Lye

Lye's earliest memories are of wandering the wastes. She has a vague recollection of leaving somewhere, a burrow, a den, a shelter of some kind, but her clearest first memory is of the Boneyard. Of running. Hunting. Meeting Samson is where things become clearer for her, and truly begin to change. She had purpose, reason, and a place to come back to. As her chosen mate did not share her wanderlust, Lye brought back others to keep him company.

Anpaka, the great guardian whose Search ended at the feet of the tundra who Lye adored, Sphinx, who had been lost to the endless desolation of the plague wastes, Androde who vowed to fight for her, for them, and Mothshead, who Lye drew out of the Tangled Wood. Others followed as Lye's drive to see the world pulled her farther and farther from her homeland, leaving for longer stretches of time. She took other mates, but always returned to Samson, to share stories of where her appetite for adventure had drawn her. With her frequent absences, the growing number of dragons around Samson remained leaderless. The tundra acted as mediator for some disputes, but he had no interest in being sought after as a clan leader. Lye desired everyone to come and go as they pleased, just as she did, and ignored the unrest growing among the dragons.

They had grown into a community, one forged through years of hardship, and were reluctant to leave each other. Still, they were directionless, leaderless, and as their numbers grew, it became harder to maintain their haphazard community.

Lye returned home from one of her expeditions during the unrest, and ignored the concerns brought to her by Bayrune, who had long held position as a mediator under Samson, keeping the peace between the Blood Brood and iilah clan family. The two fractions traveled with the band of dragons Lye had brought together, though they held their own rules and leaders. Lye held little concern for the matters of other clans, and settled in at Samson's side.

Having nested with Samson, she concerned herself with their young children when the fighting broke out between the Brood and the iilah. Her two young daughters taking priority over some other clans' problems, she retreated from their warring. Her refusal to take a stand as iilah and the Brood fought for the right to claim leadership of the dragons she had gathered splintered them into fractions. Unlike Lye, Samson could not sit out the conflict, and attempted a mediation under Anpaka's watchful gaze. He was killed during the negotiation, and the wounded Anpaka brought the news to Lye and her daughters. Lye's longing to head out once her daughters were older burned cold in her chest at the news. She could not leave things as they were. She could not abandon Samson, even though he was now dead, and the clan he had been fighting to maintain. Leaving her daughters with Anpaka, Lye headed out into the wastes.

She tracked down Khamina, and the mirror pack she had taken away with her when the fighting had begun. She had run with them in her past visits, and now demanded they run with her. Her promise of feasts and glory brought them under her command, and she led them back to the conflict. Rigor, an elusive wildclaw that shadowed the clan, offered her and her mother's services to Lye in the upcoming fight. Lye accepted the offer, though the dragon's ice eyes promised a price to be exacted for what she offered.

Lye then had to convince Ciciano, a great warrior who had gathered the leaderless under his command in order to survive, to fight for her. Having been swayed to stay within the clan due to Lye's ferocity in the past, he was unmoved by her arguments after her long refusal to involve herself in the conflict. In order to have the warriors under his command follow her, he demanded that she convince Prunterton to fight for her cause. Prunterton had lost his mate early in the conflict due to the ambivalence of the leaderless dragons, and held a particular anger towards Lye for her abandonment of them.

In order to sway Prunterton to her side, Lye had to defeat him in a duel. Victory was the only thing the other mirror would listen to. Though badly injured in the fight, she won, and took command of Ciciano's fighting group.

She led her forces against the iilah and their supporters first, as they were willing to negotiate, and she was still recovering from her duel with Prunterton. With the greater numbers behind them, and the bitterness of revenge fueling them, Lye's dragons prevailed and the iilah surrendered. She had Sosiilah imprisoned in a metal carapace for his crimes, pardoned many of their supporters, but banished the remaining iilah who had incited the war. Yuniilah was allowed to take part in the charge against the Brood, her request for vengeance against those who had killed her children swaying Lye.

The Brood had little interest in negotiations, so a brutal campaign against them and their supporters took place. The turning point in the conflict was when Lye killed Vitae and Sanguis' daughter, Fleich, the dragon who took credit for killing Samson. Worn down from the fighting, they finally surrendered, though Sanguis challenged Lye to a duel in vengeance for killing his daughter. Bayrune insisted she refuse, while Prunteron urged her to accept and continue showing her strength to the clan.

It was Mothshead, who Lye had become estranged with during the war, that settled the matter for her. The two of them had spent considerable time together before the Brood or the iilah even existed, and had been lovers as well as friends. Reconciling with Mothshead finally allowed her to grieve for Samson, and clear her thoughts.

She accepted Sanguis duel, and her defeat of the guardian further cemented her place as the clan's leader. With the remaining dissidents banished, a new order slowly settled over the dragons. Though they now had a leader, the war had taken a toll on everyone, and Lye still had yet to unite them with a name.

Ecsenius, a seer and one of the earliest children of the clan, urged her to go on a pilgrimage to the Wyrmwound, as she had in the past. Except this time, she should take her entire clan with her. While exhausted and in need of recovery, she roused her clan for the long trek. The Plaguemother had gifted them all with the long conflict they had just endured, and their survival was the reward for their Great Mother's love.

They lost several dragons in the journey, but never stopped until they reached the Wyrmwound. Lye spent the time redefining the hierarchy of her clan, giving responsibilities and titles to those she saw deserving of them. She also sought an audience with the Plaguebringer, and when she returned to her clan, she gave them a name.

Corrosive.

While she spoke of the future her clan was to have, Lye changed before the dragons' eyes, having been altered by the Wyrmwound. Invigorated by the spectacle and hope for the future, she led her rejuvenated clan back home. Yessel and others ran ahead of them, spreading word of their clan, and gaining the first of the mercenary contracts that would soon begin to sustain them.

The clan thrived under its new direction and leadership, but it wasn't until Lye nested with Burges that a new paradigm was introduced. Unlike before, children of the clan were to become more commonplace, and find a home among their parents.

Despite her acceptance as their leader, Lye has disappeared somewhat from the public eye since Corrosive's return home. She spends most of her time among her consorts and their hatchlings, only regularly meeting with Mothshead, her generals, and her arbiters. While she leads them on the battlefield during their mercenary contracts, the once very sociable and carefree mirror that brought them all together has vanished, replaced by a fair, but distant leader.

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