluffy white rabbit on his first pass, but as it sprinted away toward a burrow planted deep in a large snowdrift, he gave chase and snagged the unlucky creature in his jaws. That first meal taught Frigus how to properly feed himself and would lead to the slow improvement of his hunting skills as he lived alone in the Southern Icefields. He continued to live in his small cave in the Crags until he had grown into an impressive young adult guardian. He scoured the Tundra for signs of other dragons hoping to find some sign of the clan that housed his parents. The dragons he did come upon never looked anything like him, and many of them were not welcoming. Slowly he began to learn their strange tongue with difficulty after living a mute for many years. He was diligent though and practiced hard, finding books and scraps of paper in the ruins of old lairs until he had developed quite a mastery of the Draconian language. He would also choose a name for himself. It did not come from Draconian however. He found his name deep within the strange symbols of a text that could not have been written by any dragon living or dead. The name was more his condition that anything. Frigus: cold; an ice dragon destined to grow alone, to teach himself how to live without the comfort of other dragons. This name made him unique, but it was not until later that he found that he was not the only dragon left to be mistreated by the unfairness of life. Long after his hatching, Frigus was an adult, a mighty guardian despite having anything but a primal instinct in the way of fighting. After learning the tongue of the strange dragons in clans near him, he couldn’t help but feel lonely, and something within him began to drive him to find something worth protecting. He did not know what he was searching for, but he flew for miles looking in the trees and spent hours digging in snow drifts trying to find the one thing he was destined to care for. It was not he that found this thing in the end though, but it that found him. One day, Frigus was digging through the remains of an abandoned lair’s hoard hoping to find more books to no avail when a strange squawk startled him. He felt in his heart a strange tug as though something other than himself was controlling his actions. He wandered toward the outside of the ruins trying find the source of the squawking. Trotting and fluttering about in the snow was a bizarre ice colored bird-like creature. A quadruped, the rear legs transitioned into long, taloned avian toes while the forelegs had the sharp hooves of a horse. Wings bloomed from its back in colors of white frost and the blue of frozen lakes. Its cold beak let out another screech as Frigus approached. They creature did not run when his scaly head leaned down to look closer at it. Instead, it stopped it’s crying and looked quizzically at Frigus. Its head cocked to one side and then the other as it examined the guardian before pushing its beak to Frigus’ hard-plated snout. Something exploded in Frigus then, a deep need to protect this creature at all costs. He was not aware of it then, but he would learn later that this was the nature of a guardian, to instinctively seek out something to take care of and protect for the rest of their long lives.[/indent] The creature followed Frigus back to his small cave where upon going through a tattered old text labeled “Bestiary” revealed to him that the creature was called an ‘Arctic Hippolectryon’. It was this creature, later named Hiruil, that followed Frigus on his next journey, a great trek down from the Cloudscrape Crags and through the rest of the Southern Icefields on a journey to find other dragons like him, misfits in their own right. Frigus had spent the beginning of his life alone, but now, with his charge at his side, he knew that there was even more than he needed, a home and a clan, something bigger than himself to live for. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/familiar/art/13432.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Chapter 2:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18505894] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/185059/18505894_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b]Melody of Lies[/b][/size][/center] Hiruil and Frigus left the Cloudscrape Crags not long after their meeting. The two quickly bonded, and although Frigus could not understand the exact meaning of the hippolectryon’s various bird sounds and odd squawk-whinnies, the two communicated seamlessly. They worked diligently in the days leading up to their journey cleaning out the small cave that Frigus had lived in during his adolescence. All of the texts he had collected over the years were carefully stacked and strapped together with leather bands so that Hiruil could easily carry them during the journey. The old scraps of out of context text that Frigus had used to learn to read were carefully swept together and burned along with old bones and random materials that were either unnecessary or too heavy to take with them. When they had finally finished, darkness had fallen and the cave looked as though no one had ever lived there aside from the pile of ashes pushed delicately to one side. The pair slept deeply that night, and when the sun rose, they rose with it. They picked up what little there was of Frigus’ belongings and ventured out of the cave. Leaving the cave did not seems so daunting to Frigus until it was already far behind him, nothing more than a speck on the side of one of many mountains in the Crags. Their journey began slowly, and the loss that overcame Frigus was clear to Hiruil who did not so much as chirp until they had made their way to the border of the Snowsquall Tundra. Nothing seemed to be able to keep this great change from pulling at Frigus’ heart, and it was not long before a dull headache began to pulse behind his pale eyes. He opted to hunt when he and Hiruil were deep in the evergreen forests of the Tundra. The small animals that crossed his path stood little chance against the heartsick dragon. They were ripped limb from limb almost too easily, their lives cut short before they could even cry out in pain. Hiruil quickly grew worried about the guardian and tried to speed up the pace of the journey hoping to leave the forest before Frigus sent all of its inhabitants into extinction. He had just managed to get Frigus back in control when the branches of the trees above them began to shower on them. Cracking splintered the stillness of the forest. The Hippolectryon and the dragon looked up into the trees worried about what might be crashing towards them. A heap of leathery read wings and beige scales came crashing down in front of Frigus and Hiruil with a solid thud followed by a distinct crack as the mirror dragon’s rigid crest hit the ground right after. The pitiful thing pulled herself clumsily too her feet grumbling as she tried to brush dust from herself revealing bruises from what were likely previous falls. When she got to trying to get a squished frostbite beetle off of her tanned trousers, she noticed the confused guardian and his strange familiar standing behind her. “Oh, um, well then. I was just flying when –“ she stammered, but Frigus tuned her fibs out with little thought. Even with his little knowledge of other dragons, he was quite aware of the limited flight capabilities of mirror dragons. The dragon continued to wear on with her lies however talking about this massive harpy that had crashed into her “talons spread aiming to [i]kill[/i]!” Again, Frigus knew that harpies did not often venture into the Icefields and was only further convinced that she was lying when she began to describe the vicious beak on the harpy’s face. Harpy’s wear intricate masks which cover their facial features making them hard to identify. Hiruil too recognized the fallacies in this new dragon’s tales and screeched loudly in defiance. “How about we begin with a name,” Frigus said interrupting her with his overly formal Draconian. “There is no need for these lies. How can we judge you if we don’t know you?” The mirror was stunned by his bold disruption of her story, but could not continue on with it because he had already caught her in her lies. She told Frigus with the barest honesty that her name was Infelicis, a cruel name, given in jest by a clan she spent some time in after her own rude hatching, meaning “unfortunate.” She looked at the forest floor in shame when she spoke of her name’s meaning as though the two travelers would subject her to the same torment. Instead, Frigus asked if she still belonged to such an insensitive clan and whether or not she would like to join them on their journey. When she replied that she had left “just because,” Frigus assumed that she had been kicked from the clan either for her lies or for getting into some kind of trouble with her clumsiness. So Infelicis joined their wandering party. She was a tolerable presence. Her clumsiness caused frequent stops to make sure she had not broken anything when running into a tree or a boulder or tripping over her own talons, but she had a lively singing voice and kept up jaunty tunes during a large part of the journey which Frigus enjoyed immensely because not only had he never had a full conversation with another dragon, but he had never heard any of their songs either. The only thing that made Frigus regret his decision to invite the gawky mirror on their journey was her incessant lying at every turn. Near the border between the Snowsquall Tundra and the Frigid Floes, they happened upon a small band of longnecks led by a grisly old skirmisher who had a deep hatred of dragonkind. The longneck had a wide scar running about the length of his gray face connecting one blind eye to his left nostril in a horrific game of connect the dots. He jerked his head at one of the longnecks standing behind him, a tawny colored magi that shot a bolt of ice at the travelers sending Hiruil flying up into the a nearby tree to deposit Frigus’ books somewhere safe before coming down in a shower of ice-colored feathers talons spread onto the unsuspecting magi’s head. The fighting that ensued did not last long, but soon after the longnecks advanced, Frigus found himself taking on all of them with the help of Hiruil. Infelicis was nowhere to be found. The skirmishers were small and did little more to Frigus than bruising. They were easily taken down once Hiruil had disabled the magi and Frigus gave the leader another nasty gouge in his face. As the skirmishers fled into the forest, Infelicis emerged covered in pine needles and bits of tree bark clung to her claws. “Good job guys! I managed to draw one away and fought him in the forest. He was this nasty magi – nature magic – strange for a clan living this deep in the ice. I – “ “Enough,” Frigus barely looked at Infelicis as he jerked his head toward the trees letting Hiruil know that it was safe to retrieve the books now. “You can be a coward, but do not expect to boast about feats you have not accomplished when the rest of us faced real danger.” He walked on toward the Frigid Floes once his Hippolectryon friend landed back on the snow with the small collection of texts. Frigus knew that the Frigid Floes were not so welcoming as the Tundra, but at least there was promise of fewer dangers in the broken sheets of ice. Felicis opened her mouth, perhaps to try to defend herself further with her impulsive lies, but though better of it and followed behind tail dragging a shallow snaking valley in the snow behind her.

[center][b]Chapter 3:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18505893] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/185059/18505893_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b]From the Ground Up[/b][/size][/center] The Frigid Floes stretched out before the two misfit dragons and the Hippolectryon. The soft crystalline sound of the waves slushing gently against the sheets of ice was all that greeted the trio. Something resembling defeat echoed in the sound. There had been this mutual expectation that when they reached the Floes, they would immediately know what to do, but now that the shattered northern peninsula of the Southern Icefields stretched before them, they were at a loss. “Perhaps we should continue into the main land, the Starfall Islands maybe, and go from there,” Frigus suggested in an airy monotone. “You’d have to swim a bit since you cannot fly long distances, Infelicis.” It seemed as though both pairs of the mirror dragon’s eyes widened in fear. “I – I can’t swim,” she stammered. Frigus let out a deep sigh. He looked to his loyal charge, Hiruil, but found the place the Hippolectryon usually took up by his side empty. A joyful chorus of chirps sounded from behind them, and Frigus turned to find Hiruil fluttering about trying to get the two dragons to follow him to something just within the border of the Floes and the Tundra. He flew in happy spirals waiting for Frigus to follow. Hiruil led them to a small clearing that housed three fluffy green pines and a small rocky cave. The cave caught Frigus’ eye immediately and he trotted delightedly up to the hole and smiled at his familiar in appreciation. The small cave opening however certainly would not be able to accommodate Frigus let alone his two traveling companions. They set out to widen the entrance and create a large cave that the clan they hoped to build would be able to socialize in and build their own dens off of. The digging seemed endless, but they dug tirelessly at the cold stone and hoarfrost. It took three days before the opening was wide enough to accommodate even the smallest of dragons. After that the trio began to carve out their center cave, the main living space of the lair where Frigus hoped he could one day watch the dragons of his clan socialize and the play of future hatchlings. It was this vision that drove him and the large cave was done within the week as the dragons worked through wrenched claws and an ever growing pile of rubble that needed to be carried either out to be dumped in the sea or to the center of the cavern where a large roaring fire would one day warm the clan. Once the cave was complete, something in Frigus changed if only slightly. He was less judgmental of Infelicis’ constant fabrications and more playful with Hiruil. It was a strange sigh to see the huge dragon chasing the Hippolectryon around the massive cavern. He would smile randomly and run to the center of the cave where they had laid the coals for their fire and roar with pride at the great thing they had created. It took days for Infelicis and Hiruil to convince the overexcited guardian that they should begin creating their own private lairs branching off the chamber of the great cavern. Even after he had picked an area to begin digging out his quarters, he would often wander away from his work to stare admirably at the center cavern. Frigus’ den developed into something much more elaborate than the typical guardian lair. It appeared as though the whole of the cave had been scooped out at once. The round walls were perfectly smooth aside from one wall on the left. Hiruil and Frigus had painstakingly made use of heavy boulders and snow to sand away even the minutest imperfections. The differing wall was carefully carved into the faceted crystal shapes of a wall of ice, and in the center of the wall was a high cropping in the face of the “ice” where Hiruil had begun to build a large nest from pine twigs and little bits of dried tundra grass. The small alcove that Infelicis scraped in a far wall of the cavern was simple and bare. There was little care put into the design of the walls apart from structure. She had not focused even on a small sense of aesthetic when constructing her lair. She felt a small nagging feeling in the back of her mind, that she should not put much work into something she may not need later. What she did not know was she was unconsciously living under the influence of mirror dragon instincts. Infelicis did however make sure to create a narrow cubby in the corner of the den. It was about the height of Hiruil and wide enough only for a small fae to crawl into. When Frigus asked her why she would add such a strange and specific addition to her modest quarters, she merely shrugged and said she may need to put something there eventually, but she was not sure what yet. Strangely enough, that was not a lie. Along with the dens, they built a deep cavern with a narrow entrance for future stores of food, materials, and other valuables, a small nook that Frigus named the library, and two nesting sites. He lingered at the empty stone patches surrounded in carefully placed barriers of smooth rocks and gnarled branches knowing that they would one day hold life. Hiruil and Frigus took the bundles of leather-strapped books and set them lazily in the corner of the library and thought that was quite fitting. Infelicis however insisted that a proper library needed shelves and a desk at which to study and ran off mumbling “males” under her breath. When she returned, she carried a small log and set to stripping it of bark and breaking it carefully into planks that she cured with the low heat of a pine needle fire. She used the planks to build a bookshelf just shorter than Frigus with deep shelves and placed each of the old volumes from his collection with care. Frigus was awed, “Where did you learn to do that?” “You’re in charge of finding a desk,” was her only reply. The first night in the completed lair was wondrous to Frigus. He could not sleep, but when dawn broke, he was far from tired. For the first time since his hatching, Frigus had a home, and a sort-of family – or at least the beginnings of one. He watched the sun come up over the cracked ice of the Frigid Floes. The great yellow sphere rose up, seemingly out of the sea, and cast little slivers of light across the many small facets and glistening crystals of the icy landscape. He let out a contented sigh and turned to go back into the lair where he planned to tell Infelicis and Hiruil of his plans to go out in search of new members of the clan. Frigus had barely lifted a claw toward the entrance of his new home when a large purple blur torpedoed past yipping and screaming excitedly. The blur slowed as it passed Frigus, but still generated enough of a breeze to rustle the tendrils of his white beard. It zipped around taking a sharp turn to land ungracefully before him in a long heap of purple antlers and feathered wings that he soon recognized as some sort of deranged imperial. “Not another clumsy, dragon.” He muttered taking a step back as the imperial shook ice from her wings and stretched her claws . “My apologies,” the dragon said windily as though she was already onto the thoughts of what she would say next. “I’m Hyacinth. How n[i]ice[/i] to meet you.”

[center][b]Chapter 4:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18313038] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/183131/18313038_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b][i]Freeze[/i]tastic[/b][/size][/center] The strange imperial stood before Frigus smiling from one purple ear to the other. She had only been there for a few moments but had already subjected the poor guardian to enough puns to last him a lifetime. He was not sure whether it would be better to run away from the creature or try to talk to it – maybe she would eventually be a member of the clan. “Frigus,” he responded to her introduction in a gruff, wary voice. Much to Frigus’ relief, Infelicis came out of the lair then rubbing sleep from her eyes with a beige claw. She was startled by the presence of the strange, bright dragon with a maize circuit pattern zig-zagging across her shimmering scales. The surprise was soon replaced with amazement however as Infelicis set to trying to interview Hyacinth as a potential member of the clan. “Oh! Hello, I'm Infelicis. Can I ask you some questions? What are you – “ she began, four eyes wide. “Well, um, I like to travel. I – “ “Awesome! You know we are – “ They continued on interrupting each other. Infelicis tripped over her own tongue so many times that Frigus began to lose count and worried that she would eventually miss and bite into it. He was amazed that two dragons could talk so fast at the same time. Perhaps this was just the way of female dragons he thought. It was not long before he gave up trying to keep up with their half completed conversations and backed discreetly into the lair to find Hiruil. Hiruil was just stretching his ice blue wings by the embers from the fire the night before when Frigus came in, looking over his shoulder in fear that the two chatty dragons had followed him in. The Hipppolectryon chirped a polite good morning at his friend and looked at him in that jerking bird-like manner of his as though to ask what Frigus was hiding from. Frigus explained the situation to Hiruil who upon hearing the name of the other dragon immediately trotted, smiling the way only flying bird-like horse creatures can, out of the cave and into the sunlight. Frigus followed reluctantly behind. By the time the two had joined the females outside, the chatting had stopped and the two dragons stared at each other awkwardly. Hyacinth sat, her long body taller when semi-vertical, scratching at her purple antlers while Infelicis spent her time opening her mouth as though about to say something before closing it again only to repeat the process again a few moments later. “What is going on here?” Frigus asked followed by a screech from Hiruil. “Well –“ began Infelicis. “She invited to me to join the clan you’re trying to build, but I don’t think it’s in the stars for me honestly.” The bubbly imperial seemed all most shy then. Frigus thought perhaps she had declined such an offer more than once before but still was not used to the idea of refusing other dragons. “We take no offense,” Frigus said coolly. “We are hardly yet a clan. What you see here is all there is to us. If you want, you may come share our fire for a while if you like. Speeding about as you were, if you have traveled far, you must be tired.” He walked back inside to relight the coals from the night before should the imperial take up his offer. Hyacinth did not feel that she should reject two kind offers from this strange, small clan and followed quietly behind him. She wanted to give a better answer as to why she did not accept the offer to join them, better that it was not within some random destiny the Icewarden had planned for her, yet she could not find the words to properly explain her self-inflicted solitude. As she sat by the fire in the center of the great cavern melancholy overtook her. She remembered a similar hall in her birth clan. Her mother, all but identical to her except in spirit always promised that she would know destiny when it found her and not before, but she was never sure. Even the most appealing things never felt right. “So, what do you call your clan?” She asked trying to break the tension growing within her mind. She trailed off, “such beautifully marbled stone walls.” Frigus opened his mouth to answer, but realized that he had not thought to name his new home yet. He had never named the cave of his birth, but it had never meant any more to him than shelter. “This clan does not have a name yet.” He paused. “Did you say marble?” “Yes, the walls, I – “ “My apologies,” he said before dashing off to the library. Hyacinth watched him go. Thinking she had offended the white guardian somehow, she went after him. Infelicis called after her, “Don’t worry. He’s always somewhere in his head. He grew up alone!” Hyacinth paid no attention. The library was lit up by a small torch fire when Hyacinth walked in to find Frigus poring over an old book. He glanced up at the imperial only briefly before returning his gaze to the text, mumbling under his breath. “I apologize if I have offended you,” she said. “I just don’t think I can tie myself down to one region. I’m a traveler. I [i]need[/i] to travel.” “Are you serious?” Frigus asked as a smile grew on his scaly face. “You have just helped me name my clan! ‘The Marble Taiga.’ I believe it has a wonderful ring to it. Do you have any of your strange word plays for that? They are not so annoying as I originally thought.” Hyacinth smiled and shook her short mane. “It’s[i] freeze[/i]tastic.” Frigus smiled wider at the imperial, his pride radiating off of him at having made another step in the development of his clan. His smile began to fade however when he remembered that this bright young dragon who had helped name the clan would not be here to watch it develop. “You will likely want to get going soon?” He asked. Something in Hyacinth’s eyes had changed. The tales her mother had told her about destiny had never seemed real until this moment, just fairy tails to keep the over-energetic hatchling from zipping around the lair. This clan however was more than any clan she had ever seen before. She could see that the guardian with the strange way of speaking was trying to build something meaningful, and she wanted nothing more than to be a part of it. “No, um, you see, Frigus, I’d like to stay.” Pride once again took up its place in Frigus’ colorless eyes. Even his scales seemed to brighten at the growth of his clan. Hyacinth could not help but feel the same way. Since she had come of age, she had spent her time traveling through every region of Flight Rising exploring and collecting the unique trinkets of the eleven flights. This clan did not excite her fear of being tied down. Instead, she felt as though The Marble Taiga and the dragons that lived in it would become as much a part of her as her need to travel, and even if she felt the need to leave, she would always return. “I have just one question,” she grinned. “Does the clan need someone to go on trading expeditions? A traveler perhaps?

[center][b]Chapter 5:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18435748] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/184358/18435748_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b]Hunting[/b][/size][/center] Hyacinth was quickly becoming an important member of The Marble Taiga clan. Her energy counteracted even that of Infelicis, and her natural ability to find clans to trade with was quickly paying off. Within a week of her joining the clan, Hyacinth had helped build up the clan’s hoard to the point that it was more than capable of feeding the three dragons and the Hippolectryon. She left often enough that her traveling desire was quite sated, but she was never gone for longer than a few days bringing back interesting things from the other regions. Frigus always enjoyed these trinkets because they gave him a glimpse of the world outside of the Southern Icefields. The only thing Hyacinth never brought back was other dragons. When Hyacinth was not out zipping from clan to clan making trades, she was in the lair carving out her own den. It was an interesting affair. Strings of feathers from tengu and harpies were draped in uneven loops along the walls and fans of basilisk feathers leaned in a corner. The belts and sashes of several warriors hung like tapestries above her sleeping area. She slept on a carefully arranged heap of white linens and the gray pelts of snowfall elks. With every excursion she added more to her quarters until it became this strange assortment of trinkets too well placed to be called junk. Hiruil loved the strange things even more than Frigus and would spend lots of time watching Hyacinth put things in her den cocking his head from side to side. Between the three of them, Frigus, Infelicis, and Hyacinth could now hunt and bring back tons of prey. The stores filled quickly until even the approaching winter would not be able to worry the clan’s hoard. Hyacinth was even able to teach Frigus how to fish. He had never been patient enough to try to catch the slippery eels and fish darting beneath the water, but once the purple imperial had shown him how to lash out his claws a moment before the fish reached a spot in the water, he could not get enough. Infelicis too welcomed the seafood into her diet glad for the variety. One day, the three were out deep in the dense evergreens of the Snowsquall Tundra hunting for larger game, elk or even wolves. Hyacinth had found a clan of tundras living on the edge of the Crags that would trade a large number of texts for quality pelts to line their nests with. Frigus was eager to add to his collection and insisted that they go out at once to collect the pelts. They had just come upon a herd of elk grazing on small patches of tundra grass and the vines of winter’s delight. Frigus stayed on the far side of the herd while Infelicis moved as carefully as she could to the left flank of the elk. Hyacinth took the air and glided without a sound overhead. The plan was for the imperial to scare the elk back toward Frigus. The guardian would get as many elk as he could while Infelicis maintained the left driving them toward the center and Hyacinth did the same on the right. Just as Hyacinth prepared herself to roar however the whole of the herd scattered and galloped away through the opening on the right side. Only one elk remained in sight, but it stood outside of the area the three dragons had cordoned off behind Infelicis. Stalking the elk was the long tiger striped body of a female spiral with amethyst colored eyes. The only one of the three dragons to notice the stranger was Hyacinth, but before she could mention it, Frigus and Infelicis took off after the herd to try to regain some control over the situation. Hyacinth looked after them, and when she turned again to the spiral and the elk it was hunting, they were gone. The purple imperial took off after the members of her clan and thought little more of the strange dragon. Hyacinth did not see the spiral misstep and stumble scaring off the stray elk. Frigus and Infelicis had managed to take down four elk when Hyacinth caught up with them. They managed two more with the imperial’s help and took them back to the lair to be skinned. The meat added wonderfully to their already bursting food stores. Within a few days, the skins were ready to be taken to the tundras in the Crags. Hyacinth left with the bundle of skins gripped tightly in her foreclaws. Much to Frigus’ dismay, Hiruil decided to accompany the imperial to help carry the books back. The guardian watched fearfully as the two flew off into the distance, a dragon carrying a bundle of fluffy elk pelts and a Hippolectryon just behind her with a beak full of leather straps. They returned the next day just as the sun reached midday, but they were accompanied by more than several stacks of books tied up in leather straps. Much to Frigus’ surprise, Hyacinth and Hiruil were followed by the orange spiral gliding on six freckled wings. On their way back over the Tundra, Hyacinth had again seen the stray elk and, following behind it, the spiral. She indicated to Hiruil to land, and went to investigate the scene. When she saw them, the spiral expressed embarrassment as the elk ran away again. “Are you one of the dragons that was hunting the herd the other day?” She asked. “They keep rejecting this one for some reason. I thought the least I could do was eat him, but I’m not good at quietly stalking through the snow.” Hyacinth learned that the spiral’s name was Teigra. A wandering dragon from the region of the Shadow Flight, she was more skilled at hunting stars than elk. She had come searching for a better place to stargaze. When she heard about the small clan living on the edge of the Southern Icefields, she was eager to go with the imperial and the strange creature named Hiruil that flew with her to meet the misfit dragons. Frigus was less excited about the new dragon than the safe return of his charge. He had been unable to sleep without the Hippolectryon snoozing in the nest on the ledge in his den. When he did finally notice the new dragon however, he was happy as he always was when his clan grew. The guardian did wonder why so far every member of his clan aside from himself was female. The library benefited greatly from the collection they had received from the tundras and from Teigra’s large collection of notebooks about constellations and star charts. Frigus marveled at the growth of the library and commissioned more shelves from Infelicis who was more than happy to show off her skills while Hyacinth and Frigus helped Teigra carve a den to the left of Infelicis’ plain hole-in-the-wall quarters. The spiral dragon’s den was large inside despite her desire for a more narrow labyrinthine passages, but its entrance was small and narrow which she appreciated. They had feared the tunnels favored by the spiral dragon would cause the stone collapse. Inside, she had hung some of the white linen that Hyacinth was so fond of in large drapes from the ceiling to make it appear smaller. Even with her cozy new den and the comfort of having found a home, Teigra felt as though something was missing. She slithered through the entrance of her den into the center cavern just as Frigus was extinguishing the fire for the night. When he asked where she was going she simply replied, “I need to know what happened to that elk,” before running out of the lair and taking off into the night air in the direction of the Taiga. The other dragons had begun to fear the worst when she returned hours later, but before they inquire about her sudden disappearance, the lonely elk trotted in to the entrance of the cave behind Teigra. She smiled at her new familiar. “This is Verath. I think I may have to widen the entrance to my den so he can get in,” she said scratching the furry beast on the nose. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/familiar/art/1272.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Chapter 6:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=18469951] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/184700/18469951_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b]Viral Additions[/b][/size][/center] Since Teigra’s arrival, the clan had certainly gotten an energy boost. It was a rare occasion when Frigus found himself able to join a hunting party as he now spent many hours deep in the record books of the hoard or with Hyacinth discussing trades and alliances with other clans. There was a constant flow of diplomatic work to occupy the guardian from simply spending time with his clan to solving their various disputes. Though he was proud of his clan, he missed the days when he could spend time out in the open chill of the Ice Fields with Hiruil at his side exploring. It was all Frigus could do to refrain from bursting from the lair on his first free day since Teigra’s arrival. The clan had decided that the lair needed a thorough cleaning because dust from the initial excavation still hung in the air and the smell of elk was starting to drive everyone mad with Verath shedding by the fire every night. Frigus was free from the task because three minutes into the ordeal, Hyacinth and Teigra decided that the massive guardian was doing more harm than good while Infelicis laughed at his efforts. He was more than happy to accept his freedom from the task however and left the females to their cleaning efforts. Hiruil chortled as they walked from the lair into the forest where Frigus hoped to find some Winter’s Delight to surprise the dragons of the clan and perhaps even Verath. Despite being a food item, Teigra was not the only dragon fond of the stray elk. None of the four clan members were able to deny the charm of the antlered beast. Hiruil was somewhat put out by the elk though even Frigus had to admit that his familiar was the oddest of the pair. Winter was coming on and now was the best to find the sweet berries as they began to ripen. When the guardian and the hippalectryon came upon their first delicate berry vine, it was trampled as was the next and near all that followed. Around the icy green vines were the frozen webbed footprints of some sort of bird and the long-toed prints of a mirror dragon. It was not strange for them to see signs of other dragons in the forest. Hyacinth had discovered many friendly clans living not far from their own territory and traded with them frequently. Signs of a dragon within the range of their territory was a new occurrence though and Frigus new an investigation, much as he loathed the idea, was necessary. The white guardian and his hippalectryon followed the trail of footprints and devastated berry bushes to the edge of the forest where a midnight colored mirror dragon and a strange six-eyed bird lay content in the snow engorging themselves on the red berries that Frigus had hoped to bring home. Juice trailed from their mouths into the snow staining it a purplish crimson hue. Frigus was unable to remove the scowl from his face as he entered the clearing. The mirror sprung up, red eyes wide and snow glittering on his crystal-faceted scales as he tried to appear unintimidated by the guardian standing before him. The bird let out a two toned pigeon-like warble as it took up what appeared to be a clumsy battle stance at the strange dragon’s side. It was all Frigus could do not to laugh at the plague dragon and his dodo. At three times his size, Frigus would have little difficulty disarming the stranger. “Hello,” Frigus grinned. “You seem to have stumbled upon my clan’s territory. Can I help you?” The plague dragon hissed, lashing his tail. “Are you a follower of the Icewarden? I’m not a fan of many deities, but he seems to be the least despicable.” Frigus was surprised by the dragon’s bold disregard for the deity of his birth flight, though he did notice that the dragon was certainly Plague in nature, aggressive, harsh, and unpleasant. He tried to speak with a gentle air to the midnight dragon, but his efforts were spurned again and again accompanied by the strange “doo-doo” sound of the dodo’s language. The sun was setting on the Southern Icefields when Frigus and Hiruil returned to the lair with the bristling mirror dragon who had reluctantly introduced himself as Ahazu. Infelicis was shocked to see another mirror dragon following her clan leader, but was less infatuated with the stranger when he began to speak with a rude, arrogant attitude. Ahazu explained that he had been a plague dragon for his entire life, living in the Wasteland spreading disease in order to bump up his own immunity, but the death and decay did not satisfy him. He had watched his birth clan rise and fall under the symptoms of their own disease. His own parents turned on him as a disease claimed their sense of reason. Ahazu had no love for the Plaguebringer and her passion for death and decay, and he believed that she felt much the same about his departure from her flight. Ahazu did not want to talk or learn the stories of his new clan mates. He followed Frigus to the library where they discussed the clan’s ways and how Ahazu would fit into the small group of dragons. Hyacinth and Infelicis stared at the entryway to the library desperate to know what the conversation going on within was about. Teigra decided it was best not to eavesdrop and went for a walk with Verath. During all of this, dodo marched around the center cavern hooting in its odd way and squinting at each aspect of the lair as Hiruil watched the odd bird skeptically. When the mirror and the guardian emerged from the library, there was no question as to whether or not Ahazu would be joining their clan. Although Frigus had come in wearing a scowl due to the mirror’s attitude, he could not help but grin with his usual pride at the mirror’s acceptance of the invitation to join the clan. Hyacinth and Infelicis knew it was appropriate to cheer and welcome their new clan mate, but could not bring themselves to be friendly toward the standoffish dragon that was Ahazu and simply nodded at Frigus and wandered off to find Teigra and Verath instead. Ahazu was surprised by their dismissal of him. He was aware of his unwelcoming presence, but he had not expected it to affect such friendly dragons as the ones of The Marble Taiga clan. He looked up at Frigus. The guardian too was surprised and his prideful smile had fallen into a thin unhappy line. Being leader of the clan, Frigus did not want his dragons to feel unhappy in their own homes and turned the subject on Ahazu, asking the mirror what he was skilled at. Frigus was pleased to learn that Ahazu had learned blacksmithing in his Plague birth clan. He was quite competent with the tool of the trade and had learned to use his own ability to breathe fire to properly heat the metals he worked. The mirror specialized in making armor. He could create a whole suit in a single day as the task was thrilling for him rather than a tedious affair as it appeared to most smith. His strange companion, the dodo Rinthea, was also well learned in the art of engraving and helped Ahazu create intricate designs unique to each suit of armor they pieced together, using her sharp talons to carve out slivers of the metal. Though frightening to have a clumsy fowl running around the lair with such sharp appendages, the skill of the two was impressive. The guardian led Ahazu and Rinthea to a space on the far edge of the lair where they could build a den for themselves. Ahazu was tentative to start digging however, wondering if there was a limit to how much space he could claim for himself. Able to see the fear in the mirror’s crimson eyes, Frigus recognized claustrophobia and told Ahazu to make himself comfortable and to make sure to make space for a forge somewhere near his quarters. A smile formed on the mirror’s midnight colored face as his new clan’s leader walked off. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/cms/familiar/art/2782.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Chapter 7:[/b][/center] [center][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=6284024] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/62841/6284024_350.png[/img] [/url][/center] [center][size =7][b]A Light in the Dark[/b][/size][/center] Winter was beginning to set in and despite the numbing cold, The Marble Taiga dragons were working harder than ever. Ahazu had set to work more quickly than they had anticipated and several things had to be done before his forge could be operational, Sturdy steel vats had to be brought in to hold molten metals and an anvil and hammers were also necessary. While Hyacinth was tasked with finding the equipment, Frigus and Ahazu set out to carve a hole in the roof of the cavern that would house the mirror’s armory. The hole would serve as a chimney to prevent the heat from melting the snow above the cavern and bringing in the roof of the whole lair. Even with all the work put into Ahazu’s workspace, he had found time to create his own unique den. It was carved out in wide arches with ceilings high enough to accommodate even dragons of Hyacinth’s stature. Ahazu felt comfortable in his oversized den. It was simple enough to be pleasing to live in, but large enough to satisfy the mirror’s claustrophobia. Infelicis, however, could not stand the mirror dragon’s den and fought tooth and claw with the new comer to clean up after himself. Furious at the destruction after having just cleaned out the expansive lair space, Infelicis tore through Ahazu’s dusty vaulted quarters with a surprising deft urgency sweeping and carrying out piles of rubble to be dumped in the ocean. Ahazu could only watch helplessly. If he so much as opened his mouth, Infelicis would glare at him with her four, piercing, colorless eyes, daring him to get in her way. The crystal faceted mirror shrugged and moved on to helping Frigus and Hyacinth set up the forge. He did not see the need for cleanliness when it would prevent him from strengthening his immune system, but at least he would not have to the cleaning himself. However, despite their progress in the lair, the short days and long, bitter nights of a harsh winter were just beginning to set in when Frigus realized that the clan’s stores were not as well stocked as they had thought. Untended due to the other responsibilities drawing away the dragons’ attention, much of the food they had collected had gone to waste. Meat grew white mold and smelled like the Wyrmwound alongside stinking piles of rotting shellfish and eels while plant and insect stores were dry, brittle, and useful for little more than kindling. Though there was still plenty of food to go around, the stores were not full enough to keep the clan from having to face the reduced rations of the colder months. Soon, many of the creatures they hunted on land would be migrating to their winter homes or sealing themselves into their dens to hibernate until spring and those that they pulled from the sea would be unreachable beneath thick unyielding layers of winter ice. While they pulled spoiled food from the hoard storage area, Hyacinth and Frigus discussed methods of reinvigorating their supplies. Hyacinth would not be able to trade for much food because the clans they had allied with in other parts of the Southern Icefields were also preparing their stores for the next few months and there was little time to make alliances with clans from warmer regions before the worst of the snow and hoarfrost made travel difficult and unsafe for an imperial. They would have to begin hunting, fishing, and gathering all they could as fast as they could, and a rotation had to be put in place for tending the hoard. A new chamber would be dug where long term stores could be frozen, packed in hoarfrost until they were needed while food for the week ahead would be kept separate, ready to be eaten. There was no time to waste in organizing parties. Hyacinth and Infelicis set to fishing while Frigus and Hiruil went scouting with Teigra to find elk and other large game to fill the stores of meat, and Ahazu and Rinthea set to gathering insects and edible plant matter. The parties would regroup to dig out the new storage area and organize a schedule for hoard tending at sundown. Frigus and Teigra were able to easily locate a herd of elk with the help of the hippalectryon flying ahead. Before long, they managed six elk, felling them with ease and were stalking around the Tundra in search of the last if the foraging snowshoe hares and game birds before making their way home with their haul. Teigra had just spotted a hare digging in the brush beneath an evergreen shrub for fallen berries when a distraught scream pierced the air scaring the hare away and startling both dragons. Teigra turned her purple eyes, full of questions, at Frigus whose own pale eyes only reflected her confusion. Hiruil let out a disgruntled squawk and flew off toward the source of the cry. The guardian and the spiral could only follow the artic hippalectryon’s lead, racing after him on foot. The scream did not ring out to splinter the frigid air again, but as they drew nearer to its source a quiet sobbing put dread in the trio’s hearts. In a small clearing, sprawled amongst broken branches, overturned shrubs and muddy snow was an obsidian colored ridgeback whose scales were traced in an erratic circuit pattern similar to that of Hyacinth. The approach of the two dragons was not expected or welcomed by the ridgeback and she screamed again fearfully. As she stared at them with her muted yellow eyes, Frigus noticed a faraway unfocused quality about them. “Can you see us?” He asked in a soft tone, approaching her. “Only just, but the light burns. Please don’t hurt me!” She tried to get up to flee, but fell again into the snow. Now that he was closer, Frigus could see the way her scaly skin clung to her skeleton and the small scars that shone where they dented her scales. When asked where she had come from, the ridgeback could not say she only knew it was a dark cruel place and that it was all she had ever known until this point. She told them of the experiments; strange foods, toxins, poisons, biopsies, and of her many lost mates and stolen hatchlings never to be seen again. Tears fell from her eyes, freezing before they dropped from her face as she spoke of her last mate, the one who had helped her escape the dark place. He had been lost as she sped away into the unknown on her weak wings. She knew she would never see him again. Teigra untied one of the rabbits that Frigus had slung across his back meaning to offer it to the emaciated dragon, only to remember that ridgebacks lived on a diet of seafood and put it back. The she-dragon continued to cry. It was only long after Frigus had propped her up on his back and carried her back to the air where they swaddled her in furs by the fire and tied a soft cloth over her sensitive eyes that she fell into a melancholy silence. Over the next few days, the dragons continued to replenish the hoard, but in between their duties, each of them, even the prickly Ahazu, would sit by the center of the fire with the ridgeback to talk to and comfort her. Hyacinth was able to coax out her name, Cyborg, as they compared their circuitry, and Teigra brought Verath for her to pet. Ahazu talked up her strength swearing that should she ever come to him for armor, he would refuse her “for it would be like iron-plating a mountain.” Infelicis told Cyborg about the pranks she would pull on her old clan of tundras when they were especially callous and rude to her. When Frigus was able to speak her alone, he did not ask if she wanted to join the clan but instead promised that she was a safe and welcome addition to their band of misfits. It was a slow process, but Cyborg grew comfortable with her new clan and would even sometimes lift the cloth from her eyes to follow Hiruil around the lair listening to his chirps and squawks as he showed her the dens of her clan mates and the various places they worked. Cyborg was impressed by all of it. She had never properly interacted with other dragons before ad their dens and the effort they displayed were amazing. Cyborg was quite impressed by Hyacinth’s den in particular and reveled in the moments she was able to spend listening to the imperial tell tales of how she obtained each artifact in her collection. When Hiruil showed Cyborg the hoard, she could not help but express surprise at the disorganized collection of baubles, trinkets, and food that was scattered about the small cavern. She could see construction toward the back where the new cold storage was being packed with hoarfrost to preserve a long term hoard of foodstuffs. The ridgeback wandered into the hoard and began separating materials from treasures making note of where she put things in her head. Though she was unaware of it at the time, Cyborg had found her purpose in the clan. Dedicated to organization and afraid of losing even the most trivial things, the ridgeback was the perfect candidate for treasurer. The clan no longer needed to worry about neglected stores, and Cyborg was able to light the hoard as she pleased to protect her sensitive eyes while she worked. Together she and Hyacinth constructed a lair branching off of the hoard storage area where Cyborg could rest and keep any belongings she may collect. Though she did not ask for much in the creation of her den, Cyborg did have Hyacinth help her carve a small sunbeam above her bed of elk hides for each of her mates and lost hatchlings lest she never forget them. Once the construction on both her den and the cold storage were completed Cyborg was able to tackle the clan’s s disorganization with ease and now keeps detailed records not only of their stores but of all of Hyacinth’s trades as well.