Hecate

Only surviving daughter of Magnus

Art by VioletWind, from this thread

Hecate left her father’s clan back when it was still located by the Starwood Strand. As a hatchling, she had been uncomfortable with her very large, very crowded, and very boisterous clan, and she was eager to explore the world, so what better way than to join a small Wind clan? For years, she had roamed happily with her new family, never taking a mate of her own but happy to help watch over the hatchlings of others and absorb all the knowledge she could find.

Over time, though, she began to notice her former home had managed to leave its mark on her - some strange growths had started appearing around her face and on her tail, and a second set of wings had started to sprout from her back. None of her clan members had ever known of such a thing happening before, but then, the Starwood Strand was noted for its oddities so perhaps if she returned home, she might find answers? Hecate was sad to leave her adoptive family, but agreed that perhaps it was time to reconnect with her old one.

As she traveled, the wings and crystals continued to grow, until she had a rather magnificent crown of bright pink crystals that gave off a glow that made night travel much easier, an impressive spiked weapon for a tail, and a large set of dark, feathered wings that also sported a series of eerie eyes that matched the crystals in color. Another, larger eye had eventually sprouted seemingly out of thin air to hover over her forehead like some sort of Arcane sigil, though what it meant, she still had no more idea than she had before. Once the wings had reached their full span, Hecate had taken to flapping them along with her original set as she walked. It was a fantastic way to keep cool during the heat of the day, and as a bonus, the wings kept the worst of the biting insects at bay.

One day, she blundered by accident into the nest of a particularly nasty species of wasp, and as she spun around, flapping both sets of wings madly in an attempt to keep them from getting at her less-protected underbelly, something strange began to happen.

Her leathery wings, like those of all her landbound kind, were stubby and largely decorative. Good for a sunshade or a flyswatter and not much else. But her new, feathered wings? As she furiously flapped them, the crystals and eyes began to glow brighter and hum, and she felt herself beginning to lift off the ground.

In the air was not a place for a dragon with an unprotected underbelly to be when being attacked by wasps, so she stopped flapping her wings, dropped back to the ground and charged for the nearest body of water, which turned out to be the ocean. She splashed happily into the surf, sending up an enormous spray that drove off the bulk of the wasps, and she wallowed in the water until the rest of them got tired of breaking their stingers on the tough hide of her back and buzzed off.

Cautiously, she came back to the shore and settled on the beach to dry off. It took some time for the feathers to fully dry out, and Hecate made a mental note to try to avoid getting them so wet in the future. Once she was completely dry, she stood up and shook off the sand that had clung to her, then retreated back towards less sandy ground. She wanted to experiment with her newfound ability, and it seemed prudent to pick a place that wouldn’t send sand swirling up into her eyes with every wingbeat.

Cautiously, she started beating her wings again, both sets in tandem, and again she could see the crystals begin to glow brighter and hear their hum grow louder the faster she flapped, until once more she began to lift off the ground.

It wasn’t, quite, flight. More like assisted hovering, especially as she didn’t have the kind of well-developed wing muscles that would allow her to sustain it for long enough to do more than propel herself a short distance through the air, but considering that she could become airborne when she’d never been able to before, even with her Wind family’s aid, Hecate would take it. She dropped carefully back down to the ground and let out a bellow of pure joy, startling a flock of roosting birds into flight.

She also startled something - or someone - much larger, as a head crowned by branching pink and purple horns peered curiously over the treeline at her.

“I say, are you quite alright?” The imperial asked her, his voice a deep, sonorous rumble. “Archimedes and I were tracking an aetheric disturbance in the area and heard your yell.” Hecate blinked a few times in surprise, but before she could recover enough to answer, a tiny pink sprite fluttered up from where it had been hiding in the imperial’s long, draping hood, and chirped a few notes that Hecate couldn’t make sense of but seemed to mean something to the other dragon... familiar bonds were curious things. Hecate had seen some rather unique pair ups in her time with her Wind family, although she’d yet to find a creature who cared to share her nomadic life. The sprite finished their statement with a trilling flourish, and the imperial rumbled a laugh.

“Cheeky thing, but you have a point, I’ve forgotten my manners. My name is Marduk, and my sprite is Archimedes.” He dipped his head slightly in an introductory bow, and the sprite twinkled at her. Hecate bobbed her head in reply.

“Oh, hello, it’s, um, very nice to meet you both, my name is Hecate, and I’m quite alright, I was just... happy.” Her wings - all of them - fluttered nervously before she could check the impulse, and she folded them back tightly against her sides, but Marduk’s eyes narrowed as he caught a glimpse of the pink eyes nestled amongst the feathers.