Hael

Hael Kind heart

Although timid as a child, Hael's adoptive brother Rahz ended up taking her under his wing to train her in combat. This both strengthened her body and her mind, causing her to come out of her shell. Quickly, she rose within the ranks of the lair to stand beside the strongest of dragons. And now, as an adult, she has become quite feisty, kind and full of good humor, so unlike her adoptive brother. However she does carry his strength and training where ever she goes. The strength and training of a warrior. Song: Two Steps From Hell - Bravestone

---
Background: Scared and uneasy from the past couple of days since her birth, the young denim imperial shook slightly as she peered up at the many dragons in the lair she just entered. Not hours before she was scooped out of the lair she shared with her mother by dragons she didn't know and was going to be sent out to work for a greater purpose. If not for a caring rescue service that would have been her fate.

It was at that time that a large rust guardian had found her and for reasons she couldn't fathom took a shine to the youngling. That large rust guardian just so happened to be the lair mother of this little clan.
Destael sat back on her haunches and reached out with her clawed hands, gently taking up the scared little girl and holding her close to her warm scaly body.

"shhhh, you're home now....." The guardian paused for a moment, considering a thought. "Hael." That name had been a name given to her own daughter. A daughter she had lost at a young age. Hopefully maybe she could make it up to the universe by giving this little girl a loving home. As her fiery eyes met the deep blue eyes of the imperial, Des knew that she would do right by this child.

---

Not remembering much of her past, it has always been a dream to see the sights of the world in all it's bright colors and multitude of elements.
It had taken convincing.....a lot of convincing....but she had finally managed to convince her adoptive mother and brother to let her go. So after all the trouble she went through to do this...why was she suddenly nervous? Standing at the edge of the fiery lair, the imperial laid her head on the much bigger Rahziels scarred shoulder.

He turned his head to her giving her a quirky and out of character smile. The very shock of it made her return the gesture.
"You be careful out there, sister." His deep voice rasped quietly but lovingly into her ears. "Remember what I taught you. And don't make me have to come looking for you."

Hael snorted, finally stepping away from the guardian. "Don't worry Rahz." Her normally soft spoken voice was hardened in resolve. "I'll be ok." She turned and smiled at him one last time before taking to the sky in search of adventure and new friends.

----
Flying for hours, the imperial started to second guess herself. Why had she left....she shouldn't have left. 'Stupid, stupid Hael,' she spoke out loud in disdain. Her bright blue eyes flicked down and she realized she was flying over water. Oh no.....had she went the wrong way??
Becoming very nervous she considered turning back when she say a land mass in the distance. Sighing in relief she made for it as quickly as possible, her wings tiring.

As the air became colder she shivered, a thought hitting her. Had she found herself in the land of the IceWarden?

Finally landing on the frozen ground, she thanked Rahz silently for giving her the jacket that was still draped around her shoulders. She had grown up....fought, trained, lived in the lands of the Flamecaller. This was......very different.

Scanning the area, she started walking, giving her wings a break. Hopefully she would find someone soon-
Stopping mid-step she squinted into the distance. Oh. There was someone. She could JUST make out the form of a dragon.....

_____________________________________________________________________________________

The dragon was walking quickly towards her. She squinted against the cold, frozen wind blowing against her face, and tried to see if she could recognize it.
When it finally came close enough to see against the snow, she could see that it was a white tundra with light brown wings. He stopped just out of her reach and looked at her curiously.
"I don't think I've seen you before. You don't smell familiar at all." He said it in a non threatening voice, but Hael could hear that he was cautious towards her.

"I come from the lands of the Flamecaller." she answered him. "l'm traveling to see the sights of the world." Hael didn't go any closer to the tundra. She couldn't be sure he meant her well, or if he was just waiting for her to let her guard down.

"A traveler!" the tundra suddenly said in a brighter voice. "It's been ages since I met one of those. Please come with me to the lair, and you can get something to eat before go on." He suddenly turned his back at her and started walking. When she didn't immediately follow, he turned his head and shouted back at her.
"Well come on! We don't have that many hours of sunshine here as you might be used to, and it will soon be dark." He then went back to walking again. Hael hesitated for a moment. He could be trying to trick her...But then she decided to take the chance anyway. She was sure she could handle a tundra.
---
The tundra led her quickly through a maze of ice blocks, and Hael was amazed that he even managed to find his way when everything looked the same.
They reached a small lair of dragons just as the dark was falling. The tundra led her to a cave made of snow, and then left her. He returned a little while later with some fish for her to eat.
"You can sleep here tonight. Tomorrow you will meet the others," he said. "Oh, and I nearly forgot! My name is Dominique, but you can shorten it anyway you like. I can assure you I have heard every version of it." he blinked at her and walked away, quickly disappearing in the dark and the snow.
---
When Hael woke up the next day, she was warmer than she had thought. The walls of the snow cave around her had melted a bit from her body heat, but other than that they held fine. She got up and made her way outside to look around. The lair she was in wasn't very big. Most of the dragons were laid out in the sun, some of the smaller on top of the bigger ones. As she was looking around, the tundra, Dominique, came over to her with three small hatchlings jumping and running between his legs. When he was very close, a voice called out from behind him, and the hatchlings turned and ran back the way they had come to gather around a cautious looking
mirror.

"They are careful about strangers," Dominique said as an explanation to the hatchlings being called back. "Do you want any more food?"
"Yes, please."Hael answered, not sure how much food it was possible to find in the freezing environment.

"Come with me, then." Dominique said as he turned and made for a hole in the snow that served as a storage for food.
---
Over the next few days, Hael learned as much as she could about the life in the land of the Icewarden. She met all the different dragons, including the hatchlings that had been allowed to get close to her after a few days.
"We should give you something, as a memory of your stay here." Dominique said one day.

"Averie, Marcello, do you have anything you can spare." he asked sarcastically at a fae and a mirror, dressed in a lot of apparel. They looked at each other and shook their heads in a silent no, before the fae darted of.
He returned not long after with a beautiful pink rose that he offered her.

"You can have this," he said. "It can almost be compared to your beauty." He winked at her and skillfully dodged a tail aimed playfully at his head. Hael smiled shyly and thanked him.
---
When the day came for her to leave the camp, she looked around almost sad. She had actually come to like the glittering lands and the small clan of strange dragons, but she was sure she was never going to miss the never ending cold.
She started off after a quick goodbye, making good speed in the cold air. She didn't have to fly log before she could feel the heat starting to climb around her. It seemed that she had managed to make her way back to the lands of the Flamecaller again.

---

Back in the warm lands of the Flamecaller Hael touched down the open mouth of a very large cave. She peered inside reminding herself that she wasn't that scared little hatchling anymore.

She was very pleased to see guardians like her adoptive mother and decided to make herself at home. During her time in the large lair Hael met an Imperial with denim wings. His name was Taltos. He showed her around introducing her to all of the other Imperials, most of which had a snobbish attitude.

When the week ended Taltos was sad to see Hael go, but gave he gave her some Steampunk attire because he thought it suited her warrior like nature.

---

Hael did not have to travel long before a friendly wildclaw spotted her and invited her to stay for a while. Vise was bedecked in blue feathers even though he was red with silver wings. As he walked her back to the Lair, he told Hael that he used to be blue with red wings, but the clan had changed him with magic. Vise was happy with his new look, but kept the blue feathers to remind himself of his old one.

The clan was a busy one, with many young dragons growing up, learning to fight, and going on to serve Flamecaller. Others came from far away lands. One young skydancer was a refugee from a Lair devastated by sickness. Vise was a member of a fighting team, who often trained the newly grown before sending them to their work.

Hael was welcome with the fighters, but her stay was interrupted by a great upheaval in the land, fierce even compared to the usual turbulence in the Fire Flight's lands. Half the Lair was buried and had to be dug out. Hael pitched in with the other dragons, getting her claws dirty alongside the guardians and tundras while a pair of spirals ran messages back and forth.

When the dragons were freed, it was to a pile of new baby snappers, hatched in the warm dark. Chert thanked Hael for her help, giving her a couple of items to aid her in battle. Vise gave her a few feathers. "In case you ever change your skin." he said.

---

Flying onward again, Hael found herself on the stinking thermals of the Scarred Wasteland instead, a very different heat. She had certainly heard quite a few terrible things about these lands...but, if one was going to see the sights of the world, didn't it make sense to try to see all of them? Down below her the ground seemed to shift and twist like a thing alive, and that was a morbidly fascinating sight all on its own. Perhaps it would be worth it to look around after all?

She had not been flying over the Scarred Wasteland long before she found herself flanked on either side by a pair of smaller dragons. When they saw that she had noticed them, one pointed down to the ground.

"You're in Delphi's airspace," the Guardian told her bluntly. "You'll have to turn around or land."

Hael blinked in surprise. She had never heard of anyone claiming territory rights on the air before. Could you even do that? While she was gawping at this odd command, she heard a sharp cry from above, and a sudden weight struck her shoulders between her wings, sharp with claw points. Hael let out a howl of surprise--there were more of them than she had thought, and she was being attacked!

As shocked as she was, she was a warrior and not about to let herself be pushed around, so she shook off her small assailant and turned to face the other dragon.

"Not a big listener, are you?" She caught a glimpse of a small mirror covered in bone and beads flash her a wild grin before it twisted out of reach of her claws. "Seems like you need a short, sharp lesson in doing what you're told!"

Hael growled in frustration. Fighting in the air was different than on the ground, and the three smaller dragons looped around her and avoided her blows with embarrassing ease. "You didn't give me a chance to respond!"

"You didn't comply!" Responded the Guardian. "Land or turn back--"

"Or we'll bring you down to earth ourselves--literally!" Cackling, the mirror pounced on her from behind again. Her claws hooked into the edges of the steampunk attire on Hael's wings, and the imperial felt a sudden surge of cold through the metal. The machinery groaned as it began to lock up. This time, Hael could not shake her off--the small dragon only dug her freezing claws in deeper.

Panicking, Hael realized that the machinery, now clogged with ice, was restraining her wings. She began to drop. "Get off of me!"

"It's over--finished!"

The others descended on her.

-

Ultimately, it was for the best that they had, as being caught up by the patrol's dragons was all that kept Hael from crashing to the ground. She was returned to a nearby lair, where she was placed under the care of another, younger Imperial. The diminutive 'nurse' (not even ten meters yet) was almost comically brusque, acting as if she were far too mature for the kind of 'shenanigans' which had landed Hael in her care even as she pressed for details with poorly-veiled excitement. In spite of the circumstances, Hael found herself taking a liking to the younger dragon.

Her wounds were still being cleaned when the guardian from the air patrol came in to check on her. "I want to apologize for the attack," she blurted, before Hael could say anything. "Ahurewa is a little out of her tree. That isn't how we do things here anymore."

The 'anymore' was a bit unsettling, but Hael shrugged it off. "I didn't realize I was trespassing."

"The clan's gotten strange about territory and borders since Traachon was put in charge of that kind of thing, and stranger about airspace since she put Ahurewa in charge of guarding it." The Guardian shrugged as well. "Anyway, it was our mistake, and we'll fix you up. I'm Rue. What brings you to Delphi?"

Hael told her story, and in the end all three of them wound up settling in for a very long chat.

-

Hael stayed at the lair for a week. Though at first she had thought it belonged to a small clan, she learned that it was only one of many lairs dotted around the sprawling lands of a somewhat massive one. There was a brief scare with infection, but her nurse--First Aid was the young Imperial's name--took excellent care of her, and in the end there were only a few scratches which seemed intent on scarring.

While she was recovering, someone took it upon themselves to repair her steampunk wings, which she appreciated. When she was comfortable flying again, Hael was taken up to practice aerial combat with the patrol group. Though Rue had been the one to invite her, it was Ahurewa that presented her with the skull-and-bead necklace the patrol all wore at the end of her stay.

"Well and truly," the Mirror told her, "You have shown the clan that you are one of us. Can I do less?" It turned out when she wasn't randomly attacking, she was actually just boisterous and rather fun to be around...though she still talked strangely.

All in all, perhaps the only regret that Hael left with was the way her scales had started to itch and flake off by the time she left.

(added Veteran's ShoulderScars, Veteran's Leg Scars, Brown Birdskull Necklace, Speckle gene)

---

Hael landed when the itch on her shoulder became unbearable. The rest of her body had healed quickly enough, it was just that one damned spot on her right shoulder, right underneath her scarring, that just refused to let up.
As she administered a much-needed scratching on the offending shoulder, she surveyed her surroundings. She seemed to be in the Starwood Strand, although she had no clue how she had made it this far.

A sudden ruckus shook her from her musings. She ducked out of the way as an icy-colored Guardian crash-landed right where she had been preening. Hael rushed over to the smaller dragon.

"Are you alright?"

The Guardian gave a groan and slowly righted herself. She glanced blearily at Hael, then groaned again and shut her eyes. "I can't tell which one of you said that," she muttered, putting her head between her claws.
"Brightstone!" An even smaller Pearlcatcher landed next to the fallen dragon, glancing sideways at the Imperial before tending to her friend. "You shouldn't be flying, that Tengu got you really bad!"

The smaller dragon turned to Hael. "I'm really sorry, but could you help us? Our lair's close by but Kurloz and I will never be able to get Brightstone there by ourselves."

"Skyflower, it's fine, I can--" the Guardian brushed off the mulberry Spiral (where had he come from? Hael hadn't even noticed him,) and started to stand, but suddenly fell to her belly again. "Maybe I do need help..."

Hael nodded. "I can help. Where did you say your lair was?"

As the small flight made their way back to the clan, Hael introduced herself and made conversation with the other dragons (well, all except Kurloz, he was very quiet and it wasn't until later that Hael realized he was mute, and Brightstone wasn't really much for conversation as she was sporting a rather nasty bruise on her side and a rapidly swelling lump on her forehead.)

Skyflower, Kurloz, and Brightstone were all members of the conquering squad of the Clan of the Rising Sparrow, but Brightstone had gotten a bit clumsy with a Tengu. The creature had knocked the Guardian silly.

Upon arriving at the lair, Hael offered her services. Seeing as how the Pearlcatcher doctors immediately shouted "Concussion!" and put Brightstone on bedrest, the Imperial figured they would need a third to round out their squad.

Hael spent the next week fighting alongside Kurloz and Skyflower. Once she got used to and learned the Spiral's odd method of communication, it was rather easy to devise strategies and battle plans, and the Pearlcatcher was rather strong and vicious for her size. Scarily so, Hael thought one day, as she watched the tiny dragon annihilate an opposing Baku with one blow.
Once the doctors had deemed Brightstone able to leave her sick room, the Guardian thanked the larger dragon profusely.
"Look, I know it's not much, but I want you to have my haul for this week. I didn't earn it anyways," she said. She shoved a small pouch of coins into Hael's travel satchel before the Imperial could say no.

"Well, that's a first," Skyflower grinned. "Thanks for all your help, Hael, are you sure you can't stay longer?"

Hael thought about it. It was a nice lair, and there were lots of other Imperials around, one a really handsome male who had tried valiantly to catch her eye at mealtimes. Maybe.....
"No, Sky, I'm afraid I have to be going" she decided. She thought of her brother suddenly and snickered. "I also have a family to go home to, my brother would be very mad if he had to come looking for me."

Skyflower grinned knowingly. "Well, may the wind be ever at your back, friend Hael."

---

While wandering, Hael found herself a Plague clan to stay with when she bumped into a soaring Skydancer, later discovering her name to be Raive. She offered Hael a place to stay, and after traveling so long, how could she resist? She was grateful for the rest and for the company; it had been days since she'd even seen another dragon, much less spoken to one--and here she was in a lair of at least thirty more of her kind! (Well, not HER kind, since it was a very diverse lair, but still! Other dragons!) They swapped stories, and she even had a few to add in of her own: the lairs she'd stayed in, the dragons she'd met, all recently! She felt very...cultured? well-traveled? as she spoke of her adventures. Yes, adventurous, like the heroes of old she'd grown up admiring. Now she felt as if she'd joined their ranks permanently, and she longed to see what her future held. Young dragons offered her gifts, trinkets, but she refused them all; she had to travel light, and besides, she couldn't accept such lavish presents. It didn't feel right to her! Though, when a young Mirror female offered her a creature she'd found (that was just taking up space and eating food in the clan) Hael couldn't resist taking it off their hands. It was sooo cute. Plus, she thought, she needed company on her journey. It definitely couldn't hurt, even if she had to scavenge for food for both of them now. Oh, well, she thought as she curled up next to the creature to sleep, preparing for her long flight tomorrow. It was definitely worth it.
She took off before the others could convince her to stay; she knew she wouldn't have the heart to refuse them and their good will in letting her stay here. She didn't leave without saying goodbye, though; she scrawled a note in chalk on the wall in the cave she'd been staying, telling the entire clan thank you for sheltering her.

---

-As it turned out, the Noggle was not a picky eater. Each time Hael had landed by a stream or river in search of fish, the familiar would eat whatever it saw, regardless of her efforts to catch fish for him.
-Of course, there wasn't exactly a shortage of fish. She had come to the Tidelord's domain, which, despite her life with the teachings of the Flamecaller, felt oddly familiar and safe. As she stared at her reflection in the clear waters, she decided it must be a part of her past she barely remembered... something about her mother, and water as far as the eye could see. Her reverie was broken by the glimmer of silver scales as a fish darted into her line of sight. Reflexively, her claws flashed out, hooking the squirming fish out of the water and tossing him into the air.
-"Wow! That was an amazing catch!"
-Hael whirled at the voice and found herself face to face with a blue and red spiral and a black and blue fae, both carrying packs full to bursting with captured bugs and prey animals. It was the spiral who had spoken-- was still speaking, she realized as she sized him up.
-"I mean, that was excellent! None of the clan are very good at fishing-- we've never had to be until recently when the little ones arrived, so the ease with which you caught that was just phenomenal!"
-"Opassa," the fae murmured with amusement, "I don't think she wants to hear your congratulations right now."
-The spiral blinked and ducked his head in embarrassment. "Right. Of course. You must be very tired, and it's close to dark here," he said as he glanced at the sky. "How about you come back to our clan for the night?"
Hael pondered for a moment, then nodded. She followed the pair along the waters edge for almost a mile before they came across a large cave entrance several meters from the water's edge. The sand here was soft and dry, and as she poked her head into the cave behind her guides, she saw it was filled with dragons busily settling down for the night. She hesitated, but the fae smiled and beckoned her inside.
-"They're all quite kind, if you're not a Lightning dragon... Death's Door has issues with them."
-She wasn't entirely sure she wanted to share a cave with a dragon whose name was so... dark... but Hael knew she had nowhere else to spend the night.
-As it turned out, the dragons were very kind. Upon entering, she was immediately greeted by a teal skydancer covered in bloody bandages. Despite her fearsome visage, the dragoness smiled warmly at Hael and bowed her head in greeting.
-"Welcome, stranger," she whistled softly, and Hael couldn't help but smile. "I'm Dragon's Tear, the second-in-command here." The imperial's smile disappeared when she noticed a peculiar glint in the skydancer's blue eyes. "We haven't ever come very close to one of your kind, until recently..."
-Why so? she wanted to ask, but kept her mouth shut.
-"The little ones will be very glad to meet you. Though, uhm..." Embarrassment. That was the look, and Hael's tense muscles relaxed as she realized the other female was trying to find the words to ask her something.
-"Little ones?" she inquired.
-Dragon's Tear nodded. "Yesterday Asanti was supposed to guide her sons through the Flight auctions so that they could find their new homes with other clans and learn from them. Not only did she not allow her sons to leave, but she brought back with her two young imperials." Shaking her head slightly, the dragoness continued. "Imperials in a clan that has access to an abundance of fish and no real experience fishing, if I'm to be honest."
-Sensing a question coming, Hael quickly said, "You want me to teach them to fish?"
-The skydancer gave her an embarrassed smile, but Hael was glad to have something to do with the clan.
-By the time she left, there wasn't a dragon in that cavern who couldn't fish with the best. Who had ever heard of a Water clan that couldn't fish?
----
Chance and strong winds brought Hael back to the Icewarden's lands, where she was spotted by a speckle-winged Ridgeback. "Another traveler!" She said cheerfully. "I'm Verloren. And who are you?"

"Hael," she said, altering her flight path to match Verloren's.

"Hael! Well, come on, I know what tired flying looks like. Stay awhile!"

Hael was glad to find that the Ice Lair she ended up in had a couple of other Imperials, a mated pair named Leftrin and Alise. She spent a lot of time with them, and with Verloren, who had wandered for a time herself and was full of stories.

"Here," Verloren said when it was time for Hael to move on. "You already have a companion, and I imagine you don't want any more stuff. So here, take some of our treasure. That way once you finally go home, you will have a nice little 'nest egg'."

Items : Green Birdskull Headdress, Brown Birdskull Necklace, Gold Steampunk Wings, Blushing Pink Rose, Veteran's Shoulder Scars, Veteran's Leg Scars, 15k Treasure
Familiar: Noggle
Treasure: 25k

---

The brain4puzzles lair was her next stop. It was a busy place, but two spirals quickly made her welcome: Squeeze and Milintica. They took her training, and enjoyed watching her fish.


The other imperials also welcomed her, including an older male named Lucilius. Soon, two eggs welcomed her as well.

As Hael worked, laughed, and roasted mallows over the fire at night, she realized that she wasn't even sure who the matron of the lair was. Well, on my last night, I will ask, she told herself.

In the mean time she trained newbies, stretched out her wings over eggs and hatchlings alike (that 21 meter wingspan came in handy), and shelved books on the top shelf for the librarians.

She even made up a Foolish Dragon story!

Once there was a foolish dragon who wanted to catch a fish. So he went over to the forest and looked under all the logs.

Not finding any, he looked in the trees!

He even dug some holes in the ground!


Finally he gave up and went home. Surprised, his friends asked him why he didn't have any fish.

"I couldn't find any," he said.

"Didn't you find any water?" they asked.

"No, I went to the forest. Fish would drown in water."

He was a very foolish dragon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It was time to go. Hael nosed her babies. ";Be good now! Learn how to fish from these good dragons. I taught them all I know."


She looked at IceRose. "Thank you for the stay."


"You are welcome. Thanks for helping Squeeze and Milintica get to level 13. Now go enjoy the VijaThorn lair."

Items : Green Birdskull Headdress, Brown Birdskull Necklace, Gold Steampunk Wings, Blushing Pink Rose, Veteran's Shoulder Scars, Veteran's Leg Scars
Familiar: Noggle
Treasure: 25k, 10 gems