Maria

[in the past]
A tiny, silvery Nocturne scuttles up to an imposing, much larger Nocturne, whose deep red wings encased what was visible of his body, while a black cowl covered the rest. She was not deterred, however, by his imposing looks.
"Daddy?" she cooed to him, her golden yellow eyes widening in anticipation of his attention.
The large Nocturne opened his crimson-streaked wing slightly, enough that an emerald eye and a pale face blotched with red could peer out.
"What is it, Maria?" he growled, softly enough that it wouldn't awaken the other sleeping dragons, but forcefully enough for his daughter to hear it through the darkness of the cave.
"Do you know what happened to mom?" she hissed, much less eloquently.
Her father dropped to the cave floor, sending a soft whoosh of air past the little Nocturne's scales. She shivered, but held her place hopefully.
He let out a sigh. "Little Maria," he breathed softly, his deep, soft voice dissolving any fears Maria may have had. She had seen the looks her father received from her fellow clanmates, though they were all pleasant around her. The great Nocturne's presence enveloped her.
"Your mother joined the ranks of our wonderful deity, the Lightweaver, shortly before you hatched. I told you," he continued slowly, peering into his daughter's eyes. His pointed beak curved into a loving smile. "She serves a... Higher cause, as Hydea also told you."
Maria grinned widely, remembering the wonderful praise their clan leader had bestowed upon her mother. At this thought, she chirped out the beginning of Hydea's speech perfectly, down to the husky accents of the Ridgeback leader's voice.
The male Nocturne leaned in very closely to Maria's face, startling her out of her fascinated state. He pinned his emerald gaze on her own pale yellow one. "You will wake everyone in the cave, little one," he whispered hastily. "And now even more time has passed. Go back to sleep..."
If her father kept speaking, Maria did not catch it, as the vision of her father sitting before her in his deep black cowl swirled into the sounds of screeching and howling, and finally into the rustle of autumn leaves.
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Carefully Nosferatu scooped his naive little hatchling in his long wings, narrowing his green eyes as he searched the lair for anyone who may have been awakened by Hydea's mimicked voice. He despised using his powers on his own daughter, but sometimes her curiosity and exuberance enveloped her too much.
He curled her into his dark, tattered cloak very carefully, wrapping the ends together so she could be comfortable and not fall out, but also so she could not escape until morning came. As fluidly as he had before, he leaped back to his place on the ceiling, next to the deep green, crackled form of Jimmy, who was deeply dreaming, and closed his emerald eyes.
Nosferatu did not let the terrifyingly delicious memory cloud his mind as he drifted off to sleep swiftly, feeling Maria's soft breath on his cold white chest.
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[in the present]
Maria blasted the enormous round, flat stone covering the entrance to the vault with bright yellow bursts of light. She had already gotten permission from Hydea to enter the vault, as Hydea was always slightly untrusting of her clanmates around their treasure, even if they were born in her clan. Maria didn't mind though, as she figured it was a good security precaution. As soon as the entrance was just large enough to squeeze through, Maria slipped through the newly created gap in the wall.
Little light from the main cave leaked into the vault, so Maria fired off a glowing orb of light, which levitated in the center of the vault, high up near the ceiling. This elemental glow illuminated the entire vault, without a single shadow being cast by the rows and rows of objects lining the vault's walls.
Maria flew past the rows of food items and materials, marveling at the apparel as she passed it by, and paying no notice to the battle stones in a wooden crate on the stone floor of the vault. On the opposite side of the cave, the treasure and gem stores glittered in the golden light of the orb she had created. She finally reached her intended location, the wall of trinkets and other assorted items which didn't really fit any of the other organizational categories. Her bright yellow eyes scanned over the assorted objects, including an unhatched egg that appeared molten, with dried lava encasing its exterior. Her light silvery maw curled into a smile as she found the item which she sought: a relatively long staff made from the branch of a tree, presumably, with a sparrow skull tied on one end of a string, and a bright blue bead tied at the other end. Succeeding in her search, she peered up at the the glowing orb, her eyes glowing the same color. A moment later, the orb ceased to glow and disappeared, leaving Maria in almost complete darkness. She flapped her striped, light blue wings back to the entrance to the vault, and upon exiting, she blasted light beams back to enclose the vault once more.
Maria glanced toward the cave opening, where a green shape swooped in. As it landed in front of her, she realized it was Jimmy, whose pale green eyes seemed to glow with happiness. "Guess where I went?" He asked her excitedly.
"Where?" Maria responded, genuinely curious.
"I put a wanted ad up at the Trading Post," Jimmy explained, "seeking some sort of mage who would know how to cure Shade curses. I figure it can't hurt to try, since there are all sorts of dragons out there."
Her eyes widened hopefully, and her grip around the staff tightened. The thought of her father living a normal life and being free from the Shade's grasp caused tears to form in her eyes.
Jimmy nudged her shoulder gently with his dark green head. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly, smiling sweetly at her. "I bet it'll turn out alright."
Maria returned his smile, but her eyes narrowed slightly as she peered past Jimmy, seeing Nosferatu gazing at her from across the lair. His deep emerald eyes seemed to glow darkly from beneath his reaper guise. A moment later, he turned away and moved toward a different area of the cave.
Jimmy whipped his head around in order to follow Maria's gaze, but Nosferatu had already left sight. He turned back around and shrugged. Maria smiled at that.
"This is a bit of a random question," Maria began, "but did you happen to join the clan at the same time my father did?"
Jimmy's ordinarily smirking expression unfocused for a moment and he turned a bit more serious. "Why, yes," he said, after a moment's consideration. "We were two of the first Nocturnes here. I wouldn't say that makes us old or anything..." he continued, grinning, his pale green eyes glinting mischeviously behind his pink sunglasses. Maria noted that it didn't take him too long to regain his usual temperament.
Maria began to get excited, as her father never spoke of his past in the clan. Come to think of it, he rarely talked to her at all, anymore. "What was he like when you came? Any different from his current state?"
Again Jimmy's smile shrank, as he reached back in his mind to the events of the past. "Whatever curse that Longneck placed on him changed his personality a lot. He was pretty shy when he came. I had been here a couple days already, but I was happy to see another drake like me join the clan. We spoke briefly sometimes, but he otherwise kept to himself, mostly. He really seemed to come out of his shell when she came." Jimmy paused and smiled at the nostalgia.