Kintsugi

As Kintsugi lay breathless and bleeding on the cavern floor she stared up at the stalactites and wondered if her family would come looking for her.

Clan disputes always left both sides at a loss, yet at the same time the potential for gain - more land, more food, more everything - was always too much to pass on. Indeed, she knew that the neighboring clan that had attacked them were dwindling to their last few warriors when she fell. Yet, in the corners of her mind there slinked an insidious dwindling doubt that she tried and failed to suppress.

Or, even more upsetting a thought, is if her family had won and yet still left her for dead. Her mother and father both hailed from generations of great warriors. Would a daughter who fell in the glory of battle be seen as favorable as opposed to one who dishonored her lineage by living through defeat? The idea scared her because as she gave it more time to ruminate - as there wasn't much else she could do in her battered state - it seemed more and more likely than not.

But before she could fall into the precipice of despair, her will steeled and she grit her teeth. She was a fighter, a survivor herself. If her family would not save her then she would save herself. The kind of pressure she faced on a daily basis would've broken less dragons but Kintsugi knew that she was not like them. Her spine was made of diamond - rigid and unyielding - and her soul of gold - malleable, adaptable, and priceless.

Kintsugi grit her teeth as she sat up, swallowing a scream as she pressed her claws to her still-bleeding wounds and applied pressure. She would get out of this just fine. The broken part of her would mend and the cracks would seal over. She would leave better and even more valuable than the most precious gems when she left that cave.

But now it was time to get up.