IccarusKazuma's Clan

"Welcome to the clan, but do make sure that you are physically capable of staying. Only the strongest can survive. Isn't that what happens in nature, after all?"

Iccarus himself was born on a cold winter morning in a remote forest within the Shadowbinder's domain. His father, a beautifully-colored, glittering Coatl, died when he was only days old, and his mother, a massive, beautiful Wildclaw of tremendous strength, refused to take the burden of raising him and his two Coatl siblings together. Instead, she pitted them against each other in combat when they were but three days of age, hobbling around on unstable hatchling legs. Even as a Wildclaw, Iccarus found himself unable to beat his two brothers, who, as Coatls, didn't need to grow into their magical abilities, as they were born with them instead.

After that, Iccarus didn't even stay to watch and see which brother of his would win his mother's favor. She had been rooting for him especially because they were both Wildclaws, and the second a magical blast from his brother knocked him to the ground, she hissed at him to leave and never come back. With a burning feeling of shame and a desire for vengeance, Iccarus fled the scene.

The stars were just beginning to dip below the horizon when my mother harshly shook me with her tail and ordered me to rise. My brothers were both already awake. She had let me sleep in, though at the time I couldn’t fathom why. I quickly rose from the scattered pile of dirt and straw that I called a bed and hurried toward her. Once all three of us were beside her -- Florence, my oldest brother, Teal, my other older brother, and I -- she spun around and began to march forward at a rapid pace that my two brothers’ clumsy hatchling bodies could hardly even hope to catch up with. I myself was able to keep up, all because my Wildclaw physique served me well in staying within distance, and I hurried my siblings along with words of encouragement.

None of us knew where we were going, or why we were going. We were used to moving, though. We had done it about three times in our three months of living. Mother had never pressed us forward like this before, however, and none of us could explain why. Florence, always the most extroverted of us three, decided to interrogate our mother about it.

"Mommy, where are we going?” Florence asked, looking up at her with wide purple eyes. In response, she whipped around and nipped the feathered tip of his tail, drawing blood and earning a shocked squeak from him. The squeak angered her further, and she continued to bite him until he stopped making any noise, though in different locations each time.

It was only after she had finished that she spoke to him. “Be quiet, fool! Do as you are told and continue forward!”

Teal and I remained silent throughout the entire display, yet once our mother turned around we both cast sympathetic looks at our older brother. Thin Coatl blood was dripping from the tip of his tail downward onto the silky dark floor of the forested region we called home, though it only oozed from the first bite. We had little time for conversation with him, though. Teal’s questioning must have angered our mother, for she broke into a run, leaving us hatchlings to catch up with her.

Even I found myself at near-collapse from exhaustion by the time noon had rolled around and Mother paused in her trekking. We didn’t know where we were, or why we were there, but a knot formed in my stomach as I realized that there were no signs of any other dragons nearby. There were a lot of trees, and there was big stump which Florence decided to sit on.

“Listen, brats,” Mother hissed, her gaze sweeping across all of us. When her eyes met mine, there was a strange emotion glimmering within, though I couldn’t tell what it was. I definitely knew that it was a different emotion than that of which my brothers saw, though.

“Your father is dead, and I am not taking care of all of you lot.” Shivers began to course down my spine, and I could feel the fine feathers that lined the back of my neck stand up. Stealing a quick glance at my brothers, I noticed that their wings were wide open in a threatening position, their feathers ruffled to make them seem bigger. Their eyes were the only indicator that they were terrified.

“So, I’m only going to take the strongest of you all. Fight. Now,” she finished, and she glared at us expectantly. We all hesitated, and glanced at each other. Fight? Each other? Out of the blue? Upon seeing that none of us were going to do anything, she leaned down so she could stare at us dead in the eye, her white teeth glinting and her sour breath making our noses wrinkle. “Fight or I will kill you.”

The second she withdrew her head, my brothers began to distance themselves from each other. I remained seated for a moment, surprised. Were they really going to fight? They cast uncertain glances at each other, and then at me. I glanced toward mother, and saw that she was growing impatient of us dancing around one another, not battling. Her feathered tail twitched irritably. Her gaze was especially set on me. She wanted me to kill my brothers. She wanted me to win. I would not disappoint my mother! Within me, a feral, instinctual feeling arose. It was time for me to make my Wildclaw ancestors proud and shun the softness of being half-Coatl!

Gathering myself up, I rushed toward Florence and lashed out, striking his flank. Teal was standing there in a stupor of sorts, but I had little time to wonder what the faint blue glow emanating from him was while I continued to claw at my older brother. Florence was near death before I was stricken with a harsh blow to the chest that rattled me from both inside and out and prevented me from moving.

Teal stood over me, his eyes glowing purple. “Get out of here,” he hissed. “Or I will kill you.”

Any fighting spirit I had within burned out the second he gave the threat. I knew I had lost. I didn’t know how Teal had learned to overpower me, but he had, and I needed to escape. I could feel my mother’s gaze boring into mine.

“No son of mine loses to a Coatl. Get out of my sight.”

I stumbled to my feet, blood still dripping from my claws, mocking me, my insides screaming in pain from whatever strange forces Teal had let loose upon me. The two turned their backs on me once I limped away. I didn’t look back at them, either. How could I? I had almost killed my brother just because my mother had told me to. When I saw Teal’s eyes as he loomed over me, the raw anger they contained was nothing more than a desire for vengeance over hurting Florence. My brothers hated me. We could have fled my mother together, yet instead I had driven us apart.