Kvold

When she hatched, her clan gazed upon her in horror.

"Blood," they whispered. "Blood." And that was all they said. And they cast out the child.

She wandered the land, nameless and alone, surviving on insects she caught and, later, salamanders and flame-rabbits. When she grew up, it was cinder deer. She had a mate, for a brief time, who gifted her with the name of Kvold, for she looked like a red evening star; and life was better. When their hatchlings grew up and flew away, she and her mate parted ways for grander things.

Eventually Kvold tired of the magma and fire she'd always known. It only served to remind her of the ones who had cast her away, and there was nothing left for her there. And so, she sought the opposite: the Southern Icefields.

It was quite an adjustment. She had never known the cold, and was woefully unprepared. The snow chilled and blinded her, and she lost her way in the darkening land. She had to drop to the ground, plunging out of the clouds and alighting on top of an ice-covered boulder. It crackled and burned on her paws.

"Hello?" she called into the swirling twilight. Desperation grew when she heard nothing. But then--

"Hello? Miss?"

Out of the fog came a rough brown figure, laden with panniers. They each held several pale blue crystal shapes--eggs, no doubt.

The Snapper looked worried. "You're from the Fire flight--you have to be freezing. And those runes! They don't usually glow, do they?"

"Runes? I don't have runes." Then she looked back, and saw her feet and a mysterious writing shining gold upon her.

"You must be in danger," said the Snapper. "Come with me."

It was warmer in the heat of the cave system she was taken to. But the scout she spoke to didn't make a whole lot of sense.

"I'm just telling you what the runes say. 'Yet feet that wandering have gone / Turn at last to home afar'."

"But what does that mean?"

"Well...maybe it means you've found your home."