Hyle

A shade.
He walks alone, with darkness in his steps and stars in his heart.
The Wandering One flies high above
Searching without knowing for what she looks.
A fallen beacon, to make their home.

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Had to have high, high hopes for a living

Hyle had been hatched small.

Shooting for the stars when I couldn't make a killing

Small, silent, and terrified.

Didn't have a dime but I always had a vision

His mother always said the first thing he did as a hatchling was curl in a ball and hide from her. He wasn't so sure about that, but it wasn't all that unlikely. His mother was, in all honesty, terrifying.

Always had high, high hopes

His brother Arcadeous said he was cursed. He was the only one of a clutch of five to get black scales on his face, wingtips, and feet. Neither of his parents had these scales, and his mother had a remarkable tendency to glare murderously at him when he asked why he had them.

Mama said

His sister Kibuto joked that he was supposed to have been hatched a lizard and not a dragon. Why else was he so small, so timid, so harmless? Nothing like the rest of his larger than average family, full of fighters.

It's uphill for oddities


So when the ringmaster that employed his mother came along and named him the newest addition to the show, nobody was more confused than Hyle.

The stranger crusaders

The ringmaster began training him, having him do all sorts of tricky things, from memorizing all sorts of patterns and facts to going through mazes where a wrong turn led to an unfortunate burst of acid to the face from a particularly annoying species of sea slug.

Ain't ever wannabes

The training eventually led to an interest in his magical abilities.

The weird and the novelties

You see, Hyle's magic was incredibly peculiar. Anything he did, from summoning flames to moving a glass of water across a table with telekinesis, resulted in an unnecessary amount of the color black.

Don't ever change

The fire would come out as black as coal, or the water in the glass would take an ashy shade. The ringmaster highly disliked this, and insisted he was purposefully twisting his magic.

We wanted everything,

His family, however, found his magic dishonorable, and the color of his magic downright unforgivable. In an agreement with the ringmaster, they altogether sent him out into the wilds of the Starfall Isles to fend for himself.

We wanted everything

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Mama said

Hyle was determined to be considered something other than a disgrace.

Don't give up,

For a while, he wandered about, penniless, lonely, and fiercely dreaming of doing something great.

It's a little complicated

He tried his luck with just about any skill he possibly could, so long as it did not force him to use his black magic. He never got very far.

All tied up, no more love

He survived off the kindness of whatever dragon felt pity for him for a day or two. Sometimes they were enamored by his intense belief in his destiny, other times they simply felt bad for the tiny fae hatchling that wandered the world alone.

And I'd hate to see you waiting

Eventually, a mirror named Nikaya took him in. She was the first dragon to whom he willingly revealed his magic, and was the first dragon to tell him she believed in him as much as he believed in himself.

They say it's all been done

Rather unfortunately though, Nikaya was already quite old, and quite ill when she began caring for Hyle, and by the time he was fully grown, she was on death's door.

But they haven't seen the best of me

There came a day when Nikaya sat him down and told him he would need to leave soon.

So I got one more run

It was not because she did not want him there, nor was it because of anything he had done. She simply could not care for him any longer.

and it's gonna be a sight to see

And so he left, with a warning that he should never stop dreaming.

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Stay up on that rise

He left, flying aimlessly for a while.

Stay up on that rise

He stayed in the territory of the Plaguebringer, as he'd considered it his home for a decent while.

And never come down

Plagues came, and plagues went, seasons changed and he felt aimless, as though he was an arrow that had just barely missed it's mark.

Stay up on that rise

He was tired, so, so tired. Of being just off the edge of his goals, of being alone.

Stay up on that rise

Pip, pip pap.

And never come down

The slither of scales on stone.

Stay up on that rise

A scaly beast of green and red came skittering into his life. With it, a few moments later, a purple and gold mirror with a large vulture careening after. The mirror skidded to a halt, less than a wingspan away.

Stay up on that rise and never come down

They stared at each other. For a minute, two minutes, ten, they simply sat and stared. Hyle felt like he'd forgotten how to breathe.

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"... So are you gonna eat that noggle or can I have it?"

"What? Why would I eat him? He's cute."

"Oh... oops. Is that your familiar?"

Hyle looked down at the scaly thing that had curled itself around his tail.

"I... guess?"

"Yeaaaa that's my bad. Sorry about trying to eat your pet."

"It's fine! I think. Uh. Honestly, I'm not totally sure what to say, I've not talked to anyone in a while."

"Well if you're lonely and feel like heading to the Starfall Isles, you can come with Tarkana and me."

"That. Might be nice?"

"Great!"

"Y e p." This mirror is very pretty and very talkative and I am very very very not sure that going with her is a good idea but too late to back out now so I guess this is happening.

And so they went.