Jin

The Guilty

Jin came to the clan troubled, his mother exalted to assist the Arcanist in his research and his father migrating to a new territory, leaving him unsure of his own future. He was wandering the land, searching for a place when he crossed paths with Lemongrass and the few dragons traveling with her.
He decided he would join them, and after some time he began to settle in. He grew close to Sunbeam, tentatively taking her as his mate for a brief while before he began to feel that something was wrong.
Jin left once their first clutch had hatched and the baby dragons were grown, and he wandered the Windswept Plateau for a while until he met a Skydancer named Weasel.

She was kind, listening to him when he vented about feeling lost and unwanted, as if he didn't belong anywhere. Weasel often felt the same.

Jin took Weasel as his new mate, and he stayed with her for some time, eventually laying another nest with a single egg.

But those feelings never truly left.
Jin stood over the nest, staring at the egg as Weasel slept nearby, his insides churning and boiling. He thought of Sunbeam and the nest he raised with her. He thought of Lemongrass and her journey, how they had to walk because she could not fly.

His heart felt heavy.

And so Jin wept over his single egg, his tears soaking the ground before he finally left without a word. When Weasel woke up, he was gone.

He wandered off alone again, leaving on long flights into the Twisting Crescendo until he eventually flew through the clouds, disappearing into the violently swirling winds.

Other Skydancers watched silently, assuming the worst, but after a stretch of time that felt like forever, the golden dragon emerged from the eye of the storm, shooting high into the sky.

In the eye of the storm, Jin came to terms with his past, and decided he would return to Lemongrass's clan and the dragons that had first reached out to him with kindness when he had nothing else.

Understanding of the situation, Sunbeam accepted his apology, and took him back as her mate. He told her everything that had happened, ashamed of the fact that he'd abandoned Weasel with the single egg. He still cared about her, but he was too sad to return, and too afraid to apologize.

That was on him.

Sunbeam decided she would go instead, seeking out this lone Skydancer and her single hatchling. The last thing she expected was that she would fall in love again.