Ouranos

As a hatchling, Ouranos was wild, more often than not having gotten himself into trouble. This, raised the ire of his parents. His mother Thetis, despite loving all of her other children, could not stand this troublesome spawn of hers.

It was on a hunting trip with his father, deep into the Tangled Wood, that Ouranos first met the Lady of the Grove, Kairos who was the dragon he was fated to love. He had wandered off, and had found himself somewhere cool and soft. A small clearing that looked like hatchlings used to live there. Kairos had been tidying the shallow dens that had been dug out of the loam. When she noticed him she was startled for a moment, before a sad look crossed her face.

"Welcome to the Orphanage," she croaked, her voice having gone unused for quite some time.

"Orphanage? But I'm not an orphan! My papa is, he's, well. Um." Ouranos thought for a moment, his small guardian claws clattering against a piece of wood under his feet. "I left him right over there!" He exclaimed, pointing with a wing to the south east. Proud of himself, he marched, head high and wings folded neatly at his sides to the direction he had pointed, tail swaying behind him.

Kairos decided to escort him, and when they did end up finding his father. Themistokles was enraged.
"By the Lightweaver's glided glory where the shade have you been boy!" The Guardian had roared, fins bristling with anger.

Sheepishly, Ouranos had tried to explain that he had seen something weird in the undergrowth. His father however cut him off, noticing Kairos hanging from a low hanging pine bough. "And who are you." The adult guardian spat, hissing through his teeth.

With a clearing of her throat, Kairos gave a flutter of her wings and landed softly on the detritus of the Tangled Wood. "I?" mimicked Kairos in a rather good impression of the Guardian's voice. "I am merely a servant of my Lady Shadowbinder. One of her beloved children." She then said in her own voice, mockery in her smile and in her ancient eyes.

The Guardian huffed, off-put by the look in her eyes. It was almost as though he could fall into their bottomless violet depths. So ancient were her eyes.

The pair of Guardians left soon after the confrontation, heading towards the east, to the Sunbeam Ruins.

It was not long after that, that Themistokles and Thetis abandoned Ouranos, having been fed up with his troublemaking and foolishness for the last time.

It was during another 'hunting trip' that Themistokles left Ouranos in the deep and winding trails of the Tangled Wood.

The Orphanage had found him again as he stumbled, weeping and calling for his father.

It was there that the Pearlcatcher Foxglove found him, still weeping for the father that abandoned him, calling also for the kind nocturne he had met not so long ago.

The silvery Pearlcatcher approached the sobbing hatchling, a cat-like grin on her face, her pearl wrapped in her tail. The plumed tail twitched as the hatchling's wheezy sobs started to abate as he heard approaching footsteps. His hopeful glance turned to confusion and disappointment when rather than his father, or the blue Nocturne he had met before, his gaze met the grinning face of a beautiful female Pearlcatcher. "Wh-who are y-y-you?" Ouranos stammered, fear creeping into his voice.

"Oh me? My name is Foxglove darling, but whatever is the matter? Why are you crying?" The lady's voice was sympathetic, calming, comforting. Ouranos felt like she was someone he could trust. She brushed at the ground a little with a glowing claw before she took a seat beside the Guardian hatchling, her hide rippled with pink runes, horn shining in the dim light.

"I c-c-can't f-find my d-d-d-dad." He sniffled, tears running in tracks down his face. Shuffling a little on his feet, his tail moved from side to side in resigned dejection.

"You poor thing! How awful, he must certainly be worried sick. Child, how would you like, if I took you somewhere with so-oo-o many other hatchlings just like you! You'd never be lonely again darling!~" The Pearlcatcher asked cheerily, her sharp teeth glinting in the glow of her runes.

At the prospect of not being lonely, Ouranos looked up, a tiny glitter of excitement returning to his eyes. "Really? Wh-where? Can you take me there?" He asked, looking away as he got nervous again, 'What if she's lying?' whispered a voice at the back of his mind.

"Of course!" Foxglove crowed. "Would you like to go now?" She asked as she stood, planting all four glowing paws on the soft ground of the Tangled Wood, her pearl held high in the coils of her tail.

And the two went through the winding paths of the wood, taking more twists and turns that at some points in the trip, Ouranos was sure they were going in circles.