Derparoo

Life got worse. She was teased by many of the other dragons for her deformed wings and her odd glowing claws. Her shy and jumpy behavior caused her to seem clumsy to many of the other dragons. Thus, they named here… Derparoo. A fitting name for a dragon that just didn’t fit in. Her life only got worse as she grew up. Her patterns on her scales out casting her even further from the very basic dragons in the clan that found her. She was depressed, afraid, and even more alone than ever. So, by her late adolescence, she decided to do the impossible. And change her physical appearance through science. Testing the very boundaries of the God’s and calculations, she would turn herself into something her clan could love. And so she tried. Chemicals swirled together; explosions sounded out from her den, and smoke would billow out from it in alarming amounts. She was so close… with one last drop of potion; the God’s would forever be in her shadow. Derparoo watched as the pink oozing potion dripped from its beaker into the other eyes fully of happy tears. But the happiness was short-lived. As soon as those two liquids touched an enormous explosion flung her body from her den as her mane and body burned with small flames, her den full of pink flames that slowly began to spread. Intense pain stabbed its way into the depths of her body before the world grew silent and dark around her. The only sensation was that of her burning body…

Months had passed before she blinked her eyes open cringing from the sunlight. She expected to be greeted with yells, teasing, or a beating… But the only thing she heard was the violent wind slamming into her sore body and flowing around her as it whipped up dust from the canyon. ‘They, abandoned me…’ Her ears were ringing slightly, and her head was pounding in pain. But it was nothing compared to the way she hopes shattered. A tear slipped down from her cheek grazing over burnt scales and singed fur. She was… alone, all over again… She stayed there, dust gathering onto her body and clomping onto open wounds. But she stayed. Sore and watery eyes watching as the sun crawled past her as if retreating from the moon itself. Only when the cold night air hit her tender body did she shakily rise to a stand, crying out in pure agony as she looked down at her legs the burns and injuries would only haunt her further… A singed arm and bloody hand reached out to her ash covered pearl as she hugged it close to her chest. Again another agony filled scream flew from her mouth forcing her to cough up blood and black sludge onto her pearl. Smoothing it with an unsteady hand, she would remember this moment of her life forever.

Traveling was hard, starvation, dehydration, and insanity plagued her. She had no idea how far she had gotten before she found refuge in the Highland Scrubs. Limping she went to a small area that was open with a few little sand dunes to provide shelter, caves littered the area each filthy and filled with scrap parts. But she didn’t care anymore… She needed to do something about herself… The pain her body was feeling was becoming unbearable. Her tired and defeated eyes looked over the spare parts… and she formed the idea into her head. She would fix herself… It would put her in even further pain to do such intense work alone, but she had no choice if she wanted to survive. So she began building herself new parts from what others threw out, creating something unique from the garbage of others. ‘I will show them… how amazing trash like us can be…’ And with that, she worked. And worked… and worked…

It caused her pain to attach her new limbs and parts to herself, without anyone to help she had to be conscious through the whole process. Replacing and mending bones, muscle, skin, and so on. The blood pooled around her as she kept going her pupils dilated and breaths coming out in a raspy gasp. But she was done… a lot of her body had been replaced, and she was dizzy from all the pain. She fixed everything. Well, almost everything. Her wings were still useless for flight, and so was the rest of her. Her wings would never support her new body… and she accepted that and kept the metal she was going to use them for repairs. Derparoo grasped onto her pearl and gazed into it at her slightly glowing body, she looked at her work, proud of herself, but also humiliated at the same time. She was glad to be alive, but now she would always be out casted by her clan… They hated her enough for her small differences in her fur and skin patterns if they saw what she has done to herself they would…

No. She would never return. Instead, she will start a different life here, in this small little clearing and learn to be what she now knew she was meant to be.

”I am not an idiotic dragon, I am not a failure, not a mistake… I am a leader… I am, a difference.”