Lixue

-give him Constellation at some point in the future?
-I know they're not actually related, but in-lore this gal is his cousin. :>
He had been... well.
Not happy. Not at the Court. But... secure, at least.

Then again, the Cloudscrape Court clearly hadn't been built with comfort in mind- elegance and strength had obviously been at the forefront for the builders of the vast mountain city. It was beautiful, for sure- and Lixue still did miss his home sometimes. But even for an iceborn dragon, the howling winds and bleak rock faces and semi-perilous bridges that arched primly across the chasms could get... cold. Tiring.

And it had become so. Lixue's upbringing, much like his place of birth, had been not quite happy, but comfortable enough. The stilted formality and layers upon layers of social customs had always been wearing to the young Pearlcatcher, but he knew nothing else. Where could he possibly belong, if not at the Court? All he knew was this sequestered city, home to ancient Tundra family lines and aristocratic Pearlcatchers and every manner of self-important dragon you could imagine. Lixue wasn't like that- he thought. He hoped. He tried not to be.

Lixue's only solace was found in the company of his cousin, Khoia. They'd been friends since hatching, and had been trained in the upholding of all their familial customs together.
Of the newest generation of House Fractalus, however, Khoia was the more headstrong. She, much like her cousin, was disillusioned with their glittering, boring existence and dreamed instead of leaving the Court and seeing the world. Against her parents' wishes, too, she nursed a fondness for the healing arts, and had combed the small Court library many times over for all the tomes of medicinal knowlege she could find.

The Cloudscrape Court was not a place of constant change. There was a way things were, and that was generally how they were expected to stay.

Things did change, however, in a way they could not have anticipated. Things were shattered- literally- by the crashing of a strange airship contraption into their mountains. The whole thing crashed against one of the sharp peaks the Court was built against, smashed through an elegant ice bridge, and fell down, down, down to the snowy floor.

Most of the nobles turned up their noses at the wreckage. Khoia was sure she'd seen someone moving about in the cracked hull of the strange ship, and wanted to go investigate. Of course. And Lixue, ever the dutiful partner in crime, followed.

There was, it turned out, someone alive within the wreckage of the ship. A gray striped Imperial, who groggily introduced herself as Nia before passing out. Khoia and Lixue's days became consumed with secretly tending to the surprise visitor- if a dragon lying in a broken airship several stories below your home counts as a visitor.