Hallow

Founder of the clan, Hallow is large and in charge, and that won't change even if her children outgrow her. A fierce fighter, she is also very protective of her offspring. Although fond of her first mate Neptun, he is a bit too flighty for her taste and she's looking for a strong Wildclaw to settle down with. Preferably one with an interesting color combination and tiger stripes. She likes tiger stripes.

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December 2013 Update:

Solidly established as the Matriarch of the clan, Hallow remains large and in charge. She has taken on Erebos as a new mate, and is very pleased with this tiger-striped Ridgeback. She remains on pleasant terms with Neptun, although they may not have any more children together.

Hallow has seen several dragons come and go, and she has had mixed relations with them all. She welcomes those that are ready to swear loyalty to the clan and to the Light Flight, but she does not forgive easily. As such, any and all missteps can lead to trouble, no matter how small the slight. She once used Tigereye's Shadow magic to permanently mar a pair of Skydancers that had wronged on of her children by blood, then banished them from the clan.

Dragons have learned to tread cautiously when Hallow is near, and she is seldom very far.

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October 2014 Story Snapshot:

The Mirror queen gathers her children around her. Very few are of her blood, but they are of her clan, and so her children they shall be until they are claimed by forces that she cannot drive off. She has lost children before, but this has only strengthened her resolve to see these children live and grow and learn. There are quite a few of them, many without the warm brightness of the Lightweaver in their eyes, but they have all grown fond of the of the Mirrorlight Promenade, and none are eager to leave it.

None, except her.

"Mother," her daughter and chosen heir had said once the decision had been made, "must we go?"

The Mirror queen had looked at her daughter--so much like her but with wings stained by the sea, a mark of her father--and said simply, "It is time."

And so the Mirror queen led her children to the outskirts of the Hewn City. She now gathers them close as they pause at the edge, and tries to lend them her courage as they ready themselves to take the final step and plunge into the lands untouched by the sun.

She can smell their fear, and almost considers returning them to their home in the Promenade and letting them live a little longer in the light, but they will never grow stronger if she does. They must conquer the undying night.

"We are of the Light," she tells them all, "but that does not make us afraid to face the dark." She unfurls her wings, dappled gold against her black hide, and the scars on her shoulders roll and stretch. "We feel safest with the sun on our backs and the light all around us, but what have I taught you?"

The children are silent.

The Mirror queen turns her back on her children. She faces the Hewn City, its dark and broken lands swallowing the horizon, and she waits.

In the silence, the crown sits heavy upon her brow, but it has never been weightless. For the journey into the undying night, she has gilded herself with golden dressings, bright and shining baubles that she hopes her children will see when they finally enter the dark, but she dares not speak that hope aloud. They must find their own strength, and they must find their own traces of the light to follow out of the Hewn City. She hopes that her pet will help her remember the light and not lose her own mind in the dark lest her madness doom her children. She has tamed a guardian of the Sunbeam Ruins, but she worries that she'll never lead her children out of the dark without the gentle guidance of a Light Sprite. She has failed to find one thus far, but perhaps one will find her. Or perhaps she will have to fight her way out, and bear more scars than the ones that the Beastclans have already given her, but that would be a small price to pay for her children.

"What have I taught you?" the Mirror queen asks again, and her tail lashes over the ground.

Her daughter and heir is the one to speak. "That the truly terrifying things are unafraid to walk in the light."

"And we," the Mirror queen says, "have walked in the light our whole lives." She faces her children once again. "We will not fear the dark. But we will make the dark fear us."

She sees the exact moment when the fear in her children melts away, leaving only grim determination. When she beckons to them, they rise from their seats, and thread their way out of the light. The darkness closes around them, swallowing them whole, and for a moment, the Mirror queen's children are lost. Then she hears their breathing, and the beating of their hearts as their lives pulse on, and she knows that the Hewn City will not claim them forever.

They will come through the dark.

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February 2015 Update:

Lost in the dark, the Mirror Queen lost herself. Her very core blurred to nothing, but a tiny spark of light burned in her heart, and she pulled herself back from the eternal night. That spark blazed forth as a newborn Light Sprite, and promised to guide the queen and her children through the dark. But Hallow had changed. No longer the fierce Mirror Queen, Hallow was somehow stronger in her wings, capable of soaring higher and farther than she ever had before, but her bones felt lighter, more fragile. She could no longer protect her clan, and so turned to her daughter.

"I will guide and scout for us," Hallow promised the new queen, "but you must protect us."

"And what happens when we come through the dark? Will you take up your crown again, Mother?"

"No," Hallow told her daughter. "When we find the light again, you will lead us."

Then the old queen placed the crown upon her daughter's brow, and the clan bowed to the new Mirror Queen. And Hallow felt her heart glow with pride, but she felt a tiny spike of fear. They still had to come through the dark.

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September 2016 Update:

The Hewn City had promised to never let them go, but the hearts of dragons are not easily swallowed. Her children had slipped in and out of the dark, sometimes returning from the ruins soaked in endless night, and sometimes not. Shadows had taken on lives of their own, becoming living, breathing things that haunted the corners of their gazes.

But the lights of the old queen and the new shone on.

Scouting for her clan while her daughter led and defended them against the unseen terrors of the Hewn City, Hallow and her tiny spark of light sought out the borders of the sunless realm. Long did they search, losing themselves time and time again, but always finding strength in each other until they'd found the way back. And yet, as their time in the Hewn City dragged on, their light began to flicker and fade.

"I worry for you, Mother," the Mirror Queen said. The crown rested naturally on her brow now, not awkward and ungainly as it had before.

The queen-no-more looked upon her daughter and felt her heart swell with pride.

The Mirror Queen's hide was as black as her mother's, and her wings were stained with the sea: the mark of a father long since gone. Her Wildclaw mate was drawn to her power and grace, his wanderer heart captured by her spirit. The others of the clan fell into line behind her, comforted by her strength, bolstered by her loyalty. Their eyes sought her first whenever nightmares whispered through the dark. Her name shone in their minds: Anaideia.

Yes, Hallow had raised a good leader. A strong one. A brave one.

But even the bravest could feel fear.

"Worry only for your clan," the former queen told her daughter. "They are the ones who need you."

"But we need you, too," the Mirror Queen insisted. Her tail lashed and her golden eyes came alive with love and anger and need. "You are not their queen anymore, but you cannot desert them. You cannot desert me. You were our first queen. You made us who we are. You led us into the dark, and you will be the one to lead us into the light."

Hallow remembered the day the clan had taken their first steps into the Hewn City. She remembered the darkness closing in around them, swallowing her children and refusing to surrender them until she'd found the way out. Hallow had not found the way out. She'd lost her way, lost herself, and when she'd found her core again, she'd returned changed. Smaller, weaker, fragile. The Light Sprite born of her refusal to surrender to the dark was growing weaker, and Hallow felt the temptation to lose herself in the Hewn City forever.

"Perhaps my best service to the clan was also my greatest mistake," Hallow told her daughter. "I led you here, and we found strength in each other, but I have failed to lead you out. I fear if the clan continues to follow me, we will be lost in the dark forever." She closed her eyes, trying to recall the sensation of having a second pair of eyes that could see in the dark. She realized the clan should have followed Anaideia through the Hewn City. Hallow's stubborn pride had doomed them all.

Her daughter was of a different mind. "Enough," she growled. "We are lost but we are not destroyed. You said you would take us through the Hewn City, and so you shall. Remember what you said, before we left the Mirrorlight Promenade: We have walked in the light our whole lives. We will not fear the dark."

"But we will make the dark fear us," Hallow whispered. She did remember. But she was losing faith in the belief.

The Light Sprite flickered and dimmed.

"Enough!" the Mirror Queen screamed, and the clan pressed in close through the dark, drawn by the distress of their leader. "I am their Queen," Anaideia snapped, her tail arcing around to encompass the wild, mismatched dragons around them, "and they draw their strength from my, but who do you think I draw my strength from, Mother?"

Her mate shifted discontentedly, but a Fae with a wanderer's heart touched his brow to calm him, and urged the Wildclaw to silence.

"You were the first," Anaideia growled. "You are the one who brought us together. You are the one who taught us to be strong. And you are the one who will first see the light." Anaideia stalked through the dark, but in Hallow's eyes, her daughter had begun to glow. "You will not lose yourself, Mother. You are Hallow, once-and-always-queen, and you will bring us through the dark."

Standing before her regal daughter, seeing her seafoam wings aglow with fire and light from her own heart, Hallow remembered what it was like to live in the sunlight. Memories of an easy, sometimes petty life flooded back in, and her heart ached to feel the warmth of the Lightweaver's gaze upon her wings once again.

She would never feel that in the Hewn City. She had to get out. She had to get them all out.

For the first time in a very, very long time, Hallow felt determination blaze through her core, and as she turned into the endless shadows, ready to move forward before she lost her nerve, she pushed away the old fear that clawed at her heart.

I will not fear the dark.

With the Light Sprite burning like a beacon in the undying night, Hallow lead the clan through the Hewn City once again. Shadows twisted and danced all around her, taunts and threats shrieking in the wind. Her children ran behind her, calling to each other as they followed the glowing Sprite.

I will not fear the dark!

The darkness pressed in, demanding that Hallow sacrifice her certainty. New whispers wormed into Hallow's mind, spinning dark lies across her mind. The Hewn City was a maze without solution, and it would never let them go. Surrender to life and death in the dark was the only way out. Give in, Hallow, give in.

I WILL NOT fear the dark!

There is no light, only the undying night. The sun never was, and never will be. You cannot fight what you cannot see, surrender to the dark if you wish to be free. Here in the darkness true strength thrives, the price is yourself and your children's lives.

"I WILL NOT FEAR THE DARK!"

Hallow's daughter took up the roar behind her, and the other dragons of the clan sounded off their mismatched cries. Their pounding feet and dry wingbeats pushed back at the undying night, and they roared until their hearts had broken free of their fears, opening the gates for the light to spill in.

And then, without warning, Hallow's vision erupted into white, and she flew blind.

With a yelp, she filled her wings with air, dragging herself to a stop. She twisted violently, desperately seeking her daughter and the rest of her clan, but her eyes pained her and only offered brightness.

Brightness.

Hallow forced herself to calm down. She closed her eyes, then cracked them open after a moment, and found herself face-to-face with her hovering Light Sprite. The little creature cocked its head curiously at her, and Hallow found her breath stolen by the way the golden Sprite shimmered and shone in the sunlight.

Sunlight.

Beneath an impossibly blue sky, Hallow turned to see the dark lands of the Hewn City sprawling behind her. Her children had ripped over the border, spilling into the final realm of the Lightweaver. They cried out in terror as they found their vision robbed, but as their eyes adjusted, the panic left them as quickly as it had come, and shrieks of joy rang out.

A dragon shot past Hallow, soaring up into the sky towards the sun, crying out victoriously. It was her daughter, the Mirror Queen.

Hallow followed her up and together they celebrated, soaring and diving through warm breezes that promised a lifetime without sunsets. The Light Sprite danced between them, and Hallow noticed that Anaideia's wings still held the glow first seen in the Hewn City.

They had changed so much in the dark. And Hallow knew that they would continue to change as new challenges and adversaries crossed their paths, but the worst was finally over.

They had come through the dark.