Chronos

rough draft
Chronos was not young when he became snow blind. He was on his own ambling through the ice and snow of his homeland when (in what felt like no time at all) a storm rolled in and trapped him on a glacial island away from the rest of his family. It was a traumatizing experience for the small, helpless, dragon. Hours rolled by with him trapped by the swirling snow and constant shift of the ice below him, and more than once he thought about flying off. He didn't though, for he knew the risk that that would bring and instead tried to wait the snow off by burying himself into a pile and bunkering down.

When the sound of the wind finally stopped, he unburied himself from the ground below and tried to look around. Seeing nothing but white he went into a panic and cried out into the vast blank nothingness. It wasn't a word he called out, but a scream filled with fear and hinted with a roar of anger. A sound to his left caught his attention and a slithering sound made him wary. His entire body tensed as he swore this wasn't how he would go out. Claws beared, he hissed in the direction he was sure the intruder was.

Although, in the wild there is no such thing as an intruder. Especially when you've been adrift for hours and have no clue where you are. The source of the dragging noise stopped; no doubt confused by the sudden display of aggression. It turned out to be someone who would important to him in his life, but only if he didn't tear their jugular out in a fit of fear.

"Are you lost?" A new voice asked, light and airy and holding the slightest lisp. He assumed it was the source of the slithering, but he didn't untense any. Just because it was talking didn't mean it wasn't dangerous. With the smallest clearing of his throat (for he found it hard to speak after such a close call with death) Chronos spoke the smallest possible affirmation to it's question. "It depends. Am I still in the land of ice and snow?"

There was some more shuffling and he took a few steps back just in case it had taken a few steps forward. There was no real way for him to tell what was going on here other than by noise and smell, and his sense of smell was not that great. Rather than answer the question he answered, the voice seemed to settle for asking a new question. "Wait-can you see me?"

His response to this question was to try to fly off, and it was in this moment that he felt the body of a Coatl (for what other species had such a long but still short torso?) tackle him to the ground and refrain his thrashing. He tried to throw it off at first, but eventually their yelling for him to calm down and the gentle headbutting got past his panic and he accepted what could have been his death.

It obviously wasn't though, and the bodied voice continued to try to calm him down. "If you could see before, you might be fine. It was a nasty storm you drifted in on but it might just be a case of snowblindness. My aunt Cerridwen warned me about it when she sent me off to this area. Can you sit still for me?"

The next few hours were critical for the pair, and she set about doing her best to prevent his state from being permanent. He didn't trust the coatl completely, but she hadn't killed him yet so really, what could go wrong?

Despite their best efforts though, his vision could not be saved. Unsure of what could be done for him past that, Ananke (his now mate) brought him back to the Clan of the Elemental Carion to see if their healers could do better than the scavenger/carpenter. Somewhere between the next few weeks Chronos decided it was safer to stay, even if he'll never be able to see again.

Strangely enough it seems that there's some ice he just can't shake no matter how hard he tries.