Hawthorn

"The sea was unusually calm as we reached the northern shores of the Southern Icefield. Cold winds were whistling around us, the coolness biting and pinching, slowly creeping into our bones. It hadn’t been that quiet for days. The past few days had been trying ones as the Windswept Plateau’s flurries held us hostage and with the sea raging like a hungry serpent; and it was quite often that some of us thought a mighty leviathan could break through the water at any time and break our ship – the Nimrod – in two.

The Nimrod – she wasn’t exactly a special ship, but we loved her nonetheless. She had turned out to be a faithful companion in times of trouble and had endured many an attack. Some smaller repairs were necessary from time to time, but so it was with any other ship. We, the crew, had committed our lives to piracy. We plundered whatever we could, boarded countless ships and loved to create chaos among our victims. There was Taegan, who drank too much, and Camille, who was a bit too eccentric for my taste; Derya, who loved to sing too loud, and Storm, who was the first to spot any ship in the distance. Val was one of the swiftest fighters I knew, and her brother Efe was a close friend of mine. There were many others: Gal and Nimat, Teri and Helai, Eirian and Voski, and of course, Io, my best friend and at times the angriest coatl I knew and know to this day.

Io and I were standing close to the railing, looking out to the snowy shores ahead, when she suddenly nudged me and pointed towards the water below us. “Did you see that?” she whispered, staring intensely at what seemed to me like nothing more than a small aggregation of ice floes. Io’s eyes had always been better than mine and she was usually the first one to notice something unusual. It always took me a while to spot whatever had caught her attention, but that day, all my efforts were futile. “There it is again!” she exclaimed, her feathers now standing on edge. I quickly followed her gaze, but couldn’t see a thing. Just ice floe after ice floe.

Eventually, I gave up and inquired: “What was it?”
“I’m not sure. Something big. Very fast.”
“Maybe a maren?” I guessed, trying to calm her down a bit.
“No – it was too big for that. And I haven’t heard of maren in this region. It’s too cold for them here, and there are no suitable hunting grounds either. And”, she continued, now clearly agitated, her eyes wide and tail lashing, “a solitary maren is a rare sight. They usually swim in groups.”
“Then it was some kind of sea-serpent. No need to worry.”

Io gave me the look. That look she always gives me when she doesn’t believe a word I say. And I was worried, too. Everyone on this ship knew the stories about plundering clans and sunken ships that had fallen victim to ruthless attacks of stray bands of dragons. Life on the Southern Icefield was harsh, and the dragons living there were said to be the most cold-blooded around.

“That was not a sea-serpent!” Io snapped, or rather, she wanted to, but in that moment, something stroke the ship. Something big.

“What was that?” The question came from Elaine, a small but hardy skydancer, who had proven her skills in battle countless of times. Some of the others echoed her question, looking around in confusion.

“I’m pretty sure that it was just a big ol’ rock”, I said, but at that moment, the Nimrod was shaken again.

“I’m fairly certain that this was not a rock”, a deep voice rumbled behind me, and as I turned around I could see Hallr, our captain. The old imperial’s head loomed high above me, staring down at us intensely. He was an old specimen, his scales, once a lustrous gold, slowly turning to grey. His body was covered in scars and bruises, remnants of battles fought a long time ago, his golden mane ruffled and thinning. But despite his age, he was still an agile fighter, his claws were as sharp as ever and his eyes were as keen as they had been in his youth. But most of all, he had remained a clever and cunning dragon, and paired with his size and his strength he managed to knock out many a foe and had lead us to many a victory. There was – and still is – a deep respect for old captain Hallr in me.

“Well”, I began, but Hallr cut me short.
“The shore is still too far away. There couldn’t possibly be any big rocks here. Something else must have hit us. On purpose, I’d say.” He looked past the railing towards the spot Io had examined earlier. The water was as still as it had been all day and there was nothing to be seen.

“Captain”, Io began, and I was sure that she wanted to tell him something, maybe about the sighting she had made just before the Nimrod was struck, or maybe she had seen something again; whatever it was, she never got to tell him, because in that moment, we became witness of the infamous Blue Fury. She came above us like a raging storm, swift, strong and destructive, breaking through the ice from underwater.

I had heard about her before; many of us had, but none of us had actually believed in the stories, often told by lone strangers, which told of a blue monster crashing through the ice from below and flinging her victims into the cold water, leaving them there to drown or freeze to death. Some said that she was only a foretaste of what was to come and that there were monsters far more dangerous that followed in her wake. “The Cloudscrape Marauders”, they hushed, was their name. But all those stories – they had just been exactly that: stories, best told after dawn, to scare little hatchlings. “Don’t venture out too far on the ice, or else the Blue Fury will get you.”

But now they turned out to be true. There she was, the Blue Fury, in the center of the deck, creating chaos amongst us. Our dragons were running in all directions, startled by blue talons lashing through their ranks and sharp teeth snapping in all directions. Others were standing around in confusion, unsure as to how they should react: should they run, or should they fight? None of them had gotten a good glimpse of her yet, all they had seen was quick movement, talons and fangs.

“You fools!” Hallr roared, “This is only a dragon! Drive out the intruder!” And with a mighty roar, the imperial rushed straight at her, followed by some who hadn’t been fooled by the Blue Fury’s attack. Io was at my side when suddenly we heard a cry from above: “Dragons incoming! Dragons incoming! We’re under attack!” Villmundr, one of the few coatls of our crew, came down the riggings, followed by Kari and Finni, the mirror twins. They seemed fairly alarmed, their eyes wide with shock, and Villmundr, his feathers standing on end, looking twice his size. Now, there were only a few things that could startle Villmundr like this, and usually, they didn’t mean any good.

“Look out!” someone screeched as dozens of sharp ice shards rained down upon us. I quickly spread my wings over Io to protect her from the missiles, for they imposed a far greater danger to her than to me. The ice shards continued to rain down on us for a few moments, and then all hell broke loose.

Maybe two dozen dragons came from above, attacking ship and crew alike. Two dark specimens, a giant ridgeback and a sturdy guardian, who I thought must be the leaders, were the most striking ones among the attackers. Their size and their strength exceeded that of most of the other dragons in their group and none of our crewmembers seemed to be able to stop them. They attacked together, side by side, accompanied by a smaller figure, a grey skydancer, her face hidden behind a mask.

“We must stop them!” Io exclaimed, pointing at the two goliaths and their small companion. “Especially that skydancer! As long as she’s around, they’ll be almost invincible. See that? She’s healing them! She’s a witch!”

I didn’t like Io’s suggestion at all, but I followed her nonetheless as she charged headfirst into battle, rigorously attacking any of the intruders that came in her way with powerful mana bolts, while I mostly dodged any attacks coming from above. Several dragons were circling the Nimrod and attacked our crew with elemental bolts while others had landed on her and were creating havoc.

As we rushed towards the giant ridgeback and her black guardian companion, I got a glimpse of Hallr and Elaine, fighting side by side against another guardian. Not far from them were Villmundr and the mirror twins desperately trying to drive off two dragons – a pearlcatcher and a young imperial – whose presence seemed to fill the air around them with electricity.

Although we tried, we couldn’t get close to the two giants. Our crew was running in all directions, fleeing, leaving the ship and scattering in all directions, some of them bleeding. They pushed us away, made us stop in our paths, and as soon as we thought that it was clear again, one of the intruders came down upon us, reaching out at us with sharp talons, snapping at our necks or firing elemental attacks at us. Those few of us that remained fought with all their strength, but although our attackers were outnumbered, we still couldn’t get an advantage. The chaos was too great.

Eventually, we had to give in. The Nimrod was damaged to the point of no repair, and thanks to their witch, our attackers had an unfair advantage. There was nothing left to save except the treasure we had stored inside our faithful ship. “Retreat!” Hallr’s call hovered above the air towards us. “Save our treasure and flee!”

Quickly, the few of us that had remained – Hallr, Elaine, Vallmundr, Finni, her sister Kari, an eccentric spiral named Roy, his mate Abbi, Magni and Mattis (two ragged tundras) and Hester, a bold guardian – tried to get inside the ship to save whatever we could from our treasure, but we were too late. Already, most of it was gone, taken away by some of the intruders while we were busy defending ourselves, and what was left was not worth saving. “It’s gone! All of it is gone!” Vallmundr cried out in agony and Magni and Mattis joined him.

“Let’s go.” Hallr’s voice was rid of any emotion, but I knew that he must have been the most upset of us. Not only were four months’ work of capturing ships and plundering blown into the wind, but his beloved Nimrod was turned into a wreck by a band of savages.

And so we left. Some of our attackers were still circling the ship, but most of them had gone. I never thought that this was possible, not even in my wildest dreams. But on that day, the Cloudscrape Marauders had bereft us of our ship and left us defeated and broken-hearted.


“Where should we go now?” Io was looking at me with sad eyes, her voice unusually quiet. It broke my heart to see her like this, though I myself must have made a pretty similar sight. We were standing alone on the shores that lead to the Snowsquall Tundra while dark clouds circled above. What had been left of the Nimrod’s crew had scattered all over the land, everyone heading in a different direction. Some of us had flown in the direction of the Sothern Icefield’s shores, while others, including Hallr, had turned back towards the Windswept Plateau. It was a long and tiring flight with barely a chance to rest, and I wondered if they would reach their destination. I wondered what would become of the rest of our treasure, safely hidden in a cave in the mountains of Dragonhome, just waiting for someone to come back. I wondered if anyone would come back to join Hallr.

“I don’t know”, I finally answered Io’s and my own questions alike, taking in our surroundings. It was a sad sight: bare rocks, here and there covered in snow, and whatever greenery there was hardly deserved its name. “Let’s just get moving. We’ll get somewhere in the end.”

And so we went. Every inch of my body was hurting. I was worn out from the fights. I was tired and sad and defeated and we had nowhere to go. This land seemed as hostile as the savages that had left us in this miserable situation. All the while we were walking I couldn’t shake off the feeling that we were being watched. Io was apparently feeling the same, as she was looking left and right and her steps were cautious.

It took a while before we met anyone – no wonder in this cold, dead landscape. Why would anyone choose to live here? (I know the answer now, but back then, I had no idea of the charming beauty and the thrills of life that the Southern Icefield holds secret). We were delighted at first, but our delight quickly turned into anger and aggravation as we recognized them as three of the savages. We tried to turn back, but seeing that we were worn out and that there wasn’t much to hide our presence, it didn’t take long for them to surround us.

“Look what we got here”, one of them said. It was the pearlcatcher that had fought against Vallmundr, Kari and Finni and her words and her presence filled the air with electricity, just like it had before on the Nimrod. “Two lonely pirates ashore on the Southern Icefield, trampling along. How sad. What do you think, Fulgor?” She turned towards the young imperial that had fought alongside her.

Fulgor. What a fitting name. It was the first thing that came to my mind, and it always was whenever I saw him. He looked like the personified lightning. But so does Thunderbolt, who turned out to be that snarky pearlcatcher. Neither Io nor I were surprised when we found out that they were mates – but this is an entirely different story, to be told another time.

As we were standing there, surrounded and freezing to the bones, not knowing what to do, I started to feel the whole weight of what had happened to us. We had lost our ship, our crew – our friends – and had lost our way on the Southern Icefield, the most hostile place I could imagine back then. And here we were, surrounded by three of the dragons that had caused all this.

The third one was a white mirror and what surprised me most about her was the gentleness in her eyes as she examined us thoroughly. Just then I realized – none of them had attacked us yet. Not long ago they had no problem destroying our ship and charging at our crew and now! - Now they were just standing there, staring at us and seemingly just as unsure about what to do as we were. This was, and there is no other way to say it, a very awkward situation.

Finally, the white mirror broke the silence and surprised me yet again: “Well, standing around all day won’t get us anywhere, will it? Why don’t you come with us? I bet you are tired and worn out, and there’s a storm coming. And yes, I know”, she said, quickly cutting off Io, who was about to explode in a fit of rage, and the pearlcatcher, who looked deeply offended, “we are the bad ones here. And I know you’re angry. Hell, angry probably doesn’t even describe it! But the way I see it, you have two options right now: freezing your tails off or coming with us and getting some rest. I’m sure she’d understand. Aria’s methods might be rough at times, but when it comes to taking in dragons …”

“How …! How dare you …! How … how could you even think that we’d want to join you! You of all dragons, who wrecked our ship, stole our treasure and … and …!” Io let out a frustrated hiss, unable to articulate her feelings and slumped to the ground in defeat. I felt a strong desire to join her.

“Are you serious, Snowbell? Take them in? After we attacked them? Are you out of your mind?” Thunderbolt exclaimed, pure disbelief in her eyes. She looked so angry that I wouldn’t have been surprised if smoke had started to come out of her ears.

But Snowbell ignored her and just stared at us, waiting for a response. So, before Io could snap back at her again, I simply decided to tell her yes. “We’ll come with you.” It could have been a dumb thing to do, I knew, but freezing our tails off seemed like a much dumber thing to do at that time and I’d much rather be warm and surrounded by enemies than freezing to death at any time.

“Good. We’ll show you the way.” And with that, the white mirror turned around and leapt ahead.


The Cloudscrape Marauders' lair turned out to be very well hidden – and also very high up in the mountains. Getting there had been an excruciating journey and had taken every bit of my strength. Io gave up as soon as Snowbell told us we had to fly and I had to carry her through the harsh winds and cold air all the way up. I hardly made it – in fact, Fulgor, the young imperial, had to support me several times, carrying both Io’s and my weight. I had mixed feelings about this: I was grateful for his help, yet at the same time I couldn’t stop thinking about the damage he and his clan had done to us.

Now we were standing in front of a big cave mouth, our feet sunken deep into the snow. An enormous ridgeback was sitting in front of it, staring at us intensely, his dark scales and golden wings contrasting strongly against the white background. He moved so little that he almost seemed like a statue. At his side, much smaller in appearance, sat a sunbeam ursa, an uncommon sight - even more so in this region.

As we approached them, the ridgeback stood up, shook himself a little and then proceeded to stare at us until we were right in front of him. “Welcome back”, he said with a voice as deep as the earth and as loud as thunder. It was as if a mountain was talking to us and I shrunk down a bit, intimidated by his impressive size, his intense stare and this deep, rumbling voice. “I see you brought visitors with you.” He narrowed his eyes a bit in suspicion, although I doubt that he actually thought of Io and me – endlessly tired and worn out, ready to topple over at any moment out of exhaustion - as a danger.

“We found them out in the Snowsquall Tundra”, Snowball explained, “they’re members of the ship we attacked – or rather, were members. There’s not much left of it. We thought-“
“We? Excuse you, I’m pretty sure that it was your idea to take them with us!” Thunderbolt cut her short, venting her anger. But both Snowbell and the ridgeback ignored her.
“Well, as I said”, Snowbell continued, “We thought that leaving them out there would be cruel so we brought them here. So they can rest. And leave when they’re well again. Or stay.”
“Stay?” Io spat, only loud enough for me to hear it. She was still sitting on my back, and now she was lashing her tail furiously and – I could only guess it for I couldn’t see her there – her feathers staying on end. “What in Arcanist’s name would make me want to stay here?”

I wanted to say something in response, but couldn’t think of anything that wouldn’t make Io more angry and frustrated, so I ended up saying nothing at all while Snowbell and the ridgeback were talking. Eventually he let us enter the cave and soon we found ourselves inside. There were dragons roaming around everywhere, probably busy with storing the treasure they had stolen from us; some of them, who had noticed our appearance, cast curious glances at us. A handful of them I recognized – the grey skydancer with her mask, a black coatl wearing a necklace and a highnoon hank, a ragged looking wildclaw and the legendary Blue Fury. Now that I saw her clearly for the first time she didn’t seem all that threatening anymore: she was a tiny blue ridgeback, much smaller than any grown ridgeback I had ever seen.

Now that I thought about it, I remembered that I hadn’t seen her in the actual battle. As soon as her comrades had appeared, she was gone, and I realized that her job was to confuse and create chaos so that the others could approach without being noticed and then attack the already disoriented victims.

“Look out, there are some cables ahead”, Snowbell said and pointed towards them with her head. I was confused at first – cables? Here? In a cave high up in the mountains? That sounded more like something you’d find in a lightning clan. But there they were: thick wires covering the ground and running in all directions. They reminded me of writhing snakes, scattering everywhere after being startled by a threat. “Ciel put them everywhere and most of us don’t even know what they’re good for.”

Snowbell led us through the lair, pointing out all kinds of things – old drawings from hatchlings, statues, junk standing around everywhere, herbs and bones stuffed into crevices -, but it was so much that I had trouble keeping up with her. Thunderbolt and Fulgor left us at some point to join some of their clan mates while Snowbell stayed at our side. “I’ll introduce you to Aria now”, she said, “our leader. She doesn’t come out often and she’s not the most … well, talkative. She seems pretty cool and distant sometimes, but really, she cares a lot for us.”

Aria. I had heard that name several times today, and I had heard it before (not that it was an uncommon name, anyway), hushed by strangers and storytellers Io and I had met on many shores. Queen of the Marauders. The huge ridgeback female came to my mind. She had been so intimidating that I had no doubt that it was her that this name belonged to.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Aria turned out to be one of the teeniest, tiniest faes I had ever seen, yet at the same time there was something deeply intimidating about her, despite the fact that she was sporting quite a lovely pair of glasses. Although I could have crushed her with the swipe of a claw, I wouldn’t have dared to. There was something in her gaze and in her posture that made her look immensely powerful and would have made even the largest imperial bow down before her in terror had she demanded it.

Snowbell introduced us roughly, then told her about how she found us and that we were former members of the Nimrod and why exactly she thought it necessary to bring us here, without Aria having asked her to do it. All the while, the fae was examining us with her huge, white eyes and an expression that lacked any emotion. I could only wonder what was going on inside her head.

As Snowbell finished, silence laid itself around us and left us uncomfortably staring at each other, until finally, Aria broke it. Her voice was as monotone and cold as the icy mountains that she and her clan were living in as she said, “I see.”

Again, silence surrounded us. “This is so awkward”, Io whispered into my ear, shifting uncomfortably on my back, “I don’t even want to be here. I hate this place and I don’t see why we should stay here, let alone join them.”

Aria must have heard this, for she raised her voice and exclaimed: “If that is the case, I don’t see why you followed Snowbell all that way to come to our clan, let alone let her introduce you to me. Clearly you could have stayed out there instead of coming here!”

“Well, I don’t think we had any other choice!” Io hissed angrily and jumped down from my back. “Stop! What are you doing?” I whispered, but she ignored me and instead went on, “If we had tried to run away from your dragons, they would have killed us for sure!”

“My dragons don’t kill unless necessary”, Aria responded, her voice surprisingly calm in spite of Io’s rudeness.

“Oh, they don’t?” Io spat. “Then explain to me why they attacked our ship! Attacked us! Stole our treasure and left the Nimrod as a wreck!” She was boiling with rage and was about to let all her frustration out at the fae. “This is …! I have no words for this! First you destroy our ship, take everything we have, treasure and friends alike, and then you have the audacity to take us to your clan! I …! I think I’m … I will…!” There were no more words that would have sufficed for her to express her rage and frustration, so that she ended up stuttering like this for quite a while until Aria decided to stop her.

“So my dragons attacked your ship and your crew. So my dragons stole your oh-so-precious treasure and your friends scattered all over Sornieth. Boo-hoo. Get over it. Listen here, sweetie, life on this god-forsaken land is hard. There is hardly anything to live from. Prey is scarce. Finding treasure to trade with other dragons is almost impossible. This clan has many dragons and it is growing every day. So we do what we have to do in order to survive. But listen, you ignorant thing, we don’t kill. Killing is a last resort. We steal, we borrow, we plunder and take what we can get. But we don’t kill.” She paused a moment before she continued, “Now go. Rest. I’m sure your journey has been an exhausting one and it wasn’t exactly your best day. I don’t care how you feel about it. If you really want to, you can go and freeze to death because you can’t stand the thought of staying with a clan of dragons that attacked your precious ship and stole your treasure. But you’d be more than welcome to stay here. For a few days. Months. Years. I don’t care. I won’t force you to go, neither will I force you to stay. It’s your decision.” And quickly, before Io could say anything more, “Snowbell, please take them to Heatstrike and Edrea. They will care for them.”


And that is how we joined them. The Cloudscrape Marauders. This group of plundering dragons that were part of so many stories in the southern regions of Sornieth and were feared by so many sailors. At first we only wanted to stay for a few days, until we had recovered. Especially Io couldn’t wait to leave, always pressing to go, reminding me every day of what had happened to us. At first I shared her feelings. I wanted to go. Leave. Fly back to the Windswept Plateau and from there start anew. I couldn’t understand why they would take us in, us, who had been their victims. But the dragons of Aria’s clan turned out to be so kind and cared for us so much that I couldn’t help but make friends with some of them. And Io, too, made new friends, had hatchlings of her own – something she had never thought about when she was still on the Nimrod. And she would have never left without me. So she stayed. We both did.

Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if the Nimrod had never been attacked. How things would have changed, what lives Io and I would have had. And then I ask myself, would I ever trade this life for the one I could have had? And I say to myself, I don’t know. Maybe. But then again, being part of the Cloudscrape Marauders is a lot like my former life as a pirate. We steal, we borrow, we plunder and take what we can get alongside our new friends. While my life could have been so much different, I don’t mind being here. I feel welcome and like I belong, despite everything that happened. I don’t hold a grudge anymore, though I think that Io is still thinking a lot about that day. She always talks to me about it and loves to discuss what could have been, what we could have had and what might have happened to the others. But in the end, I think that she, too, enjoys her new life as much as I do."



"A red dragoness came and conquered our clan. Change is coming."