Arrantial

The nest was not like most Nature nests. It was different. Black moss grew up along the sides of it, and the normally green stems of the eggs were rotted and decaying. An awful sight indeed. Most would just stare as they passed the nesting grounds. Alas, it was a nest only a mother could love.

Huoli was the dragon’s name. And she would lay beside the nest for hours and hours, incubating them and hoping they would hatch and be healthy. It was a naive and foolish hope, as they obviously had egg rot, or some strange form of it. They were not going to be healthy children, but Huoli didn’t want to hear what the clan doctors had to say. She just knew her little hatchlings would be perfect.

It was the young mother’s first nest. Obviously she would be protective. But even she couldn’t deny that it was abnormal, the way it looked. But she also knew that these were going to be her babies, whether they were odd or not. At that point, she really didn’t care what was wrong with them.

The father of the nest, however, felt a bit differently about the whole thing. He turned away when the eggs were laid, leaving poor Huoli to care for it alone. She wasn’t too upset by that, but she was a bit nervous about having to raise them on her own. Everyone in the clan was talking about her strange nest. Rumors and worse were getting tossed around. There was tension rising everywhere.

The day of the hatch came, and Huoli was very relieved when she saw the eggs begin to jump and twitch. They trembled and shook and everyone was desperately afraid of the outcome. And all of the eggs burst open at once.

It was quite a shock. Seemingly healthy young hatchlings. Huoli grinned, the tears of joy already streaming down the young mother’s cheeks. Little did she know, there was a much darker force taking place with them. Huoli reached towards the youngest of the clutch, a tiny black Skydancer with a cute growth of green gems, just like his parents had. No one knew why they were born with those strange gems on their skin, but no one complained either.

Anyway, as she reached towards the little black Skydancer, he lunged at her, sinking tiny teeth deep into her hand. She jerked back in shock, glancing at the others. They were already wrestling, trying to rip each other apart. Huoli was horrified. So nothing had been physically wrong with her children. Mentally? That was another story.

She figured they were just aggressive. After all, their father had been quite a little monster in his day too. Nothing wrong with some rough and tough baby dragons who stood their ground and showed opponents who was boss.

But the first days turned to weeks, then months. Each day, they got more and more bloodthirsty. More and more savage. They wanted death at every second. All of them were pure killers, and they desired only fights.

Troubled and upset by their behavior, Huoli was forced to lock them away in a small cave, separating them from each other with thick glass. And every day, they would try to claw their way through it and reach the other side. Huoli hung her head every time someone mentioned her first clutch.

Still worried and wanting proper children, she consulted a soothsayer, who foretold one of her sons would find the darkness and free the entire clan from it. But the soothsayer refused to let Huoli in on what said darkness was. At the time, Huoli had no idea what that meant, so she dismissed it as crazy bat garble. But she knew she couldn’t keep her children locked away forever. She just couldn’t.

Reluctantly, Huoli let her children out, and she had to beg the soothsayer to tell them what was wrong so they could fix it. The soothsayer refused, saying the children would have to find it themselves. Being so violent and savage, it was hard for Huoli to imagine any of her children doing anything of the nature.

Months passed of her savages being chained outside rather than locked up, and every day posed a new nightmare for Huoli. But she was still their mother. She still had the responsibility to protect and love them. And deep down, she did.

Only one hatchling seemed to know how to speak. The youngest black male Skydancer. Unlike the others, he seemed intelligent. Huoli had named him Arrantial, and he was sly and manipulative and cruel. He was fond of pushing others until they broke. But just like his siblings, Arrantial was hungry for death all around him.

Nonetheless, Huoli knew if any of them had a chance of survival and not murdering someone off their chains, it was Arrantial. He was the only one of her children that made plans. That only snapped when his target was in range of his teeth. Therefore, after they were nearing adulthood, Huoli didn’t have a choice. She let Arrantial off his leash.

Naturally, the kid bit and clawed and threw up an awful racket. But after Huoli managed to calm him a bit, she explained to him what the task was. He didn’t really see how being good would benefit him, until Huoli went on to explain that the clan would follow him and respect him and love him. Arrantial liked the sound of that.

He agreed to go on this “quest,” even though he didn’t really want to be good. Having someone under his control was all he wanted though. Huoli had to deal with another demon, however. She knew that if she left Arrantial to the world, many would die and everyone else would suffer because of it. But she still clung to the hope that her children could be saved.

Zero in on Arrantial. He went out on his own, with no real idea where to begin. He ended up deciding to leave Nature. It wouldn’t have the answers he needed. He knew that. So he traveled Sornieth, always looking for victims to methodically murder and loot their corpses. It’s just what he knew to do in order to get food and money.

The Skydancer finally found a place that reminded him of himself and his siblings: The Tangled Wood. There had to be some answers here. He found a clan that was… dark, to say the least. They were far less accomodating than any he’d met in his travels so far. He was barely able to stay there without a fight.

But there was a wise mage in the clan. A priestess. She was very beautiful, even to the evil and blackhearted Arrantial. He consulted her about himself and his siblings. She noted that while his heart was full of malice, he was not utterly rabid like his siblings. She wondered to him why that was.

Arrantial didn’t care. He just wanted to finish his time here and get back to his domain. That was what was at stake for him. He asked her, rather impatiently, what could have caused the darkness in his and his brother and sister’s souls. The priestess led him into a dark cave where she could inspect him.

“These gems…” she felt over the wretched gems on his body. “Do your parents have these on their bodies?”

He nodded slowly. The priestess looked at him with fear in her eyes. Like she suddenly realized something very dark. “I’ve seen them before. They are the mark of those that Carry the Shade,” she managed softly. “Their offspring are Carriers, more often than not. But you and your siblings actually exhibit it.”

“What?” he asked, not comprehending.

“Shadetouched. It’s the only explanation.”

“You’re saying all dragons with this gem mutation are Shadetouched?” Arrantial snapped incredulously. Many dragons had these gems.
“Certainly not,” she tried to explain. “Look at the ones on you. They are filled with swimming black shadows. Only dragons with gem growths like those are Carriers. And they often do not show symptoms. You and the rest of your clutch got the brunt of the generations of Carriers in your family.”

Arrantial nodded slowly. “Can they cure Shadetouched dragons?”

“It’s possible…” the priestess shrugged. “But it’s a long, difficult, and painful process. Only a high priest could do it. One who has connections to the deities.”

He set off again, knowing that Arcane would be his best bet. He went straight to the first large clan he saw. Thankfully, it was a monarchy with a king and a queen and a priest and everything he needed.

Arrantial asked around and did his level best to figure something out for him and his family. He finally found the priest in question. A huge male Imperial, much larger than the priestess Arrantial previously had to deal with. He glared down at the Skydancer, his eyes ablaze, as if he could sense the presence of the Shade within him.

“You are an unholy demon,” the Imperial snarled. “Be gone!”

Arrantial had never once been intimidated by another dragon before. But now, at the Imperial’s thunderous voice, the Skydancer felt his heart skip in his chest and his shoulders start to tremble. He had never been more afraid.

“I said,” the Imperial sent a massive paw into Arrantial’s chest, flinging him backwards as though the Skydancer was weightless. “Be gone!”

Arrantial spat on the floor and jumped up, snarling as he and the Imperial began to circle one anotehr. “I need your help. I am Shadetouched, and the word brings hatred and revolt with me wherever my family treads. I need to be cured.”

The Imperial laughed. And kept laughing. The idea was amusing. “Me? Cure a Shadetouched dragon? Not on your life, Skydancer. I don’t help the Shade. I burn it and watch it scream as the flames extinguish.”

“But I need you to help me” Arrantiral said again.

The Imperial sighed deeply, seeing there would be a fight if he did not obey. He calmly got out an old book of lore from the beginning of Sornieth and took it to the Skydancer. The dragon looked at it, his curiosity getting the better of him. He usually was indifferent about things like this, but that book could change his life.

See, there, even now, Arrantial had bloodlust in his heart. He wanted nothing more than to tear into the priest’s throat and make him pay. But he held himself back because he knew he needed to get the Shade out of him. In all honesty, he didn’t even know who he was.

The priestess had been right. The spell, similar to an exorcism, was painful. He felt who he was, or who the Shade had made him, crumble into the dust. Arrantial passed out halfway through the process.

He woke up different. All the hate he’d felt his entire life was gone. As if it had never been there at all. He was free. Finally free. He still had that wit and sarcasm that had defined his character before, but now it was much more consensual and a lot less like some dark force inside him was bribing him to murder others.

Arrantial knew there was only one thing he still needed to do. He asked the priest if he could take the spell home and use it for his Shadetouched siblings. Still not in the mood for a fight, the Imperial allowed it.

He performed the spell on his siblings, and it worked. Huoli could finally be happy will her children while they were still in their teen years. But in his travels, something had changed inside Arrantial. He no longer had the desire to be with his mother, as his siblings did when their curse was lifted. Now the only thing Arrantial wanted to do was move on.

He saw Sornieth as a pathway for him. A straight and narrow trail to his destiny. And no matter what, Arrantial knew he had to get there. He was tired of the Shade living inside his head. It was a blessing to finally be free of it, and Arrantial knew that he could use it to find a new home and a new place for him to just be him.

The Skydancer went back to the one region of Sornieth he knew was the type he was looking for. Arcane. The Starfall Isles was very attractive to the young dragon. He had just surpassed his last teenage year, and he was ready to finally take what was his.

He found a clan shortly after that was perfect. It was this clan. He moved on from the darkness that ruined the first half of his life, and he found a home here. It was a good and comofrtable place, and honestly, Arrantial couldn’t have asked for much more. They accepted him without questioning him about his past.

Of course, he chose a task that would let him work in solitude. He is the clan potion master, and he is excellent with poisons and toxins of every kind. He is also wonderful at creating antidotes for the worst of them. Because of this work, Arrantial mostly keeps to himself, not socializing when he can avoid it.

The Skydancer recently found something that he could never have expected. He was traveling through Sornieth, studying poisons foreign to the Isles, when he finally decided it was high time to go back home.

Arrantial was on the path towards Arcane when all of a sudden, a huge swirling vortex of some kind of magic appeared in front of him. He startled back, but he didn’t run. There was no point in running. Especially if it was actually magic. One thing Arcane had taught him was that magic always found its target.

Suddenly, a large Bogsneak toppled through the portal and slammed into Arrantial at full force. Naturally, the Skydancer was very suspicious about this. He snarled and dropped into a defensive position. This dragon would get it if she tried anything.

She actually greeted him though, and they soon got to talking. She explained that she had been searching for a clan to accept an outcast like her. Arrantial offered her his clan without thinking. And the two of them began to travel together. And on that journey, without his consent or desire, Arrantial found himself in love.

They were mated and lived happily ever after. For the most part. Arrantial is still very secluded from the clan, always turning away when offered to go to social events. His only connection to the rest of the clan is Avarice, the Bogsneak who showed him that love was more powerful than any magic. More often than not, Avarice helps Arrantial out with his potions and poisons and everything else.

Honestly, he never changed when he was still possessed by the dark force he was. He has always been and always will be, the snarky, quick-witted, ready to fight Skydancer he is. This dragon is one you’ll not soon forget.


Bio by CayCay