Castor

Owners I've Had: Aidara, 84887 PijukVonGacy, 310038 Enthusiastic, 218402 Freefire, 490003 Hyzenthlaay, 452562 Sandcastle, 280420 seige - 224749 [^ put your lair/username here ^]

Luggage : Sky Blue Wing Silks Apparel A fine piece of sky blue silk, elegantly draped to echo the movements of the dragon wearing it. 1625 Simple Darksteel Bracelets Apparel The perfect complement to any outfit, these darksteel bracelets seem to absorb the light. 500 Black and White Flair Scarf Apparel A warm scarf, knit in black, white, and gray with a touch of flair at the tails. 2000 [^ put luggage here ^]

I don't care what everybody says about it being the highest honor. I don't wanna be exalted. One day, I'm gonna be someone's perma dragon!!
I don't care that everyone thinks it's impossible since I'm a tundra, and my colors are bad, and I have unnamed offspring. I know all that. I still want to be a perma, and no one can stop me. I'll find a clan that loves me for who am I, and prove all of you wrong! You'll see!

---

Sandcastle - May 26 2020
Today I met awildclaw on my way out of the Arcane territory. Like most of his kind, he was running along the ground beneath me instead of flying. He spotted me above him, and after a bit of effort, he launched into the air alongside me.
"Hey! What brings you around these parts? The wastelands aren't exactly a vacation destination." He laughed. I explained that I was travelling, looking for a clan to eventually take me in.
"Oh! There's lots of dragons like that in my clan! I was almost exalt fodder myself until mom picked me up. I know Plague isn't for most people, but maybe you could stop by our lair and see what you think?" He said with a bright expression.

Ice Runestone Dragonmade An ancient stone bearing the ancestral rune of the Icewarden. Such a find should be kept as a prized possession. 110

Thankfully I had been in Plague territory before, so I knew what to expect. It was still a little gross to see that the wildclaw's lair was made out of what seemed to be clay, but upon closer inspection was much more fleshy. Entering into the lair felt like being swallowed by a giant beast. The wildclaw suddenly looked to me with a worried expression, "I just realized that I forgot to ask your name!" he said quickly. After telling him, he seemed to calm down a little. "I'm FreezingHeart! I'm not actually freezing inside, it's just a funny name for an ice dragon I guess" he laughed. After walking a short distance down a dark tunnel, I was suddenly met with a warm light. I was inside a massive hall, filled with dragons, from imperials to fae. Some were communing in the center of the hall around a large fire, while others were lounging peacefully in alcoves near the ceiling.

"It's pretty impressive right? Mom built this place from the ground up, with some help from the rest of the clan of course. It can take a while to grow lairs like this."

Without warning, FreezingHeart was tackled by a brown and green blur. The smell of dry leaves and fresh herbs hit me like I had been eliminated, and I soon saw why. The tundra who had pounced on Freezing Heart was absolutely covered with plant matter, I couldn't tell what was fur and what was dirt.
"You're back!" She squealed happily, "You have to take shorter trips, everybody missed you!" FreezingHeart laughed, picking himself up and dusting flower petals off of his feathers.
"Castor, this is my sister, MintChip! She manages the gardens and apiary with my dad. MintChip, this is Castor! I brought him with me on the way back." The little tundra was even smaller than me! I didn't meet many dragons who met that criteria.
"How do you do Castor? It's nice to have some fresh faces around here! Not a lot of people coming in and out, you know?" she said cheerily.
"Well, it was nice seeing you, but I have to get FreezingHeart down to the hoard to unpack. Don't want to be going down there alone!" I must have looked concerned, because FreezingHeart waved it off, "Don't worry, our hoard guard is just a bit territorial. We aren't supposed to go down one at a time. It'll be fine!"

I watched the two head off, and I turned my gaze towards another part of the hall, where an imperial seemed to be struggling a bit with an overabundance of mith flocking around her. A golem darted out from underneath her and leapt up onto my head, meowing loudly. "I'm so sorry! He's just a little skittish from his surgery today, he was playing a little too rough with the vulstals." She waved the mith off, offering them something out of her bag before they flew away. "He certainly seems to like you though! Maybe you can keep him company." Smiling, she patted the creature on it's head with one of her claws, before turning back to deal with some other familiars in the hall.

The clan was very accommodating that night, and while it was a little cramped, the other tundras were more than willing to share some of their space. I slept somewhat soundly, occasionally being awoken by nocturnes chattering across the room.

The sunlight filtered through the glass panels in the ceiling, shining a sickly green in the thick haze that covered the wastelands. Breakfast was delicious, fresh fruit from the lair's garden, and a honeycomb on the side that I admittedly didn't eat much of. After breakfast, a couple of dragons (at least I think one of them was a dragon) approached me and said that they were looking for somebody to go for some combat training with them. I agreed, as I hadn't done much fighting, and it wouldn't hurt to get some experience. As we walked up to the sparring grounds (one of the dragons was a gaoler, and couldn't fly there) the two introduced themselves. The gaoler was Psyche, and she explained that she was a spirit learning to control her physical form. The other dragon, Wraith, actually wasn't a dragon at all, but dryad that resembled a small imperial, she lived in the lair, and I spotted the tree that she must have inhabited as we walked past the gardens. Upon reaching the sparring ground, a robotic imperial greeted us. She seemed to glow with a violent light, and her metal claws were stained a rusty red color. There were two other dragons fighting behind her, with a similar energy about them. After gruffly running us through some basic training routes, we were escorted to a field not far from the sunbeam ruins. I trained vigorously with Psyche and Wraith, growing in my strength and magical power as their physical strikes grew in force. We made an excellent team.

Strawberry Plant Fresh cream transforms this treat into an indulgence. 70 8 Honeycomb Fragment Plant A delicious treat. 18 2 Scratch Energy Stone A low damage scratching attack that generates some Breath. 25 Required Level: 1

My stay had been longer than intended, but pleasant. FreezingHeart approached me again before I left. He offered me a scarf, and the golem that had grown attached to me skittered over, tilting it's head to the side. Unfortunately it wasn't healthy enough to come with me, but I gave it a little pet one last time.
He asked, "Are you sure you don't want to stay? We could always clear some more space for you in the alcoves, and you could keep that little guy around all the time!" I had to politely decline, as I still wanted to look around at some other lairs before I settled anywhere.
Waving goodbye to the dragons I had met, and my little familiar friend, I left the lair. Not far from the entrance, I felt a pair of eyes watching me, and turned just in time to notice a starry-winged spiral dissapear into a tower window. I shrugged, and pushed into the air, headed for somewhere new.

Maybe one day I would come back.

---

Clan Improbable -- siege
The Shifting Expanse
June 12, 2020

This place is HOT. And dry. And every plant seems to have some sort of thorn or burr or prickly thing. Lightning dragons must be tough to call the Shifting Expanse home.

I was flying, mulling over these things when I spotted a large-ish group of hatchlings and three dragons seated in the shade of a boulder, all still as statues.. I obviously needed to investigate this strange group. I landed with a thump, but was hesitant to approach the still silent group. The Hatchlings were of all different breeds and genes and colors -- so not a family then.

A green Wildclaw female detached themselves from the group and approached me.
She was big. I was a little nervous.


“Greetings! All are welcome at Clan Improbable. I am called Megami. How may I help you?”

Her voice was softer than I expected. “My name is Castor. I’m travelling, looking for a home.”

Megami smiled, “As I said, all are welcome here. Would you like to visit the main compound when the Meditation session is over?”

I wasn’t nervous anymore. “I’d like that very much. Is your clan large? What is a meditation session?’


She gestured toward the group, “These are hatchlings we have taken in. I’m in charge of them. We teach them food identification skills, meditation among other things. Life skills they’ll need. Meditation sessions are for exploring if they wish to serve a deity or seek a home. If they choose to serve, they are given basic battle training and go to study and meditate further in the Place of Calling until they know which deity seeks them.”

I was shocked. These young ones were given a choice.

“It’s really their decision?” I was sure I had misunderstood Megami.

She shrugged. “Of course. How respectful would it be to send Stormcatcher or Gladekeeper or any other deity a dragon who didn’t really want to be there?

That made sense to me, but it was still hard to process.

Soon the deep red Coatl male in charge of the group stood and dismissed the hatchies. Megami began shepherding them away. She turned to wave. “I’ll see you back at the main compound. Emberscral will show you the way.”

Emberscral didn’t want to talk much. Directing all those hatchies in such a serious pursuit must be tiring. I gave him his space and thanked him quietly when we reached the central clearing of the clan grounds.

This clan is large. The adults are all seasoned warriors, but they were as welcoming as if I were one of them. As nice as they all were I still felt out of place. Maybe traveling has made me too used to being alone.

I wandered toward a path at the edge of the clearing. A sign informed that ahead was The Place of Calling. Megami told me about that. Dragons who choose to serve went there to wait for the call of their destined deity. I walked quietly a little farther to see these brave souls.

It was a shocking group. Larger than I had expected, and noisier. And they weren’t acting depressed or doomed.

A Spiral called and gestured to me. “Hey, you, New Guy! Did someone nail you to that spot? C’mon over and say hello!” He seemed as hyper as any other Spiral I’ve met.

I walked over and introduced myself.

“Welcome, Castor, to the Place of Calling. I am called Avid. You can tell your story at the gathering later. We look forward to new stories. Do you have a deity you hope calls you?”

I gulped, “Oh, uh, I’m not here to be called. I don’t want to be exalted.”

Avid tilted his head, “Really? We’re all quite enthusiastic about it. You can still stay for a visit. We just ask that you don’t tell anyone else what we talk about here.”

I stayed for a gathering and heard stories. I still don’t want to be exalted, but I can understand better why some dragons do. I have more to ponder on my further travels.