Rurik

Rurik, in his past, was not known for his luck. He was a water-fearing Ridgeback born into a coastal Arcane clan, not the best of looks, not the brightest of minds. He had no magical inclination, and very little natural affinity for fighting. The only thing he really had going for him was his curiosity, but... well, luckiness and curiosity rarely correlate.

Rurik stumbled across Bonerattle Point in its infancy, when Mateja's grip over the area was not as strong as it was now. The clan was small, the numbers not great, and its warriors untrained and unhardened. Rurik was known by a different name then, a name he doesn't quite remember anymore. It hardly matters now, anyways. Back then, he'd been one of the first to try and weasel his way into the Icefield out of curiosity. He'd been accosted by a little Mirror and dragged to a tiny little clan who proclaimed he was now their prisoner. And he was. In a manner of speaking.

See, back then, there were no cells, really. He was less confined by bars and more confined by the way Mateja would snap her jaws at him and snarl if he tried wandering away when he thought she was asleep. He'd seen her take down dragons twice her size with little trouble, and he wasn't eager at that point to test whether she could take him. He was labor, made to help the clan he'd been snapped up by. He certainly was having his curiosity satisfied about how the Icefield worked, if not in the way he'd expected.

Rurik would ask about his sentence, the plans Mateja had for him, but she rarely ever answered him in a way that included an actual answer. Rurik was being held indefinitely for no crime? That had to be illegal. Kolya laughed in his face when he brought this concern up.

Though he remained officially a prisoner, over time, Rurik's duties became less punitive and more collaborative. He got assistance with his duties, he became rewarded for good work, and Mateja rarely snapped at him anymore. In fact, even his restrictions on activity around the clan became more and more lax. Soon, Mateja was even being friendly with him. What was this? Was he still a prisoner?

But deep in the pit of his stomach, a deeper dread began to take hold. The clan's doctor, a smiling and spicy creature named Tsetseg, was getting closer and closer to him, and Rurik wasn't sure at all that that was... allowed. That, and Tsetseg had no idea he was technically a prisoner of the clan. Mateja hadn't publicly called him her prisoner since before Tsetseg had ever joined. She pursued him, and he shrank away, even though he never wanted to.

Rurik broke down to Mateja one night, asking her to release him or just give him a final punishment. Mateja said she knew why he wanted to be released, and that she was happy for him. To Rurik's astonishment, she gave him her blessing. She told him he should never leave her, that Tsetseg was a catch, and that he would have a duty to her for the rest of his life. Rurik just agreed, in disbelief that it was happening and that Mateja was releasing him. (She wasn't.)

When he looks back on it now, allowing him to love Tsetseg was simply Mateja's easiest way of keeping him part of the living machine of Clan Zmaj. Whether he's a prisoner or a subject or a friend or the clan doctor's mate... at the end of it all, Mateja still kept him hers.

He's now a 'core member,' one of Mateja's most prominent warriors and guards. He stalks along the now-developed architecture of the Point's prison system, keeping the recent prisoners in check, distributing rations, and returns to Tsetseg at the end of every day satisfied at keeping the clan going.

When he looks into the eyes of the panicking, desparing, desolate dragons behind bars, he feels only relief. For once in his life, he was lucky.