Medi

Medi is clan queen, and her harsh upbringing is evident in her militant personality.


She was born in the land of fire into a peasant family. In this land, that meant miners, blacksmiths, metallurgists, and debt. Strong arms were needed, not wanted, and stocky bodies did better than longer ones. Hers was a family of pearlcatchers, in which she was the only daughter--it was miserable luck to a family like this, and indeed her brothers numbered into the tens. Her father took her outside to return her to the goddess via flame, unwilling to waste food on a girl. Her mother intervened, arguing that her daughter could be raised to be strong. Even though her father did his best to find faults, young Medi did not for one second disappoint them. Even when she was young, her body was swallowed by muscle, peppered with ash and gravel scars from working night and day in the mines or in front of the forge, creating all manner of armor and weapons for those with money. Her favorite pieces, though she dare not say it to just anyone, was the artwork. Every once in a great while, some rich noble would commission an elaborate metal sculpture from the forge's masters. Her many brothers would groan, unhappy with the change in operation, but Medi quietly hid her smile. It was a peaceful thing, artwork, and serenity was something she had never known in her roughened life. Holding the completed pieces in her tongs, just to stare, filled her with a sense of wonder. It also brought to her a forlorn sadness, for the peaceful emotions the artwork touched within her belonged to a world she knew she did not.


Then Atraxus came.


The clan lord visited the land of flame at random one day, seeking to kidnap wild creatures and unguarded, unhatched eggs, as well as anything else of value that he could scavenge. When he entered the forges, he expected piles of valuable ores. What he saw was an iron woman beating the daylights out of a hunk of metal that she wanted to be a shield. When she turned, she saw a wormy, bug-eyed dragon with soft scales. He was laughed out. Undeterred, he approached her again the following morning...


...to which she became deeply frustrated. She was a busy woman, and did not want to be dealing with some crazy, would-be suitor every single day. So, she gave him a task--bring her the largest, strongest familiar in the world, and she would marry him. Not only would he need to bring down the creature, he would need to fight the wilds to where the familiars actually lived. She fully expected such a stringy little dragon to die in the attempt, if the trek didn't kill him first.


Two things stunned her so badly she was rendered speechless: One, he returned within two weeks. Two, he brought her not just any familiar, but a foul-tempered, spirited one--a clear indication that his skills as a hunter were close to godly.


(In truth, he had gotten very lucky--the snare he had laid had accidentally knocked it unconscious, so all he had to do, in the end, was carry it back, easily done with a length of rope--but he didn't dare tell that to Medi.)


Even though he didn't yet so much as know her name, Medi took a lock of its mane to show her family, and tell them she was leaving to marry this strange and powerful man. She fully expected her mother to weep, which she did, and she fully expected her brothers to share mixed reactions of revelry, indignation, and broken sadness, all of which they did. She did not, however, expect her father--whom she had expected to be perhaps a little irritated at taking her work load onto himself along with what he had already--to fly into an unholy rage. Unwilling to take his abuse, Medi argued. Filled with violence, they whittled each other down to nothing with their words, until, winded, distracted, and defeated, Medi's father let slip that he absolutely refused to let her leave, because he had ten thousand sons he could get rid of any time of day, but he couldn't possibly bear to lose his one and only daughter.


A long, shocked silence followed.


His love was long awaited, but it was too late--Medi had already sworn to leave that very night. Tearfully, as a farewell present, she gave her father the hammer she used from her early youth to shape armor and weapons as she had done every day of her life--the greatest gift any flame dragon could give. In return, as a wedding present, her father presented her with his own--an ancient hammer passed down from father to son for generations upon generations in their family, dating back well before their first recorded history, well back into Middle Earth, where the most ancient dragons of the world stole the homes of dwarves for the jewel-laden crafts they were so skilled at making. Somehow, even though the dragons were usually forced from their stolen lairs at a regular basis, one had managed to keep a hold of this hammer, and passed it along to their child. It was in Medi's hands now, and seemed to hum and soothe her.


She held it in her arms when she took her vows in Atraxus's land, a beautiful desert with a breeze and a cool blue light filtering in from the stormy clouds above, and she kept it at her waist when she patrolled her new clan's grounds, keeping her new subjects busy with their daily chores. When Atraxus presented her with a forge and mine of her own, one of his many presents to her to express his love while he was away, she used the hammer to create shields, armor, weapons, and, perhaps the most magnificent of all, beautiful metal statues. These statues were of a legendary grace, and their cool surface seemed to sing to the rhythm of the ballads of old; they were dragon-heard dwarven melodies that reverberated deep within the ancient mountains of the age before history, peaceful songs of the love of treasure and--most importantly--of home. Home, both here in the desert of the Stormcatcher and the roiling forges of the Flamekeeper. Home, both with her love and in the long-missed arms of her family. The music touched all that heard it, and she quickly found herself selling her art pieces to buyers from both near and far.