Fleetwind

Fleetwind was alone when he hatched. He later conjectured that he had been abandoned, his egg seemingly too fragile and defective to hatch. In his youth, he was a sickly, frail dragon, and the Southern Icefield is unforgiving. His colours did not match, and he lacked flashy genes.

Still, he made his way through life. When the Search came on to him, it gripped Fleetwind first with terror and incomprehension. No Guardians had raised him; he did not know what these feelings were.

Eventually, he found an interrogator, Airachnid, who had gone rogue, leaving behind the prisons to seek her own amusements. Fleetwind would have given her a wide berth, even if true duty to the Southern Icefield would have meant bringing her in. She was dangerous.

Then the full weight of the Search hit him, and Fleetwind understood, even if he wished he didn't. His Charge was to keep Sornieth safe from Airachnid. Killing her was out of the question. If he did, his purpose in life would be over, and he feared his body might give out.

Fleetwind offered his services to Airachnid, figuring that the safest place around her was behind her. She almost pitied him, finding him too pathetic to be worthy prey, and she accepted his service.

Slowly, Fleetwind manipulated Airachnid into returning of her own free will, and she resumed her post as an interrogator. She founded a clan, but engrossed as she was in her work, someone had to see to the actual day to day organization of the clan, and that task fell on the rather unwilling Fleetwind.

Fleetwind has the unenviable job of ever so delicately orchestrating clan affairs such that clashing personalities of the plan do not tear it apart. He, with the help of Kup, makes certain that most of the hatchlings of the clan are either sold to other clans or trained as warriors to serve the Icewarden, simply so they won't have to deal with some of the eccentricities of the older dragons of the clan. Fleetwind does not rule by force but by guile; many members of his clan might even dismiss him, and that suits him just fine.

And so, Fleetwind does watch over Airachnid, and he makes sure that she's at least pointed in the right direction.

Function: PATRIARCH

"Fitness is proven by survival, no matter how it is accomplished."

Fleetwind is, at core, a coward and consequently avoids positions of responsibility and chances for advancement, because the higher ranked you are in dragon hierarchy, the more people there are trying to take you out to advance themselves. He is surprisingly dependable in combat, where he is motivated by fear of his superior officers (which considerably outweighs his fear of the Shade) to perform. He's worked very hard to ensure that he has a reputation as being effective enough not to be scrapped but bland and uninspiring enough not to advance. Despite his hard work at not advancing, he has managed to become a clan Patriarch, which secretly dismays him to no end. He does have a sneaky streak, mostly because it's useful in developing plans of attack that involve minimum risk to himself. He is very thoughtful, and claims that in a dragon, common sense counts as a special ability, but whether or not this is true is up to debate.