Capucine

Capucine had always dreamed of becoming a fierce, strong warrior. To fight for her clan, to be someone the young ones looked up to. She would watch the older dragons train when she was a hatchling, gazing up at them with her large purple eyes, wishing she could train with them. However, when the time came, when she was old enough, she failed. She jumped into training eagerly and tried her best, but soon realized that it was much harder than she had ever imagined. She felt like a disappointment, and that made her weaker, it made her think she would never be able to achieve her dreams. So she gave up. As the other dragons trained and worked towards their goals, Capucine skulked in the background, watching with her sad gaze. Soon, it all became too much for her, and she left to wander Sornieth alone. After a few days of journeying, she found herself lost in the heart of the tangled wood. She lay down and cried, for all her lost hopes and dreams, her beloved clan, and everything that had gone wrong. Suddenly, a trail of glowing wisps drifted towards her. Capucine cried her eyes and followed them despondently, with almost no hope left within her. They led her to an old, crooked hut in a dark glade, with amethyst smoke rising from a tall black chimney. Capucine entered, and found a mysterious old Nocturne draped in ragged black veils and silks. The nocturne hobbled to a Rowan wood wardrobe as soon as Capucine came in, and pulled out a set of Plasmpool armor and a leather blindfold. She told Capucine in a croaky voice that the armor would give her infinite strength and the blindfold would give her unbreakable courage. Capucine thanked her joyously and left the hut immediately to find her clan again. The wisps led her out of the wood, and she stopped to try on the armor and blindfold. They fitted her perfectly, as though they had been tailored to size just for her. Maybe they had. As she slipped them on, a sort of fizzing feeling crept through her scales. She stood there for a moment, expecting something else to happen. Nothing did. She didn't feel braver... She imagined fighting a huge beast, and shivered with fear. Capucine hissed and silently cursed the nocturne for giving her the useless items. She ripped the blindfold off in anger... But she couldn't see. She reached for her eyes with a jolt of horror. Still there.... But blind. The blindfold had made her blind. She struggled to take off the heavy armor, which had began to hurt her muscles, but it was like it was glued to her scales. Capucine knew she couldn't survive long on her own like that... She wouldn't be able to hunt or gather, or defend herself if she needed to. So she had to get back to her clan. She felt the ground for the blindfold and slipped it back on. Maybe... It would still work if she left it on for a while? Capucine began to make her way back to the clan, feeling the ground beneath her, listening to the sounds around her, and smelling the events around her. The heavy armor weighed her down, and she often crashed into rocks or walked into pools, but she kept going, never giving up. It felt like weeks went by as she trekked across Sornieth, not eating and only occasionally drinking. Finally, she heard the voices of dragons she knew, and collapsed in front of the lair. The healers nursed her back to health, and when she was back to full health, she felt stronger and braver than she had ever felt before. Despite losing her sight, Capucine had become a better warrior. Stronger, from carrying the heavy armor all that way, and braver, from knowing just how much she could do it she tried hard enough. And so Capucine became a warrior at last, using her senses to detect enemies, and her strength and bravery to fight them. And she has never taken off her blindfold and armor since.