Aspen

Somewhere deep in the Viridian Labyrinth lived a guardian, he lived alone by a lake, and every morning he would walk around the lake, through the forest and through a clearing surrounded by aspen trees, and then he’d walk back home.
One day when on his daily walk he came across an egg, it was just lying there in the middle of the clearing, he was surprised it hadn’t been snatched up yet by some other creature.
The egg looked like it was a dragon egg, he had given up on finding his charge a long time ago but now it felt like something was pulling him towards this egg, telling him to pick it up and take it home with him, was this egg his charge?
Despite the urge to just take the egg home with him, he tried to find it’s parents, he searched for hours to no avail.
It was getting late and he realised he likely wasn’t going to find anyone, so he took the egg home with him.
He made a nest with leaves and grass, put the egg in it, and went to bed.

The next morning, he woke up to a small snake-like dragon sitting on his nose, he immediately felt a strong urge to protect her, he had doubted it at first, but he was sure now, she was his charge.
He named her Aspen, after the trees surrounding the clearing he found her in, she was like the daughter he never had.
He taught her how to hunt, how to fly, showed her where the best insect gathering spots were, and he protected her from danger.
They were happy together but he knew it wouldn’t last forever, he was old, he knew he wouldn’t be around much longer and he had to prepare her for his passing.
So he taught her how to fight, how to survive.
And when the time came she was sad, she mourned him, but she was prepared.
She buried him next to the lake, in the spot where they used to watch the fish together.
She lingered for a while, but the little home by the lake just wasn’t the same without him, so she set out to find a new home.

She travelled through the barren land of Dragonhome, and the Festering Contagion that is The Scarred Wasteland, she even spent some time flying over the Sea of a Thousand Currents, she was happy to finally reach the Windswept Plateau after flying for so long.

She had set up camp, and was about to go to sleep, when she heard some sounds coming from a nearby patch of bamboo.
She squinted at it trying to figure out what might be making the sounds, but she couldn’t see anything.
She tried to pinpoint where the sound was coming from, and she pounced.
She looked to see what she had caught only to find a very green mirror hatchling, he was almost the exact same color as the bamboo.

“Hey uhh, could you get off me?”
She quickly got off of him and he immediately jumped to his feet.
“Hi my name is Mirk, what’s your name?”
She snorted, who named their kid Mirk?
“Where are you from?”
“What brought you here?”
“Do you have a clan?”
“What’s your favorite food?”
When he was done bombarding her with questions she answered.
“My name is Aspen, I’m from the Viridian Labyrinth.”
Before she got to answer any more of his questions they were interrupted.
“Mirk, you have to go home, it’s getting late, you don’t want to worry dad again do you?”
The voice belonged to a tiny fae, she was sitting on top of the bamboo, and she was just as green as Mirk.
“Alright, I’m coming.”
He turned his attention back to her
“Are you still going to be here tomorrow?”
“Probably not.”
“Please stay for one more day, just one more day.”
“Why?”
“I really want to talk to you, so please stay one more day.”
And he ran back into the bamboo, after the fae.

The next day she decided to just continue her search, he probably wouldn’t come back anyway.
But just when she was about to fly off she heard him.
“Hey, hey, where are you going?! Please just stay for a while, let’s go hunting together.”
“Okay...”
“Follow me, I know a really good spot, my mom showed it to me.”
He was right, it was a really good spot for hunting, there was plenty of prey.
She watched as he very clumsily snuck up on a Reedhopper, his colour should have made it easier, but he was making so much noise, the Reedhopper noticed him and immediately hid somewhere.
She watched a few more of his clumsy attempts at hunting.
She’d met a few mirrors in the Scarred Wasteland, and she had thought they were all great hunters, however this weird hatchling had proved otherwise, she didn’t think mirrors could be this talkative either.
After watching a few more of his pitiful attempts at hunting, she decided to catch the Reedhopper herself.
She got into hunting stance, snuck up on the Reedhopper as quietly as possible, and she pounced, she got it.
Mirk was looking at her in awe.
“That was really cool, could you teach me???”
“Ehh, sure.”
She spent the rest of the day showing him how to hunt, and talking, and before they realised it, it was evening.
It was time for her to go, but she had actually grown to like the weird bamboo green mirror.
“You said you were searching for a home right? Why don’t you stay here, with my clan.”
She hadn’t realised this was an option, she felt stupid only realising that now.
She eagerly agreed.