Skadi

Those who live in the realm of Lightning are very familiar with an old tale, passed down
from generation to generation, regarding a particular Lightning dragon. Once upon a
time, there was a mighty Imperial. So great was he in size and stature that he was second
only to the Stormcatcher. He toiled night and day over the largest of machines, which
produced and collected the most electricity. But he was not satisfied.

Against the Stormcatcher's wishes, the Imperial began to construct a huge spire of iron,
intent on making it reach the heavens. He continued to build this spire higher and higher,
disregarding the cries of passing birds and the storms that continuously ravaged the
plains. Higher and higher did the spire climb, until the Imperial building it could no
longer be seen, hidden by the clouds that blanketed the area.

Years passed. An age went by, and nothing was heard from the Imperial or about his
great spire.

That is, until one day when the skies were clearest, and the sun shone down, pure and
bright on the land. The clouds were chased away by the light, and in the radiance from
above there was framed against the sun a silhouette- the Imperial, claws still atop the
incomplete spire, frozen like crystalline glass.
The Stormcatcher took one sad glance at the construct before swiping it away with his
tail. He left the rubble where it lay, decreeing that building a spire reaching higher than
the clouds was hereby illegal. The Imperial was lost to history, and no one knows if he
toppled down and shattered just like his spire, or if his frozen body still lays in state
among the ruins.

Since then, young dragons from Lightning have challenged each other to soar toward the
cloud cover, each daring the other to touch the highest points of the sky. Each time, the
hatchlings end their game of chicken just before they break through the heavy barrier of
vapor, for fear of ending up like the Imperial of legend- imprisoned forever in a prison of
crystal.

Only once in the past thousand years has someone else dared to breach the cloud barrier-
a young Imperial female by the name of Skadi. She, seeking to challenge her ancestor,
rocketed straight up into the sky and disappeared into the cloud layer.
She was never seen in Lightning again.

High above the clouds, the Skadi soon found that ice was beginning to form on her
wings, and she could not stay aloft. Forced to keep flying and disoriented by a storm in
the upper atmosphere, she eventually lost control of her flight and began to plummet
down back toward the unforgiving rocks below.
Amidst the bright flashes of lightning and pelting rain, Skadi caught a glimpse of two
figures winging their way through the storm. She called out to them, not knowing if they
were friend or foe, but hoping they would be kind enough to help her. The two figures turned and began to fly back toward her, fighting the raging weather in a race against
gravity.

A particularly loud thunderclap resounded overhead, and Skadi looked up in time to see a
bolt of pure blue lightning descending toward her. Before the light blinded her and she
fall unconscious, she was sure she felt warm, scaly claws grabbing her limbs and keeping
her aloft.

As it turned out, the two shadows in the clouds were really some passing Spirals who'd
happened to be taking a shortcut through the storm to reach their home. Imagine Skadi's
surprise when she heard the storm had taken her all the way from the Stormcatcher's
homeland and deposited her at the doorstep of the Earthshaker! Fortunately, the Spirals
were from a welcoming clan, and they took the wayward Imperial in.

It took a great amount of exercise, medicine, and magic to excise the crystals that had
grown on and adhered to Skadi's wings. Even with the best efforts of healers from all
around the realm, and even personal advice by the earthen Deity, the ice-like crystals
stayed resolute. To slow their progressive takeover of Skadi's body, the clan elders
ordered her swathed in blue cloths, each strand set with a powerful charm that would hold
back the magic of the heavens.

To this day Skadi wears her makeshift set of bandages that adorn her from head to toe. It
is her fervent hope one day that she will be able to remove them and challenge the skies
once more. Until then, however, she is content to stay firmly beneath the cloud layer,
roaring angrily up at it, always taking to the skies during every thunder storm, still
working up the courage to again pierce the layer of darkness.

Written by Xairathan