Kairos

She needs a time keepers sand glass and probably some silks? not skyblue or white idk


Kairos is an ancient dragon with a life that has been prolonged by the Shadowbinder herself. As a hatchling, Kairos emerged from her egg alone, with no parents around to speak of. She spent a few hours trying to find anyone who would take care of her, she failed however and collapsed from exhaustion. When she woke however, she was in an entirely different place. The light was soft, glowing mushrooms surrounded her and the air was sweet with the perfume of flowers, the laugh of a stream bubbled its way through the grove, and this is the place that she would call home for a while. This place she came to know as the Orphanage, a strange and mysterious place in the Tangled Wood where abandoned hatchlings seem to end up out of nowhere.
It was there she lived until adolescence. She met her mate Ouranos here, after he had been lost in the Wood for a time when he was a hatchling, she being an adult and traveling through the Tangled Wood again. He was however reunited with his father, and taken home only to be abandoned again and picked up by Foxglove, the tyrannical leader of a child army. But that was not for several millennia

Kairos spent several years travelling through the tangled wood and beyond. However in her young-adulthood she found a peculiar place deep within the Tangled Wood. She thought she was following the path to a little bazaar that sold regional goods but was surprised to find herself in a grove of maple trees. She looked around curiously and found that she wasn't alone.

A stooped and ancient looking Nocturne with goo pooled around her claws seemed to be tending to the trees, listening and laughing at seemingly random intervals. It was then that Kairos noticed that there was whispering through the trees. Not only were the sounds of leaves rubbing together, but dragon's voices. She couldn't make out most of them, though she felt drawn to them. Like she was supposed to be here. A feeling she had never felt before. Like she was home.

"Hello my child, you have come a long way."

The Nocturne's voice was startling, her voice sounded layered and pitched. Like dozens of voices all at once. She turned and smiled at Kairos with a grin that implied she knows more than she seems.
"Come, sit with me, sit and talk."
Kairos felt compelled to listen to the dark colored Nocturne who's words seemed to drip with secrets. She walked over, still mildly cautious and sat in the grass next to this mysterious Nocturne. "What is this place?" Kairos asked, her voice hushed in an awed tone.

"This?" The stranger made a gesture, indicating the grove. "This place has had many names, known by very few. Myths and legend rules here. Now, it's story will be known by you. Tell me, my child, are you afraid?" The pool of the strange dark goo at her claws bubbled and hissed.

"I'm not afraid. But who are you?" Her question was bold, her conviction laid bare in her words. At her question, the old Nocturne laughed.

Her laugh echoed through the grove, the sound seeming to grow louder and louder. The barest hint of clouds in the sky could be seen through the gaps in the trees, the shadows seemed to grow deeper. The night seemed to pull in tightly around the pair of Nocturnes, circling them like a predator, though it was more watchful than stalking. "I've been known by more names than needles in the Tangled Wood my child. I have been known as a trickster, and a sneak, the Obscured was a name of mine for a while. I can do wonders with cards. Don't believe the awful rumors my darling sister tells. Knowledge of that age is too dangerous to be shared." The old Nocturne gave a smile, her lips were cracked and looked ancient, and as the facade melted and she grew into a large and imposing figure.

Kairos sat before the Shadowbinder, awestruck she shook, from fear or wonder she couldn't discern. She had heard stories of the gods, that being fickle immortal beings, striking down innocent dragons for seemingly no reason.

A low rumble echoed from the Shadowbinder's throat, "My children will always come home, but some of my children have never known their homes. Like you. What is your name?" The goddess of the Tangled Wood tilted her head as she peered at the small Nocturne.

"M-My name, Lady Shadowbinder? I, I have called myself Kairos. W-What do you mean, that I've never known my home?" Kairos chokes out, the aura of power that radiated off the goddess was nearly terrifying. Taking most of her willpower not to turn tail and flee, which would likely insult the murky figure before her.

"Kairos, a fine name. Kairos, tell me. Have you ever had a home?" The Shadowbinder asked, a wry smile making its place on her maw.

"Well I, no. I haven't. I was born alone and raised myself. I have never known love from another dragon or creature." The startled dragon replied. She looked away, embarrassed.

The smile on her face grew, and the Shadowbinder asked. "Would you like to? Do you want to have a home, Kairos." The trees around them seemed to arc in, leaning in closer, to listen to their conversation.

"I, think I would, mistress Shadowbinder. I would." Kairos and the trees quivered with anticipation. The whispers around them seemed to grow, the intensity of the secrets posed to the empty air was choking, ghosting onto Kairos' scales like the phantom claws of dead dragons.

"I have a deal for you. I will give you a life that is magically extended. Even I cannot tell you just how long you will live. You would have resistance to many of the diseases that the Plaguebringer can throw from her cauldron. You will live here, and become the caretaker of this grove. These trees are special my darling. Every whisper that any dragon has whispered into a maple leaf, and thrown into the wind at night is carried here. These secrets live on these trees. Trapped in the maple leaves they were brought here in. They echo here forever. Like you will, should you accept." The goddess went on, making her way to the tree in the center of the grove. Putting a claw on the ancient, gnarled bark, the Shadowbinder dug her claws deep into the wood of the tree, sap pooled thickly around her claw, gleaming amber in the blue-green light of the mushrooms.

Kairos watched in awe as the Shadowbinder gathered the viscous sap in her claw and with a flap of her great wings she was standing next to Kairos. Offering her claw to Kairos, she said quietly, "With the blood of the first tree and yours, you will be bound here. You may leave for short periods, but your lifeforce is tied to this place."
Kairos nodded, solemn and stoic. She used one of her claws to make a puncture in the back of her forearm, near-black blood oozed from the wound as she held it over the Shadowbinder's.

As soon as the blood hit the deeply colored sap, Kairos felt a power nudging at her conscious. Tugging at her, the unfamiliar presence in her mind made itself known. It was the grove, it was alive.
Its life was slow moving and quiet. It wanted to know her. And make her its own. With root and limb and leaf she was the grove's, and it was hers.

"It is done my daughter, welcome home." With a cackle the goddess was gone in a flash of mist and the rustle of leaves, with a final disembodied whisper. "Make a life for yourself here. It is where you are meant to be." The Shadowbinder was gone, back to the Obscured Crescent.

And with that, Kairos was left alone. To think about her newfound responsibilities.

It was like this for centuries. Alone in contemplation, she spent hours, writing manuscripts and paragraphs to curb her loneliness. In these lonely centuries, the Hollow had not been a home yet. She had begun to travel in her 20th millennia. Slowly making her way away from the Hollow. She saw the outside world for the first time in 20,000 years. She traveled to several places, finding them all so different than when she was last there. She returned to the Hollow, and traveled short distances from it for the following millennia. It wasn’t until her 100th millennia that she met her mate Ouranos for the first time. She met him in the Orphanage, a small Nocturne hatchling. She smiled at him and asked him what he was doing there, but his only answer was that he was waiting for his father.
She offered to sit and talk with him for a while. He replied, “No, no, I-I’m sure he’ll be back soon. He wouldn’t leave me right?”
With a sad look, Kairos bid him farewell.
She didn’t see him again for a few decades. He had been forced into a child army by a Pearlcatcher named Foxglove and had grown battle scarred and weary. She recognized him, despite how much he had aged in so little time.

Kairos welcomed him into the small den she had dug out from under the great tree in the center of the Hollow. And they talked, for hours they simply talked to one another.
She lamented the time he spent in the army of the insurgent Pearlcatcher Foxglove, he had escaped alongside a few of his fellow soldiers. The Pearlcatcher was still at large with a large army. They were safe in the grove however.
They spent more time together and eventually took one another as mates.
A few years pass, and a few more dragons found their way to the Hollow. A Fire dragon named Alastor, a pair of Nocturne siblings and a coatl named Tea, a soft spoken Guardian who’s Charge was the dead.

Kairos found an Imperial infant near the Hollow, the child wept, looking for someone to care for it. Kairos felt a surge of maternal compassion, as she had never felt in all her years. Creeping up to the child she took her in her arms and cradled her, crooning to her in an ancient form of draconic. A lullaby.
The child calmed, sniffing, tears still welling in her white eyes. Kairos comforted her, beckoning the child to follow her. The child followed, stumbling, curious and entranced. Kairos flew slowly, waiting for the Imperial to catch up.
When they reached the warm whispers of the Hollow of Secrets, the trees leaned in to listen. Waving her millenia old companions away, "Go on, she is new, you old ancient things. You can greet her later! She needs rest and food." Kairos chided the eavesdropping maple trees. She was unable to carry the young Imperial, so instead she beckoned further. Down, darker, deeper. Into the veritable Labyrinth that had grown under the large maple in the center of the grove.
Kairos led the hatchling to what served as the kitchen, close to the surface with a large stone hearth with a chimney to draw out the smoke. Kairos went to preparing something for the child to eat, while the hatchling curled up in front of the warm fire shivering.
By the time Kairos had finished making the hearty stew, the hatchling was fast asleep.
Kairos let her sleep, debating on what she should do with the Imperial hatchling that had made her way into her life.
The easiest thing to do, was to raise her as her own daughter, Kairos reasoned. There was no way that she would throw the hatchling back out into the world. At least, not until the little thing could defend herself. Predatory beastclan could easily kill a hatchling like her. No, it would be best to raise the blue and white Imperial on her own. And if she asked questions. Kairos would tell her.

Over time, a few centuries at least, the Clan that Kairos had made for herself grew larger. There came a hatchling, a Skydancer with feathers like snow, a mournful thing she was.


Kairos is the leader of the Clan of Whispered Secrets, she was the first to live in the grove and has lived here for ages long since past.

Keeper of Secrets

She adopted Thornessa when she found the imperial as a hatchling wandering through the Foxfire Bramble after being abandoned by a passing ice clan.





By Fallowtail


By HawkSirius