Gabriel

Pronouns: he/him
Gender: male
Would They Curse If FR Didn't Censor It: absolutely. 400%, like a sailor.
Profession: kills things for a living (coliseum), often acting like the team's packmule due to his size and strength. Also joins in on digging when a crew is going out, and helps out when big/heavy things need moving b/c he's big and strong enough to carry anything from massive hunks of rock to full sized dragons.
Hobbies: has picked up a taste of engineering from jess, enjoys brain teasers and other kinds of logic puzzles, and he likes helping make more optimized solutions to problems the clan faces.
Background: Came to the clan as a hatchling, was picked as a young adult to be trained up for fighting due to his drive and aptitude for it.
Noteable Features: Header Credits: King of Swords (Reversed) by The Dear Hunter

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kelp beds 2 fodder flyer

[old]

Plague Runestone

Dragonmade

An ancient stone bearing the ancestral rune of the Plaguebringer. Such a find should be kept as a prized possession.

110

[RoR][CYOA]WatW: Day 1

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[REQUIRES SOME REVISION]





PLEASE DON'T READ UNTIL I DELETE THE 'REQUIRES SOME REVISION'

He was sure, in some way, shape, or form, he had died somewhere back in the Abiding Boneyard. The trees, or whatever one would call the spindly horns reaching out of the ground as if hungry for some sky, were glittering, for crying out loud. Trees don't glitter in Rotrock Rim, they oozed and writhed like a plague-stricken dragon. The tiny Ridgeback didn't understand the trees here, nor much else. He stumbled over the roots of one, nearly smacking his nose into a tree again. Squatting close to the ground, he wrapped his tail around and over his front claws. He didn't like it here, the unfamiliar area made him antsy. He ached to go home, but he didn't know where home was now. His parents insisted he was a girl, a 'she', that he was too young to understand what gender was, so he simply walked away when they were preoccupied with his siblings. Into the Abiding Boneyard, no particular destination in mind, just away. And now, he had no idea where he was, much less whether he was alive. No one in the clan had noticed his departure, or at the very least no one stopped him from meandering off, so now he had a million questions but an absolute zero number of answers. Where was the reddish glow he was familiar with, the green pustules squirming in a rhythm only they knew the beat to? As he had traversed the territory, red had morphed to brown to purple-tinted gray. The tree-like entities he was currently surrounded by seemed almost menacing, motionless claws reaching up to scoop out the heavens, and probably the Ridgeback's soul. He shivered. This was too weird to just be another random location. His parents had offhandedly mentioned the world had many different places in it, but they should all look at least somewhat similar to where he had lived with his family, right? There was a good chance he'd caught a strain of plague and was hallucinating intensely while slowly dying of dehydration. That sun-baked fish discarded in the middle of nowhere had been too good to be true. Rubbing his still sore nose against his tail, he huffed out an agitated breath.

Something shimmered in the edge of his vision. Cautiously turning his head to look at the shimmer, the hatchling could feel his pulse catching in his throat, his heart pumping faster and faster as dread settled over him. A feathered dragon approached him, their wings shimmering almost as bright as the globules on the trees' upper claws. The same electric blue dotted the feathery mirage's brow in the form of two eyes, staring directly at him, almost glowing in the dimming twilight sky. His entire being screamed to run, fight, do something, but the dull ache of exhaustion clouded his body like cotton. He simply didn't have the energy to do anything other than stay still and hope the dragon really hadn't seen him, and instead was staring intently at the spindly trunk behind him. He silently urged the silent entity to turn away and keep moving.

---

Blitz would have completely missed the compacted hatchling had their eyes not been such a violent shade of red. Their other colors perfectly suited the environment and setting sun, the shadows and hazy glow of the trees' blossoms offering the perfect guise for the dark and misty purple dragon, but the brilliant crimson stood out like an ice dragon on cooled lava. Blitz stood still for a moment, going through all possibilities in their head before jumping to action. They couldn't see any parents around, nor feel the hurried scurry of panicky footsteps in the ground, so they surmised this hatchling's parents wouldn't be close. While that wasn't a good thing, Blitz figured they wouldn't get jumped if they approached the hatchling. It wouldn't hurt to see if they could lead the tiny dragon to a nearby clan and see if they were short a hatchling. They walked towards the tree.

---

The Ridgeback's heart threatened to punch right out of his chest. The dragon was heading right towards him, eyes still fixed on his. Swallowing hard in an attempt to get the lump out of his throat, he squeezed his eyes as tightly shut as he could. He'd never really entertained any thoughts about death, but he certainly didn't want to see what was going to happen. Pressing his head into his feet, he awaited the dragon as time slipped by agonizingly slow. Only his panting breaths and the desperate beats of his heart passed through the fog of terror that filled his head to the brim.

---

Stopping directly in front of the tiny creature, Blitz stared down at them. His uncertainty had passed through the mild conviction that brought his feet to this spot, and now he didn't know what to do. Quaking before Blitz's paws, the curled up being kept their head tucked under their tail in what Blitz assumed was an attempt to seem unaware of Blitz's presence. Blitz knew better than to believe that, they'd seen the hatchling look directly at them. Their tail flicked in apprehension, the itch to help there but the method lost to Blitz. Having seen lost hatchlings follow bigger dragons around, they'd assumed this one would too. Shifting their weight from one side to another, they decided to take it one step at a time. Get the dragon's attention. When other dragons wanted to get Blitz's attention, they would hop, lifting all four feet into the air before landing so Blitz would feel the vibration solidly through the ground. That was how Blitz knew they were needed, so they figured that would be enough to uncurl the dragon. They jumped, landing in the same spot before the hatchling. No reaction. With a flicker of annoyance jolting through their brain, Blitz jumped again. Still no response. Blitz puffed air through their teeth before stomping a foot on the ground, harder than their landings.

---

A morbid curiousity came over the hatchling. He'd felt the dragon hop twice next to him, followed by a strange hiss and another thud. An itch in the back of his mind begged him to look at the dragon, at the least. One peek, before his consciousness was ripped away from him and he was taken away by this divine creature. Angel or demon, he was sure he'd be able to tell with a closer look. Peeking out from under his tail, he eyeballed the dragon. Upon meeting his eyes, a lopsided grin spread across the dragon's face. A coatl by the looks of it, male, if his memory served, but he knew better than anyone that that didn't mean anything in the ways of gender and pronouns. He'd seen similar feathered beings strolling through his old home clan, thus his recognition of the species. He stared at the dragon for a moment, receiving a similarly quizzical look from the dragon. The coatls had their own language, and from his experience they rarely, if at all, spoke draconian, due to their eardrums making it more difficult to interpret the language. However, if this really was an angel or demon, they should be able to speak to him, regardless of any language barriers present in life.

"Am I dead?" The coatl gave him a pained smile before pointing to the side of their head while shaking no. The feathers on either side swayed with the motion. Somewhat comforted by this, the Ridgeback decided to try his luck again. "If you can understand me, tell me which way is Rotrock Rim is." The coatl's eyes shut, their head lowering in dejection. Their eyes flew open as they hastily scratched something on the ground. The hatchling craned his neck while trying to turn his head far enough to view the picture. A crude image of a dragon appeared in the dirt under the scrabbling of the coatl's claws, along with curved lines bending away from the mouth of the dragon. An oval with spikes-no, feathers, with an 'x' subsequently drawn over it- on the sides was drawn nearby, with another oval dug around it. The coatl traced more curved lines, heading towards the feathered oval, until the curved lines reached the outer oval. Only the edges of the curves, taller than the bubble, were visible. Once past the bubble, the curved lines continued on unimpeded. Scribbling a bubble near the sketchy dragon's head, the coatl started drawing wobbly lines inside it, but with a sinking feeling the hatchling already had an idea about what the coatl was trying to get at. "You... can't hear me at all, can you? Or anyone else, for that matter?" They didn't look up from their drawing, still scribbling in the dirt. "Hey." Still drawing, the coatl didn't bring their gaze to the Ridgeback's eyes. "Hey!" No change. Taking a deep breath, he let out an ear-splitting shriek. Not a flinch, no movement. Nothing. He lifted a paw, paused, then slammed it into the dirt. The coatl jumped as if he'd done that to their tail, staring wide-eyed at the hatchling. A jolt of guilt shot through him at their reaction, but that quickly subsided as he began to run through all the ways he could try to communicate with them. Pictures were ok, but were also often somewhat subjective and left room for uncertainty. They were obviously used to communicating with dragons that way, but for a dragon like him with a babyish lack of coordination, that wouldn't work very well. Writing was also out of picture, since he hadn't had enough time with books to know much more than the menial basics. Sighing loudly, he turned to look at the coatl. "Do you have no home too?" He knew better than to expect a response. With a slow, clumsy claw, he painstakingly scraped a cruddy cave and a feathered rock into the soft soil, before turning to the coatl hopefully. Interested, they looked at the picture for a second before shaking their head vehemently and splitting into a silly grin. They rapidly traced out some upward-pointing layered arrows, next to some more crude dragon drawings and a feathered rock, then looking to him with hope. With a shaky breath, he drew a rock next to the dragons. His picture was ever shakier and more crude than all the others, but he still went through with it. Purposely taking his claw off the picture, he put it on his chest and mustered the most questioning look possible.

A light lit up in the coatl's eyes, and they bobbed their head as a wide grin broke across their face. Standing up, they turned back the way they came a took a couple of steps. Halting abruptly, they twisted around and looked at him. They waved their tail, a clear encouragement for him to follow them. His legs groaned in protest, but he shoved that aside and took to his feet, taking wobbly steps after the coatl. If he understood the picture correctly, they lived with other dragons, in a home, and at the moment, a home was all he wanted.

His stomach objected to that feeling with a loud grumble. Ok, he also wanted food at the moment. But that didn't dampen his wonder-struck mood as he tumbled into the coatl's footprints.

---

The white ground was unstable. Hissing indignantly as the block swirled and bobbed in the not solid blue ground with him on top, he hunkered down and dug his claws in as he waited for the Coatl to turn and notice he'd stopped following. They hopped from chunk to chunk, unaware, the bell tied to their back leg chiming gleefully with each pounce. He stayed motionless momentarily, weighing the odds as his head turned to keep the Coatl in his sight as the ground spun lazily beneath him. They only checked back on him every so often, and in this field of bobbing white chunks that wouldn't be soon enough. Leaping onto the next bobbing chunk, he raced after them, skittering across each block. He was dangerously close to dropping into the other ground, one that would swallow him up should he fall off the blocks, but he continued his hurried dash after the coatl. They probably wouldn't even notice if he did fall off, since they wouldn't hear the splash. After a couple more floes, he found himself only a block behind them. Overjoyed, he lept onto the last block and collapsed onto his belly. He barely understood what was happening until he crashed into the Coatl, just managing to nab a clawhold on the block before he slid off the edge. They weren't quite as fortunate, sadly, and dropped off into the void that was the blue ground. Heart pounding, the Ridgeback stared into the ground for any sign of the dragon. Fear crawled up his cold, numb legs, clawing at his belly. A tremendous splash behind him sent cold slosh all over him, and the block heaved violently. Clinging to the ground, he frantically thrashed his tail to try and counterbalance the motion, but his edge dropped nearly as quickly as it had risen. He was.. underground? The edge of the blue ground was visible above his head for a second before he was above it. They stood on the other edge, dripping wet and a curbed snarl gracing their lips. Shrinking beneath their gaze, the hatchling looked back at them in worry as the rocking of the block slowly subsided. Tightly gripping the ground in their claws, they shook themselves. It rocked again, and although it wasn't as strong as before, the hatchling hissed at the motion and frigid spray coming off the Coatl. Giving him a guarded once-over, the Coatl resumed hopping from floe to floe. Screaming in protest, his body chose to spasm in the cold instead of following. Gritting his teeth, he stood back up and tailed them, albeit more cautiously than before. The white, cold ground was slippery, got it.

He didn't know how long had passed before the white blocks had become a mostly solid ground that the pair trudged for some green in the distance. This green was a muted shadow of the hue he was used to, but he was too exhausted to care. His claws dragged, scraping little furrows in the ground. He didn't notice the dragons approaching their location until they got almost uncomfortably close, in Gabriel's opinion. He found himself staring at a dragon dressed in the same green as the area in the distance, their wings containing the same bluish tint as the ground underfoot. Heart racing, he stood behind the unconcerned Coatl, trying to muster the same level of calm they expressed.

---

Angel felt the fire in her belly pooling over, threatening to overcome her contained demeanor. After hours of searching for one particularly neon Coatl, seeing him casually approaching the clan as if nothing had happened made her taste a bitterness in her mouth. She knew she couldn't actually get angry with him, since the only thing he'd really done wrong was not letting someone know he was wandering off again. The matriarch of the clan, Sunshine, had been silently panicking about Blitz's sudden disappearance, her agitation about his safety only visible to those who knew her well. Angel's irritation stemmed solely from how little could really be done to improve her leader's mental state. Blitz had a bell tied to a back leg so it was harder for him to just disappear, but he managed to slip out nonetheless, which made for quite a strain on the dragon who should be focused on other tasks than chasing down an absent-minded, deaf dragon. In truth, though, Angel felt the clan didn't give him enough credit. His ears didn't work, not his brain. He didn't have the common sense of a hatchling, and he'd shown before that his survival skills left him more prepared to fare on his own than most dragons in the clan. Yet Angel could still understand why Sunshine would get worked up when there was no trace of him. She knew many a story of dragons who'd lived in the Icewarden's domain their whole lives and still died from the cold, starvation, or any other single or combination of other threats.

Navy, the Mirror who'd spotted the nomad of a Coatl, ate away at the distance between the groups with her long stride. Easily keeping pace with Angel's airspeed velocity, she ran with a lightness in her step that Angel was almost envious of. Angel couldn't remember the last time she'd felt as free as the Mirror seemed to be. Navy's familiar, a Bubble Goblin going by the name Mist, perched between Navy's relatively still wings, eyes fixed ahead as their paws gripped Navy's wings. Angel felt a little reassured by the Mirror's presence; as the friendliest of the generally asocial dragon breed in the clan, and one of the dragons who could communicate with Blitz more effectively than most, she was a valuable dragon to have on this expedition.

It wasn't until they were within shouting distance of Blitz did Angel notice the other dragon that was with him. This dragon was at least a third of Blitz's size and jet black, which confounded Angel to how she'd missed them in the first place, although they did appear to be... hiding... behind Blitz. Even though they were rather large, Angel theorized this dragon was a hatchling; their proportions were off when thought of as an adult dragon. Accelerating towards Blitz and the obsidian hatchling, Navy reached them and dashed circles around the two. Flapping her wings strongly to slow down, Angel prepared to land before the pair.

---

He had a bad feeling about this, a sinking pit in his stomach that swallowed anything other than subdued regret. Was he wrong yet again? Were these the divine beings coming to escort him out of life?

The deep blue dragon slowed their circling, panting as they continued their path at a rapid trot. The hatchling eyed the faded azure being sitting between the dragon's wings, his gaze being met with an equally intese stare. He held their eyes as long as he could, then snapping his head back to the front to study the dragon that landed ahead of the Coatl. The pale Imperial snapped their wings down once before folding them at their sides, an icy glare piercing the Coatl in front of him. Their lips curled up in a snarl, anger flashing across their pale irises immediately preceding relief. "Blitz, I would admonish the hell out of you if I knew you'd understand me." Their ear flicked in annoyance, and their eyes softened. "However, that's solely on Sunshine's behalf, since you didn't actually do anything wrong." Their eyes fixated on the hatchling. "I'm curious, how did you find yourself in the company of this dragon?"

It took him a minute to recognize they were talking to him. "Oh, me? Uh, they walked up to me and we drew in the dirt for a couple of minutes." He trailed off. "This is Blitz? And who are you guys?" A grin full of mirth graced the Imperial's face, one that seemed to say 'Some things never change.'

"That is indeed Blitz, yes. My name is Angel, I'm an Imperial."

The Ridgeback could've sworn his heart actually stopped at that moment, his mouth suddenly going drier than his response. "Oh, lovely. That's a nice name you've got there." He licked his lips weakly, legs melting into jelly beneath him. "I'm not dead, am I?"

Angel gave him a funny look before continuing on. "No, you're not. Anyway, the Mirror over there is Navy, and that's her familiar Mist, who is a Bubble Goblin." They leaned back onto their haunches, tilting their head to study him. "May I ask what your name is? Also, is there any particular reason you have to believe you might, uh, be dead?"

He shuffled in discomfort, tail sweeping the ground behind him into a puff of powder. "Um, yeah, but I, uh..." He trailed off, staring at the ground as if the answers to all his questions lay there."...I don't have a name."

Their eyes displaying clear sympathy, Angel cooed softly, "Oh, I apologize. You don't have to have a name right now, you could pick one out for yourself later." Their eyes shined momentarily, a glow of pride and happiness dotting their brow. "I came to this clan as a hatchling too, and I got to pick out my name later on. Anyway, I'm sure Valeria would be more than happy to take a hatchling under her wing, she's been dying to find another Ridgeback to connect with."

A flurry of panic bombarded him, knocking him under a surge of terror that swallowed him up like the fluid blue ground. "N-no, it's fine, I can pick now!" Thoughts poured through his head, words coming a mile a minute. Angel, dying, death, divine beings. All the divine angel names he'd ever heard flashed through his mind and he sorted through them hurriedly for one he liked. "Um. I think I like Gabriel?" As soon as it rolled off his tongue, he knew it was the right one. "Yeah, Gabriel." Uncertainty bled into his claws and up his legs, and a question weighed down on his mind. "Uh, that's a boy's name, right?"

Giving him another strange look, Angel nodded. "Yeah, that's a boy's name. Again, you can take your time and pick your name at a later date, are you sure you want to pick your name now?"

Gabriel nodded his head, certainty filling him for the first time that day. "Yes, I'm sure of it. That name seems rather fitting," He paused for a moment, the butterfly that covered Navy's wings fluttering around in his stomach,"for a boy such as myself."

"Ok, fair enough." Angel winked at him. "Angel Gabriel, right?"

Embarassment flooded Gabriel, heat rising to his cheeks rapidly. "Uh, maybe?" He offered them a sheepish grin. A prideful smile crept onto Angel's face, their eyes unable to contain their joy.

A raucous laugh started Gabriel and Angel, who both jumped to the apparent surprise of Blitz. "Please, inflate Angel some more, surely she'll be able to float higher than her Bluemoon Aviar soon and will be able to take her spot on the patrols back." Navy cackled, despite the withering glare Angel shot her way.

"Navy, I was sent by Sunshine specifically to help look for Blitz. Blake only took my spot for today." Navy's smirk didn't disappear.

"Sure Angel, whatever you say. Anyway, I'm dying to know why you think you're dead." Prowling in front of Gabriel, Navy sat back on her haunches. The creature crouching behind her shoulders, a Bubble Goblin, hopped down to the ground. Angel let out an exasperated sigh.

"Well, I've been living in Rotrock Rim for my entire life, and I wandered away and found some sparkling trees, and then followed, uh, Blitz, here, with the cold white ground and the blue unstable ground, and it's all so? Unreal?? Nothing looks anything like what it does where I live, and I ate some suspicious fish before, and-"

"Wait, do you mean ice and water?" Navy stared in vague disbelief, before tapping the ground with a claw. "This is ice, it's called snow when it's more powdery. That blue stuff you're describing sounds like water."

"Oh." Gabriel felt at a loss for words.

"Where did you find Blitz?" Angel gazed intently at Gabriel.

Gabriel felt awkward commanding the undivided attention of both new dragons. "Uh, the sparkly trees place?"

Angel's brow furrowed momentarily before realization wiped it off. "Oh, that might be the Starfall Isles. Everything there tends to be either pastel or sparkly."

Gabriel had no idea where the 'Starfall Isles' may be, but he nodded anyway. "Where am I now, anyway? Where did they lead me?" Motioning to Blitz, Gabriel stood up and stretched his stiff legs, shaking them after to warm them.

"They?" Angel looked at him quizzically. "Wait, you mean Blitz, right?" Gabriel nodded, noting her thoughtful silence. "Hmm." She looked at Navy, then at Blitz. "We've always just called him 'he', but you might be onto something; Blitz didn't really start reading until his juvenile and young adult stages, so he probably doesn't feel very connected to gender, or at least not in the way most other dragons are. 'They' probably suits Blitz better, if my guess is correct." Angel rolled her shoulders into a shrug. "It might be hard to ask him, though, since I don't know how much he understands about the concept of gender." She looked at Navy. "What do you think? Should we try that?"

Shrugging, Navy shook her head. "You guess is probably better than mine, so maybe?"

Sighing again, Angel turned back to Gabriel. "We might try that at some point. At any rate, are you here in the Southern Icefields by your choice? You didn't mean to find Rotrock Rim and your family, right...?"

Gabriel shook his head adamantly. "I don't want to go back there, I followed Blitz with the intent of finding a new home."

A gentle smile peeked at the corners of Angel's eyes and lips, weariness showing faintly behind it. "Well, it seems you found the right dragon to follow around. You're quite articulate for a hatchling, how old are you?"

"Three days old, I believe." Angel let out an impressed whistle.

"Wow." Mist crept towards Gabriel, a motion that didn't go unnoticed by him. He peeked at the familiar out of the corner of his eye. "We should probably get you to the clan, then. Are you hungry? Tired?" Gabriel just nodded, turning to face the goblin. They backed up a step or two, hiding behind Navy before dashing out and up to Gabriel, curiosity flecking their eyes. Gabriel bumped his nose against the familiar's, hissing in delight as the familiar hurtled back to Navy in momentary timidity, only to swing back around and playfully bounce around him.

Opening her wings back up, Angel flapped them loudly to get everyone's, bar Blitz's, attention. "Let's get going, it's already getting dark." She reared up on her back legs, flaring her wings out. "Would you like me to carry you back to the clan?" Gabriel nodded, his exhausted body pining for a break. Angel flapped her wings, extending herself forward so she could grab Gabriel with her front paws. Mist hitched a ride, scampering up her arm onto her back, where they resumed sitting between between the wings. "You've got Blitz covered, right?" Navy nodded.

"Mist, be careful!" Angel beat her wings strongly, leaping off her back legs and into the air. Gabriel was overcome by the peculiar feeling one gets from being high in the air; as the distance between him and the ground increased, Gabriel found himself feeling more and more surreal. His back legs curled up almost instinctively, as if his body subconsciously knew he wasn't on land anymore. A now small Navy began crossing the ice again, this time in the reverse direction and with a Coatl in hot pursuit. Blitz skimmed the ground, wings spread wide so they floated across the ice with similar speed to Navy.

Angel's flight took Gabriel and her over the muted green pointy areas, 'pine forests' according to her. Gabriel's eyes were pulled to a clearing with multiple dragons in it, an area where the forest seemed to thin out to a clay-colored plain with pine trees spread out in tight clusters. Angel began to descend over the group, floating down gently to land in front of a particularly large pine. Gabriel's feet were back on the ground, sore and cold yet seemingly in place. Vaulting off of Angel and landing solidly in the snow, Mist dashed off to somewhere unseen. An ivory Mirror stalked over towards Gabriel and Angel, a couple of other dragons following curiously behind. Swallowing the lump in his throat, Gabriel stood up, keeping his head high. For better or for worse, he'd found a new home.

---

Angel didn't need to put too much thought into what was on Sunshine's mind; she was awful transparent about these kind of things anyway, from Angel's point of view. Despite Sunshine's eyes lacking in the pupil department, Angel -smugly- noted how the Mirror's head moved in an arc, eyes searching for something, or, as Angel recognized, someone. Angel spoke before the Mirror's question could even manifest itself in her mind.

"Blitz is running back with Navy." Sunshine's head nodded in a subtle acknowledgement of the Imperial's statement, now focusing her laser-like gaze upon the Ridgeback hatchling standing at Angel's feet. Angel almost felt bad for Gabriel; she'd been at the receiving end of one of Sunshine's looks, and she didn't need to be in his place to feel her skin prickle in empathy as he stiffened imperceptibly. Nudging the hatchling with a foot, she said, "This is Gabriel. Blitz found him on one of his 'outings,', and Gabriel followed him all the way to the where the Frigid Floes and the Snowsquall Tundra meet." The bony ridge above Sunshine's eyes tipped up ever so slightly in question, so Angel continued. "He says he hails from the Abiding Boneyard, and he found Blitz wandering around what we believe is the Starwood Strand. He came here in search of a home."

A whooping screech lit up the clearing, and Navy barreled into the area moments later. The other dragons of the clan joined in the cacophony, the noise soon overpowering any possible conversation Angel could have with Sunshine. The Mirror strode off, a dismissing wave of her tail a clear sign of approval to Angel. Angel nudged Gabriel in the direction of the nesting grounds and nest-sitters, only turning back to watch her clanmates interact. Approaching Navy in an almost aggressive manner, Sunshine's rigid crest flared up and away from the back of her neck. The opposing Mirror ducked meekly, tail swishing anxiously at Sunshine's approach. The clan grew quiet immediately, all eyes on the confrontation. Sunshine halted before Navy, stance unchanging. Navy's crest flicked up for a moment as she motioned back the way she came, and she skittered off following Sunshine's preoccupation with what she'd motioned to. Almost as if letting out a relieved sign, the silence dispersed, the clan continuing with what they'd been doing before Navy had arrived back. Blitz dashed into the camp, skidding to a halt to greet Sunshine. She ducked away from him, trotting around him to look him up an down for wounds of any sort. Upon completing the task, she bumped noses with the particularly friendly Coatl.

"Uh, Angel? Are you going to show me around or am I supposed to find my way around by myself?" Angel turned away from Sunshine and Blitz to shoot Gabriel with a glare at his snide tone.

"Hush there, I'll get around to it." Her nose wrinkled up at his words as she took the lead, heading towards the nests. She didn't like getting called out, but even she had to admit to herself she'd gotten distracted from the task at hand.

Careening to a halt in front of Angel, Mist stopped the Imperial and Ridgeback in their tracks, soon followed by another, redder, familiar. Angel quickly IDed the familiar as an Enduring Goblin, another rare holiday familiar like Mist themselves. Mist dashed back up to Gabriel, soon followed by the less hurried Enduring Goblin. Gabriel held his ground in front of the pair remarkably well for someone so beat. He sniffed the Enduring Goblin, who then walked in a circle around Gabriel, eyeing him critically. Scrutinizing Gabriel seemingly to their satisfaction, the familiar held out a paw for Gabriel to shake. Gabriel took it, albeit hesitantly. He shot Angel a confused look. "What just happened?"

Angel choked out a laugh at Gabriel's bewildered face. "It seems you've found yourself a familiar."

Gabriel's eyes widened, and his mouth formed an 'o' at the realization. A grin breaking across his tired face, he faced his familiar. "Nice to meet you! Do you have a name?" The Enduring Goblin shook their head, shrugging with indifference at Gabriel's shocked expression. "Well, we should find you a name then. What about-" Gabriel was cut off by the yawn that forced its way past his mouth; his eyes fluttered and watered immediately after, and Angel figured now was as good a time as ever to stage an intervention.

"You should hit the hay, little one." She chuckled at Gabriel's sudden indignation.

"Little? I'm almost as big as Blitz!"

"While that may be true, it doesn't bypass the fact you're a rather young dragon, and exhausted, to boot. Mist." The Bubble Goblin snapped to attention, staring at Angel with attentive eyes. "Would you be so kind to bring some fish to the nesting grounds for Gabriel?" Mist nodded before peeling off towards the hoard. Angel proceeded in the direction of the nesting grounds, waving her tail for Gabriel to follow; she couldn't tell if his stride was hindered by petty irritation or just his exhaustion.

By the time the pair had arrived, a small heap of fish lay next to an unoccupied nest. Gabriel gratefully laid into the food while Angel introduced him to the current nest-sitters. He peeled every last morsel off the bone, savoring the salty kiss the fish left on his tongue. His stomach was near overly full, but he ignored the slight discomfort and curled up in the soft nest, letting his heavy eyelids finally fall closed. As he started to drift off, he could feel his familiar wedge themselves into the nest alongside him, their warmth a comfort to him. His consciousness fading thankfully into sleep, the aches of the day blending into the dark, heavy blanket that was rest.

---

---

Gabriel never actually mentioned being trans to Valeria, and she didn't ask him about it. He recognized that she probably knew about it, and he probably missed some obvious hints that she wanted to chat with him about it, but it didn't matter because she treated him the same when he'd arrived as he did now, and it was that of a stern but kind parent. It was obvious how much she loved him, but she wasn't afraid to call him out when he'd said something snotty or sarcastic.

"Gabriel, for the love of the Icewarden, please don't debate dragons who don't know what they're talking about. It'll just end with bad blood and tension in the clan, and there's absolutely no need for it." Gabriel sighed, curling up tighter. "Gabe..." He slid his muzzle under his paws, a cocktail of emotions conflicting with anything he would have normally said.

Valeria sighed. She knew all too well the moodiness and drama that came with the teen ages, but she knew there was something else linked to that that made it especially distressing for Gabriel.