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_____
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U M B R A
Matriarch | Leader | Progenitor
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STATISTICS:
STR
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DEF
|▓▓▓░░░░░░|
AGI
|▓▓░░░░░░░|
INT
|▓▓▓▓▓▓░░░|
WIS
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VIT
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Umbra's rebirth has opened up fresh veins of strength, allowing her to try her hand once again at the Coliseum.
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Cabrra was the first of her clan, but she wasn't alone. She never had parents - only the Keeper, whom looked after her ever since the Shadows created her egg. Once she was nothing - just dust and dreams - and then she was something, something to hope for.
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All she recalled about birth was waking up in a dark cave with the Keeper watching over her, smiling. In all her life, she had never been alone - and when the time finally came that she could wander, there came many to stand beside her.
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Despite her company, she was lonely… until she met Chroma; though she was ages older, he was the only wise one. He taught her everything and explained so much. Cabrra could never understand why the clan referred to him as the "Silent General" when he spoke to her so much and at such length.
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He once told her that life is not all about mates and hatchlings. One must be forgiven for desiring something more. To some, a mate is not enough. To others, a mate is all that is needed. Some live for family, and some live for battle -- but all live for blood.
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____The Keeper walked beside her, cutting quickly through the dense bramble, and soon they emerged from Adavar's territory and unto that of which was most sacred to those of shadow: the obscured crescent.
"Cabrra," the Keeper spoke to her as they walked and she felt her hand touch her skin. "You don't have to do this, you are still young."
She shook her head, knowing her keeper was reluctant to let her go. "I don't feel it, Keeper, I feel ancient. I understand nothing of what the hatchlings speak of in these times, and this body is so tired."
The Keeper blinked away tears. "Are you not happy? With your company, with your mate? I can bring you companions, I can find you a new mate."
Cabrra stared ahead at the approaching pillars. "The residents are fine, and Tenebris is also fine. My time has come, Keeper, it's no one's fault. I've lived through so many fights, had so many loves, watched so many hatch and die; come and leave. It's simply time to return to the shadows."
The Keeper stopped at the edge of the forum and took Cabrra's head in her hands. "You were my first, little one, and I hoped you'd always be my last. Every day I thank Shadowbinder for blessing me with you."
She felt warm at her keeper's words, and then cool as she kissed her snout and slowly let go. She stepped back, knowing the Keeper would stay until dawn's light.
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Cabrra turned and stared down at the bubbling pool of shadows as she slowly descended the large forum steps. It was common belief that progenitors must become one with their creator when it is their time, and return to their deity the breath they breathed upon their egg.
Silently, she thanked Shadowbinder for her life, Plaguebringer for her form, the Keeper for companionship and care... and then she dipped her claw into the thick purple ooze and lowered herself in, sinking fast, she was quickly gone to the darkness.
Shadows seeped into her lungs from her open mouth as she gasped for a single breath; they oozed into her body, filling her. Goopy tendrils stripped away her form until there is little more to her than when she was once an egg, though she cannot feel a thing of it — and then they consume her, wrapping around what is left: Shadowbinder's blessed breath that was absorbed upon her creation.
They tightened and tightened, tendrils merging together and pulsating against the glow of their creator's energy until an obscured voice cuts through the thick, sludge-like fog of her consciousness.
"Breathe."
And so she did, sucking in the shadows, smothering the purple glow... and she could feel herself rising, tendrils still clinging onto her.
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She kept breathing, every breath bringing more into her and lifting her higher until she took her final gasp for air, her lungs full, and with one heave the ooze pushed her out onto stone and she can feel the cold on her bones and flesh.
She tried to breathe again, but the shadows still fill her. Panic rose and she stumbled to her feet only to fall —once, twice, three times— until she finally managed to stand steady.
She retched sticky sludge and it oozed from between her teeth.
The shadowy oozing form blindly stumbled forward, her talons tracing the steps of the forum as she ascended them, she could feel her flesh and skin knitting together as she moved, her body reforming under the shadows that coated her like a layer of algae on a still pool.
Soon she heard the lullaby hum of the hungry caves as it entranced her, guiding her claws to the mouth of it. She could feel the warmth of the bodies within and the wisps of flames lighting the walls, but she couldn't see at all. Her vision was engulfed with darkness and the way in which she moved, the way her body felt, the way she heard the sounds of what was once familiar... It had changed.
She did not die as she thought she would. She was reborn.
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____Shadows flickered along the carved stone walls of the caves, the flames lighting the tunnels casting an eerie glow out from the entrance and silhouetting the form that lingered there.
A swirling tendril of purple smoke left the lips of Adavar's Keeper as she softly exhaled into the air of the mild night.
Winter's breeze rustled through the tops of the evergreens, stirring the slumbering creatures of shadow that called Wispwillow Grove their home.
Keeper Maocifer crossed her arms over her midsection and tapped away the ash from her crackling pipe, scuffing embers into the stone ledge with a heeled leather boot.
It had been days since Cabrra had departed, and since she had the nights felt colder; the dragon she had built her clan with under the Shadowbinder's watchful gaze was gone as quick as the bat of an eyelash.
She had remained hopeful that her beloved mirror would return, sticky from the pool's sludge but still intact; she'd hoped Cabrra would glide back in, settle down on the cushions in the keeper's room where she often slept, and recount the tale of how she felt refreshed and pulled herself out of the pool to be back with her clan and forget her thoughts of retirement. But the keeper's hope quickly faded and doubt gnawed on her heart as the days wandered past and the same fact rang in her head: Nothing that enters emerges from Shadow's pool.
She did not go to it herself, she could not, but the others she sent to check told the same tale day after day: nothing stirred in the Obscured Crescent. Not a sound to be heard nor a sight to be seen nor a sense to be felt.
Those days that passed since the keeper had reluctantly meandered back to the caves without her first beside her went by in a state of bittersweet agony.
She had given up; what had been done was done.
Skrit. Skrit.
A peculiar noise pulled the mourning keeper from her thoughts and she peered into the expanse of brambles stretching wide onto the horizon.
Skrit. Skrit.
Her dagger was quickly unbuckled from her side, her gaze raking the dense coverage for any sign of movement. Unless they were to feed the ever-hungry caves, visitors were not welcome in Adavar. The night patrol was out and hunting nocturnals in the light of glowshrooms, far from the den, and the remainder of her residents were soundly asleep deep within the caves. If the emitter of the mysterious noise proved to be more than she could handle, there was no one around to aid her.
Skrit. Skrit.
The sound of leathery skin on stone caused her to spin around faster than her booted feet could account for on the uneven surface, and with a helpless yelp, the keeper fell onto her behind — hitting the stone plateau with a hard and painful thump. Her dagger skid across the slanted rock, teetering precariously on the edge before taking the plunge down into thick brambles...
Her breath caught in her chest, heart racing, as her head snapped up to catch whatever it was that had emerged from the caves at this hour.
A hesitant sigh of relief escaped the keeper's lips as her eyes met with the shimmering obsidian form of Tenebris. Ice white eyes stared curiously back at her, tinted blue in the glow of the moon.
The land fell silent for a mere moment, all strange noises from the area beyond had ceased, and the keeper averted her eyes from the young Mirror as she gingerly climbed back onto her feet and subconsciously gave up on ever seeing her dagger again.
"Tenebris," she greeted, though knowing he could not reply she kept on. "Are you— Are you waiting for her too?" She let out a shaky breath and loosened the fists she hadn't even noticed her fingers curl up into.
The Mirror nodded in the corner of her eye and his gaze shifted back to the horizon. Beyond the bramble, where the forum sat, he hoped his mate would rise and return to him. Things felt empty without her around and he found himself wandering aimlessly a lot, lost in the caves and saved at every last second by a clan member having to pull him back from the direction of the gnawing shadows.
Keeper Maocifer could tell he was hurting.
Tenebris shared a bond like no other she had seen in her first's previous partners, and the keeper felt guilty to admit that she had been neglectful of his emotions during Cabrra's absence.
Where others had sought to please their keeper in accepting Cabrra, Tenebris didn't seem to mind what she thought of him. Where others felt the need to display their affections for the old mirror in front of her, Tenebris was much more comfortable in leaving his partner to her own devices just as she left him to his. He kept by her, like a lingering shadow, watching her actions in silence.
Though, being mute, she didn't suspect it would be easy if he wanted to portray otherwise, but it seemed to her that he really did want to stay by his partner no matter what. Cabrra seemed to not be bothered by her extra shadow, even attempting to get him to come closer to the others during conversation. To no avail, but they didn't linger on it, they accepted each other.
Maocifer was proud that she had finally, after all the time her first had been lonely, found her the perfect partner.
And now, without prior warning than the day she came to her seeking to leave, she was gone.
Her Keeper and her mate were left alone.
"I won't try and find you someone new," she began again, hoping to break the silence that scratched at the hole in her heart. "Rather, I'm still hoping she'll come back for us."
"So, if, while we wait, you, at any point, want to... Lie where she lay... My door is always open."
With that the keeper chose to end the crushing air that hung other their togetherness; she turned back to the caves, ready to retreat once more into her quarters. Though something caused her to stop halfway as she passed Tenebris... It wasn't the glistening of his eyes, but rather how intently his gaze seemed fixed on something far away, as if he hadn't heard a word she had said to him.
The keeper let out a confused sigh and attempted to follow his gaze, failing to see anything useful in the dark until she heard it again, the sound from before:
Skrit. Skrit.
Her keen senses honed from years among drakes narrowed down onto a small patch of bramble to her left, just over the Mirror's head.
Tenebris' gaze was fixed on a duskrat, the same thing that she had found, and yet something told her that that's not what his senses were trying to lead him to — why else did he watch it so intently? Waiting...
Something tugged on the Mirror's mind. A tether that called out to him often only in his dreams. Only now it was telling him that that very rat right there, visible only through the slightest gap in the brambles that a moonbeam broke through to illuminate, was the most tantalising thing he had ever lain eyes upon. Hunger tugged at his bones.
The Keeper watched Tenebris flinch, and her eyes snapped back to the scene. A sharp intake of breath shook her, noticing that now the small morsel was not alone, nor was it silent.
Squeals filled her ears as it scrabbled in the jaws of a creatures several times its size that had pounced from the shadows, and clumsily missed its first few shots at the rat before snapping it up in lightning speed and throwing it about in its mouth; whatever it was, it was taking its time crunching through its prey — almost as if it hadn't quite figured out how to eat yet.
The helpless cries had ceased as the unmistakable crunching of bone echoed through the oddly silent territory, seeping into the stones beneath their feet.
(cont.)
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(cont-)
____A now-dead rat fell limply to the dusty ground between black, elongated claws — Discarded as the warmth faded from its tiny form.
A huff of air escaped the creature's nostrils and it stumbled blindly forward a few steps before its head snapped up and dark and empty orbs peered out through the thorns.
The Keeper's breath caught inside her chest.
The shadowed creature was hungry, she could sense it in the air. Gurgles of its empty stomach cried out for food.
Disinterested by the rat, its maw moved in an unfamiliar way. So thirsty, so hungry, and yet unable to consume.
Dappled moonbeams showed things moving beneath the goo that coated it partially, like flesh being sewn together under its hide. A pair of hazy orbs locked with hers but seemed uncertain, flickering and unable to focus.
The air whooshed past her as Tenebris leapt from her side. She didn't have time to call out for him to stop before he crashed through the dense bramble, ignored the thorns that sliced into his flesh and landed before the dark monstrosity.
The Keeper froze, watching for any signs of a fight. But all Tenebris did was snort into the creature's face, and in response the creature snorted back with flared nostrils, moving its strange head around as if trying to size up the young drake.
A raspy voice from ages past sounded in her ears, quiet and yet as clear as a crystalline pool.
"Ten.. e... bris."
Maocifer had to hit herself hard in the chest to check if she were dreaming, the familiar voice causing her heart to cease. It sounded like a younger Cabrra, as full of youth and vibrant on the day she celebrated her first month of life. The Keeper remembered it well: her pride and excitement to see her first doing so well.
But what sick joke was this? Cabrra was gone. She wasn't some slimy, goo-coated creature. She was an old Mirror, that was unchangeable.
"Tenebris, stand back." She threw an order at her drake but he seemed to ignore her, drawing a claw up through the thick purple sludge that coated the thing before him.
He stared at the mess on his talons for a moment before his eyes turned back to his keeper, a whirlwind of emotions pouring out through the iceborn's white eyes.
She was back.
She wasn't the same, but for that, he didn't mind, she was just back and that's all that mattered. His connection to her had never broken, he could feel it spreading warmth throughout him. She could speak to him in her soothing voice and he would return to her shadow, just as he liked to.
____The Keeper couldn't prevent herself from feeling unnerved by the form that had settled itself on her excessively cushioned sofa, where Cabrra always lay.
Even before they had bathed the unsteady creature to reveal its distinctly draconic form, Tenebris was still convinced it was her first, though she herself was sceptical. This drake was nothing like Cabrra. Aside from sharing the same colours, the patterning was entirely different — not to mention that the drake before her was a fresh-faced blind Nocturne that insisted that she be called Umbra as opposed to Cabrra, the time-worn Mirror that the keeper was so familiar with.
Umbra knew where everything was, despite being blind. She could put names to all her clanmates voices, aside from those that had joined since Cabrra's departing; she knew Adavar's secrets —ones the residents divulged to no one and ones that only Cabrra could've known— and she knew of their history and shared all of Cabrra's fondest memories.
Yet the Keeper was still unsure.
Especially when Umbra divulged, most openly, her plan.
Shadowbinder had given her a new chance at life to lead, that's how she saw her rebirth, and she'd spend that life in devotion.
She wanted Adavar to become a lair tasked with training the young and leading them on the path to honour and exaltation.
The Keeper let out a strangled sigh. "You want to lead again?" she asked. Cabrra would never have asked this — Cabrra was content with Tenebris and needed nothing more.
"Yes," the voice sang out, departing like a lullaby in the ear. It indeed was Cabrra's young voice, but Nocturnes were Shadowbinder's creation and so, of course, were masters of trickery in mimicry.
"That would require for Nocturne and Rosekeep to step down... They've been leaders for shadow knows how long, they know the needs of the clan above all, they're favoured and trusted. I can't just ask them to give that up without warning, they'll never—"
Umbra cut her off, holding up a talon as her blind eyes fixed on her. "You can do it, Keeper. It won't take much for them to forgive you. I know you'll work something out."
Keeper Maocifer held back a stubborn retort and her breath caught in her throat.
Anxiously, she sucked on the pipe she so often held in her hand, and let out yet another billow of lavender smoke. She didn't prefer to smoke inside her quarters and if it had been any other time, she would've scolded herself for it, but the meeting with Umbra was driving her dangerously close to the edge. She already sat there on the brink, staring down into disbelief, and yet her supposed first continually found ways to attempt to shove her even further into it.
With an eventually sigh, she set her pipe down on her desk piled high with parchments upon which was scrawled all sorts of tedious nonsense and stood to light the oil lamps as the caves grew darker and her workload ever heavier.
"I'll make you leader again," she said eventually, settling on one of that many plans whizzing around her head. "Give it a while," she amended slowly, "the clan is... reeling. For now, settle back with Tenebris."
The Nocturne seemed hesitant to leave the room. Her own nest had been one she had left rather abandoned a long time ago once she took to sleeping in her keeper's quarters.
Nonetheless, she slid down from the comfortable sofa without another word and stumbled forward unceremoniously before meeting Tenebris at the door so that he could walk down to Spire Cavern with her.
While The Keeper fit the cogs into her plan and made to turn them, Tenebris would be her eyes and ears if ever Umbra said anything extraordinarily out of character of Cabrra. If something went strangely, she'd know, and the Nocturne's plans would halt in motion. The Keeper couldn't risk their leader being a dangerous imposter, though the likelihood of that weighed on her mind and seemed ever more to not be the case.
If Cabrra was truly back, now different, now blind, now Umbra... Why didn't she feel the same as she had — warm and familiar?
It was unmistakable — the feeling of the presence of a stranger too close. But perhaps she wasn't a stranger, perhaps it really was her first, and it was only Adavar's Keeper that felt so off about it.
What then?
Umbra would rule Adavar once more.
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Keeper | Mate | Mother | Past
Bio template by Mibella, find it here.
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