Ashlultum

Arrived at the clan after Miasa purportedly "found" her and brought her home with her.

Immediately upon arrival she barricaded herself in a cave, hissing and spitting at anyone who came near. The clan is at loss for what to do with her, so for now they just bring her food and hope for the best. At least she will be forced to come out when she outgrows her cave.

Verna has taken to sitting outside the cave and reading some of her stories to the young dragon. Other dragons also come sometimes to talk with her (or at her, in any case) either when their bringing her food or just wandering by. She has at least stopped hissing at them by now.

She has so far not even told the clan her name, so they have taken to calling her imaginatively "Plagueling" or "that wacko in the tundra nests, you know".

---

She has finally decided to emerge from her cave, though by now she needed some help to widen the entrance to fit her grown form. After staggering out of the ruined mouth of the cave, she stood shaking, her limbs weak from disuse, in the middle of a ring of curious dragons and said just two words: "It's over."

Slowly adjusting to life among the clan, Ashlultum (as she is known now) has begun to show signs of having at least some sort of psychic abilities, most notably being able to "suggest" things to others. She can't force other dragons do things they're strongly opposed to, but she can give them a decent shove in the right direction. Goneril insists that her talent for "gentle persuasion" (as she puts it) could be honed and developed with time and practice, but Ashlultum is more interested in strengthening her own mental defenses.

Praecursoria put her up as the clan cook after the previous one left and since she had expressed interest in the job. She used to hang around the kitchens all the time anyway.

Ashlultum has some serious anger problems. This has resulted in most of the dragons in the clan giving the kitchen a wide berth, lest they end up on her firing line. It hasn't earned her many friends outside the few that she got to know back when she was holed up in her hideout. Sararu especially seems to catch the brunt of her ire more often than others, although he still tries to befriend his aunt even if it always ends in tears.

Many wonder why he keeps doing it, when he just gets rejected time after time. Ashlultum even tried to throw him off a cliff when he first arrived in the clan. She was stopped, but not without a fight.

No child of that "blood-mad dog" was going to sneak their way into her clan on her watch, she said. She acquiesced in the end, only after being threatened with exile, but named him a liar and a traitor and refuses to have anything to do with him.

---

In the disastrous escape from the clan's old lair in Earth, the scattered remains of BOULDERSMASHER had to cross the Plague badlands in a bid to lose their spectral pursuers. Many that had survived the initial haunting never made it out of the Wandering Contagion, one of them being Sararu. While not showing much emotion at the time, it can be assumed that Ashlultum felt something when her nephew died, seeing as she's kept his pet ember mouse around.

These days Ashlultum still manages the kitchen, with new help to wrangle and boss around.



by Mask