Beira

Beira and her mate Boreas left the Southern Icefields to hunt for Shade creatures. The more reckless of the two, Beira will throw herself into a fight with a ferocity that is unusual even for a Gaoler. Any foe unwise enough to resist her demand for surrender, rarely has long to regret their choice.

Their travels led them to the Sea of a Thousand Currents, where they found a clan of water dragons who cautiously welcomed the two large and imposing dragons into their territory. The Gaolers had planned on resting for a while before resuming their hunt. After some circumspect interactions, the senior dragons of the clan invited them to stay, realizing what an asset they would be. Beira was restless and eager to journey on, but Boreas convinced her to stay. He is seldom wrong in his intuition and Beira is content for now to stay and see what remains in store for them in this strange land of moving water.

The wait proved short lived and the clan requested Boreas to accompany them on a mission to destroy something known as a Hive, an entity the Gaolers had never heard of before and found too terrible to believe. Beira was to remain behind and help defend the clan, should they be attacked. All of the nonfighting dragons had been evacuated to the deep underwater caves while Beira and some of the warriors remained on land - the rest having been assigned to defend the caves.

Beira was still, fading into the shadows as she strained all her senses: was that noise a normal part of the night or a stealthy footfall? There it was again! She didn't hesitate and attacked like lightening, throwing everything she had into the initial volley. Slightly stunned and off-balance her prey still managed to stay upright hissing in pain and anger. "Why do you fight for such weak ones?" it asked in an oddly compelling voice. Nearby, Beira could hear the clan's large Ridgebacks engaged in a fight. "Join us" urged the voice and the creature inched nearer while Beira glanced in the direction of the fight. Suddenly it sprang, but the Gaoler was ready and neatly sidestepped a vicious swipe and calmly slashed the throat, sensing there was no reason for further dialog. Quickly she bounded to the aid of the Ridgebacks, all four of them desperately holding their own against one fearsome creature. "Another Ridgeback?" wondered Beira as she crept closer. The creature was wounded in many places and was clearly dying. It was moving in a frenzy now with no discernible pattern or strategy other than to slash and rend. Coming in fast from behind, Beira slashed the two back legs as the other Ridgebacks moved in to finish the beast off.

"What was that?!" gasped Skybox. "It almost had us, even at four to one and it was clearly wounded in a previous fight. Then all of a sudden, it started whirling and slashing at us and itself." "I don't know" said Beira, shaken more than she wanted to admit. "Is everyone alright?" asked Tidelady, the normally boisterous Guardian looked shaken. "We heard you fighting over here, but had creatures of our own to deal with." She grinned fiercely in the pale light and Beira grinned back.

"They are all dead now" called out Xing. The small Skydancer was trembling with fear, but had a wild glint in his eye. "That was a Praetorian you killed there, you know" he whispered. "They are almost impossible to destroy. That means there must be an important Hive dragon around, but I don't sense anything." He looked around fearfully. "I killed a creature not far from here" said Beira, It spoke to me, but now I'm not sure if it spoke out loud or in my mind." All the other dragons stared in horror. "A backup" stated a gravely voice as the clan's only Bogsneak appeared. "You killed their backup consciousness. That means the fighting should be nearly over. They're getting desperate", she said with satisfaction. "Where are the fae? Oh, there you are. Throw up a screen as quick as ever you can" said the Bogsneak, "don't want anything else traced back to our lair." The big dragons quickly dragged all the corpses into a pit that had been hastily dug by the Ridgebacks. The Fae and Bogsneak covered the pit with warding spells as the Ridgebacks carefully filled the hole back in. "Now we wait" said Grain Locket, the Bogsneak looked around at her weary clanmates and smiled. "Cheer up! We survived and that's more than many others can say".