Gwendira

A Spiral soared in the sky, cartwheeling through the air. "Woooohhhh! Hahha! This is amazing!" She whooped exuberantly. Another Spiral kept pace beside her, grinning, his aviator goggles slightly askew on his face. "Nothing beats your first flight. Eh, Gwen?"
She was too busy flying to answer, smiling blissfully. She didn't wobble at all in flight, a true natural. But that was to be expected. Gwendira was descended from a long line of distinguished flyers. She turned over slowly through the air, relishing the feeling of the wind, before snapping open her wings and shooting like an arrow across the sky. "Hey, slow down!" laughed Spark, the other Spiral and her brother.
"No way!" Gwen called over her shoulder. "You've gotta catch me first! Or are you getting slow in your old age?" she teased.
Eyes gleaming excitedly, he didn't bother to reply, and streaked off after her. The two of them chased each other around and around in the sky, giggling and occasionally knotting themselves mid air in delight. They didn't notice the structures below getting smaller and smaller as they moved farther away from the safety of the clan.
Gwen was zig-zagging, with Spark following close behind. He reached out a talon and grapped her tail. "Got you!" he crowed. Gwen slowed to a stop and hovered. "You win," she said. "I guess we should head home now." Then she looked around. The ground below looked unfamiliar, and the air was much chillier now then it had seemed a short while ago. "Um...where are we?"
Spark examined the ground, cracked and sun-baked. "Uh oh." He rubbed his talons to his forehead. "I've never been this far out before." He sounded calm, but his eyes flashed with panic. "We're in the Shifting Expanse. The realm of the Stormcatcher." Spark swung around and hurriedly flew in the opposite direction. "Come on, if we hurry we may make it home before dark," he called to her.
Together, they headed away. But it was already too late. The sky started to darken to a stormy gray and thunder boomed from the heights. Gwen could feel her heart racing as they raced against the storm. Droplets started to splash down on her, slowly at first but quickly speeding up, until the rain was so thick she couldn't see. She became so waterlogged it was a wonder she was still in the air. "Spark! SPARK!" She cried, louder and louder, trying to be heard over the booming crashes of thunder and the steady pouring of the rain. Straining her ears, Gwen fancied she heard a faint voice calling out in answer to her. A jagged bolt of lightning flashed down from above, illuminating the sky briefly. Spark was nowhere to be found.
Her wings were stiff from ceaseless flapping, and finally giving in, she plummeted to the ground.
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"Why is she so funny looking?" someone asked in a loud whisper.
"Sshh! She's sleeping. Go play with your friends," a voice said sternly.
"Mama?" Gwen sleepily asked. "Did Spark get home all right?"
A talon stroked her head. "Spark is your brother, isn't he?" murmured the voice. "I'm sure he's fine. I saw some others go out to look for dragons caught in the storm."
Gwen opened her eyes. The hut she was in was like nothing she'd ever seen before, constructed of some sort of stone with brittle looking wood reinforcements. Across from her sat an Imperial. "Please forgive Onyx. He's young, and hasn't yet learned any subtlety." the dragon said. "My name is Tes." She inclined her head slightly. "And your name is-?"
"Gwen," she supplied, trying to keep her voice from trembling. It seemed she hadn't made it out of the Shifting Expanse after all.
Tes cleared her throat, then said formerly: "By declaration of the Bluecrackles you, Gwen of-" she paused and peered at Gwen. "Where are you from exactly?"
"The Zephyr Steppes," she whispered, saddened.
"Gwen of the Zephyr Steppes, you are hereby allowed to stay with the Bluecrackle clan until you deem yourself ready to move on." Then she coughed. "I have been told before that the formality isn't necessary, but I think it sounds better then me saying, stay as long as you like. Right?"
But Gwen was no longer paying attention. She was staring at herself in horror. "My wings!" she wailed. They were torn and tattered, the delicate membranes ripped up in the ferocity of the storm.
Tes glanced at Gwen's wings, a grimace on her face. "Oh...right...I'm also supposed to tell you that your wings will heal if you rest and give them time. You're unfit to travel at the moment."

The Bluecrackle clan has been my home ever since. I came to love it here, and after my wings healed stayed with the clan. I still visit my family sometimes, but I belong to this land, amongst the scorched mesas and resilient dragons that call this their home. Our home.