Atsuki

Belongs to BarbaraFett (#172350) - Please dorm until Wed. 11/3! Thank you!

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Clan Role: Fire Flight Guide Mate: Smolder Friends: Rythorn Kessel Mithril Milintica

Lore (see Short Story below)

Short Story

November 23-25, 2017

Evelyn's pale-green eyes fluttered open. Where was she? Had she... fallen asleep? Snappers were almost always on the move and so rarely truly slept, but she felt like she had been asleep for a very long time - months, at least.

She looked around herself, flexing her stiff legs. She was in her lair in the Ashfall Waste. There were other dragons around her, some of them her own children, all of them also waking up and looking around. Her memories swam back into focus. Where had Felicia gone off to? Or Hatu? Oh, yeah, she remembered - Hatu had been invited into a Shadow clan, while Felicia had gone off to serve the Flamecaller. Her children by them were still here, though... some of them, at least.

Evelyn noticed two sets of tiny footprints leading from a cold, empty nest, with the cooled, blackened remains of four Fire eggshells still in it, to the entrance of their lair. They were Ridgeback footprints, not Snapper ones - they reminded Evelyn that two of her four hatchlings with Hatu had left home to seek new adventures before they had even finished growing up. Where were they now, she wondered?

She suddenly realized that she felt filled with energy, strong enough to accomplish anything she set out to do. She beckoned to her remaining children to come along if they wanted to, then started following the trail of footprints out of the lair.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The sounds of woodland turkeys floated over to Evelyn and her now-grown children on a chill breeze that spoke of the coming of winter, such as it was in the Flamecaller's lands. She remembered it had been the end of summer when her youngest had been hatched - autumn had come and gone while she and her clan had been in their mysterious, supernatural slumber. It felt so good to be on the move again.

Some distance from their lair, the trail of footprints in the dusty ground split into two - one of the two sets of tracks headed off toward Light's territory, the other continued through Fire's. Preferring to stay as warm as possible, Evelyn decided to remain in the region she called home. She followed the second set of footprints, then relied on her mothering instinct after they faded away.

Eventually, she found her way to a cliff face with a door built over a crack in the rock. She knocked, and a rather intimidating and feral-looking Wildclaw answered the door. He took one look at Evelyn and the two offspring who had accompanied her this far, turned around, and howled, "Atsuki!"

A female Ridgeback with shimmering orange wings and gleaming golden runes hurried into view. "We got company," the Wildclaw said. "Looks like this is your family."

Atsuki stared at the visitors. "Mother!" she cried out, astonished. The mother and daughter embraced and nuzzled each other. "I thought I'd never see you again!" Atsuki exclaimed. "What's going on? How did you get here?"

"I followed my instincts," Evelyn said. "I don't know what's going on. All I remember is having no energy after your little brother here was hatched, and falling asleep, and then waking up a whole season later."

"Wow! We've all been feeling super-energetic around here lately - I had no idea it was affecting every clan! Come on in and meet the rest of the family."

Evelyn and her two nameless offspring entered the lair, which was tunneled far into the rocky cliffs, and was warm, sandy, comfortable, and perfect. She was introduced properly to the Wildclaw, whose name was Smolder and who was Atsuki's mate, and then met the rest of the clan, which was called Clan Ashfeather. The two nameless offspring who had come with Evelyn were excited to see their sister; the younger of the two, a singleton, had never gotten to meet her at all.

Clan Ashfeather all agreed that the guests were welcome to stay as long as they liked. Two days after they had arrived, there was another, much fainter knock at the door. Atsuki answered it herself this time, and was, once again, amazed at who was there.

"Darcy!" The male Fae was Atsuki's half-brother, and it showed. He had come with his mate, Reina. "You woke up, too!"

"We did," Darcy said, crest-fins rippling and quivering. "It seems we fell victim to some sort of curse which has now been lifted."

"Yes, it has! Mother is here visiting us, too. Come and see!"

Atsuki brought Darcy and Reina further into the cave, where Evelyn and the rest of the clan were, and they all took the opportunity to put all the pieces of their extended family's story together. Darcy was older than Atsuki, and back in the spring, he and Reina had run off to Dragonhome together to explore, sightsee, and have Earth-element hatchlings. Unfortunately, they had fallen victim to the same magical curse that had affected Evelyn's clan, and had been transformed into stone statues. It was in this state that Reina's youngest daughter, Cabernet, had found them, along with her father, Caspian, and her son, Spark. They had taken the news back home to Reina's clan in the Starfall Isles, Clan Adeptica, and Spark had decided to cary on his grandmother's traveling, brood-happy lifestyle - the same lifestyle that Evelyn herself had been pursuing, before the curse had set in.

Atsuki had left home as a youngster, seeking to learn what had become of her older half-siblings. When she had found Darcy in Dragonhome, she had run into the other members of Clan Ashfeather, two of whom had been clanmates with Darcy and Reina in Clan Adeptica, and were also seeking to learn their fate. Even together, Atsuki and Clan Ashfeather had been unable to find a way to break the stone curse. Instead, they had left a tribute beside Darcy and Reina's stone nest, and Atsuki had agreed to carry the news to Clan Adeptica on her way back to the Ashfall Waste. Later, when Clan Ashfeather had arrived in Fire territory, they had helped defend it against a Serthis incursion, and Atsuki had officially joined the clan. She and her mate, Smolder, had helped them settle in and thrive in their new home.

"Thank you for the tribute," Darcy said to Atsuki. "The provisions you left us were greatly appreciated during our journey here."

Evelyn shed a tear. "I love you all so much. I can't believe how much love you all have for each other."

"We love you too, Mother," Atsuki said.

"Indeed," agreed Darcy. "We traveled here as quickly as we could because Reina learned, from her study of the magical currents surrounding our lair in Dragonhome, that this is only a temporary reprieve from the effects of the curse. It will take hold again in a few more days."

"That soon?" Evelyn said, disappointed. "Aw, that's too bad."

"Yes, it is. We felt it was wisest to spend what time we have until then with our relatives."

"It was. I'm so glad we can all be together like this. You know, Rockbreaker's Ceremony is starting tomorrow - maybe we could all have a clan celebration? What do you think, Atsuki?"

"I think that's a wonderful idea!" Atsuki said. The clan head, Milintica, and his two elder advisors, Rythorn and Kessel, both agreed with her. Smolder was only too happy to have an excuse to go out and hunt down some turkeys, and Reina and Darcy were glad to help gather and prepare enough food for the non-meat-eaters in the lair.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The next day at noon, Clan Ashfeather and its five visitors sat down to a delicious Rockbreaker's Ceremony feast. There was a fat, golden-brown turkey, an abundance of different types of seafood and insectoid foods, and plenty of clover, flowers, and apples. It all looked almost too beautiful to eat, but they all ate, grateful for the food and for each other's company. In particular, Reina, Darcy, Evelyn, and her two younger children were grateful to the Earthshaker and all the other deities for the opportunity to visit Atsuki and her clan. Although the curse of magical sleep would resume its hold on them soon, for today, they were free and alive and energetic. For today, they could enjoy good food and the love of their family, and they were going to enjoy it to the fullest in the time that they had.



Art

Drawn by the lovely and talented StormsongT! This was a prize from the Starfall Celebration 2018 In-Flight Raffle.

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