Gareth

Gareth

Being a Nocturne meant one was genetically evolved for stealth and with the advantage of stealth some Nocturnes take a more mischievous use of their natural skills instead of its intended use. Gareth was one such dragon. Growing up in the Nature element he often got in trouble for so-called ‘harmless’ pranks he pulled on his fellow clan mates, oftentimes other young hatchlings like himself. A few times the pranks even branched out into his own family and handful of siblings, this includes that one time where he replaced the stuffing of his brother’s toy with that of lizard guts. So like many other parents in the same position, his had no tolerance for these ‘extra-curriculars’, instead, agreeing with the victims of their son’s pranks that these were unacceptable. This often resulted in his grounding for the minimum sentence of a week.

Many dragons tolerated his actions but some were more… vocal about their distaste for this. Gareth, on the other hand, tended to be more oblivious to this. It wasn’t that he was stupid, he really wasn’t, it was just he didn’t know any other way. For instance, his parents were always cold, he just didn’t notice this as such, and the fellow dragons in his clan always had a standoffish air around them. His ways didn’t lead him to have many friends, his pranks began to take a vicious cycle, in order to entertain himself he pranked others, but by pranking others he made himself more and more of an outsider. And so the cycle continued. To be clear, he wasn’t trying to be mean. He just was socially awkward at times and had a hard time making friends, if other dragons really knew him they would see he’s a very sweet and friendly dragon despite his actions.

By the time he grew out of his pranks, he had already left his clan or rather kicked out. Even though he had aged his attitude stayed very much the same, just this time around he stuck to sarcasm, and dark and dry humor. During this time in his life, he drifted around the elemental lands, from clan to clan. The temper of these clans was one of annoyance and discontent. His fellow dragons found his sense of humor a little unsettling and most of the time that feeling would lead to them finding him so obnoxious that his time there didn’t last long. He would upset the natural order of the clan to the point of creating pure chaos. Eventually, Gareth would lose track of how many times this occurred as it happened soo many times. It got to the point that it was predictable and became a consistent pattern. Though, he never did figure out why they didn’t like him.

This pattern continued for quite a long time until he met Sneaky. Sneaky, like him, was a Nocturne and in him, he found a very similar dragon. They both had a dark, sarcastic, and sometimes wry sense of humor that many dragons found off-putting. The two soon became fast friends. Despite their similarities, they had many differences. While they both were kicked out of many clans the reasons were astonishingly different, Sneaky had gotten kicked out for the reason that he had many bad habits, one of which was his affinity to thievery. And Sneaky figured out/ implied that Gareth had gotten kicked out due to his ability to be really annoying.

While on the search for a new clan that would accept the two of them they developed a little game of questions. It went like this, instead of just saying a typical greeting they asked a question. The questions themselves ranged from anything as innocent as their favorite color to as dark and deep as how you would get away with murder (they would hide the body in a cave, but don’t tell anyone.) By doing so they figured out each other's quirks and funny stories. Sneaky figured out that when Gareth was younger he managed to convince some other hatchlings that he was a gigantic avocado, but that was when he was REALLY young. On the other hand, Gareth figured out through many questions and contradicting answers that Sneaky had a tendency to be a compulsive liar, a fact that often got them into a yelling fit. Gareth would always try to convince and get him to be a little more honest, so far it hasn’t worked but he’s not giving up.

Then there was the issue about Sneaky being a very proficient thief. It wasn’t surprising if Gareth woke up to see some of his stuff ‘misplaced’ even though he could have sworn he put it right there. Later he would find it mixed among his friend's stuff. Despite these flaws in his friends character it didn’t stop him from trusting him full heartedly. But sometimes everything wasn’t all hunky dory and they would get into fights, it wasn’t a shocker if early in the morning after a particularly bad argument that the two would be left with not the kindest words to say about the other. Gareth would like to argue it was mostly Sneaky who held the grudge though and that he was innocent, though that didn’t stop Sneaky from finding him a bit, okay a lot, irritating at times.

Despite their failure to find a clan that would accept them with no reservations or conditions and the fact that the two, with all their flaws, weren’t the most popular of dragons they still somehow, and quite curiously, managed to gather a following of equally obnoxious dragons in similar positions. Sneaky, of course, took up the mantle of leader while Gareth held the honorary title of co-leader. If Gareth was completely honest, he considered Sneaky the better of the two of them to lead. That didn’t stop Sneaky from coming to Gareth for help if the burden became too great. Together they somehow managed to keep this mismatched group of dragons together and from things devolving into chaos.

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