Rasputin

Rasputin is a dragon mistaken by most of his clan members, especially new students. They fear his phantom-like appearance and find him mysteriously dreadful. However, Rasputin is a loving and benevolent soul who only fights for goodness and justice. But his personality can be overwhelming to strangers, especially because of his phantom-wolf-like appearance.

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A good teacher does not use fear to control, but wields it gently & shows the learner how to overcome it.

It was a gloomy day in the Hewn City. Drizzle fell steadily, dampening the ancient ruins that were the chosen setting for a particular light clan’s training session. Young trainees gathered on the open fields scattered with hundreds of ancient archaeological remnants.

“Dark spirits are rumored to haunt anyone that tresspasses these regions,” the young dragons whispered to each other.

To the youngsters, it seemed like a war had just taken place here among the broken boulders and crumbled fortresses. Every shadow seemed like the ghosts of war, waiting to pounce on them.

To make things all the more frightening, they were assigned a trainer named Rasputin, a wolf-like spiral who spoke in soft growls and hid his expressions behind a phantasmal mask. And much like a phantom, he also seemed to appear out of nowhere most of the time.

As he emerged from behind one of the damaged old pillars, a grey cloud grew in size, hovering over the students who shuddered with wide eyes and weak knees.

“Formation!” he announced and the trainees fumbled about, childishly shoving themselves into each other, until they were in a horizontal line. Rasputin placed his palm on his forehead and sighed.

“You!” he pointed to one of the trembling dragons, “Step forward,” he ordered, gesturing him to move quickly.

The young dragon approached him cautiously, eyes glued to the ground, unable to face his master. “Let’s begin from scratch, with scratch. Shall we?” Rasputin chuckled to himself and a few of the trainees attempted to laugh a little too hard, which he found rather off putting.
Rasputin sighed again. First days were always like this.

“Now you stand there….
In the arena, you will face enemies at approximately this distance. You need to know how to aim from here.” He moved the trainee to the left of the others and he stood on their right. “Now when I say go, leap forward and swipe at me with your claws, as hard as you can, got it?”

The trainee turned to his other clan members nervously and they all seemed to pity him.
Before he had time to think, Rasputin yells “GO!” and the trainee suffers a minor heart attack, then somewhat gathers his wits and clumsily hops, skips and jumps towards Rasputin, waving his arms at nothing and breathing unevenly. Rasputin casually ducks and vanishes like smoke.

He appears at the other end of the field, striking a graceful dance-like pose, and says in a soft menacing growl “Alright... It’s my turn.”

The trainee felt his heart sink and you could see it on his face. Rasputin roared and began to leap forward, his long body bounding and twisting sharply against the wind, like a snake slithering in thin air. His mane moved away from his eyes, revealing two deep glowing green voids, fixated on the target. They glowed brighter as he lunged toward the shivering trainee who suddenly found himself lying under the Phantom Wolf. He closed his eyes and awaited the worst. But only heard a chuckle.

Rasputin stood on him, a grin on his face, turning to the others. “And this, my dear trainees...is the part where you’re supposed to dodge.” He swiftly jumped away from the poor young dragon beneath his feet.

“You must all realize something when you’re training with me. I’m not here to coddle you...but neither am I here to harm any of you to the point of injury! You are to be my warriors one day... this clan’s legion. And you will act like it…” he noticed that this didn’t particularly encourage them to feel more relaxed.

“After we’re done here, we can all head on over to my den for some edamame and a spot of glow juice, if that’s your thing. Otherwise, we can have something else arranged. Now, loosen up your spirits and stiffen up your fights. Is that clear?”

“SIR, YES, SIR,” they faithfully acknowledged him, feeling a lot lighter. Perhaps their dragon trainer was way cooler than they thought.

Day one is always difficult for new trainees in this clan but those who learn from Rasputin look forward to their training every single day for the rest of the year. He is a kind and friendly teacher...

...He just doesn’t look the part.

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The Battle Dancer

Raw art in slow motion,
This is brutal creativity,
A picturesque performance,
Of a rhythm so deadly.

An ideal imagination,
Decorates the battle field,
With refined style,
And killing purely sublime.

This exquisite spirit
Dances to eternity
His harmonic vices of war
Strike a poetic melody.

Lore & Poetry by DrakeDynasty