Ayberk

The missing eggs had been tragedies, but it was not unknown for eggs to be stolen or lost to the forest. Shipments being delayed, foodstuffs spoiling far faster than they should, minor accidents and incidents throughout the lair were all just simply parts of life.

Indumathi passing so soon after she hatched had been agonizing, breaking Vanada's spirit and leaving him forlorn and alone in the depths of the lair. Vanada's sudden illness and swift death that no healer could halt or delay shocked the entirety of the lair, and shifted attitudes away from dreadful accidents and into meaningful harm. Ayberk's gradual twisting, cursed appearance taking shape solidified the suspicions that many held in the lair.

Before rumors could start flying and dangerous decisions could be made, Ayberk was quietly moved from his den in the depths of the Behemoth into a new den within the branches of the great tree, quite near to Concerto and Plum's small studio and shop. Concerto, upon fluttering to his shop the next morning and finding a giant, forlorn Imperial lying in a nearby den made of branches, decided that he now had an additional son.

At first Ayberk had been afraid; Vanada has never been a present parent, too lost in the grief of losing one hatchling to fully commit to loving the other, and Almediha...well. Suffice to say, Ayberk had no desire for another mother in his life. But the gentle, if a bit nosy, tailor was...something else. He was what Ayberk imagined a father would have been, if Vanada hadn't lost his heart to grief and his life to...to something that he couldn't remember. That he should never remember. His head ached when he tried to remember what he had seen, and so Ayberk uneasily put it out of his mind whenever it appeared in his thoughts.

After enough of Concerto's gentle pestering, Ayberk finally took up his offer to come to dinner, and found himself being easily accepted by all who were there. The majority, he was unsurprised to see, were Fae, and he allowed those that requested it to perch on his antlers. A strange Fae wearing a mask greeted him with a lick to his face, squeaking for a moment before declaring him a friend. They were some of the first to willingly spend time with him, or even approach him, since his transformation, and he found his heart warming, slightly.

When the wailing of the lost spirits began, Ayberk feared that he would lose his new...family all over again, but instead Concerto left the tree one morning and returned that evening with an unknown, enormous skull. Ayberk was too afraid to ask him where, or, more importantly, how he had acquired such a massive chunk of bone, so he instead laid outside the shop and watched as Concerto fashioned it into some sort of...enclosure. After several hours of work, Concerto was once again hauling the skull down the tree, this time presenting it to the mages, wizards, and witches of the clan.

Ayberk stayed far away from whatever spell it was that they cast, far too afraid of magic after all he had been through, but when all was said and done, Concerto presented him with the skull, bound tightly with shining rope. Ayberk accepted it, allowing him to carefully tie it around his wings; as soon as it was in place it shone brightly for a moment (as Concerto had warned it would), before settling, and the haunting mass of spirit fled into it, shaping into a dragon right before it disappeared. Its presence, while hauntingly angry and sad, was almost...familiar, once it had settled. Protective, even.

For now, the magic that transformed Ayberk and the spirit that had begun to form around him had both seemingly settled, leaving him with a general sense of peace, even if there was always a tinge of anxiety underneath it. He was still avoided by some dragons of the clan, but apparently being deemed a son by Concerto meant that anyone who approached Ayberk in anger was immediately met with the same, but tenfold stronger by the tiny, formidable Fae.

Ayberk has begun speaking to Hadas in weekly sessions, working with her to untangle his anxieties and discover what exactly he saw that he could never remember, in the hopes that it could possibly assist him in regaining his peace, and perhaps illuminating what exactly happened to Vanada. What he doesn't tell her is that sometimes, very, very late at night, when even Concerto is asleep, he'll take the skull down from his wing and speak to it like it's his father. What he especially will never, ever tell her, is that sometimes, the skull speaks back in his father's voice.