Temerari lives the unfortunate reality of being mostly known as Algimas's best friend. He's tried to make his own name for himself, whether it's been through mercenary work with the clan guard, a few forays into amateur writing, or one very ill-advised attempt into alchemy that crystallized one side of his face. But none of that has helped him to stand out against Algimas's sheer force of personality. He might be doomed to be nothing but the gallant hero's retainer forever.

To be fair, being a hero's retainer isn't the worst job around. He gets an excuse to fly all over the western parts of Sornieth, and all he really has to do is keep track of and carry all of Algimas's stuff. The coatl does all of the fighting monsters and the like — Temerari simply has to watch and take records of his heroic deeds. Well, that's how it's things are supposed to go, but Temerari is a bit too big to hide out on the sidelines. Not even the goofy wizard hat has been enough to convince the criminals that Algimas hunts down that he's harmless and they should get back to their honourable one-on-one duel instead of turning their claws towards him. Sure, Temerari can just go to stoneform to keep himself safe, but dragons duelling in midair tend not to notice you've immobilized yourself and agree to politely keep their fight within your field of vision. (It doesn't stop Temerari from going stoneform anyways and making up any of the details he misses, but he likes to at least try to do things properly.) If he does get caught out of stoneform, Temerari invariably turns tail and runs away. He might be a massive dragon, but he's got a crippling allergy to being stabbed or blasted with magic, so it's best for his health if he goes somewhere else.

Temerari doesn't even consider himself to be that much of a coward. It's just that he likes to take a good long time to mull over the situation before doing anything. The few times he has gotten into a fight he couldn't run from, Temerari didn't surrender. He instead stood frozen still while considering his combat options and got knocked out cold for his troubles. Of course, Algimas is always around to save him. While it's definitely not worth being injured for, having Algimas be the one to take care of him for a few days is a nice change of pace. That coatl knows how to prepare a very fine seafood chowder.

In exchange, Temerari does have to take care of Algimas more than most realize. Algimas does truly believe in his ideals of selfless heroism, to the point where he refuses any and all reward or compensation for his deeds. Temerari has no qualms accepting them after Algimas has takes his leave though — he'd rather they didn't valiantly starve to death for absolutely no reason, thank you very much. Even so, the constant travel doesn't leave room for much luxury. Anything Temerari can't carry while flying isn't something he can have. Yet he does leave a bit of space to keep a hoard of trinkets from each adventure back home at the clan. Memories of everything the pair have been though. Hidden away, because honestly he's a bit embarrassed by them. Anything new that he decides to collect he keeps hidden safely under his hat until it can be stashed away somewhere where Algimas doesn't know about it.

Temerari might be the dragon most likely to buy random things off of Blue. The two seem to have a shared love of collecting arbitrary stuff they find on the ground. Blue takes extra care to bring back anything related to the Tangled Wood she finds for him to look at. Temerari can pretty easily go get some pine cones himself, but he appreciates the gesture.

He's also far more tolerant of bright lights than the average shadow dragon. That might have something to do with being as orange as a bonfire himself.

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Back in his home flight, Temerari was a professional wayfinder. A simple duty in concept — all he had to do was lead clanmates and travellers safely through the Tangled Wood. Of course, to anyone who knows anything about the shadow flight, it was anything but. Simple brambles and pitfalls were the least of his worries if he get lost. The denizens of the woods would rarely make a native shadow dragon disappear forever; they're usually satisfied after playing enough tricks on their victims. But escaping the oppressive darkness at the journey's end wasn't even Temerari's salvation. Whenever he did stray from safety, he never could be quite sure that the travellers he exited the woods with were the same ones the entered alongside him.

Really, everything about the parts of the Tangled Wood outside his clan terrified him. The strange noises, the eyes watching from the darkness, and especially that having a clearly marked trail was apparently an affront to society. Perhaps a nice cobblestone road would be too much to ask, but would the world end if they put down a few more signposts? Maybe with a rope to follow tied between them? Even so, the idea of hapless travellers trying to enter the woods without a guide haunted him more. Again and again, he would enter the darkness. One or sometimes multiple others relying on him, with nothing but a shoulder-mounted lamp and being a massive dragon to protect everyone. Being huge does nothing to protect you from the things that lurk in the shadows, but the lamp was pretty cool. He'd bought it off some arcane mage, who promised that the chalcedony crystal inside was enchanted to take any dragon's magic and change it to magical light, regardless of element. Something about how it remembered when it once shone as bright as the sun and would always try to return to that state. Temerari had simply wanted a lamp that couldn't run out of oil. He got that, along with light that cut through even the thickest darkness that the Obscured Crescent could offer.

Despite such a boon, Temerari always worried that his next group of travellers would be the one that would go missing. He had to hide his worry. Look confident and strong for the clientele, that was the key. If only he was actually either of those things. He desperately wanted to be a dragon like that. A courageous hero to lead the lost to safety. Dashing and chivalrous too, impressing every dragon who set eyes upon him. Instead of a boring old lamp, he could bear golden armour and a matching weapon to cut through the darkness and lead everyone to safety.

And then he met that dragon.

His group of travellers had roamed too close to a particularly cruel veilspun hive, and he was trying to shepherd everyone to safety before they were noticed. They almost surely had been noticed, but maybe if they ran quickly enough they wouldn't be worth hunting down. Temerari was in the lead, hoping his bright scales would be easy enough for the dragons he wasn't physically able to carry to follow. He would have run for hours (Temerari's cardio routine is extensive) had the spiral wrapped around his horn not yelled at him to turn around. There, standing like a shield between the travelling group and the incoming cloud of veilspun, was a blindingly bright light. With his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the forest, Temerari couldn't see a thing that was going on. Just overpowering light. Later he'd realize that had been to prevent anyone from being hypnotized by the swarm.

Before long, the drone of veilspun wings receded and the light faded away. And there stood a coatl, acting like warding off nearly a hundred veilspun was no big deal. Algimas was his name, and he was just as confused about his sudden appearance as was everyone else present. But he brushed it off with a weird hum that was probably the coatl equivalent of a laugh. Distracting everyone from questioning his arrival, he jumped right to the more important task of completing this trek through the woods. Somehow, he instantly identified Temerari as the leader of the travelling group and let him lead the way. He followed right behind, his faintly glowing armour a beacon for the other dragons to cluster around.

Upon arrival at their destination, Algimas pulled Temerari aside and confessed that he really had no idea how he had gotten here. He added some confusing story about being captured and possibly tortured, before suddenly passing out face-first into the dirt. Temerari would have run to get medical help, had Algimas not then proceeded to dissolve into light in front of him. Light which then was pulled back into his lamp.

After a good few moments of being dumbstruck, Temerari decided that he was more hypnotized than he thought and decided to go to bed and see a healer in the morning. That worked well for a few days, until Algimas suddenly materialized again, apparently completely unaware of his own disappearance. The coatl instead believed he'd been put under a curse that caused him to suddenly fall asleep.

Temerari was unwilling to attempt explaining to Algimas what had actually happened to him, and not only because he still wasn't quite sure himself. How do you tell someone you've been carrying them around in the lantern on your shoulder for a week? Instead he lied and claimed that he'd taking care of Algimas while he slept, and was very worried about the coatl's health. Algimas was equally worried, but for 'I have many enemies who might try to murder me in my sleep' reasons. Eventually the two came to an agreement: Temerari would protect Algimas whenever he was sleeping and keep the 'curse' secret, or so Algimas believed, and they'd go looking for someone skilled enough in magic to break the curse. In return, Termerari — actually, he forgot to ask for anything in return. Something about Algimas's conviction even in this strange situation was infectious to him, and he found himself agreeing to travel outside the Tangled Wood for the first time in his life.

Somewhere along the way, the breaking of the 'curse' was was pushed farther and farther down the to-do list. Algimas keeps getting distracted by new evils to fight and new dragons and beastclans to save. Temerari isn't even sure what he wants to do anymore. Algimas might be a ghost, or the spirit of the crystal in his lamp, or maybe even his own imaginary hero come to life to give him the courage to leave the Tangled Wood, and Temerari doesn't really think he wants any of those to be true. There's nothing but his own fear preventing him from letting one of Clan _______'s mages study the lamp, but he can't bring himself to let one of them in on the secret. And for all anyone knows, Algimas might outright die if the lamp is separated from its bearer. How things are currently is good, anyways. Temerari will be the one to carry the heroic Algimas wherever he's needed. Even if Temerari might be the one who truly needs him. Though if you even suggest something like that to Temerari he'll deck you.

Temerari could live without the rare occasions where Algimas gets to genuinely sleep and he has to fly with him strapped to his back. The coatl's heavy when not made of light.