Dragons who did not share the same fate thought of a gembond as a gorgeous gift of glittering jewels incased in skin. What a joy it must be for a dragon to adorn such jewelry! And it also provided such wonderful protection! Often they received accusing glares, sarcastic chuckles and annoyed scoffs.

Genetic or artificial, by the venom of a stoned-serpent or not, growing a gembond was one of the most painful processes that a dragon could go through.

Perasyne was a child of fire and earth, being of the Obelisk breed and having telltale amber eyes. But a gembond was a thing born of earth and plague, and her lair-members' opinions began to shift as jewels black as night grew from her scales.

It felt as if a thousand Knives were ever-so-slowly being stabbed into you from the inside out. There was nothing to do except lay helpless and cry out. Afflicted dragons always look to their family for support, as even moving a single muscle is agonizing.

But Perasyne's family was of no help. slowly, every dragon she knew stopped speaking to her. Gradually the silence became glaring, which turned into rumor, which resulted in Perasyne being sold to the Wandering Contagion.

---

"You said this one came with 20,000 coins!"

"That was before we knew she was this weak"

"She has a gembond! she'll be fully functional once it's run it's course!"

Claws rustled and one figure spoke to the next, both parties contemplating the deal. "fine, 20,000. but give us another as well"

"deal"

Perasyne heard the conversation fairly well from underneath the woven sack traditionally put on stock dragons. She was suprisingly numb to it all. She had been taught plague customs before being sent here, and honestly, she perferred their "Survival of the fittest" culture over her own metalworking one.

____________________________________________________________________________________

The traders didn't see the grin on Perasyne's face as she was dragged to the Plaguebringer's domain.