Iris

The Initial Encounter
A red-cloaked, battle-scarred, periwinkle Skydancer was fighting in tandem with a yellow crystal-like Spiral dragon, the Spiral coiling around the Skydancer as he snapped at the strange, dangerous, mechanical creatures. The Skydancer weaved in and out in between the coils and swiftly scratched, bit, and defeated the wispy enemies with such ease that to an untrained spectator's eye, the two were flawless. But the story was different in the heat of the moment.

Looking closer, the two dragons were breathing heavily and they were scratched up, some scars deepened, and some new ones might have been made. If you knew the two, you could see their attacks were weaker, their defenses slipping.

The Spiral breathed out a focused blast of fire, but in his exhaustion, the ugly blue goblin-like creature only dodged. The goblin and its teammate dashed and hit first the Spiral, then the Skydancer as the Spiral writhed and tried to retaliate. The Skydancer's gaze hardened, and she slashed at her opponent once, then brought down her sharp talons and eliminated them.

Breathing hard, she turned to face the other second goblin, but it was too fast. Leaping on top of her, the goblin tackled her to the ground, bit her hard, then leaped off, cackling. The Spiral was stunned, and the Skydancer tried to stand up on shaking legs, coughing.

The Spiral was about to muster up the last of his strength to drag the Skydancer away from the battlefield, when in a whoosh of pastel blue and pink smoke a dragon stood silhouetted against the green glow of the portal. The Spiral hissed weakly, thinking it was just another opponent, but the dragon summoned a small tornado to attack the goblin, confusing it. As the goblin tried to figure out which way was up or down, the dragon sent a green mist at the two fighters. The Skydancer watched, entranced as the mist enveloped her wounds and sunk into her scales and feathers, closing fresh wounds, sharpening talons, and even fixed feathers. Her exhaustion faded away, revealing a renewed fighting energy.

The Skydancer stood up on four legs, baring her teeth at the stranger, still wary. "Who are you? And what did you do to me?"

"Is that how you're going to treat someone who just saved your life?" a hushed, whispered voice almost laughed. As pink and blue mist swirled around the stranger, keeping them still shielded from view, the strange dragon's golden horns glistened, and their light green eyes shone through, giving the Skydancer a hard stare. "I'm the dragon who's coming with you to help you win this battle against these broken portals."