Mars
(#24326271)
Level 1 Pearlcatcher
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
Energy: 50/50
This dragon’s natural inborn element is Nature.
Male Pearlcatcher
This dragon is hibernating.
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Personal Style
Apparel
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
6.4 m
Wingspan
6.5 m
Weight
561.07 kg
Genetics
Eggplant
Poison
Poison
Avocado
Butterfly
Butterfly
Peridot
Smoke
Smoke
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 1 Pearlcatcher
EXP: 0 / 245
STR
6
AGI
6
DEF
6
QCK
7
INT
7
VIT
6
MND
7
Biography
MARS
-The Mushroom Farmer-
Light Provider
Light Provider
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Mate of Winterdawn
Bioluminescence Expert                 
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"The mechanical force that a single fungal cell or colony exerts on a plant cell may seem vanishingly small, but it plays a heavy role in setting up some of the most fundamental symbiotic relationships in biology."
"So please try not to tread on anything!" BIO  Mars is an antisocial-by-necessity dragon who lives under the ground in a cave of his own creation. Separated from the world by the parasitic mushrooms growing from his skin, Mars' life is subject to complete darkness, lit only by the phosphorescent mushrooms he cultivates and studies. His research has benefited the clan greatly, with mushrooms replacing the dangerous candles in the library- reducing fires by 100%! Mars has a mate who is as mysterious as her entrance to the clan. No one really knows what she does, but she enjoys spending time down there with him, singing songs and playing with the fungal spores. Often hatchlings dare each other to visit the scary mushroom-man, which Mars has turned into an unofficial rite of passage. If the hatchling exists with a symbol brushed onto his forehead with the mushroom spores, then he will develop into a brave young adult. Many are too scared to try, but Mars rewards the brave ones. He will teach the hatchlings not to be afraid of the shadows. Life in the Tribe of Mordremoth and Pyre Born in the land of shadow, Mars has always been fascinated by fungi. Ancient, heavy fungi, small, toxic mycena, gross fungi that grew between the toes, and most importantly: glowing fungi. Surrounded by fungi in the Wispwillow Grove, Mars took great delight in dusting off the shiny phosphorescence and coating himself with it, before running off to scare his sisters. Soon though it became time to be sold off to different clans. Refusing to be sold, Mars ran away in the shadow of the night, taking some of his favourite mushrooms with him. He never looked back. Mars ran and flew as best as he could until he reached a green expanse. Tired, he settled down to sleep, but was rudely awoken by a brilliant red wildclaw leaping over him. Fighting off the Serthis above him, the wildclaw grabbed the Serthis in her teeth and ripped it left, right and threw. As the Serthis sailed, the wildclaw gathered him up in her claws and ran deeper into the forest. Soon she came among a sunny clearing, the likes of which burned his eyes. He cried as willowy, feathered dragons gathered around him. One striped dancer took him from the wildclaw, and in a strange language, murmured to him. The wildclaw nuzzled him, and whispered to him in a language he recognized. He was safe now. The sun still burnt. He tried, he really did, but every time he went outside in the day, the sun blinded his eyes and burnt his skin. He couldn't help outside, and only found satisfaction when the murderous ball was gone and the forest were coated with the sweet, cool solace of night. It was during the night that he searched for a cave big enough to hold his fungi. Sometimes Pyre, the red wildclaw joined him, sometimes he went alone. The others worried about him, but he could see perfectly fine. He searched constantly, but the sun would always hint at rising before he gave up and went home. He had to be careful too, because the forests were dangerous. Beastclans and rogue dragons roamed often, and a small coatl like him was easy pickings. Sadly the only caves he found were full of other inhabitants. He needed a nice dark cave for his precious spores. And he needed to be quick. News of his plight reached the other members. Erica, a young skydancer fascinated with digging, approached Mars one night. She had found a cave one chance one day whilst scavenging with her team. It took a while to travel there, but once he arrived he fell in love. The cave was wet, propped up with ancient roots. Stalactites stretched towards their stalagmite counterparts. A river full of blind fish ran through the cavern. And, best of all, native fungi peeked through long dead roots and snug crevices, The cave was perfect. And so he set to work. Harvesting half of his spores, planting a few and scattering the rest, he began to make the lair his own. Every night he would return to his cave and work on his precious fungi. One night, Modremoth travelled with him to his precious cave. Inspecting the insides, Modremoth carefully asked Mars of his intentions with the cave. having spent many nights thinking of the same thing, Mars could fathom no reply. Modremoth took the chance to request a favour. Plans had been made to expand the already established settlement, and the scholars of the clan had been requesting a library for a while. The problem was, no place could be found that was dry enough for the ancient books. Modremoth had already discussed with Erica in making a library underground, Big enough for the books and for the scholars to work. Unfortunately, there lay the requirement of lighting such a dark, expansive place. Unlike Mars, who was blessed with eyes brilliant in low light, some of the other dragons required a lot of light and couldn't work in a dark area. But fire was a risk no one was willing to take. Modremoth had come from the Tangled Woods himself, and knew of the great glowing fungi. Maybe Mars could provide a means of bio-luminescence for the clan? Mars knew he had been given a chance to prove his worth. He began work immediately. He began by returning to the Tangled Woods. His spores had taken, slowly, but were not flourishing, and his supplies were running low. He began harvesting mushrooms of all sizes every night, with varied success. Sometimes he made it back with a vast array of glowing mushrooms, other times he was chased to an inch of his life by other dragons or beasts. The shadowlands were not welcome to a mushroom thief, regardless of his nativity to the area. Regardless, he worked hard, gathering as many different mushrooms as possible. Soon his little bag became full with mushrooms every time he travelled, and his cave was filling up with mushrooms. Whilst work began on the library, Mars shut himself away in the cave. He never left, not even to eat. Often he got visitors. Voltair, a little fae, often came to him with books and read to him, translating the common language into coatl, a feat remarkable for a fae. Regardless, his curiously accented voice was welcome in the echoing cave. Other times, a pure white coatl came, and rested on a flattened stalagmite and hummed. Her voice bounced beautifully in the cave, and Mars often closed his eyes and listened. She was pretty, and often escaped here to avoid the worried conversations about her health. Mars didn't mind her colour. In the dark, colour matters little. It just meant he could see more of her. She called herself Winterdawn, and often talked with him about the land above. She had many fascinating ideas as well, especially about fungi. Mars quite enjoyed her presence. A day was calculated by the patches of light that streamed down through root holes, and it was on one particular day that Winterdawn was watching him. He had cultivated two different fungi together, an already indomitable task, but he couldn't get the fungi to settle. They just refused to grow on wood or stone, regardless of the age or quality. Winterdawn told him to sit still, as she squinted her lovely glowing eyes in concentration. Walking around him, she took the spores from him and dusted him with them. She planted the nodules within his chest down, and brushed his wings. He stood still in anticipation, and when she sat still in front of him after washing her hands, he kissed her. Thus began his courting of Winterdawn. When the mushrooms in his feathers began to grow, he rejoiced, and named them after his girl, Omphalotus Aurorus, or Winter's Dawn. When they started to burrow through the skin, he realised his plight. He was a living host. These mushrooms were glowing, but required a living host. He could never leave his cave in sunlight again. He told his girl when she came to tell him of her four eggs. Which he would never meet, unless they come to his cave and risk inhaling the spores. She couldn't do that to her kids, but she accepted what she had done to him. She strove to work harder to help him, when she could. For now, the eggs needed her attention. Another Skydancer met with him some nights. While she didn't talk, she was brilliant at growing plants. Whatever she touched grew, and his precious fungi were the same. She ripped up his research and organised it so that the fungi would grow properly. And they flourished. And so Mars worked. When the library was completed, he was still hard at work growing the slow-growing fungi, then trying to successfully transplant them. Once they survived that test, the next was to limit water until they lived purely on the wood they were transplanted to. And finally it worked. A hybrid of his Winter's dawn mixed with a rare fungi Erica had brought to him, as well as a shadow x plague hybrid had created the perfect, non toxic fungi capable of lighting a large room well enough that even the Light dragons could see. Now he waited for a new moon, in order to transplant the new fungi. Once the night came, he worked fast. This was the first time he had travelled above ground since he was a little child. The clan had grown. Settlements rested where open nests used to lay, gardens lay where weeds were, and hatchlings and dragons alike gathered to meet the fabled coatl. Dragons oohed and aahed over his mushrooms, and his children came to meet him. One girl, Valentina, was weirded out by her kooky mushroom parents, but was still impressed by her father's chest mushrooms. but the time was not to catch up. He had a night's time to completely set up a lighting system. He worked hard and fast, teaching the librarian and Winterdawn how to look after the fungi. Winterdawn promised she'd take full custody of the mushrooms. The librarian nervously shook in agreement. That night he returned to his gloomy home, with Winterdawn in tow. Although she was a child of lightning, her own glow was welcome in his lair, and Mars needed company that night.  Journey to the Oakheart Clan Eventually, the mushrooms took their toll on Mars' body. They ate away at his feathers, and then his muscle; he was rendered nearly emaciated and misshapen, no longer even resembling the coatl that his friends used to know. Desperate to find a cure for her ailing beloved, Winterdawn heard a rumour of a clan with expertise in sentient plant life. So, heartbreaking as it was, she was forced to leave her home lair and all that she'd ever known, and travelled with Mars- carrying him most of the way- moving each night, and hiding from the scorching sunlight by day. Scouts saw them coming, in the waning darkness closer to the dawn- exhausted, Winterdawn could barely carry Mars another step- but the fading glow of his mushroom-coated hide provided a beacon for their rescue. Medics were sent for, alchemists, mages- they shook their heads in dismay, then finally out of the swampy edge of the woods staggered the half-asleep Ambrosia and Luciella, mother and daughter pearlcatchers and experts (in more ways than one) in poisons and fungi- they immediately took charge of Mars' care. They prepared a very special brew of otherwise incredibly dangerous poisons, deep in the caves so that the wind would not catch the gaseous steam and blind any hapless passerby. Winterdawn would have gone in with them-and fought exhaustedly against their parting- but was forced to shelter outside the cave, held back protectively in the kind but unrelenting arms of some of the clan mothers, awakened and drawn close by her tears. The brewing and preparations lasted deep into the next day; little was said except for the constant requests for more and more rags; the soiled ones were taken far away, handled only with safety equipment like large tongs, to be incinerated safely out of range. When Winterdawn saw some of the familiar mushrooms themselves coming away on these used cloths, she wailed brokenly and fought with renewed determination to break free- the clan's largest tundras were summoned to surround her in a fluffy wall of immobile bulk, preventing her from entering- for the toxins would have been the death of her. Gragonith, one of the wisest old matriarchs, whispered constant reassurances in her ear. They knew what they were doing, she said. They had to cure the infection, they had to release him from the fungi's grip- otherwise soon there would be nothing left of him to save. And Winterdawn nodded, distraught but acquiescing- still her heart ached to be near to her beloved. As the minutes stretched into more hours, she blinked in and out of consciousness in the soporific proximity with the tundras and their constant, gentle, humming song.
Midnight, after what seemed an eternity later, there was a hush around the cave; Winterdawn awoke as the tundras moved from their vigil, releasing her- she watched with tear-reddened eyes as first one, then the second of the Oakheart pearlcatchers staggered out, wings dragging with exhaustion. The youngest took her by the arm, and escorted her through the blackness. At first she couldn't see a thing- harsh chemical scent filled the entire cave, and there was barely a speck of bioluminescence to be seen- but eventually her eyes grew accustomed. There, in a circle of blankets, lay a curled body which seemed oddly familiar, though it was nothing like the coatl she'd known. "It was so pretty," Sighed the one called Ambrosia, eyes wistful; "Wish I'd had a chance to try it... I mean, keep it as a pet! But Luce wouldn't let me... I wasn't going to eat them, honestly...!" Winterdawn shot Luciela a glance of revulsion and disbelief over Ambrosia's head, and the older pearlcatcher made a univeral gesture indicating that to say that the girl was rather lacking in the cranial department, and spoke as if she wasn't there; "So, Umm, pearlcatcher magic was what we had to use, in the end." Luciela stammered a little guiltily, as they both looked down at the recumbent form. "See, we covered his skin in the absolute best poison to rid it of the fungi, but it went too deep- it was running through his veins- so we had to try something a bit... different." Luciela pointedly nudged something under a cloth, revealing an odd-coloured pearl, lying near the sleeping male's feet, and added apologetically-"It's not exactly... normal. But who is, these days." Her gaze flicked meaningfully at the younger pearlcatcher, who seemed to Winterdawn to bear a certain filial resemblance. "It's as close to a pearl as we could make out of a Heart Oak acorn, a bunch of magic and as much luminescent mushroom as we could gather that hadn't died in the chemical bath. It seems to have worked-" "The clever mushrooms he grew won't seek another host now. They live off nutrients in the air now, just like any good epiphyte should." Ambrosia spoke dreamily, perpetually as though she was only half awake."They know they've been naughty- they're sentient, you know. So I've had words," The pearlcatcher's voice turned rather severe, as one would scold a puppy who had wet the carpet- she glared sternly at the cluster of mushrooms over the male's shoulder still glowing softly- "And I've recieved promises there will be no more of this parasitic nonsense out of them. They love him too much to kill him, they didn't mean to let it get this far- they just got overexcited, and frankly they're not the best forward-thinkers." Luciela snorted derisively and rolled her eyes at her- "Well, they ARE mushrooms. You can't expect much civic responsibility!" Deciding it best to ignore the ramblings of the clearly insane female, Winterdawn sighed softly, leaning down close to examine her former mate's unfamiliar features, and finally asked- "You mean that... he... is my Mars?" His body was that of a Pearlcatcher, now. The magic had shaped him such, this did not worry her- she has heard rumours that such magic existed- and at least his breath still warmed the air, at least his heart still beat- his eyelids flickered as though he heard her thoughts. "Oh, yes." Luciela nodded emphatically; "Unavoidable side-effect. And the changes in his scales are the fungi's parting gift; his hide bears marks where the clusters used to form." "Mars," Winterdawn called softly, her voice failing her as it caught with tears. "Please, wake up." The pearlcatcher stirred, then sat up unsteadily- she held back in caution, but when he opened his eyes she saw in them the lifemate she had thought she'd lost forever. Their joyful embrace was only interrupted by the wierd pearlcatcher giggling, and they remembered themselves long enough to thank her, though now that fungi were no longer the topic of conversation, she seemed to have wandered off in her head well before her feet took her to follow, out of the cave and back to whatever she had been doing before the crisis, seemingly none the worse for wear. It took some weeks for Mars to regain his full strength; and a little longer to get used to his new body; it was lighter, more agile than before- but his wings were less strong, and his voice was unfamiliar. To his delight however, his hands were twice as nimble, and the caves deep in the rock here were uninhabited- apart from the normal forest denizens- and so seamlessly they moved from just visitors, desperate for aid- to becoming a fixture in the Oakheart clan. Now tamed, Mars' fungi no longer spread dangerously, apparently keeping to its 'promise', as Ambrosia had claimed- but she was known to eat poisoned frogs and she slept on a bed of Destroying Angel toadstools, so it was hard to judge how mush she should be taken seriously. Mars and Winterdawn found a welcoming new home, ready-made for them here- along with the perfect niche; no one tended the vast underground caverns, nor explored their depths; also little was known of bioluminescence as an art form here, but the pair of them were experts in the field. And with such rich soil and lush forests to occupy them, as well as warm and welcoming company to surround them, they were never bored nor unhappy for long.
-Present-
Mars still works down in his caves with his mushrooms. Hatchlings dare each other to visit the mushroom king. He delights in smearing the faces of successful applicants with the phosphorescent spores.... after scaring them a little. A lonely pearlcatcher's got to have some fun. Mars simply loves Halloween (or Sornieth equivalent); his favourite food is mushroom pie (who knew, right?) and he is a complete conniseur; he grows truffles to sell from his underground gardens, but at Halloween he takes exotic combinations and tests them on unsuspecting dragons. They're usually only mildly hallucenogenic. Except that time someone slipped a Goldentop mushroom into Solus' pie- and Solus was convinced the trees were following him for the next 48 hours, and afterwards Mars had to be extremely sneaky indeed. No one has ever caught him tampering with the pies, but still, come Halloween, explosive, glow-in-the-dark, hallucenogenic, soporific, magical, and even eyeball-shaped mushrooms turn up inexplicably in the festive pies. It makes for a real trick-or-treat! Inventory   
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