Mordecai

Mordi always thought himself aesthetic. He stood out from his siblings, sinuous and lithe where their bonded skin made them lumbering and ungainly, yet no matter where he turned, no clan would take him in.

After weeks of wandering alone throughout the lands, he returned to his parents' clan, miserable and lonely. He spent hours at a time staring into the waters of the Sea of a Thousand Currents, turning this way and that, examining his whiskers, his wings, the curve of his shoulder. What was wrong with him?

Help, eventually, came from an unlikely source. Cor, an older spiral with a talent for swimming, followed him to his gazing spot one day and confronted him. "Look," he said. "We have the same markings!"

It seemed a bizarre thing to say, considering they had never spoken before, and, amazed, Mordi was forced to agree. Somehow that first, awkward conversation has led to them becoming almost inseparable. Now, when he walks amidst his clan, Mordecai holds his head high and follows his lithe friend into the water.

He is himself and he is happy.