Est

Somewhere in the Viridian Labyrinth lies a riverside clan known for its beautiful flower gardens and overwhelmingly tranquil lifestyle. Sheltered by a river that not only provides everything they could ever need, but prevents access by any creatures that can't fly, the clan is a bastion of peace that has ignored the wildness and ferocity of their flight for generations. And that is by the grace of Est, the spirit of their river, who protects and watches over them with the same serenity that their presence has allowed the clan to develop. Silent and distant, yet ever present, it was though Est's good will that the clan flourished.

But for a while now, Est's presence hasn't been felt.

While Est usually remained detached from the clan they watched over, even one as aloof as them couldn't help but pick favourites on occasion. One dragon they especially liked was a young skydancer; kind, patient, and a talented artist. He often painted pictures of Est's river, and when nobody else was around, Est loved to emerge from their river to simply gaze upon the artwork. It seemed like the rest of the clan liked the skydancer too, from what Est could tell. They had never really understood dragon culture, but the skydancer was always wearing the shiniest jewellery and other dragons would constantly give them gifts. Thus, the clan must have liked the skydancer as much as Est did.

Until they didn't. From the waters of their river, Est could watch over everything that happened in the clan they protected, but even so they don't really understand what happened. The skydancer stepped on some flowers? But that seemed like an excuse, where in actuality something else happened. Regardless, suddenly nobody liked that skydancer. No dragon would speak to him, and before long the skydancer left his clan, flying away in the dead of night. Est was saddened, but confident that the skydancer would return, once the hostility towards them had washed away, like how their river washed away everything else that would harm the clan. Est waited years for their favourite skydancer to return, but they never did. They began to listen to gossip, to every scathing rumor about the missing skydancer, and eventually heard news that he had been spotted all the way on the other side of Sornieth. And so, for their first time ever, Est left the Shrieking Wilds as well.

It wouldn't seem like the spirit of a river could just up and leave, and well, technically Est didn't. As a river does, Est left from the estuary where their river hit the ocean, and travelled through the deep waters of Sornieth. But being tied to the river, the river followed them, creating a great underwater current all the way from the Gladeveins to the Starfall Isles. That would probably be fine. After all, once Est found the skydancer they would both go home, flowing back upstream and undoing any changes to the ocean's currents.

Unfortunately, that hasn't turned out to be nearly as easy as Est expected. The skydancer, who Est has since learned is named Dewayne, doesn't particularly want to go back home. In fact, he's quite adamant about it, and has no intention to listen to the pleas of some weird fae who keeps dumping water on him. Est should have showed themselves more often, they've realized. Apparently, the riverside clan had completely forgotten they had ever existed, and no amount of "I'm the river you grew up next to and also the biggest fan of your art" has been able to convince Dewayne of the truth of the situation. Dewayne thinks that Est is an agent sent by his parents to bring him home, and while very polite towards Est, has made it exceptionally clear that there is no longer any love between him and his family. Even bringing up his old home is enough to end any conversation and get the river spirit shooed away with a tree branch.

But Est won't give up. No dam can stop a river forever. While it could be worse in the waters around Clan _______, even being close to Dewayne and being able to see his art again doesn't quite make up for how uncomfortable it is for Est to be so far away from their river. Somehow, they will persuade the skydancer to go back. Est is reasonably sure the issue is that they still don't really understand how dragons think, so they have begun following other dragons around and learning from then. The dragons here are a lot... louder than the ones back at the river, but maybe that's what Est needs to be to convince Dewayne to return home. The strength and noise of raging rapids, not a shallow stream. Now if only the big spikey dragons would stop running in fear of Est for some unknown reason. All Est wants to do is imitate real dragons — they're not dangerous to them, they promise.

As a river spirit, there's a lot of things about dragons that Est doesn't understand. Such as clothes. For the most part, they just have a bunch of loose branches embedded in their amorphous form, which a lot of Clan _______ seems to have accepted as fashion. They also have a scarf, gifted to them by a friendly imperial, who is not quite Est's favourite dragon, but is definitely up there somewhere.