Balby

Balby
• Former groundskeeper

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xxxTheme song: [url=]insert song here[/url]
Battle theme: [url=]insert song here[/url]

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He had never really been… a plague dragon.
Balby loved his family, loved his home… But something was just… not right with the fae.

Where normally plants would wither and decay, the green dragon managed to make them bloom instead, and where normally only the infection and pestilence could thrive, small patches of grass could be found where the fae had rested, surviving despite the harsh environment.

It made Balby an outcast- it made him feel insecure

What if dragons began to hate him for this? What if others began to assume he was actually a spy who somehow managed to dye his eyes and blend in using magic? What if he was send to nature to be a spy due to his supposed ability to grow plants?!

The small dragon didn’t want to know the potential answers to these ‘what ifs’, and left the clan the night he reached adulthood- which probably didn’t help with any potential suspicion his former clan mates had, but Balby figured that the odds of them finding him were low…. If he could get far, FAR away from the clan.

Turns out far away was somewhere deep in the shrieking wilds.

Balby did… okay for the most part. Not setteling down anywhere for long out of fear of his former clan members finding him, he wandered around the strange, green lands. Finding bugs was WAY easier here, and it may just be personal preference, but they tasted better too. Maybe because the green dragon found them on plants rather than rotting flesh…?

With all the wandering the fae did, it was inevitable he’d find a clan or other form of civilisation at one point or another.

He found perhaps the most terrifying one possible when he was caught by two ghastly warriors amd dragged to an overgrown, yet prestigious looking manor. Once inside, the fae sav various horrible, terrifying entities, all seeming to have a job there, serving someone who was probably… stronger than all of them combined.

The fae would have been confused if he hadn’t been so terrified upon seeing the supposed leader: a dark tundra with an annoyed, displeased look on her face. The tundra demanded to know what the fae wanted- why he had entered her domain and what his intentions were. Balby shakily explained he was just a wandering nomad, and begged for his life.

The larger dragon declared he could have his life, if he served her for the rest of it.

Balby had trouble adjusting, but after a month or so he found himself actually… liking his new life. He had been put to work maintaining the huge gardens, and while most of his colleagues were either dead, a horrible abomination with way too many eyes and/ or body parts or both of those, they weren’t as bad as they seemed. The fae even began to appreciate his gift! Sure, maintaining the gardens took a lot of effort, but it was well worth it! It seemed as if the various flowers and bushes liked him!

Even the more carnivorous plants seemed to understand the small dragon was their caretaker rather than their dinner, though they did need to be whacked with a rake quite often before they seemed to get it.

Years passed, and one day, out of seemingly nowhere, Balby’s employer (who was apparently a grand-duchess of some kind) called for all her servants. Her and her family would move to the tangled woods, and the estate in the viridian labyrinth would be left in the green fae’s care, with all the other servants and staff leaving with her to serve her in her new manor. The grand-duchess remarked that she would most likely never return to it, so she signed over the ownership to the sole living employee she had.

Balby feared for his life after that announcement, surely his colleagues, who had been working for the grand-duchess for longer than he had even been alive, had more right to the estate than he had...right? The green dragon expected outrage, but it seemed everyone just...accepted it?

And so, three days after the announcement, with all furniture, apparel and other items of important packed and ready to be transported, the grand-duchess left the estate, leaving Balby in charge and very, very lonely.

Shortly before she left, she had given the fae a gift though: the gift of terror.

When the grand-duchess first met the fae, she was aware of the fear swirling in his heart, every single day, she saw how that fear shaped him. With her ‘gift’, this fear could turn into a weapon- a weapon the fae could use to defend himself even against things that could not be beaten by simple magic or mindless strength. She once again empathized that the large manor would belong to the fae, and that she did not care if he kept or sold it.

And so… the fae became the slightly confused owner of a rather prestigious yet outwardly overgrown manor.

At first, he was fine. He could keep track of the manor on his own, and tend to the gardens as well. However, the more time passed, the more the fae began to feel like he was not alone. The small dragon began to feel as if he was being watched, and slowly but surely grew paranoid. However, it took a vase breaking when the fae had been in another room for Balby to evacuate. He locked the front doors, and bolted with the few possessions he had.

Eventually, he found totemclan, and after asking for shelter in trade for labor, he settled down once more.

He may be among dragons who live closer to the scarred wasteland than he’d like, but at least whenever he felt like he was being watched, he’d be able to assume it was just one of the dragons there, rather than something far more ominious and foreboding.

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[extra bits/trivia]
[ This guy is basically my 2nd ever OC revamped to fit into my FR lore. Originally, he was a pokemon mystery dungeon fan character (A bulbasaur) who i decided to humanize, stick a lot of non-bulbasaur traits on and their own story ]