Everest

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◦• Everest, Clan of the Winter Sphinx •◦

◦• Clan Leader, Nursery Watcher •◦

◦• Mates with Molten Sea •◦

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Everest is an incredibly sweet and motherly dragoness. She views all in the clan as family and won't hesitate to show them she does by laying with someone if their sad or trying to help in whatever way she can. She's very social with everyone in and outside of the clan and always shows kindness too all creatures.

Her weakness lies in that though. If she finds a young dragon or injured familiar, she won't hesitate to take them in, no matter the situation of the clan.

She's very inclusive and sometimes is so much so that she forgets that half the dragons in the lair aren't covered in fur and don't like being in the snow for long periods of time.

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◦• Biography •◦

You can read this now, but I'm not done with it. Once her biography is finished this text will be gone, so if you prefer to read the whole thing then now's your chance to skip all this.

Everest doesn't remember much when she was a young hatchling. Her earliest memory was her looking up at the Rimebone Stockade, simply marveling at the huge structure with a tiny Slight Eyewing chick by her side. However, in this memory she was increbly young so of course, being that young she didn't know to investigate and just went along her traveling. If you asked her, she herself couldn't tell you why or how she was out there alone. She would just tell you she's thankful it was winter so she had a thick coat to survive.

Little hatchling Everest never remembered belonging to a clan, she didn't remember having parents, just Celeste and the snow around her, following whatever seemed to interest her little mind. She was able to traverse pretty easily and was frightened by every bit of movement that wasn't Celeste.Of course, being in her winter coat with fur the color of the snow around her, it was fairly easy to hide by plunging her head into the snow and making herself look as small as possible. She always noticed dragons flying far overhead. Some going the way she came, some the opposite direction. Curiosity being one of her only instincts, she started going the way those dragons flew. And if she ever grew doubtful of her direction, she'd see another dragon flying overhead towards what looked to be mountains in the distance.

Now you may be wondering "How would a hatchling survive the hostile winters of the coldest parts of the Southern Icefield? With no food or shelter, the environment will get to her if the predators don't first." And to that I say, I haven't the slightest clue. Whenever she began longing for food, there were small dying shrubs peeking from the snow or leaves falling from dragons flying back to the barren lands from the more lush parts of the Icefield with plants for their clans. And shelter was easy when you were as tiny as her. Just make a small burrow in the ice and snow or find a crack in some rocks. With a coat twice as thick as a tundra any other time of the year, she was able to keep herself and Celeste warm. As for the predators... We'll get to that.

She remembers the mountains. She remembers them vividly. She remembers reaching them and being both intrigued and intimidated by the towering mountains. But the flight of those dragons going over them tempted her to follow.

It was difficult with less snow to help her hide, but she still had her size to help and a bit of a stoney colored mane too. And Celeste was a tiny chick, smaller than her, so she was no problem to hide. It helped that the small shrubs and few hardy grasses were actually visible here without the snow, too. Everest recalls hearing many battles take place in the mountains. Whether it be between beast and dragon, or between the creatures that lived in this rocky terrain. Sometimes, if it sounded as though one was coming for her, she would panic and fumble. Sometimes, rocks around her fell into perfect hiding holes, other times she'd trip and fall into one she hadn't seen herself. And whenever a beast, normally it was yetis she heard or had close encounters with, grew close, it became distracted with a nightmarish roar from deeper within the mountains and caused the beast to hurry towards it with a challenging roar in return. Everest made it through the mountains through a lot of suspiciously close calls. And, again, she was too young to question it.

She eventually came to the other side of the mountains (And a note to those who know the descriptions of the Cloudscrape Crags: She didn't go UP them, simply up enough to go through the valleys between them) and got to overlook the Snowsquall Tundra. Note, that her traveling had taken weeks. Especially when she was going the whole way on foot.

The sight of so many plants was most certainly a welcome one to her. Celeste was just happy to be out of the mountains. Everest wasted no time getting down to the "lush" field and pulling up whatever plants and roots she could get her mouth around, as long as it didn't have thorns. Tulips, arctic scrub, lucky stars, and ESPECIALLY winter's delight berries. She ate as much as she could before her stomach told her it was time to stop. Celeste just watched.

A lot of her time here was pretty uneventful. She kept to her own little corner of the area, ate whenever she needed, hid when anything came near, and had a cute little burrow in the dirt she stayed in. For the sake of sparing you boring details, we'll skip to a good few moons later.

Everest and Celeste have been living like that for a while. Just recently Everest took to walking all around the Snowsquall Tundra now that she was a fair bit bigger. She strolls around and enjoys laying in the sun. Sometimes she bumps into another dragon foraging but she normally just passes her greeting and goes on her merry way. Sometimes she'll help those who seem kinder and more open to it.

This is how it was for a while until on time the dragon she ran into didn't seem kind nor interested in gathering once it saw her. A mirror with bright red eyes ran right up to her and looked down at the half-grown dragon. It was pretty big for a mirror too. She wasn't given a chance nor a choice when the mirror snatched her up, tucked her under it's wing, and bolted back the way it came. Celeste was with her at the time and did see the dragon but wasn't expecting the encounter to end in Everest getting dragonetnapped. That doesn't mean she was slow to follow. Quite the opposite in fact. Celeste was right on the mirror, pecking and pulling at the wing to get it to drop Everest. She was... somewhat successful. Everest slipped out a bit and was dragged a few yards before the mirror could slow down and look at her. It made no noise and was about to pull her back before an imperial came and shooed the mirror away. Everest was easily intimidated by the giant dragon, and the imperial knew this. She laid down and put her head on the ground to get a closer look at Everest and help her feel more confident without a dragon towering over her. Celeste gave a protective screech at the mirror and imperial. The imperial just smiled and tried to calm the bird before introducing herself. She explained the mirror, named Atropos, simply saw her as a hatchling out on her own and thought to bring Everest to her, while also explaining that mirrors aren't very talkative, which didn't really help their high-energy nature and rather unnatural appearence. This eased Everest a bit. The imperial, Moth, was a bit of a mother hen and usually took in abandoned hatchlings, and this included Everest. Everest explained that she had been alone all her life which led Moth to believe Everest's egg was abandoned. Well, it made sense. It didn't exactly feel right, but it made sense. Everest just accepted that. Moth offered her home to the little dragoness. Everest tries to tell her she wasn't a hatchling, to which Moth responds with "Perhaps not, but you are still young. Your survival is a miracle, but if Atropos was able to find and take you so easily perhaps it's best to not return to solitude until you are bigger."

Everest considered it and considered it thoroughly. Moth had a point. Everest didn't seem too interested until Moth told her she'd be free to leave if she felt unsafe in her care. She decided that she and Celeste could handle it if things went south here, I mean, she's made it THIS far, and agreed.

And so began a new chapter of Everest's life. Moth was incredibly sweet and it didn't take long of Everest staying with her to notice how big Moth's heart was. There were dragons of all ages, species, and flights in her lair, and Moth took care of all of them. Everest wasn't used to so many dragons so she stuck to following Moth around and helping her. With the help of Moth though, she became comfortable in crowds and managed to even make a few new friends. She loved seeing all the reactions when Moth came into the room, how every dragon turned and smiled so brightly at her. Every dragon here, Moth explained once, was found by Moth either out alone in the wilds or in the auction house with less-than-kind looking dragons trying to get some treasure out of the hatchling. And Moth was very sweet and gentle despite her size. Everest wouldn't have minded being like Moth.

Once again, pretty uneventful stuff from there. Everest helped Moth, talked to other dragons, and even got to help Moth take care of a hatchling from an egg she found while going digging for supplies to expand the lair. Onto more page turning! Once Everest was fully grown, she decided to set out and return to her life of wandering almost-solitude. She had Celeste! At first, it was a bit weird to not have so many dragons and other creatures around. She had gotten used to the bustle and even welcomed it. It didn't take long for her to start missing it, but then she'd have missed the whole point of staying there.

It took some getting used to, but she remembered how to live alone. Over the next few moons, she broke her habits of mass gathering food that she couldn't eat alone. And fun fact, whenever she did this she would go looking for foraging dragons and offer them her help and give them whatever extra plants she accidentally picked up. Made life for the both of them a little bit easier.

Now out again on her own, talking to and helping visiting dragons, Everest thrived happily on her own again. Eating as much as she pleased and whenever. Celeste was with her, helping keep on the lookout for any creatures that might try to take advantage of a lone tundra dragon.

Until one pretty special day. One that Everest remembers with immense joy.

Everest was out in the fields in the Snowsquall Tundra during the day, enjoying the sun on her back. She paused when Celeste made a quiet click of her beak to alert Everest of something nearby. She looked up to see a dark blue dragon swooping down and landing among the brush. She's done this song and dance a hundred times by now, she could tell they were one of the gathering dragons that would mass harvest plants to take back to the barren wastes of the other side of the mountains. So, she happily walks up and greets herself. And what she finds wasn't exactly what she was expecting. An anxious blue and red tundra nervously looking for what plants to grab at first. In fact, he seemed more scared of her upon realizing she was there. Though her experience with Moth taught her to be soft with anxious types. So that's what she did, while still somewhat keeping her cheery disposition. While hesitant at first, he pretty quickly warmed up to her kindness and allowed her to help him gather whatever plants he needed. She tried to chat, but he was too nervous, so she left it alone. Before she knew it he was carrying as much as he could and they went their separate ways. Everest couldn't help but feel proud of herself for getting him to warm up to her so quickly. She shrugged off the encounter there and went along her business.

And then she found him again the next day.

She was happy to go help him again. To which he just as nervously accepted.

This went on for the next couple days until he told her he would be leaving so she wouldn't see him again. At least not for a long time. Everest just smiled and said "Well I'm glad to have bumped into you then." before they left their own ways.

And that was that.

UNTIL-

That's right, they ran into each other again. Now at this point, Everest was starting to get more attached to this dragon, who she learned his name was Molten Sea. She might even call him a friend with how much they've talked. The next few days he returned again, both always expecting to meet each other as Molten Sea went gathering. Everest enjoyed the company of another dragon, an ice flight tundra nonetheless!

And those days were nice until he had to leave.

She expected a couple of weeks to pass, and he'd be back again! Just like last time. So eagerly she waited. And waited. and.. waited...

Well, he's not coming back. It was nice having a friend for a while, she guesses. Clan life was pretty demanding anyway, so she didn't blame him. Everest simply carried on.

Not much happened during that time. She simply did what I've already said before. Eat, sunbathe, help other dragons, sleep. I won't waste time repeating this. This was her life for three moons. She was happy enough. Everest was out laying in the sun before the snow clouds roll in and ruin her basking. It was calming. Celeste was right there next to her as usual. Celeste interrupted her own bird bath in the sunlight to get up as one of her eyes spotted something. Everest paid no mind at first, until Celeste cried out while hopping onto Everest's face. She bolts up on high alert, and then she sees it. Molten Sea clumsily landing in front of her and fumbling to the ground in a panicked state. Everest leapt to his side to make sure he was okay, but was barely able to get a word out for he blurted that he left his clan. Everest didn't understand the big deal there, but it was apparently a big deal based on how he said it. And then he asked if her clan would accept her.