Elspeth

Elspeth, clan founder, prefers battling in the coliseum over lounging about the lair like some other dragons she won't name. Someone has to bring food in for the clan. Someone has to keep the hoard fat. Someone has to train up young dragons to join the Windsinger. Without her, she is fairly sure everyone in Red Pillar Clan would spend all their treasure on frivolous nonsense like fancy gene scrolls and silken veils and rare familiars instead of useful things like meat.

Honestly, have you seen those other dragons? They take fancy so far it stretches past the Arcanist's telescope. You need sunglasses to look at some of them.

Anyway. At least she has Tormod and Yachin. Tormod's like her; practical. Bit bloodthirsty at times, but she admires his passion. He's been with her from day one and she'll be with him till the day's end. Yachin... well, Yachin is a little fancy. Her obsidian gembond can be a little too glittery sometimes and she's inordinately fond of things that shimmer. But she loves the fight just as much as Elspeth and brings in her fair share of food. That makes her all right as far as Arcane dragons go.

She doesn't want to talk about the ninny who named the hatchery. Amphigouris? Please. Just call it nonsense and be done with it. Amphigouris. Ugh.

When fighting's done for the day, she, Tormod, and Yachin like to curl up together at the base of the broken red pillar that gave the clan its name. There, they sort through the day's kills, joke about Benneit's ridiculous outfits, and figure out how to distribute the strange things they found while hunting among everyone else in the clan.

Generally Yachin takes over that last bit when Tormod begins tossing things off the steppes. She chitters and scolds him but it's as much ritual for them as incubating a nest is for new parents. There's a sizeable pile of stuff Yachin's failed to catch at the base of the lair. Clan newcomers comment on it sometimes, but Elspeth doesn't mind. It gives the hatchlings something to play with.

They're good dragons, she thinks, as wind makes the bamboo hum. Every night, they fall asleep together to the sound of it.