Skyfall

Skyfall guards a difficult charge. The other dragons in the clan are often worried about him but he is persistently independent. The most they can do is intervene occasionally and bandage his wounds.

The clan tend to give him familiars trained in fighting, in the hopes it will help.

He has an ongoing relationship with Kalea, a Guardian in an allied Light lair.

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Skyfall eased himself into the water, feeling the deep ache in bruised muscles and the sting as cuts broke open on his shoulders. He stretched his neck, enjoying the air on it after so long wrapped in bandages, and felt the gummed neck plates ease apart.

Kalea was ahead of him, almost dancing along in the water, toes touching the floor of the lake and pushing off, letting the water glide her forward. Her wings stroked up spray, flicking little rainbows over their joyful seraph markings, a match for the larger rainbows thrown off by the waterfall that roared and sparkled at one end. He pushed off slightly to follow, the soft gliding motion running through his body and making him groan with pleasure as the water took the weight from his aching shoulders. He stopped when he saw flecks of rust and small clouds of red around him, drawing his head down and hunching his wings as he peered at Kalea. He was sullying her charge.

'It will wash away,' she said, paddling back to him, pointing one wing at the outlet that ran from the lake. Her voice was deep, but soft, like the gentle roar of the waterfall in the background. She rubbed her head against his neck with a smile, scrubbing blood away with her scales, and then ducked underwater to rinse it. 'See?'

'Thank you.' He took a few steps forward and tentatively ducked his wings under, shaking them, sluicing off brown-red water until the sky blue of his wings glowed and the leather moved free and supple without the crackle of dried blood.

'Your wings are beautiful,' said Kalea.

Skyfall smiled. 'So are yours.'

Kalea smiled back. 'Ever been swimming?'

He shook his head.

'Just copy me.' She bounced forward along the bottom of the lake, spreading her wings along the surface to counteract her weight, and then she was out of touch with the bottom, legs cycling easily. He could see the flash of her scales as she moved them through the clear water.

Trying to copy her movements (sputtering and laughing when he failed to keep his head above the water), Skyfall followed.