redDynasty

Red does not talk about where he came from.

He slithered into clan territory one day, one of the first true outsiders they had ever known, and when Pera asked him his business he merely looked the tall skydancer in the eye before continuing on his way, directly into the heart of the clan's home. His hide was a uniform red from snout to tailtip, marked only faintly by dark patterns, and he was least three times as large as any member of the clan. They moved out of his way as he came.

When he reached Lola, as surely as if some inner sense had led this giant stranger to the true leader of the clan, he rested his chin in the sand before her and said nothing. His head was larger than her entire body - she was merely a tundra, and a small one at that.

Lola, too, said nothing for a long moment, before reaching out her tiny front claw and resting it on the imperial's nose. "Wherever you've come from, you're welcome here should you wish to stay." The stranger closed his ice-white eyes.

"They call me Red," he said, and stay he did.

Time passed, and Red became the clan's premier warrior - "gentleman brawler," they called him, first behind his back and then to his face, and if he objected to the title he never let it show. He never let much show at all - he was habitually close-mouthed, and patiently tolerated the actions and words of his clanmates with no objection or input of his own. However, when inclined to do something, he did exactly as he pleased, and woe befall the dragon who argued with or tried to stop him.

Autumn was initially jealous of the crimson imperial, still trying to stake her claim as the sole provider for the clan, but eventually came to appreciate having him at her side during battle. Pera, however, gravely insulted by Red's complete disregard for him when he first arrived in the clan. Red has made no move to get in Pera's good graces, and Pera is too prideful to let his grudge go and too fearful to make any overt shows of aggression - their feud quietly simmers to this day, though it shows no sign of boiling over.

When another solid crimson imperial came to join the clan - Scarlet, the daughter of a Plague emissary, a tiny hatchling with huge red eyes - Red found her ridiculous. But Scarlet immediately took to the oversized dragon, and spent her hatchling days crawling all over him and giggling. When she was full grown, and her liking for him had not wavered in the least, who was he to turn her down?

She is still small enough to crawl all over him, and he lets her braid flowers into his mane. No one dares to so much as snicker at him when she does.

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