Hemlock

Offspring Lore:

IVY

She had it, too. The same poison that ran through her parents blood coursed through her own. Her mother was concerned. It was a great power to possess for someone so young. How could she wield a weapon such as this? She needn't have worried. With the toxin came an acute awareness of herself. Ivy knew she was poisonous before anyone could ever tell her. She could sense it. The hatchlings from the other clutches seemed wary of her and she relished her position over them. She loved that she could ward them off by simply pulling back her lips and baring her teeth. Little needle points they were now. But, the dots of ink black toxicity that subtly clung to the tips made the others uneasy around her. She didn't like the other hatchlings anyway. She preferred to be alone. Even from her own sisters, though the poison didn't scare them as it had the others. What a perfect defense mechanism. If anyone were to get too close to her all it would take was one little snap for their lives to be extinguished. She didn't know it yet, but the venom that she emitted was far more potent than either of her parents could ever produce. In every sense of the word, she was lethal.

---

AZALEA

To her dismay, Azalea couldn't produce the same venom that her parents and sisters could. Try as she might, there were no ink-like beads of poison that would drop from her teeth. The deepest scratches she could inflict were always clean cuts. No dark toxin was left behind to soak into the bloodstream of her victims. She felt inferior to the rest of her family. The Dilo Venom group was feared among the Glass Shatter Clan for their high toxicity. She felt like an impostor among them and spiraled into a deep depression. She became reckless, not caring what happened to herself. Though her parents forbid her for her own safety, she began a habit of following the warriors into the coliseum without their knowing. She was fascinated by the violence. One day, she got too close to the battle and was attacked by a venomous toridae. Though a larger dragon may not be phased by the venom, a hatchling her size should have been killed instantly. Instead, she only felt a slight sting as her body absorbed the poison. She was immune. Not just to the poison of her parents', but to other toxins as well. Suddenly, she felt invincible. Maybe she could be a threat after all.

---

ADONIS

She never wanted this. The poison that seeped readily from her fangs and claws wasn't a gift to Adonis. It was a burden. She had little control of how much of the ink-like toxin escaped her body at any given time. She would often leave tiny pools of the toxin in the snow tracks where she stood. The venom looked eerily like dark blood in the snow. She was warned early on not to get close to anyone outside of the Dilo Venom family. The color of the venom was an indicator of the concentration. The darker the toxin, the more potent it was. Adonis' was jet black. She would watch the other hatchlings in envy. They would never know the isolation that came hand in hand with the venom that coursed within her veins. They envied her power, but she would have given anything to be rid of it. She never told her family, they were too proud of their power, but each day she would spend hours trying to control the release of the toxin. Clearing her mind, she would focus on stopping the venom's release from within. Disheartened, she never saw improvement. She was about to give up. In one last effort to control the venom, she scratched down the bark of a pine tree and when she examined the cuts she saw the only liquid on the surface was the sap of the tree. Glancing at her claws, she saw they were dry. For the first time in a long while, she smiled to her herself. There was hope.

---

HELLEBORE


She watched as the other hatchling's body seized up, the paralysis taking hold. The unsuspecting victim was helpless on the ground. His muscles as frozen as the ice beneath him. Hellebore watched her brother curiously as he observed his victim. The young snapper that was fixed to the ground had done nothing to her brother. He had attacked without warning, without a sound. It was all a test of power. He was testing the black ink-like liquid that dripped from his teeth and claws, the same venom that dotted hers. Before they happened upon the valley where the other hatchlings had been playing, where the young snapper that lied seemingly lifeless on the ground now had been keeping to himself, neither of them had known what the black toxin was capable of, or what it even was. Looking into her brother's cold, observing eyes she knew what it was. The black toxin that ran through their veins... this was the stuff of nightmares. They were monsters.

The young snapper eventually regained consciousness and scampered away as quick as his sluggish, toxic imbued limbs could carry him. When he left, the siblings walked home in silence. Both were mulling over the new information in their minds. So, they were poisonous. They could paralyze another dragon with a bite or a scratch. Once the toxin mixed with the victim's blood, the victim would be helpless to defend themselves. The image of the snapper's eye, frozen in fear, never blinking away from her brother's gaze, had permanently fixed itself in her mind. The slow, hardly audible but raspy breathing of the victim played through her head like a broken record.

Here she was, just a child, and the sheer power that she possessed had been revealed to her. What could she do with that information? Knowing that with a calculated swipe of her paw she possessed the power to disable a dragon to the point of paralysis? That she could render it helpless? That it would be powerless to stop her from slashing its throat and ending its life? Her brother had temporarily paralyzed the hatchling with a single bite and one scratch. What would happen if she were to intentionally release more of the venom into a victim's bloodstream? Well, what does a hatchling do with a realization like this?

Anything I want. Hellebore's lips curled into a near indecipherable, yet malicious looking grin as she answered the question in her mind. Yes, she knew what she was capable of now. She could do anything she wanted to.

---

ORCHID

Her parents were shocked to see such a small hatchling emerge from their clutch. She was barely half the size of her two siblings that shared the nest with her. The runt of the litter, in some lairs this is wholly insignificant. But, in the Glass Shatter Clan, this was a death sentence. The clan matriarch, Aries, was a ruthless leader who had zero tolerance for weakness among her lair. A runt wasn't guaranteed to be strong enough to live, and therefore was a waste of resources. Though the hatchling's parents possessed a great power in the form of their venom, they still had a deep respect for their matriarch and understood that their place within the clan was guaranteed by Aries, and Aries alone. Challenging the matriarch's word would mean the expulsion of their place within the lair. Looking down at the slight frame of their newly born daughter, they feared what the matriarch's decision would be.

Lotus fretted and paced throughout the night. She knew that Aries would arrive in the morning to inspect the offspring, to see how much she could price them for in her hatchery. Lotus and Hemlock were two of her prized breeders. They bore beautiful children that were often venomous as their parents, making them invaluable to clans that needed warriors for the coliseum. After a restless night, Lotus knew what she had to do. She would hide her daughter. Orchid could not be allowed to be seen by Aries until she was fully grown. Hopefully by then she could prove her own worth. If not, well, Lotus would cross that bridge when they came to it.

When Aries arrived in the morning for her inspection, she saw just two hatchlings in the nest. Two beautiful imperials that were already strong and sturdy, their little fangs and claws already dripping with the tell-tale black ink dots that would make them fearsome opponents in the battlefield. Though she was visibly pleased with the offspring, Lotus noticed Aries' brow furrow. She turned to the wildclaw that towered above her and in an accusatory tone questioned her, "There were three eggs. What happened to the third hatchling?" The third hatchling was downwind from the lair, tucked safely into the mouth of a small cavern, where the ruthless mirror would be unlikely to ever find her.

Composing herself, Lotus stepped forward, "We lost her. The egg never hatched with the others. We helped it open to find her stillborn. Hemlock buried her last night." She hung her head in mock sorrow, pretending to be a grieving mother. It wasn't hard to do, she simply imagined the pain of Aries finding her daughter, of losing her to the matriarch's slashing claws and teeth. Not entirely convinced, Aries nodded and left her to tend to her remaining children.

In the days that followed, Orchid was raised in near isolation. Her mother would visit her only when Aries had left the area and it was safe to do so. She would bring her food when she came, but because her visits were dependent on the matriarch's activity, they were unpredictable and often spaced out far between. Orchid would grow hungry waiting on her mother, so she began to seek food for herself. In the frozen realm of the Southern Icefield, Orchid found little in the form of vegetation or insects. There was no source of water to fish for her food, so she became reliant on the small creatures she would find hiding among the pine trees. Brown bats and black capped chickadees were difficult to catch because they could fly high into the tree tops, but snowshoe rabbits were her favorite. She could track them and outrun them. Once she caught them, she discovered what the black droplets from her fangs and claws could do. She realized the power of the poison that seeped from her like blood. A cut that would just barely break the skin would send her victim into a terrifying paralysis. She would watch the rabbits' eyes as the realization sunk in that they couldn't move, that they were defenseless against her. At first glance, the rabbit would appear to be dead. But, a closer inspection always revealed the terror in their still eyes. In hunting rabbits, she trained herself to control the flow of her poison. Too much would send the victim into convulsions followed by a near instantaneous death, but just enough would cause the paralysis. She wouldn't realize the full effects of her toxin upon larger creatures until the day she was forced to sink her fangs into the flesh of another dragon.

One day, she was roused from her nap at the sound of a stampede-like crashing through the snow. At first, she thought it was her mother, though she couldn't understand why she would be running so furiously. As the sound drew closer, she realized there was another set of footsteps, no there were three. Yes, she was sure it was three bodies careening through the snow at breakneck speed toward her. Frightened, she pressed herself into the small cave she called home, facing the entrance so she was able to see when two mirrors, followed by her mother, crashed into the clearing. The first mirror, a black and white ferocious looking creature with birdskulls adorning her wings, ravished the area. She seemed to be tracking something, her sniffing was audible and she tore through the fallen logs and dug through the snow in a frenzy. The other mirror, white with a spattered blood-like pattern on her skin, followed suit. She thoroughly checked the areas the black mirror had already searched, aiding in the chaotic search. And there was her mother, frozen in the center of the clearing, purposely looking in the opposite direction of where her daughter hid. It was no matter, the red spattered mirror, later to be identified as Taran, the matriarch's right hand, soon found the hiding place and drug Orchid out by her wrist.

"You lied to me!!" Aries shrieked at Lotus. In the grasp of the red spattered mirror, Orchid began to tremble. She knew she was in danger. "You told me she was stillborn. You told me she was DEAD!" The matriarch, though smaller than her mother, was terrifying in her rage. Orchid thought she was going to strike her mother. She started to squirm in an attempt to escape the grip of the red spattered mirror that held her in place. There was a silence in the clearing, but the air was filled with tension. Aries continued to glare at Lotus before breaking the silence. Her words were no longer erratic, but frightening calm and calculated. "I have no use for runts in my lair, Lotus. Especially runts that are being hidden by their backstabbing parents," turning to Taran, she gave her final order, "Snap her neck."

Taran nodded and Orchid sprung into action. She twisted her body and snapped at the mirror's shoulder, her venom sinking in. Taran screamed and jumped sideways, releasing her grip on the tiny hatchling. The venom was not enough to paralyze her victim, but instead initiated a curious effect. Taran became sluggish, her movements uncoordinated. She tried to move, but collapsed on the ground. She began to feel numb, but could still move some of her muscles. And then, she began to talk. It was incoherent rambling at first, but then it became obvious that she was speaking everything on her mind. It was as if the venom had made it's way through her bloodstream to her brain, had seized her mind, forcing her to speak her thoughts. There was no filter, she was speaking the truth. "I don't want to kill you. I have to kill you. Aries... Aries... I have to do what she says! I'm afraid of her. She could kill me. She could kill any of us. I love her, but I'm afraid of her, afraid of what she'll do if I ever tell her no." Taran looked to Aries as she rattled on, the look in her eyes revealed the true horror of retaliation for what she was saying, though she lacked the control to stop herself. The group watched in a stunned silence as Taran continued to ramble. She revealed bits of her past, of her most private thoughts, all the while her eyes darting in fear of what she said, still unable to stop herself.

The venom eventually began to wear off. Taran was able to stop speaking and regained control of her motor functions. She stood up and quietly ducked her head, awaiting the matriarch's punishment. There was no retaliation from Aries, though. The matriarch turned to Lotus and sighed. "You are to never disobey me like that again. This time, I will let your daughter live. I've never seen the venom of yours work like that in any of your offspring. Almost like a truth serum. It would be a shame to let a talent like that go to waste. Come now, Taran. We're going home." With that, Aries left the clearing with the visibly shaken Taran at her heels. Relieved, Lotus gripped her daughter in a tight hug. Aries had been right. No offspring of hers had ever been able to use their venom in such a way. She would find a good home for her daughter. A home where her talents would not go to waste. Orchid wouldn't need to hide anymore. It would be her victims that would need to hide from Orchid.

~

The commotion had already come to an end. He had been drawn to it. Though the disruption had already retired to the silence of the cold night, he knew the direction in which it had come from and continued on the direct path. There had been sounds of a struggle, of which multiple dragons were likely involved. He was unsure of what scene he would happen upon when he would arrive at the source, but he could sense that the danger had passed. Whether it had or not, he was persistent in his course. Talen did as he pleased. Investigating the origin of the turmoil was no exception. He wanted to know what was going on, and he was going to find out.

A son of the shadows, the nightborn wildclaw was out of his element in the ice region. You would have never guessed it by how gracefully he maneuvered the frozen landscape as he picked up his pace toward the clearing where the sounds had come from. He was far from his home in the shadows, here in the southern most tip of the Icefields. He had left on the order of his superiors. Rumors had surfaced that there was Shade activity in The Fortress of Ends in the Southern Icefield and it was his duty to investigate. He had remained true to his mission and had thoroughly searched the area, but there was no trace of the Shade. The rumors had been just that- rumors. He had been ready to return to his clan when he had heard the most enticing of sounds. Voices attracted him and his mission had now become purely self indulgent, he needed to follow the source of the ruckus. And now, as he neared the clearing, he heard the melodic voice of a child.

"A truth serum?" The child questioned. "What... what does she mean? How did I do that, Mom? She was scared, Mom. How did I do that?" His senses drank in the tone of her voice as he waited at the edge of the clearing in silence, never revealing himself for fear of breaking the intoxicating conversation. He listened as the mother explained to the child that she was born with a venom that was as much a part of her as her own blood. That the venom was released through claws and fangs. That it caused paralysis and was fatal in larger doses. And finally, that her's, for whatever reason, was different than her parents' and siblings'. She had never seen anything like what her daughter had just done to Taran. And that Aries hadn't either. That Aries would likely try to exploit her daughter's power for her own bidding. Talen could detect a slight tremor in her voice, inaudible to most, but through the tremor he could sense a creeping dread in the mother.

It was in that moment that Talen decided to reveal himself. He ducked his head in a humbling stance as he approached, from what he had gathered these two were highly venomous. Though he was agile, he knew better than to take his chances by startling them into an attack. His ego led him to believe that he could easily prevail against both of the dragons in a fight, but his wit kept him in check. He knew he would need his charm in this situation, not his brawn.

If not for the blind fold firmly affixed to him, it might be assumed that he was attracted to her due to their similarities. The mother was a wildclaw, like himself. She shared the same midnight hued skin and the same purple toned, shadow eyes. His attraction, however, was based purely in the tone of her voice. The mother took a protective stance in front of her child before questioning the strange wildclaw before her.

With a voice as smooth as honey, Talen told the mother the truth. He was there on a mission and would be returning to his clan in the shadow region. He had heard the scuffle and had come to investigate. Talen didn't possess a truth serum himself, but his charm and calm demeanor was enough to win over the trust of the mother. She told him everything. With Orchid listening intently at her heels, she even told the Shadehunter her fears for the child's future.

An idea spawned in Talen's mind. The child could be an incredible asset to his clan. She could find her place within the hidden halls of the Illidari. Maybe, someday, if she chose to do so, she could use her toxin to aid the Shadehunters in their pursuit. His voice softened considerably in an attempt to persuade the mother, "Why don't you let Orchid join me? She would be welcome in the Illidari clan. She would have a good home with us." Shuffling through a concealed seam in his clothing, he produced a handful of gems. The moonlight danced off of their surface, casting sparkling rays of light as he offered them to the other wildclaw. "Take these. It should be enough to assuage your matriarch. This should satisfy her greed, if only temporarily."

The mother mulled it over. He was offering her daughter a safe haven in the Tangled Wood, her home region. She was afraid, and had every right to be. Here was a perfect stranger attempting to take her child on a journey half way across the world of Sornieth. But, something in his voice made her feel that she could trust him. She needed to trust him, her only other choice was to leave her daughter's fate to the whim of a sadistic matriarch. After a long moment's pause, Lotus took the gems and simultaneously took the wildclaw's hand in hers. "I need you to promise me you'll keep her safe. She means the world to me. Don't you dare do any wrong by her."

Pressing his cheek to hers, in an intimate exchange of trust, he whispered in her ear. In his softest tone yet, Talen gave his word, "I promise." With tears welling in her eyes, Lotus stood alone in the clearing as she watched her daughter disappear into the frozen woods on her way to her new life with the Illidari.

---

CANTOR


He was the first of his clutch to realize that he was venomous. He didn't know at first that the black, ink-like droplets that formed at the tips of his claws and fangs were the source of fear for other hatchlings, but he learned quickly. One day he and his sister decided to join their peers in the valley where hatchlings of the Glass Shatter Clan and neighboring clans would gather and spend the day playing on the frozen body of water. The sound of laughter and playful squeals filled the air. Once the siblings stepped out into the opening and were spotted, a dead silence washed over the land. The hatchlings all froze in their tracks, looking up at the siblings with a mix of awe and fear. The siblings may not have known what their venom could do, but the other hatchlings knew. They had already been warned. The inky droplets were a tell-tale sign of the Dilo Venom family. These dragons were born with a toxin that flowed in their blood. The tiniest drop could induce paralysis in their victims. Some dragons born with the toxin were even capable of lethal doses. The darker the poison, the more potent.

Cantor's venom was jet black.

His sister seemed deeply disturbed that none of the other hatchlings would let her near. Cantor, on the other hand, was observing. He was curious as to why his peers seemed to have an innate fear of him, and he seemed to be enjoying it. He started to toy with the other dragons. He would rush up to a group, just to watch them scatter. He would smile smugly as they scrambled over each other in a mad rush to flee. Ever observant, he was noting the differences in himself and the other dragons. They were all different breeds, they all had different patterns on their wings and skin. No, that wasn't it. It had to be the inky liquid that involuntarily dripped from the tips of his claws and fangs. He had it, his sister had it, but none of the other hatchlings did. That was certainly it. They were afraid of the dark drops.

He needed to know why. He needed to see what the drops could do. When he and his sister had play fought, the drops never bothered her. If he scratched her and the ink-droplets sunk into her skin, nothing happened. So, why were these hatchlings so afraid? He picked a hatchling from the group that was by himself. It was a rather sluggish young snapper that seemed content to meander around the edge of the pond, picking at the browned, dried stalks of vegetation at the frozen bank. The snapper paid no attention to Cantor and the other hatchlings. Slinking behind him, stealthy as an experienced assassin, Cantor slashed at the young snapper's heels with his pin-like claws. Before he could register what had happened, Cantor had leaped to the opposite side and sunk his teeth into the hatchling's soft belly. The frightened snapper's desperate bellow disrupted the peace of the valley. Great sobs began to heave from his chest, and then his knees buckled, sending him crashing on his side to the ice below. Cantor stepped back and watched as the twitching muscles of his victim seized to move. He was eerily still, but upon closer inspection, shallow breathing could be detected. The snapper was paralyzed.

The other hatchlings, fearing for their own lives, fled to return to the safety of their nests. Cantor remained motionless, observing his victim until well past sundown. He noted the length of the effects of the toxin in his mind as he watched the snapper finally start to come to. Once the first muscles began to move, it wasn't long before the snapper was able to pull himself groggily to his feet and in a slowed panic, lumber toward home. Castor didn't follow. He had no interest in stopping the hatchling. He had only wanted to observe the effects of the ink drops. When the young snapper had disappeared out of sight, into the dark of the night, Castor turned to face his sister and nodded. It was time to go home. He had learned something that day. He was a formidable force and there was good reason to fear him.