Shani

Almediha and Kulap should never have been parents. That much, the clan now knows. Almediha just wandered away from her hatchlings the day after they hatched, not finding any interest in them. Kulap tried, but he was never one for caring for very young hatchlings. Young and adolescent dragons he could easily manage, but he is simply too flighty to care for hatchlings.. This led to Shani and Sabori [possibly the tuntun too] growing up with a slightly less watchful eye than the other hatchlings. Sabori manifested this in becoming a troublemaker almost worthy of taking the title from her mother, and Shani internalized it all, becoming very quiet and forlorn. Other dragons intervened in the situation to try and provide them with a more stable upbringing, but the damage was already done.

Shani was watching the day that Sabori escaped their minder to go off on an adventure, slipping under the noses of several well-meaning but slightly unobservant dragons, and that was the last he ever saw of his sister. While he never begrudged her the choice that she made, he greatly missed his sister and only friend. He keenly felt her loss every time he was ignored or spoken over, as Sabori would always call out such behavior. He slowly withdrew further and further into himself, and eventually he stopped talking entirely.

While unwilling to speak with or even approach most dragons of the clan, Shani became extremely mystified by Plum, finding the work that he did with perfumes to be almost magical. Too nervous and shy to request an official apprenticeship, he instead began tucking himself into areas where Plum often performed some aspect of his work, Shani's favorite being a small, peaceful garden tucked within the clan territory. Luckily for Shani, these spots were often also occupied by Zinfandel, who took note of the younger Fae the first time he saw him, and kept track of where he saw him near Plum and why. After a month of observations, he took his findings to Plum, who sat Shani down and offered to mentor him in the art of perfumery. He accepted immediately, and was soon moved closer to Plum in the roost and began accompanying him everywhere he went.

After several months of this apprenticeship, Zinfandel and Plum independently came to the same conclusion; Shani desperately needed someone in his life to step into a parental role, or at the very least someone to gently guide him until he could come into his own.