Cryptfury

Name: Cryptfury
Lair position/role: Guardsman Captain and Day-to-Day Lair Leader
Personality: Stern, but kind and fair
Bio: Following Lore curtisy of HeartThief
http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/1847782

The unnamed hatchling hid fearfully behind his mother’s legs. He was a plague dragon…and he was terrified of everything. At night when he closed his eyes he saw Death’s fingers reaching out for him, his sharp claws extended to snuff the life from the small hatchling. He would see snakes slipping toward him and feel bugs forcing their way down his throat.
In his waking hours, Unnamed would often see things that weren’t there…the Grim Reaper coming toward him, arms outstretched. Dragons coming at him, snarling, threatening to kill him. Knives falling from the sky, barely missing his feathers. And one of the most fearful ones of all, in his mind; the deities coming at him, they themselves threatening his death.
He was his mother’s little coward, and while laughing and calling him her special boy…she at the same time mocked him when speaking with others. The entire clan laughed at him…the hatchling who saw things that weren’t there, and feared something that he needn’t.
“Here, little coward,” she told him fondly one night as he was falling asleep, “Your name will be Cryptfury, okay? You’ll grow into it. I’m sure of it.”
He eyed her warily, wondering how a name could change anything. He was her little coward and would probably be her little coward forever. It wasn’t like his name was going to automatically make him unafraid anymore. Bitterly, he fell into a restless sleep, filled with night terrors.
He remained home with his mother for quite a while…but her friends talked. They muttered about how her little coward made chores hard. They muttered about how he made just…breathing hard at times. They complained about him constantly.
“Cryptfury my rear….” One of them grumbled disdainfully to another friend.
“Aye,” she replied, “He should have been named what he is… LittleCoward.”
The first nodded in agreement, “He’s a disgrace to our clan and to his mother…why, if I were his mother, I would turn him out…let him take care of himself for once, instead of hiding behind Mommy all the time.”
His mother heard them, and although she loved her son…it wore on her. Finally, she quietly told him to leave. She refused to give him a reason why, just told him to go away and to not come back. His eyes welled up with tears of fear…he knew why she was sending him away.
With the visions in the day, and nightmares in the night, Cryptfury fought to keep his sanity as he wandered through the dragon realm. In visions, he saw the deities rising up against him, threatening to kill him if he didn’t watch his step. In fact, the root fear of all of his fears…was death.
As he was walking through a particularly scary grove of bones, Cryptfury saw something out of the corner of his eye. He jumped, and in a shaky voice ordered whoever it was to show themselves. But no one appeared, so he continued on. He must have just imagined it…another vision.
But no. He heard a scuffling noise from behind him, and whirled to face…empty air. He whimpered softly in fear, wincing, knowing his unrealistic fears were what had caused his mother to drive him away. He waited a moment longer, then turned to go.
As he continued in his aimless direction, he continued hearing the noise. He shook and shook, until finally, he snapped. He was sick of being scared of everything.
He whirled toward the noise, roaring ferociously—he even scared himself a bit—and finally, a timid Hydra Scorpion shuffled out from behind a bush. It was shy, but didn’t seem to be terrified of him, or trying to kill him either one. He took it under his wing, and it became his friend.
As they explored, they wandered into an auction house. Cryptfury loved seeing all of the different dragons. Some seemed so scared, but others seemed proud and sure of themselves. Cryptfury was merely preoccupied with observing the other dragons, and shaking his frightening visions to the back of his mind. They still came occasionally, but not as often with his hydra scorpion around…and even when they did come, his scorpion kept him from hurting himself or others.
Cryptfury couldn’t find the door to leave the auction house, and slowly he realized that he was trapped there. He saw some of the scared dragons either being selected by various other dragons and being led out. He wondered if he could escape by following one of them, but it never worked.
Finally he realized that he wouldn’t be able to escape at all unless he was chosen like the other dragons. He began going from dragon to dragon, begging them to take him with them. They always looked at him disdainfully and walked away without a word…and the ones who did speak to him, rarely did so kindly.
After hours and hours of that, he gave up and sat down, pulling his scorpion close to him for comfort. He counted down all the things he was afraid of, to pass the time. He counted all the way up to 200 before he finally gave up.
“I’m afraid of too much,” he sadly told his only friend.
It made soft noises at him, knowing he was upset, but not knowing how to comfort him.
“Hello there.”
Startled, Cryptfury looked up into the orange eyes of a huge, orange dragon. He was wrapped in bloody bandages, and Cryptfury felt fear beginning to rise up and down him, but he forced himself to swallow it down, and look the dragon square in the eye. “Hi.”
“My name is Flame. I noticed you asking dragons to take you home earlier, but no one would take you. I’d like to offer to take you home with me. Our clan is a fire clan, and I’m sure we have room for you.”
“Yes! I would love to!” Cryptfury suddenly had his mind bombarded with fears of murder, and cannibals, and other terrors, so he squeezed his eyes shut tight for a moment, then finally looked back up at Flame, “I would love to.”
The first few minutes of the journey home were quiet, but then Flame began asking Cryptfury all about himself. To his astonishment, Cryptfury found himself opening up to Flame about his fears and terrors and the visions that plagued him more relentlessly than his element.
“I’m sure that someday you’ll swallow your fears and be the strongest, bravest dragon in the world,” Flame assured him with a smile.
“I doubt it. I’ll always be afraid of everything. My scorpion keeps me from hurting anything too much when one of my visions attacks my mind…but he doesn’t stop them from happening, or stop me from being afraid.”
“You’ll get stronger. I promise you will.”
To his surprise, the more that Flame encouraged him, the more easily Cryptfury accepted Flame’s words.
“Flame,” Cryptfury looked the big dragon right in the eyes.
“Yes?”
“I swear on my life, on the life of my scorpion, by the souls of my parents…by whatever you’d like me to swear by…I will protect your clan until the day I die. I will keep every danger away, I will protect each and every dragon, whether I care greatly for them or not. I will love this clan more deeply than any mates have ever loved each other.”
Flame was startled to hear the scaredy cat make such a strong promise, but accepted it without questions, seeing as he couldn’t make Cryptfury renounce his vow.
As soon as they arrived home, Cryptfury went off by himself. He would disappear for days, weeks, even months at a time, coming out only to help defend the lair against any dangers that may have been attacking.
He was hiding in an abandoned cave, alone but for his scorpion. He brought bugs to the cave, and he allowed them to crawl all over him until he no longer feared them. He wrapped himself in venomous snakes until he could bite them and shake them off of himself without quaking with fear. He submerged himself in water until he no longer panicked, but rather swam. One by one, he ticked his fears off, removing them from the over 200 fears he had.
The visions of deities threatening to pluck his feathers didn’t bother him. Rather he spat at them and went on his merry way. Visions where the ground turned into snakes or cockroaches no longer frightened him, but he stepped on them as easily as he tread on the grass itself. The only vision that ever made him cry out in the night was when Death himself approached him.
He rose up, above his fears and attacked them. Although his fear of death hasn’t gone away yet, he’s working on it, and when fighting in the coliseum with his troops, he’s always refused to die…no matter how close to death he was. He proved his strong name, “Cryptfury”
He’s gained troops and is the general of his clan’s army. He keeps them in line, yet also manages to be their friend…however sometimes they have difficulty distinguishing between his “general” self and his “friend” self.
Those closest to him know what a softie he really is, and those who are his enemies know the pain of his teeth and claws before pure nothingness overcomes them. One of the things he likes to do in his downtime is help other dragons overcome their fears, and he’s found that sometimes all a dragon needs to do to lose their fears is just to have another believe in them.

---

Cryptfury started out as a mercenary hired by Flame to guard the hoards that they had when they were just starting out, but quickly earned Flame's trust and grew comfortable within the lair. He decided after only a few days of life within the lair that his mercenary days were over and took up a permanent residence. Cryptfury has gained a nasty reputation for his skills in battle. A foe can deal him a cripplingly fatal blow, yet still survive to trounce the enemy on sheer willpower alone while all others fall in battle around him.



Busted a little thief.


Cutie curtsy of commission here http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/adopt/2095216/1


Pic by http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=lair&tab=userpage&id=357773

Bloodscale suit
Orange claws
filigree sword
Golem Gauntlet
Thorns
Plague Emblem
Firebrand0's dragon