WoodSprite

I am a child of the Gladekeeper. It's an honor, to be blessed directly by the Gladekeeper himself. I don't recall my hatching day, but my parents say there was great pomp and circumstance surrounding my birth, and they were quite proud that I was chosen.

I guess it made me too special, though, because I was kidnapped. I don't know by who, and I don't know where I was taken, but I was treated very nicely. Whoever it was obviously wanted me for my coat. They didn't truly understand the Gladekeeper's blessing that had been bestowed upon me, the forest magic that I now held inside.

I had been picked because of my colors. I am the rotting leaves that cover the ground in the woods. I am the sickly sweet rotting smell your nose tastes as you shuffle through the forest, disrupting the bed of old growth that has fallen for centuries. I am a magical being of the grove, a true Wood Sprite.

I conjured up the scent of rotting vegetation, made it so powerful my captors fled, as fast as their feet or wings could take them. It's a strange power that I have, but not useless.

I wandered then, without direction or intent, just trying to distance myself from the bad place where I had been kept. I flew blindly, not noticing where I had been or what the ground was like far beneath my wings. Then came a time when the wind suddenly picked up, and I was thrown about, helplessly beating my useless wings. I was stuck in some kind of land-hurricane! I'm sure I would have died there, had I not been saved by a golden spiral dragon who carried herself nimbly through the shifting air currents. She brought me to her lair, and explained to me that she had lived her whole life near the tornado, and knew how to fly through it. When I told her I had lost my parents, and did not know how to return home, she offered me a place here, with her and this family she had created for herself. I accepted, and have been here ever since.

I have seen maps since then, and know the location of the woods where I was born. I know that someday, my destiny will come calling and I will return to my family and the Gladekeeper. Yet somehow I can't bring myself to leave this little family just yet. This place has become my home. And for now, I am content.