Ishara

A scarlet skydancer meanders through the festive crowds on the Cloudsong, taking in the sights and atmosphere with wide eyes. He lingers at every spectacle on the street — laughing with other dragons at a spiral’s contortionist antics, ooh-ing and aah-ing at the graceful ribbon display of a pair of skydancers, hovering indecisively over a myriad of kaleidoscopic masks at a stall…

Yes, it’s Ishara’s first ever Mistral Jamboree, and he’s overwhelmed - in a good way - to say the least. Although he’s been wandering the floating platforms on his own so far, it doesn’t bother him. He’s having plenty of fun just watching the other dragons, and besides, he’s waiting for someone. Two someones, in fact.

The shouts of two familiar voices bring a smile to Ishara’s face, and he turns to greet them with a smile. Attis, a vivid emerald wildclaw, and Kay, with his opaline coatl plumage, are darting through the jostling dragons to get to him, but —

Ishara’s smile drops at the sight of Attis. “What… is that on your head?” he asks incredulously.

The usually fierce and pragmatic wildclaw shoots him a deadpan look. The effect is completely ruined by the oversized, plush corgi-head hat he’s wearing. “The question is: why aren’t you getting in on all this fun?”

“You look stupid,” Ishara retorts, before remembering where he is. He looks around, hoping no Wind dragons were offended by what might have sounded like an insult to their informal flight mascot - but in a crowd of this size, the three of them are basically invisible.

“I look adorable, and you’re stupid.”

Kay laughs, “Alright, that’s enough you two. Stop bickering, there’s so much to see!” As the only one of their trio who’d celebrated the Mistral Jamboree before, the coatl had volunteered to be their guide at the festival this year. Kay is wearing one of the painted masks, this one with little feathers and a silver chime attached to it. He takes Ishara by the elbow, saying, “Look over there! Do you see that hand-puppet stall?”

Ishara peers in that direction. “Oh, yes. What about it —“

Faster than he can react, Ishara suddenly has a wildclaw pouncing on him, sharp talons grabbing onto his neck and head. With a startled yelp, he swipes back, but Attis has already leapt off him, cackling. Next to them, Kay explodes with diabolical laughter.

Ishara scowls, reaching up to his head. Sure enough, he touches the soft plush of another corgi hat, to match Attis’ own. He thinks of raising a fuss about it again, but the sight of Attis and Kay’s amusement gives him pause.

Kay says to him, knowingly, “Come on, stop standing around and watching! Join the fun!”

“Hurry up, your highness!” Attis taunts, already running ahead of them. “I want to go build my own kite.”

With a small huff and a fond roll of his eyes, Ishara relents and falls into step with them. Kay has already procured them some street food, and is happily chattering about it to Attis’ rapt attention. Ishara supposes the hat is kind of cute, and anyway — it’s no annoyance at all compared to the day of fun he’s about to have with his favourite dragons in the world.

Original forum post