Euryale

Euryale

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Art by Silverins

Lost as an egg, Euryale mostly grew up alone, never knowing family or siblings. Surrounded by predators and forced to learn to hunt just to feed herself, she became aggressive out of habit and self defense. If she didn't know what something was, her first instinct was to threaten, to protect herself. But her first encounter with other dragons, a migrating mirror pack unintimidated by her display, let her unlock an interest in her own kind. Knowing now what she could feel was missing, Euryale decided to make her own clan in the area she roamed growing up, starting with a fellow aimless wanderer, Thomas. But she didn't want it to be just a clan. She wanted a home for dragons like her, who should have had an upbringing but didn't. Hatchlings without parents, or unfit parents, dragons with insecurities or histories like hers. That has driven her to adopt (or steal) eggs from parents whom she sees as unfit or who are unwilling to raise the hatchlings. She also sought out other dragons that she felt she could trust, aided thus by Goldfoo, Eos, and Astrid. Her incredible protective streak means that her adoptees are well cared for, if a bit stifled. Still, she pushes herself hard to feed all the mouths she's taken in, hunting at night while the hatchlings are sleeping so she can play with them during the day. All the treasure she earns from offering pelts, trinkets and lost clothes at the market go back into getting them toys and armor for herself, to take down bigger targets.

Most of her original hatchling steals are adults with hatchlings of their own now, and she is content with herding around the new children in her free time. Managing the clan's position in the Sunbeam Ruins is a little more time consuming, not to mention her determination to protect not only her own lands, but the (oddly endearing) scholarly territory held by the Lightweaver. She's made a few tentative alliances with close by clans and a few further afield thanks to Gerard's help, but it still feels to her like a leaf on the water. Tenuous and easily sunk.

Still, they all pitch in now. She patrols the borders with Raziel and Zariel, spars with Mirinae and Abbadon, basks with Enishi, sorts through her spoils with Moros. She watches Thomas mentor Shirubake, Lamorai and Senta have adventures in the woods, and regularly now, new faces show up to join the family she's made. Clan Mediasolis, as she's named her family, have become a recognized hub for training dragons of all breeds to serve the Lightweaver and she no longer has to scramble as hard.



Even after the shadow dragons escape across the border, Euryale spends until sundown marshaling the clan. She checks in with Shirubake and Eos, who confirm that most everyone is safe. She learns the list of the missing and the look in Mirinae's eyes says that missing might turn to corpses. Raziel and the border guard are furious and ashamed, but the matriarch sees no shame in failing to defend from a stronger force. She remembers her struggle to pin down the purple skydancer and can't blame the less-trained comrades. When her claws land in a pile of stinging black ooze, she calls Thomas after furiously wiping it off on the surrounding grass. His Light magic destroys it after a time and her fins flatten at the thought of a dragon being covered in the stuff.

Everyone will sleep in the tunnels tonight. She tells Goldfoo to wake her when it becomes darkest and goes back into the nursery cave. Long imperials line the walls (it's barely big enough to fit them; she'd wanted it to hold everyone in an emergency but she'd never expected her clan to get this large) and dragons pile wherever they can. Thomas nudges her shoulder and she heaves a rattling sigh into his ruff. They clamber into the edge of the pile and huddle together, battered inside and out.



The assault on the shadelings came and she failed. She has failed them but she cannot think of that right now. Even with eight of her clan mates dead, she still has to get the rest of them home. And she aches, her legs nearly numb, but she gets her mate and the last remaining warriors home. Heat merges with her detail sight, but she finds Thomas healing Mirinae and herds him away, groaning. Her legs lead them to her den (without thinking thankfully, since she doesn't think she could) and they go down in a heap together.



They had several months of peace before the Maren raid on their fishers. Still, the time has given the mirror a chance to reground herself in clan life. Raise a hatchling for the first time in a long while. Take a few tentative steps out of her outlook with Eos and let herself be vulnerable, even if she's not ready to talk to Coralee. They are no longer as fragile as they were, fresh out of the dark woods. She walks triumphantly out of the tunnels into her land's brilliant sunshine and thinks, she can handle this.