Credence

"No thank you," Credence replied, wrinkling his snout. There was absolutely no way that he would get his claws dirty cleaning an oven, of all things. The ridgeback looked at him, surprise clearly etched across his face. He shook his head and grabbed a towel before sticking his arm into the oven and wrestling it around. Credence sighed. These dragons... sometimes they just lost their common sense.

After all, if they could invent enough ovens for the entire clan, why couldn't they invent something to clean the ovens for them instead? While the others might have seen him as odd, Credence had always been more... refined than them, and he knew better than to wipe some grease off a useless pile of scrap in order to get himself dirty. He looked helplessly around him. While he was definitely not as avid of a mechanic as his fellow clanmates, he did want to help. But how? By now they probably thought he was a dainty wildclaw with no taste for work. If only there was a way to speak up.

Sighing as he tucked the map away, Credence lifted the heavy satchel over his head to rest across his shoulders. It would be a long flight to the Sunbeam Ruins, but if that was where he could live the best life he could, then so be it. By now, he was willing to do escape the hostile glares thrown at him, as well as the whispers that followed him everywhere. Clanmates turned their backs on him, spreading rumors about trivial, unimportant things. It was both frustrating and painful, knowing that the dragons he'd grown up with no longer cared for him only because he thought of things differently. But if they weren't willing to change, even if he told them he was going to leave... Credence sighed again. Then so be it.

It'd been a long time since he'd left his home. Credence sometimes thought about what would've happened had to him if he had stayed, but he didn't want to think about those possibilities. He knew that leaving was the right choice, and in leaving he had freed up a life to pursue his quest of knowledge. The vast libraries of his current residence were all that he had hoped for. Expect for one thing.

There had always been a few select dragons - even in the Shifting Expanse - who had appreciated him for what he was, not who they wanted him to be. Credence wanted to meet them again, to become reacquainted and catch up on each other's lives. However, the others would know. Credence blinked, trying to hold back his tears. He put down his quill and walked to his window, where the sun was beginning to set.

Leaving had been the right choice. But did that mean that staying would've been wrong? It was all too confusing, and Credence couldn't handle it. He shut his eyes and walked over to the door, stepping outside into the cool dusk breeze. Maybe it wouldn't have been wrong, but it certainly would have hurt him more than leaving ever could. He'd made the right choice in leaving. That was all. Credence looked at the sky. As messy as his life was... he was glad that he could finally come to a conclusion on the thing that had been bothering him for months now. He knew that the doubt would return someday, but he would fight with it until he knew he was right. And if he had to fight until he died... then so be it.
(Zikitty)