Lief

The storm has calmed now, but the damage is done. An egg, not long from hatching, floats out on open sea. This egg was once nested in the Tsunami Flats but the recent hurricane caused strong tidal waves that swept it out into the ocean. Soon a baby dragon will hatch from this egg, into an unknown and dangerous world, and with no one to help or guide it, it will die..

"Let's see.. Driftwood.. Ohh look more driftwood.. Oh and what's this? Driftwood! Alright! You'd think that that recent hurricane could have at least made it a little bit easier to find something valuable.." Disappointed, Windseeker returns to the designated meeting area for the Hidden Jungle Clan's scavenging team. Maybe someone else found something worth the trip, I guess driftwood at least sells for a bit of treasure though so it's better than nothing. It could also be used in some way for construction or crafts in the clan lair, or given to Kyra for alchemical use.

As Windseeker is flying back towards the rally point, observing the beautiful scenery of the Water Flight territory, she notices something out of place. A dragon egg floating out in open water without a dragon anywhere nearby, at least not as in plain sight. This is very concerning but Windseeker does not know if this is as big a deal as it seems so she locates a nearby shoreline to set her extremely valuable bounty down upon to take up a search for the eggs parents.

Windseeker flies down to shore, gracefully dropping the driftwood she was carrying into the dry sand so that her priceless bounty won't get stolen by any greedy waves. "Hello? Is anyone watching this egg? I'm a wind dragon so I don't exactly know too much about you water dragons customs but this egg appears to be out swimming without a parent!" ...Silence is the only reply. That's not good.. I'd better grab that egg and look around for its parents before any harm comes to it.

After a couple hours of searching Windseeker hears Lucian calling after her. "Windseeker! Everyone is ready to head back to the lair! We've been waiting for you for over an hour come on! Wait.. why do you have that?" Windseeker explains to Lucian the details around finding the stray egg, they decide it would be best at this point to bring the egg back with them and look after it themselves. At this point there's no doubt, the parents to this baby dragon to be aren't going to be found, this egg must've been a casualty of the recent hurricane. Or at least an almost casualty.

*5 days later*
Lilian, Xelia, and Kyra all gather around the hatching egg. The rest of the clan is off digging in wind territory, they will be disappointed to have missed the hatching of the clans newest member.
Lilian: "Wow she's cute! Just look at those colours too! It's like she was meant to be part of a nature clan!"
Xelia: "What will we name her though? I'm thinking Life, it's pretty fitting given the circumstances of her birth, how it all played out."
Kyra: "Yeah but we can't just name her Life come on be more creative than that! We should name her Lief!"
"How is Leaf more creative than Life?! She doesn't even look like a Leaf and my name has meaning behind it!"
"Not Leaf like off a tree! Lief! L I E F like Life but with the e and f switched!"
"That's even more stupid than Leaf..."
"Alright! It's settled then! Little Lief it is!"
"Wait what?! Who said anything about.. Lilian! You're not seriously going to let her get away with that are you?"
"Why not? I think it's a cute name! She seems to like it too, and if she doesn't later Lief can always change her name to something she wants. It is her name after all."
"How is it cute though?"
"It's basically a creative way of saying life! It has the same meaning but it's spelled and pronouced a bit different which gives it a creative twist. At least I think that's what Kyra was going for."
"It is."
"Oh.. Well actually that is cute.. Sorry Kyra I didn't know that's what you meant"
"It's okay Xelia! Besides I wouldn't have thought of that if you didn't come up with what you did! We make a great naming team!"
"Heh yeah I guess we do."

Not even a week after hatching Lief shows an adversity to water that challenges even the legendary Ridgeback Dragons adversity. This comes off as very odd and extremely concerning to the clan, not only because Lief is a water dragon but also because it's a challenge just to get her to drink water. Worry begins to set in as the traumatic experience surrounding her birth may have guaranteed her death even with the intervention of Windseeker. It takes weeks of forcing her to drink water to prevent her from dying of dehydration before the first signs of progress start to show themselves in her willingness to at least drink water under the circumstances that it is given to her by a clan mate.

As time goes on she continues to avoid water like the plague in situations where it's not under direct control of clan mates. On one occasion Kyra found Lief violently hissing at a creek clearly frustrated as it was between her and a rather delicious looking fruit.
"You know you can just fly over it right?" asks Kyra.
"No! It's dangerous! Listen! Can't you hear it growling at me?
It wants to kill me!"
"Lief you really need to get over this fear of water. First off you're a water dragon, if you're ever going to master your element you need to be friends with it not enemies. Second, it's not growling at you it's just moving. What you hear is the sound of the water flowing over the rocks.
Watch."
Kyra flies over the creek, more than once to make the point, then grabs the fruit from the nearby tree.
"The water isn't going to hurt you Lief. Fly over here and I'll give you the fruit you were after."
After a short delay Lief decides to trust Kyra. Kyra has always been there for her and has never lied to her about anything. She lifts off the ground and flies over the water, panicking a bit mid way and closing her eyes which causes her to crash into the tree and fall to the ground.
"See what I mean Lief? Your fear of water isn't protecting you, it's hurting you and making you look like a fool. The water didn't try to attack you or anything. You can defeat this fear though, I know you can. After all you wouldn't be over here right now if you couldn't"
Kyra tosses Lief the fruit, Lief catches it in her mouth and then shys away in embarrassment.
"Listen Lief, when you were younger the first way you started getting over your fear of water is trusting it when it was under the control of myself or someone else in the clan. You should come do alchemy with me. You're always in control of liquids there and this would probably help you feel more in control of water instead of feeling like it controls you or is a threat to you. Plus you could make some really cool stuff in the process."
"I guess I could give it a try but.. are you sure you want me doing alchemy with you? I mean isn't it kind of dangerous if something or someone messes up? I'm not sure I'd be the best for you to have around.."
"It's only dangerous during certain situations and I won't let any of those even begin to occur unless I'm certain everyone with me is prepared to deal with it properly. We'll start small, easy, and safe. Lets fly back to the lair and we can get started by reducing some of our over stocked materials into ooze that can later be used for other alchemical purposes. Once you've gotten a handle on the basic stuff we can start a real alchemy project. I'm sure you'll get the hang of it, otherwise I wouldn't bother mentioning it."
"Are you sure this will work though? That is, help me get over some of this fear?"
"Nope. But it's an idea which is better than no idea. Plus it COULD work, so it's worth a shot.
If it doesn't we'll think of something else." After getting a good handle on reducing different materials and what not into usable sludge, slime, and ooze, Lief is actually enjoying herself with alchemy and looking forward to an upcoming experiment that is supposed to yield something along the lines of a familiar as an end result. As this is her first time actually creating something rather than simply changing into alchemy supplies Lief is quite excited.
"Alright got the copper muck, 2 clawfuls of green ooze, 3 vials of green goo, and a glass beaker. Lilian has also granted us the treasure needed to fund the rest of the materials needed for this recipe. Now all we do is wait and make sure nothing explodes too violently." says Kyra.
"Wait what? Too violently?!" asks Lief, who starts slowly backing away.
"Don't worry, I'm kidding! Maybe. We'll see soon enough!"
"I think I need to-"
"Oh come on Lief don't worry, I know what I'm doing for the most part and I won't let anything bad happen. Speaking of which you've definitely been doing better since you started alchemy. Haven't you noticed? You've been kind of shrugging off the presence of water as if it wasn't any big deal like the rest of us do."
"Yeah I guess I have. I guess water isn't that big a deal but.. It still feels like an enemy.. Like something that has tried killing me before."
"Hmm well, that's in the past. Besides you're almost an adult now, water is no match for you!"
They both have a bit of a laugh which is interrupted by the sudden boiling of the alchemical concoction.
"Whoa there! Alright bit too much heat, I think we're almost done though, or.. we should be according to the recipe. This still just looks like liquid though.." Kyra checks the recipe, they've actually gone a bit over the time it's supposed to take so she decides to go ahead and dump it on the table to see if maybe it changes into something. After a short delay the liquid goes from being sprawled out across the table and recedes into a blob, seemingly its preferred form."Ugh this is like what happened with my familiar I was making. Still I guess it's better than nothing, sorry Lief I figured we'd at least get something a bit cooler for you."
Lief stares at the blob for a moment before saying, "Kyra... I think it's smiling at me. I think it likes me! Aww my little blob friend! I like you too!"
"Aww! Hey want to trade? My blob is shiny!"
"No that's okay! I love this one, but thanks for asking!"
"You sure? I mean my blob is really really shiny. Maybe you should see it first before making up your mind."
"No that's fine, besides I helped make this one so it's special to me!"
"Alright as long as you're sure.." Kyra pouts.
"I am! Thanks so much for introducing me to alchemy Kyra! This is fun! I'm definitely going to keep helping from now on."

Lief would continue on to become one of the clans main alchemists, spending some time with Lichina helping the clans medical team whenever nothing was going on in the alchemy lab. Lief doesn't really have much interest in the outside world still and the idea to have Lief get over her fear of water has worked for the most part, but it has also caused her to develop a sense of discomfort anywhere outside the lair. So Lief prefers to stay within the lairs controlled environment where she feels safe and secure and does her best to help out.

She has also acquired a particular liking towards frogs.. and Dustbunny.

End. Fin. (heh, like fish fin. Water pun. RIP)