Paschal

Paschal's egg was laid somewhere deep in the Sunbeam Ruins. Of all those in his nest, he was the first to leave. Their parents had left them, and even that young, Paschal knew that they'd die without protection. He lived like a badger at first, hiding in holes and scrapping for whatever prey he could find. Paschal raided a small settlement for a gene scroll to make his garish green hide less conspicuous.

The one thing he couldn't hide was his eyes. Dragons who encountered him treated him oddly because of the special way his eyes glowed. Paschal found he could use it; he could tune each set of eyes to see different wavelengths of light, depending on what he needed at the time. But Paschal hated the attention. He tended to sneak off after a few days staying with dragon clans. Paschal just wanted to track down his parents. Rejoin the pack. Survive.

He became more desirable to dragon clans when he stole his Spinner scroll, and even more desirable when he stole his Underbelly scroll. He got more and more proficient at looting tombs, looting Beastclan camps, anything that would make him more wealthy and put food in his belly. He still avoided other dragons unless he had a hood to hide his eyes, and even then, he found they treated him differently once they saw the glow.

Paschal delved deeper, flew higher, and moved quieter than just about anyone he knew. A lone mirror was a rare sight, and Paschal had made do. A thought occurred to him: would his old pack even accept him? Would they try to put him on a pedestal for his eyes? Paschal wasn't sure he wanted to find his parents, now that he was older. Sure, he was okay, but how many of his siblings had wasted their potential through sheer bad luck?

One day, wandering through the Shifting Expanse, Paschal came across a small mirror pack of various elements: two lightning, one fire, one shadow, one plague. He made as if to run past, but when he tried, he got snarled at. Paschal hadn't expected that. In a matter of minutes, the pack had him surrounded. They nipped at his heels, snarled in his face, and reared up when he looked like he was about to take off. This was bad news for Paschal. He knew that usually, when a pack surrounded someone, they planned on killing them.

One of them, the white Shadow one with the purple wings, started talking to him. It seemed to break the tension. Paschal could see that the light from his eyes was painful to the other male, and consciously dimmed it for him. They were going to test him. Put him through his paces. Watch him. If he passed, and was so inclined, he could join the mirror pack. It was part of a larger clan, he learned-- very unusual, but not unheard of. Unusual to be invited to be tested this way too. Paschal later learned the reason for it; the Shadow mirror found him attractive, and basically everyone was encouraging him to settle down and find a mate.

Paschal passed. He brought a certain valuable set of skills to the table. Clan AXQU wanted him not for his eyes, but for his ability to steal whatever wasn't nailed down. "A Mirror with a Ridgeback's heart," clan AXQU's RidgePack affectionately called him. He had a mate, a pack, a clan run by other mirrors, a safe place to sleep at night. For the first time in his life, Paschal found he was happy.

His clanmates did some research to find out who his parents might be. Paschal hasn't reached out yet.