Creative Corner

Can we all take a moment to thank @Olega for sending me a Mat scroll so I can actually show Veldr here, and not be quietly extremely annoyed that a dragon that's supposed to be Saerun's age was stuck as a hatchling for another 4+ days? [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=48229161] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/482292/48229161_350.png[/img] [/url] I actually won Veldr's egg from a giveaway they hosted, as well! Thanks so much again! ------- [sub]@Dovalore, @Valishtu, @Gloomyvibes, @AnimeLover9631, @Akash, @tigressRising, @ArgenteaMoon, @mintSMASH, @StormWendjule, @IronPen, @Solaristigres, @Acuarela, @Rivix, @Keet, @Farwalker, @catmeow1, @fuurin, @owlstar7, @amberclawed, @cgnx, @arinemera, @Weredogalism, @Kosaa

@Kaial Veldr looks super cool! I love his outfit. And thanks Olega for gifting that Maturity scroll!

A Family Meal

Dinner that night began as the most tense in recent memory.

Ila was uncomfortably quiet, obviously stuck on what she’d done earlier that day.

Saerun, as well, was subdued. She seemed to be having trouble eating, and stared down at her food as she picked at it.

She’d had a long talk with Rorin while Ila was cooking, and whatever she’d shared in said conversation had resulted in him being practically glued to her hip. Edan wasn’t surprised to see a protective streak develop in him, but something about it still made him feel strange in a way he didn’t want to consider.

Ciron was, by far, taking the news the worst. Having so much revealed to him at once had clearly been overwhelming, and was blaming himself for putting the group in danger. He’d refused dinner and was laying down in the side room.

And Solveig was, once more, missing.

Edan scowled, grinding his teeth and staring down at his plate.

Everything just felt awful.

He’d never been more relieved to hear the door swing open.

Espen charged in, standing on her front legs to gesture wildly.
“Hey guys! You’ll never believe what happe - ” she began, only to read the room and awkwardly stop. “Uh. What’s wrong? Did someone die or something?”

“No,” Ila replied, looking uncertain about saying anything else.

“Okay good, SO!” Espen closed her hand into a triumphant fist. “We kicked so much tail out there today! But Clade almost died. Again. But we saved a baby! I’ve never seen one like it before, it’s so cute and hairy!”

Clade - who indeed looked like utter hell - poked his head in after, a ball of off-white fluff carried in his arms. Marshall was supporting him as he stumbled in, the injured nocturne’s wing draped over his shoulder.

“Oh, Clade!” Ila jumped to her feet, her doting nature immediately taking over. She rushed to him and put her hands on either side of his face. “What happened to you? Why didn’t you run before it got that bad?”

“We would have, but we couldn’t leave this,” Clade replied, his voice strained and somewhat embarrassed. He held out the little ball of fluff, which stirred and opened its eyes.

“You found a little tundra?” Edan questioned.

“Guess so,” Clade shrugged, then winced. “It was about to get eaten, so I ran to grab it…”

“It’s time to lie down,” Ila stated, soft but firm. She took Clade by the shoulder and guided him to his bed. “I’ll bring you some dinner in a moment, alright? Here, let me have the little one.”

Clade offered a quiet thanks and allowed Ila to take the tundra from him. The hatchling seemed nonplussed, looking around its new surroundings with wide, fascinated eyes.

“Oh and uh, we got a lot of food too,” Espen added before sitting down and nodding toward Marshall, who began unloading his satchels and putting food away.

“Just give me a moment,” Ila strode back to the kitchen, the hatchling in her arms. “Edan, what would this one eat?”

“Plants, thankfully,” the mirror replied, frowning as he looked over at Clade lying in bed. He’d have to have a talk with him later about playing hero.

“Edan,” Espen whispered, sidling close to him. “What’s going on? Why is everyone here looking so, like, off?”

“I’ll tell you all a little later,” Edan replied, forcing himself to go back to his plate. “Just… sit and have dinner for now. Alright?”

---

_{@Dovalore, @Valishtu, @Gloomyvibes, @AnimeLover9631, @Akash, @tigressRising, @ArgenteaMoon, @mintSMASH, @StormWendjule, @IronPen, @Solaristigres, @Acuarela, @Rivix, @Keet, @Farwalker, @catmeow1, @fuurin, @owlstar7, @amberclawed, @cgnx, @arinemera, @Weredogalism, @Kosaa}

Our Guest

The sun had barely risen by the time Saerun came to him, inquiring under her breath if he was awake yet.
They’d set out before anyone else woke up, Edan using the opportunity to get an early patrol in as they spoke.

“I was thinking a lot, last night,” Saerun said quietly, draping her wings around herself to guard against the cold. “But I still couldn’t decide what… to do.”

Edan grunted in vague acknowledgement, his eyes on a massive form in the distance. It seemed to be receding, rather than coming closer.

“I feel like there’s no good option,” she admitted, annoyance in her tone. “If we let him go, I bet he’ll give us up even if he thinks he won’t now. If we kill him… or if we let him stay with us… then that clan has another missing dragon to look for… and more reasons to be aggressive when they search.”

“There aren’t any good options,” Edan replied, shrugging his shoulders as he watched the figure recede beyond view. “That’s the case a lot of the time. So are there any that feel better to you?”

“No,” Saerun shook her head. “It all just feels. Awful.”

“So you want my opinion on it?”

“Yeah, please.”

“I think…” Edan sighed. “The safest thing we can do is keep him with us, alive. He’ll know more recent info about your old group, and if someone does come looking for him… well, we let them find him and make certain that, by then, he’ll have a story that convinces them there’s nothing they’d want near our home.”

The skydancer didn’t respond, pulling her wings closer to her body.

“But, is that something you can handle?” he asked. “I don’t really want to… put you through that. Or Ciron, for that matter. But it’s the best option I see.”

“I can handle it,” Saerun replied flatly. “I’ve handled worse. But I’m not staying in the same house as him.”

“Oh, there’s no way in hell he’s staying in our house,” Edan snorted. “Honestly, with all the kids running around I think we’ll need to build more, soon. But we’ll figure something else for him. For now, he’ll stay in the cellar. At least we can make sure he doesn’t sneak off that way.”

Saerun chuckled, but her expression didn’t much change. After a moment, she sighed.
“I really wish I wouldn’t have to be around him again. But I just know he’ll start lying through his teeth the moment he thinks he can get away with it.”

“Dragons are falling in our lap pretty much every day,” Edan replied. “Maybe the next one will be another skydancer. Either way, I’ll do my best to manage him on my own.”

“Like you don’t already have enough to deal with.”

“Well, this takes precedent over most of it. It affects all of us.”

“Right,” Saerun nodded solemnly. She was silent for a moment, then turned to him with a sad sort of grin. “We really turned your world upside down, didn’t we? Ciron and I.”

“No, things were already… strange… before then,” Edan replied. “It fit ongoing events, more than anything else.”

“Gods, I’m sorry to hear that,” she laughed, shaking her head. “But I guess that explains a bit, too.”

“How so?” Edan raised a brow.

“Oh. You know,” she paused. “Everyone was so accepting of us. Even after everything from yesterday. I just… wouldn’t expect that.”

“I don’t judge people for doing what they have to to survive,” Edan replied. “And they were raised to be the same.”

Saerun went quiet for a bit, looking away.
“…I appreciate it. A lot, just so you know,” she said after a while, then nodded to him. “If you’re ready to go, let’s go deal with Veldr. Get it out of the way, and all that crap. Maybe we can go hunt after.”

“Alright,” Edan nodded, turning to head home. “We should probably feed him, too.”

---

<sub>Enjoy the EDAN AND SAERUN SHOWWW. I mean it makes sense the focus is on them rn hah.


@Dovalore, @Valishtu, @Gloomyvibes, @AnimeLover9631, @Akash, @tigressRising, @ArgenteaMoon, @mintSMASH, @StormWendjule, @IronPen, @Solaristigres, @Acuarela, @Rivix, @Keet, @Farwalker, @catmeow1, @fuurin, @owlstar7, @amberclawed, @cgnx, @arinemera, @Weredogalism, @Kosaa</sub>

PS do you guys have ANY idea how much Saerun would swear if it was allowed on FR?
That is, frankly, the hardest part of writing her. There's a lot of censoring.

i'm personally a fan of using familiars, especially fest fams, as curse words. "conflagrant ambassador, that hurt like a nightsky fuiran!"

does it make sense? absolutely not. is it hilarious? you're darn snootin

_Meanwhile...
The Kids Aren't Alright

Ila was usually one of the first to get up in the morning. But not today.

She’d spent the night lying awake restlessly, her mind swimming with countless worries - and some measure of guilt, as well.

The fussing infant tundra hadn’t much helped; the little thing would only calm if she cuddled it to her chest, and even then it would whimper. She didn’t know how to soothe it. All the tricks she’d learned with the other hatchlings didn’t help.

Once it finally fell asleep, she was afraid to move at all lest it wake and start crying again. So she held perfectly still, feeling the occasional stirring of the hatchling on her chest as all the thoughts she’d pushed away the day prior flooded back to her.

She knew she’d done the best she could, when that pearlcatcher came to her door. She knew. But that didn’t mean she felt good about it. The terror on his face when the poison started to take effect was burned into her mind. She had to do it, she kept telling herself, but it felt so wrong. So against her nature.

But she couldn’t talk to anyone about it. The last thing anyone needed was another burden, and she was one of the oldest. The others needed someone to rely on. Someone to listen, someone to be warm. Edan was so busy, and Solveig…

Solveig was hard to think about. Edan had advised her to try and distance herself emotionally, because the pearlcatcher just wasn’t listening to reason. One day, they just wouldn’t come back. And logically, she knew he was right. But it wasn’t so easy. She missed them so much, even when they actually were there. They’d changed so much, and it felt like she’d lost her sibling and best friend already. It had been so hard not to start sobbing when she started to ask herself ‘why’.

There just wasn’t an answer. There wasn’t for any of this. That’s all she’d come up with after a full night of just lying awake with her eyes shut.

This wasn’t the life she wanted. But it wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

She could tell the sun had long risen, but continued to feign sleep. She still didn’t want to wake the tundra, and she was so tired. She could hear the rest of the clan starting the day around her, and smell with some vague surprise that someone had started breakfast.

Amidst the morning bustle, someone nudged her arm. Gentle, first. But then they were practically shaking her. The tundra let out an angry squeak and shifted to stand, only to roll off her chest and let out a cacophony of angry cries.

“Sorry, little dude, sorry,” came Rorin’s voice. She opened her eyes to see the mirror looking worriedly at her. “And… sorry, ma. But were you having a nightmare? You’re… you’re crying.”

“I am?” she asked in confusion, reaching for her face and blinking in surprise as she wiped tears away. “Oh… oh. I just… I’m sorry I worried you. I just had a bit of a rough night.”

“It’s fine, um,” Rorin paused for a moment, chewing on his lip in thought. “Do you wanna try to sleep a bit more? I’ll take the hatchling out or something.”

“No, I don’t think I’ll be able to - ” she began, attempting to sit up only to feel her head swim with the motion. “…Actually, yes, please. I think I need it.”

“Yeah, good,” Rorin replied, carefully taking the tundra by its scruff and continuing in a somewhat garbled manner. “You look a little sick.”

“Hm,” Ila sighed and rolled onto her stomach, pulling her blanket over her head. “Maybe. It would explain a bit.”

The mirror strode off, and she lay there silently, listening to the muffled conversation of her clanmates - and hearing Rorin greet Solveig outside.

Maybe she was a bit sick, or maybe it was just exhaustion.

Either way, she might feel better if she could just sleep for a while.

---

_{@Dovalore, @Valishtu, @Gloomyvibes, @AnimeLover9631, @Akash, @tigressRising, @ArgenteaMoon, @mintSMASH, @StormWendjule, @IronPen, @Solaristigres, @Acuarela, @Rivix, @Keet, @Farwalker, @catmeow1, @fuurin, @owlstar7, @amberclawed, @cgnx, @arinemera, @Weredogalism, @Kosaa}

Wait...what just happend?

@Solaristigres

The last update is a look into what's going on while Edan and Saerun are out.

@kaial Oh poor Ila. :( She didn't have any good options for dealing with Veldr, and honestly she could have done far worse than what she actually did, but that doesn't mean that she wouldn't guilty about it all the same. And the part where Rorin called Ila "ma"... On the one hand it's cute that the younger dragons see her as their mother (fitting, as she pretty much raised them on her own while Edan was dealing with other stuff and Solveig was...Solveig), but on the other hand it's sad because she's had to carry so much responsibility while still so young.

Actually, thinking about that makes me wonder - how much time has passed in-story since Edan found Ila and Solveig? I know it's been less than 2 months real time, but I wonder if it's been longer for Edan and crew.