Yako

He had been so beautiful, so charming- everything she ever could have wished for in a male. Everything she ever could have wanted in a mate, a lover, a husband. What Yako hadn’t realized, all those years ago, when she first met Neuro, was that he was of the Shade, from the Shade, and any children she had by him would be of the Shade as well.

It had hurt- being with him, being his mate, bearing his children. It had been painful, both physically and mentally, because all of her children had been things. Not dragons, not monsters, not even anything she could truly understand. Creatures not born from eggs, but instead things that had clawed their way from her belly, herself only kept alive by Neuro’s tender care, care that ended the moment she was healed and healthy enough to go through the process again. Bringing creatures of the Shade into the world at large.

Except Rapunzel. Her little girl, the one egg she had laid, a surprise to them both. Because even though Neuro was a creature of the Shade, he had been a dragon, once, so long ago, and a little bit of that dragon still remained, something beyond his form itself. And that little bit resulted in her, in a single egg that Neuro allowed her to keep, a child she could call her own, since none of the others she could claim.

She claimed her, claimed Rapunzel and kept her safe from her father, and one day, they ran.

Ran to someplace they could be safe, ran until they found the clan, until Queen Tamora found them and took them in. Making to clear that they would be safe, and if Neuro ever came for them, they would fight.

The clan had been small at the time, only a handful of dragons, but Tamora had been determined to make good on her promise. And when Neuro showed up, demanding that Yako return home and return to her place by his side, as the mother of his Shade born children, Tamora kept up her promise.

It was a bloody battle between them all, between the Queen and her dragons and Neuro and his children, darkening the grass around the clan to a horrible shade of red. A battle that almost destroyed them all, that almost ended their lives, that almost concluded with her recapture and the end of it all.

But they won. They destroyed his children, and when it was clear he could not win, when Neuro tried to run, they caught him. Caught him, chained him, and when it was clear he was done, she finished him. Finished him, and in doing so, freed herself and her child.

Yako threw herself into the rebuilding of the clan, into helping to fix what she had broken. Only a few remained from the original clan- Tamora and Felix, Brad and Cybug, Shelby, Arya, Eragon, Sophie, Howl, and Doctor. Only ten from the original hundred who had lived within the clan when she had first arrived, their lives willing lost to destroy the agent of the Shade. She mourned their loss, prayed to the gods to deliver them somewhere safe for their sacrifices for her and her child, and dedicated her life to them all.

She raised Rapunzel in safety, sat upon the council when Tamora asked her to join, and always kept her eyes open for agents of the Shade. For signs that Neuro had returned, for signs that any of her other children had survived, for anything that might threaten her life.

She kept her eyes open, so if of those signs arrived, she could inform the Queen and being the fight once more.

And she failed. Failed to see the signs, failed to understand what was going on- failed to recognize that the plague, the illness that took so many of them, was his doing as well. She blamed herself- blamed herself for their deaths, because if she had never arrived, if she had never come to this clan, they would all be alive. Them and so many others. But she failed, and so she threw herself into fixing her mistake. Into caring for the ill, helping them get better, driving away the darkness that had once again crept in.

And when the plague was destroyed, she once again took up her post as watcher, only this time with a keener eye for the darkness sure to come.

(Original Pre-Plague Dragon)