Li

Coming from a clan that valued the purity of imperial lineages, he hid a dark secret. He kept himself mostly to himself and never gave out his name, fearing that the clan would find out. He was not ‘pure’. Despite his imperial appearance, wildclaw blood ran through his veins as the result of a mixed breeding. He knew the clan would not accept this – the moment his secret was found out, he would be out. With no fighting skills and no other means of surviving, he was forced to deny his heritage.

Unfortunately, the clan became harsher under new leadership. Mixed bloods were rooted and cast out. Questioning became more thorough, more persistent, until one day, he could no longer hide it. Exposed as the mixed blood he was, he was cast out of the clan, along with two others. One, Kassian, didn’t surprise him as being a mixed blood, for he had been similarly quiet and reserved, but the second, Garath, had been very outgoing and very much a ladies’ dragon, fathering many children with many different females.

Gathering his wits, he quickly realised that the only way the three of them would survive would be to form a gang. With Kassian being too shy, and Garath severely one-track minded, he became the natural leader, despite still having no name.

The three swiftly journeyed away from the clan and began to make a name for themselves. They preyed upon the weak, with Garath being their main force, but it wasn’t enough. All three were healthy sized, male imperials and they needed a lot of food. With their meagre scavenging skills and even worse thieving abilities, they were soon starving. He tried to keep them together, but he knew they were falling apart. They just needed one hit. One good hit, and they could start up their own clan.

This opportunity finally came in the form of a tiny green creature flying overhead. Kassian was the one to recognise it as a male harpy – something very, very rare and very, very valuable amongst harpy clans. With their support, the trio could finally begin their own clan. Garath went to retrieve the little creature, but he soon found himself in more trouble than he had bargained for. Two enormous imperials attacked him, and despite the others trying to fight, the trio were very quickly overpowered.

The fury of the largest imperial – a male – was terrifying. Thankfully, Garath had not harmed the harpy, despite his posturing. The trio found themselves cringing under the harsh words, while the female nodded along. However, it was her words that seemed to snap the male out of his rage, pointing out the poor condition of all three of the other imperials. The leader bristled to hear himself described in such sorry terms, but he wisely remained silent for the sake of his gang.

The trio were hauled back to Clan Kaitos , feeling very sorry for themselves. Upon arrival, they found themselves treated to a veritable feast, courtesy of Katsura and Shaushka, the two imperials they had unwisely attempted to attack. Despite their initial reservations, pure hunger caused them to forget any wariness and tear into the meal.

When the trio were too full to move, Katsura finally had his talk with the three. His persistence forced them into revealing everything, despite their terror that once again they would be turned upon. Instead, they were surprised to find Katsura laughing at the reason for their fear. Despite his annoyance at the former clan for causing such dread, he pointed out his own long and very mixed heritage – comprising mostly of imperials and wildclaw, but even the odd ‘plentiful’ breed. However, he seemed proud of this, rather than ashamed that his imperial bloodline was not pure.

Now happier that Katsura was not just playing with them or ready to cast them aside once their secrets were found out, the leader of the trio agreed to join, with Kassian and Garath following straight afterwards. It was at this point that Katsura finally gave the leader a name, as he had with Ravyn and Lailah before him.

The newly named Li quickly fit into the clan. He highly enjoyed meeting his new family, and found that he warmed quickly to both Lailah and Ravyn. With the freshly renamed Killian and Caspian at his back, and his new family at his side, he realised he was finally happy.

Li no longer feels the need to be in charge, and happily delegates all responsibility for their family group to Katsura, although he still cannot bring himself to respect the overall leader of the clan, Bramble. However, he has decided not to let this concern him and focusses his all upon his family. Katsura has made no secret that he hopes to one day use his intelligence to help the clan, but he intends to let this be in Li’s own time.