Griff

(Body mod notes: missing his left arm due to an accident after the events at the Wyrm Wound)





(Accidentally made him similar to Doc from Back to the Future. He has an apprentice, Felix, who is similar to Marty McFly from the same movie.)

Griff poked half heartedly at the piles of gears on his desk, his chin resting on the smooth wood of the table. He'd lost his passion for inventing ever since that day nearly four years prior, when his best friend had vanished into the Wyrm Wound. He glanced over across the chamber to where a twisted, half melted lump of machinery sat on a low table beside his bed and in front of the window to the outside world. Pocked with holes, it still gleamed like it had been forged only yesterday. Griff kept it well polished, though why he kept it when every time he saw the thing it brought with it memories of things he wished had never happened, he didn't know.

That lump of metal had once been one of the braces Griff had built for Soot so he could fly with the rest of the clan. Soot's wings had never been able to hold him, and when Griff had given Soot the wings for his hatching day... well... Griff couldn't remember a time when he had seen his friend so happy.

"At least you helped him enjoy his last couple months of life..." Griff muttered to himself as he took one of his many rags and gave the melted contraption a swift polish.

"... new dragons... Maya and Nix say they're from near the Wyrm Wound."

Griff froze as Thought and Memory, black Pearlcatcher twins with identical starry wings and bodies, strode past his window as they talked. Memory, best friends with the two Tundras, was telling her brother about the latest gossip and news as per usual.

"New ones? Probably went to Pine's lair..." Thought's voice trailed off as he and his sister moved out of earshot.

Griff slowly set the rag aside, then made his way out of his chamber, down the tunnels and outside of the main den. Visitors from the Wyrm Wound! Perhaps he'd be able to see if these visitors had any word about Soot. The sunlight gleamed off the metal guards on his wings as he took to the air, rising faster than any normal dragon ought to. The guards were mechanical - a prototype he had been working on, then left on the shelf after he perfected the braces for Soot's wings. After the... events at the Wound... Griff had finished the wiring for the guards and worn them ever since. No one had questioned him - he had taken it harder than even Soot's parents. The guards were meant as a tribute to his friend, and the only time he had ever removed them was when his shoulders and wing membranes had gotten blistered all over after the metal got far too hot.

There was a small crowd outside the clan leader's den, and Griff approached cautiously. Something dropped onto his back, sending him staggering sideways. He righted himself, then glanced back to see Frisk perched between his wings and preening her tawny feathers. He had rescued the owlcat from a pit of shattered serpents when she was a kit a couple years before, and she had been following him ever since. None of his machines scared her, and he could have sworn he had seen her napping by the sentry once or twice. That thing was so loud...
Griff shoved his way through the crowd, catching brief glimpses of the visitors as he went.

Fur. Tundras, perhaps? or Gaolers. Coatls had feathers, so that wasn't it. They seemed too large to be Coatls anyway.

Tattered wings. They seemed huge, too.

Griff stumbled out of the press of bodies, wings, and tails, landing flat on his face. There was a scuff of talons on dirt as the visitors turned to look at him. He laid there, struggling to get his arm underneath himself so he could sit up when a pair of strong, firm talons helped lift him up.

"Watch it there, Mirror." A voice growled to his right.

"Calm down, would you? It was an accident. You can be so unpleasant sometimes, Lefty." Another voice to Griff's left muttered. Griff stared at the dirt, feeling his crests and face heat up with embarrassment. That second voice was so... familiar...
He slowly looked up, his eyes taking in every detail he saw along the way. Gray, with a darker toned ruff of fur streaked with blue. Electric blue, slightly raised veins running all along the body. Two tails, and the dragon's trunk split at the shoulders, rising up into two. Different. Heads. The head to the right was glaring down at him, the eye in the center of its forehead so dark a red it was nearly black. Griff shrank back slightly from its judgmental stare and shifted his gaze to the other head. This one's face was kinder, with a nervous smile.

"It's been a while... hasn't it?" He said, and Griff's eyes widened. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly, and there was a low chuckle from the three eyed head. Lefty.

"Told you he wouldn't remember. Probably celebrated after you fell in. I know I would." Lefty snickered and the two eyed head sighed, his eyes downcast.

"Wait..." Griff narrowed his eyes, studying him. "...Soot...?" The two eyed head nodded slightly, his gaze still fixed on the ground. Soot closed his eyes, waiting, almost as though expecting Griff to yell, shout, walk away... something.

Griff could feel everyone's eyes on him as he walked right up to his friend, then threw his arm around Soot in a tight embrace. His breath caught in his chest and he could feel tears prickling behind his eyes. Soot stiffened slightly, then relaxed and returned the hug. Lefty grumbled, but did not interrupt.

"I missed you..." Griff whispered, and he tightened his grip.

"I missed you as well." Soot replied. "And I don't blame you for what happened." He released Griff and took a couple steps back, grinning slightly. Lefty's glare was a tad bit less scathing than before.
"Honestly, it was probably one of the best things that's happened to me. Look!" Soot stepped to the side, then turned to look back at the entrance to the clan leader's lair.

Another two headed dragon stepped out, the head with the curly horns grinning broadly and the one with twisted horns with a smaller, more reserved smile. They were followed by a pair of tiny hatchlings, one dark and the other light. Lefty actually grinned as well, looking over at the head with curled horns.

"ThistleDawn found me soon after I woke up. She helped me and Lefty get along, and... well..." Soot sat back on his haunches, looking far less nervous than he had before.

"After a while, those two kinda grow on you." The female said, her two heads speaking in unison. "I'm Dawn," The head with curly horns said, then waved one talon to her partner. "This is Thistle," Dawn then gestured to the two hatchlings. "Violet, Lin, Valor and Turmoil." She pointed to each head as she introduced them. Violet and Lin were the pair with the bright purple ruff, while Valor and Turmoil were the dark, almost midnight black one. Plenty of scrapes and small, scabbed over bitemarks on both of them.

"Y-you've got a family!"

"Mhm. And we came here to join the clan."
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Notes: Diagnosed with a disease similar to ALS soon after these events, and it progressed much quicker, to the point where he was in a robotic, full body suit only two years later. The suit reacts to the electronic signals of his brain to help him move. He wears it beneath his clothing, but some of it still peeks out.

Art by the wonderful PomPomArts22!!!





Food = Goo
Material = Ooze
Apparel = Slime
Familiar = Muck
Other = Sludge