Shroud

Named Shroud because she is reminiscent of a girl in the desert at night with her shawls fluttering in the dark moonlit breeze. She is herself a living burial shroud.

---

Shroud has always been cloaked in darkness. It is not something that she can explain, it just seems to follow her like some kind of disease, eating away at everything she gets close too, destroying relationships before they have even begun. This is what caused her to retreat from her birthclan, vanishing from it overnight. She took nothing but the apparel she held close, a fragile reminder of her cloak of darkness. She cannot escape it, has never really wanted to or tried in the first place, but she knows that it would follow her anywhere, a dark reminder of some ancient curse. The thought of the curse never leaves her mind, it has followed her from birth. She can, however, remember the one time a light broke through. A light that shattered the darkness and revealed the dragoness within. This is something she prefers not to think about, as the light was extinguished by the very force it had defeated. His name was Sun. She had not expected to meet him on that lonely, dark walk through the woods, yet there he stood. He was her opposite, the sun to her moon. She only noticed him as a beacon. Nothing penetrated the darkness, it was a thick fog bank, near impossible to see through unless she focused on what she wanted to see. Yet, there he was. His brilliant white scales danced in the light surrounding him, his perfect golden eyes illuminated by his own brilliance. She noticed instantly that he saw her as she saw him. He could see the curling wisps of dark swirling from her body, like she could see the golden white clouds rolling from his claws. They moved towards each other, drawn together like magnets, nothing else mattered accept the other. As soon as the two touched claws, the opposing forces reacted. A storm swung up around them and the dragons pressed against each other, some foreign instinct telling them everything they needed to know about the other. The mists mixed in a blinding array of scattered colour, sending the ground into clouds of furious dust.

Then it stopped.

Just like that, it was over. They were standing by each other, knowing everything. Shroud looked into his eyes, he looked into hers. In that moment, the darkness lifted, the cloak disappeared. Everything was restored to how it should have been. The curse was still bound to her heart, although, at the time, it was not in sight. They stayed with each other constantly, unknowingly melting the bond they had formed quicker than it could repair. The darkness was too strong, the light too bright. The effect began to show on Sun. His scales dimmed, the fiery brightness in his eyes seemed muted. Shroud felt her curse gaining power, feeding from the light. They began to drift, seeing each other less and less, wanting more than anything to be together, yet barred by a force stronger than love itself. Their last meeting is still fresh in Shrouds mind, although it was so long ago. He left in wings of quartz, leaving the darkness to consume the shattered Ridgeback once more.

Shroud discovered from her parents that her ancestors had made a deal with a fragment of the scattered Shade, had accepted it into their own body, unknowingly dooming their future offspring to a life without light. The curse had skipped her parents generation, landing with twice as much power on Shroud herself, sending her into an abyss so deep, there was no light, not anymore. She also found out that the light of Sun was not a curse, but a blessing. A blessing that granted purity and luck, the opposite of what Shroud lived with.

When she left the clan, Shroud kept to the edges of civilisation, straying from any dragons or familiars that she saw. The sky and plants became her company, the darkness her closest friend. It shielded her from the sun, made everything around her colourless and drab. It soaked the colour from the sky itself. This was invisible to other dragons, although the Ridgeback did not know it. They could never see the deep veil coating her, just stayed away from her dark figure. They never took the time to ask her why she had the strangled, painful look on her face, never took the time to ask why she refused to look them in the eye.

As Shroud travelled, she took refuge in a clan, still staying at the edges, still staying unattached to anyone inside. The curse was contagious, so she had been told. If feelings were shared with another, they too would begin to exhibit traces of it, something Shroud was not willing to accept. She had arrived to a clan of darkness, under the rule of the Deity ShadowBinder, a Deity Shroud respected more than any other. She hunted for the clan, becoming a member without being formerly initiated into the Clan. She didn't want to be a part of it, only to be there, to have the chance to make a commitment, to belong to something that didn't shove her away.

The clan became a new beginning, a chance to make memories to replace the tragic ones of her past. Shroud found herself thinking of these more and more. What could replace the light? What could replace that one beacon of hope she had once known? Nothing. That was the answer that she really knew. Nothing could replace Sun, nothing could replace the burning desire she had to see him again, nothing could fill the hole in her heart. Shroud roared in fury then, standing in the middle of a forest within her new clan. Her roar carried all the way to the ears of a light cloaked dragon. His bright eyes rise to the sky, golden white mist flowing from his claws. He felt her pain. He dealt with her sadness. His wings stretched out, he had to go back, had to. They flattened against his back. No, he couldn't. He turned away, his own high pitched cry of sadness piercing the air.

Shroud lowered her snout. The answering call had not reached her, but her sadness was gone. She felt hollow. She had now confronted the feeling tearing her heart in two. Her decision was made. She would search, search for something to make her life complete. Something that would last and not have to stop as suddenly as it had begun. She spread her wings, eyes narrowed, and lifted into the darkening sky....

---

Lore by Kiradog234, possible updates/alterations to come. Thank you so much!