Lasky

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His mother was a Shadow dragon.

His father? Nature.

And he himself was born in the Shrieking Wilds, as a wildclaw by birth. Gladekeeper-blessed, and Gladekeeper-born.

Shortly after he was born, his mother left him and his siblings in the care of his father, with the excuse that her old clan will not take to her disappearance very kindly. His father agreed with a heavy heart, for who wishes for their beloved to leave them forever? Even if she was a Shadow dragon, with trickery and deception her greatest weapons, he loved her...but he let her go. They would always be distant neighbors, of course, even if they might not ever see one another again.

As for Lasky and his siblings, well, they were raised under leafy trees and thick undergrowth, which taught them how to be adept at keeping themselves hidden and only revealing themselves if they felt like it.

When Lasky and his siblings were old enough, he left his old clan and set out through the tangled growth, eager to seek his fortune. He met up with a lovely Nature lass that he fell for right away, and they ended up having a nest together that resulted in only one egg. They were excited, as any new parents were, but Lasky left her as soon as he felt that their only hatchling would be well cared for in her mother's clan.

The wildclaw journeyed on for a long, long time, all the while thinking of his first mate and child. Surprisingly, however, despite the love he had felt for them, he didn't feel too regretful or sad about leaving them behind as he continued his journey, which confused him a little. He forgot about them all the same when he fell for another dragon, this time an Ice dragon in the Southern Icefield. Once again, they ended up laying eggs together without really giving it a second thought. Why would they, anyway?

Lasky and the Ice dragon had three eggs, and once again, he left them the moment he thought that they would be alright living without him, and continued in his journey.

He wandered around the Ashfall Wastes for awhile, always feeling rather uncomfortable in the land of fire and metal, but he coped. He also decided to settle down and join a clan, which was where he met yet another girl.

He stayed in her clan with her for a very long time, and had many children. But unlike before, he never left her.

With time, he forgot about his previous children and mates.

There was only himself and his new mate, and their many children and grandchildren all roaming the world. It was great, or so he thought.

No one, not even Lasky, is sure of when the Ashfall Wastes truly began to feel oppressive and stifling to him, but it just did. Once, the heat was merely uncomfortable, and he should've been able to adapt to it--but he couldn't. The constant heat and dangers of hidden magma vats deep within the earth as he helped his clan expand began to drive him crazy. He would sometimes run around screeching for short bursts, only to stop when he realizes that it only makes him hotter, not cooler. There was no water nearby to calm to fires of the forges whenever they got out of hand, and he stayed away from fires, always sure that he would just spontaneously burst into flames if he was anywhere near one...which he always was. You can't escape fire in the land of fire.

Lasky knew he had to leave. The constant annoyance of this burning wasteland full of metal and fire and molten rock was driving him further and further away from his mate, emotionally as well as physically, and nothing she could do would help ground him again.

The wildclaw left at once, but not before he met a strange-looking Nature female who ended up also stealing his heart--just long enough to lay a nest with him, nothing more. This time, he left them minutes after the eggs hatched, unable to stand the heat any longer.

When he came to the Sea of a Thousand Currents, he headed along the coastline that it shared with the Windswept Plateau. There, the outermost fringes of the wild winds commanded by Windsinger finally began to ease his suffering, but it wasn't quite enough.

Lasky leaped into the sea the moment he was sure that he was far enough away from the Ashfall Wastes that its heat would not taint the cold waters that he expected to hit. And cold the water was, the Tidelord's prowess tossing him into the deep before he could leave, and washed him ashore some time later on the fringes of the Tangled Wood.

Battered and weary, he lay in the shallows for a long, long time before he felt well enough to get up and move to drier ground. Of course, he washed the silt off of himself while he still had the chance, and headed inland.

He stopped by a murky pond to drink, but when he dipped his head down towards the waters, he noticed something. The tiger stripes that he had been born with had disappeared, replaced by stringy markings that he knew dragonkind called ripple and current. Tidelord's gift to him? It must have been.

It took him awhile before he realized that he could sense Gladekeeper's call. Didn't his father always tell him that his mother lived in the Tangled Wood? Didn't his father always say that the Viridian Labyrinth was very, very close to the Shadowbinder's realm?

But he didn't want to go home yet. He didn't want to return to his father's clan after so long, only to find out that he might not be there anymore. His father might already be living with his mother, and who knows where his mother could've gone after she returned to the Tangled Wood? Furthermore, he was sure that he wouldn't be particularly welcomed back into the clan anyway. Why would they, when he had not been among them for such a long time?

Instead, Lasky turned towards the northwest, towards Dragonhome. Surely he could find a home there? He knew he was not of proper Shadow dragon material--they'd kick him out sooner than they'd accept him.

He walked on, and on, dodging tricks thrown at him by laughing voices in the darkness that he could never source, until he emerged from the dark woodland and beheld Dragonhome.

It was a vast, dry place of cracked beige and brown earth. In the distance, he saw the Pillar of the World towering high above everything else, broken, but still standing tall. A crater ringed its base, where he was sure that Earthshaker now spent his days.

Lots to see and lots to learn, he knew, but he set off down the hill and towards the general direction of the Pillar anyway, wondering if he could start a new life here.

It took him quite a bit, but he soon settled down in a nice clan that lived in the earth by the Cairnstone Rest. They had quite extensive tunnel systems under their control, and he soon ended up on a nest with a female he had little interest in, but she had quite some interest in him. They had two children, and when they were barely old enough to fly, his mate took them to see the Pillar up close...but returned without them.

And on her was the scent of other dragons: the smell of parchment and ink as well as the freedom of the open skies.

Lasky was mostly okay with that. He wasn't particularly attached to her or those children anyway...but the clan was another matter.

The rest of the clan was kind to him, and youngsters constantly pestered him to tell them stories of his adventures. They may have been young, but they knew a traveler when they saw one, and they knew that travelers almost always had something to say.

Lasky knew his stories weren't going to be great, so he made some stuff up. And everybody loved it. They drank in his lies and half-truths like butterflies drinking nectar--delicately, but definitely taking it all in.

A few months later, during the time which his new "mate" no longer made any attempts to try and urge him into laying another nest with her, she announced that she was going to go serve the Earthshaker.

He didn't mourn her leaving, but rather felt enlightened without her.

Soon after awhile, some visitors came, claiming that they were here to give anyone who was willing to come with them a new home. They hailed from the Sunbeam Ruins, and were clearly scholars, even if they weren't all Light dragons.

Lasky liked that idea. He and another clanmate, who was also a Nature dragon, decided to go with these strangers to their new home, here by the Beacon. When he arrived, his eyes instantly sought out the orange Fire eyes of Cerulean, who was a tundra then. She wasn't interested in him at first, but he courted her with elaborate dances and bows and invitations to join him, until she finally accepted his courtship.

Now Lasky truly knows what it means to be committed. He had briefly experienced such commitment when he was with that Fire clan, all those years ago, and it seems almost ironic that he couldn't stand the Ashfall Wastes and still ended up with a Fire dragon as his mate. Cerulean is visually deceiving, as are many other dragons, Lasky included. They appear to be Water dragons but they really aren't.

Lasky has taken up storytelling as his role in a scholarly clan such as this, and he is greatly loved and respected by many. While not as old as the clanmate who came along with him, nor as old as the clan's founders, he is still much older than most of the others, so they look up to him for guidance. With the years, he has also gained a much more level head, and if he were to visit flames again, he would probably be better off than when he was younger. He takes comfort in knowing that Gladekeeper's domain is neighboring to Lightweaver's, and returns often to take soil and plant samples for the tundras.

He wears a cape to symbolize his status in the clan, like a few others do, no matter if they are younger or older. He has also donned a Druidic Emblem to signify his elemental allegiance, and now lives his days in peace...