Raiya

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"Please, Raiya, for the records." Eviet pleaded, following the Pearlcatcher around the lair persistently. "I already said no, Eviet." The Matriarch reminded her firmly, "The past is not a thing I wish to dwell on." The Skydancer flipped her scarf over her wings and wrung her hands together, "Please, Raiya. It's for posterity. So that we won't go on forgotten if The Rapture ever..." The icy dragoness paused, her long whiskers twitching with great thought and emotion. She sighed, turning to face her Scribe, "Alright. But, I'll be brief." She sat, watching Eviet as she nodded fervently and took a quill to parchment.

"I was born to a father of high value and a nameless golden concubine." She started, "I was born with brown wings and crackle, both unsavory traits. My natural color was seen as ugly, unfitting to the Icewarden's calling, so I was put to the Auction at a young age. I thought that no one would want me, because of my naturally born color. But, to my surprise, a drab young Tundra saw me as she was browsing the stocks and she called my shimmering brown wings beautiful. Her name was Primi and she was a Clanmother, but all that mattered to me was that she said I was beautiful and that my pale eyes were the one true sign of a follower of the Icewarden. She paid my slave-price and took me to her home and her mate, Isaz. He was a mighty Mirror Clanfather who loved nothing more than to see his mate happy. So, he humored her softer nature and let her adopt a large menagerie-brood of misfits."

Raiya smiled, "Ivori was the pair's bitter bloodchild, who mourned the exultation of her sister Cerise. Yachin was a clever and hardy Fae child who would later become Ivori's mate. Atlapalli-" Eviet looked up from her notes, "My mate? The Commander?" The Matriarch nodded slowly, "The same. He was a morbid child and he stayed in my company, mostly because I was willing to listen to his wild musings." She closed her eyes, her voice growing rapturous. "And then there was Briaz, a beautiful, shy tiger-striped Pearlcatcher from a Wind-clan. He practically glued himself to me for shelter from the more 'barbaric' ways of an Ice-flight." She chuckled. "Maybe it was that softness that made me fall in love with him. Either way we were wed at half-breeding age and as we grew he let me bear three children. I loved them, but they were taken up in the Lightweaver's rush for dominance." She grew sullen. "We mourned the loss of them for weeks."

"Then," Her voice grew icy as she held her pearl close to her chest. "The Rapture happened." Eviet felt her crest fall flat and she adjusted her glasses with care as her Matriarch spoke. "It was so sudden, so unexpected. Like a thief in the night the Icewarden descended as we slept and took the whole clan into his midst." A tear slipped down the leader's brown cheek. "Isaz, Primi, my dear Briaz... everyone. Only Atlapalli and myself were spared." She whisked away the drop. "For the first few days we waited for the Icewarden to return and take us too, but he never did. I cried and searched for my mate, although I knew that I had lost him forever, and Atlapalli, never having a mate of his own, gave me a wing to cry under." She straightened up and covered herself with her tunic self consciously, looking to the scribe with a look that begged for a lack of judgement. She knew all too well that Eviet was Atlapalli's mate and that made the story that much more difficult to tell. "You have to understand, Eviet, we were young, scared, and more than a little stupid. We made mistakes. Terrible mistakes, and those mistakes gave us a brood of 5 eggs, all of which went to the Auction or the Matchmaker, save for my little Minerva." She sighed, looking to the speechless scribe. "Still, I did not love Atlapalli and he knew that. No matter how much he denies it, he knew it. We stood by each other for comfort, for survival, not love. We had to in order to rebuild the clan. So we pieced it all together, from scratch, myself as the Matriarch and he as the Commander." She stood up, "And that is all there is to tell."

Eviet blinked with surprise, trying to press for more story rather than more detail on what had been shed already. "But what about Hedera?" Raiya chuckled, looking to the Skydancer. "You wish to know of my mate?" Eviet nodded and Raiya shrugged. "I love him, that is all there is to know. If you want his story you can hear it from his own maw." And the Scribe nodded fervently, thanking her Matriarch as she bowed and then took off to search for Hedera.

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Tiger
Spines