Mono

When Mono was first neighbours with the clan that would one day be her home, it was then named Alma's Charge, for at that time the matriarch was still a Guardian, and the clan still lived far away from the Intersection of Points. She herself lived with her parents and their clan, a bright and beautiful band of Coatls, whose feathers shone with every colour of the rainbow.

Except for her.

A birth defect had left her with pale feathers, and this was seen as an ill omen. She was treated as well as any other hatchling, and grew into a strong if soft-spoken dragon, but even so her elders knew her fate to be cursed. They watched very keenly for any sign of trouble.

It came prancing to her one day in the form of a young Wildclaw.

Oh, she and Kurnaz had been friends since they were hatchlings: Mono's clan had moved into the Lightweaver's lands when she was small, staking claim to a territory that bordered one that played host to, among other things, a rowdy pack of Wildclaws. As time went on, most of them left for other hunting grounds, but Kurnaz stayed, happy where he was. For Mono's clan, this was not a problem. The two of them spent most of their time together as they grew, Kurnaz showing her all the best hunting and fishing areas, Mono showing him how to speak Coatl until he was almost as fluent as a native speaker.

No, what made her elders' minds up was when Kurnaz came to her with a mouth full of fish, an elegant dance, and a promise of matehood spoken in hums.

A Coatl with a cursed fate could be allowed no hatchlings. They would be born sickly and weak, a mockery of the Plaguebringer's ideals. The next day, after she had with great joy announced she had agreed to Kurnaz's offer, the clan packed their things and began a grim pilgrimage to the Scarred Wasteland and the Wyrmwound at its centre.

Mono knew her fate then. She would serve the god of her birth, and she would not see Kurnaz again.


But Kurnaz came anyway.

She found out later that various members of her birth clan had harried him and his friend Dormin at every step, that at one point Kurnaz thought Dormin truly vanquished. What she knew in the moment was this: Kurnaz caught up as she stood on the brink of the Wyrmwound's caldera with her wings tied securely to her sides, Patriarch Emon's foretalon already braced against her. What she heard in the moment was Emon ordering Kurnaz shot, that he was too exhausted from his journey to even call out to her, that as she was pushed she heard a bowstring fire and caught the barest glimpse of her mate falling from an injured leg.

What she knew in the moment was that Kurnaz somehow pushed himself into the air anyway and dove down to catch her, only for another arrow to pierce his wing and send the two of them spiralling down, down, down toward the boiling muck at the bottom of the Wound.

And what she knew in the moment was an immense pair of claws closing around her and her mate, lifting them up, up, up into the sky and to safety, the two voices of Dormin roaring in defiant triumph at Patriarch Emon and the rest of Mono's former clan.


Mono and her family live in the Intersection now. Her mate Kurnaz is Dormin's most loyal follower, and she, too, believes in Their divinity.

She has not seen Emon or the rest of her natal clan since.


Shadow of the Colossus fandragon!

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Awakened Familiars:
Cursed Bat
Swift Lumen
Wetland Unicorn

I know that obscure reference count: 1

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Needs: Vial of Unusual Sight