Marina

Marie was found one night while a group from the clan was gathering in the tangled woods.
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She was abandoned shortly after she hatched by her birth clan, her colours weren’t made to live in the shadow flight; it was dark while she was so bright. She may never know why: perhaps her clan couldn’t care for her, her bright colours just sticking out too much: Sometimes it’s the clan’s safety over one little hatchling.

She learned to use her flight’s magic at an early age, to hide herself if she sensed something harmful nearby. A few times she saw a black mist roll before her until something disturbed it and it disappeared; in its wake the young dragon always saw dead beasts. Only death was left in the path of that darkness. The dragon hoped she won’t be another victim at its hands someday.

Her favorite food during her time alone were Dark Creepers; she had made a home in a dead tree that was almost fully covered by the dark purple leaves. She just needed to be careful not to eat too much around the entrance, she was almost spotted a few time when she was having a hard time finding edible food, and her little tummy wouldn’t shut up, resulting in a fairly noticeable hole in the vines covering the entrance.

It had been a few years now, and she had grown to a fair size, barely able to fit inside the dead wood of her home anymore. She had been planning to find a new place soon: the dark mist came around these parts more and more often lately, and she would prefer to avoid it. The day came that she had decided to move, and she was picking the Dark Creepers off her home into a makeshift bag she had found. It worked well, even though had a hole in it, which she had fixed by putting a bigger leaf over it, such that the smaller leaves wouldn’t fall out.

Everything was going smoothly until-

“Hello.” a voice spoke.

Now, the young dragon never uttered tongue before, or really learned to understand it. The most she had ever heard were dragons talking as they flew over her hideout, but this time it came from right behind her. So really, jumping, dropping her leaves, and disappearing deep into the tree were the natural response.
“Oh dear, we didn’t mean to scare you.”

Outside her tree were two dragons, why hadn’t she sensed them? She had been so careful about that…
She heard the soft voices go back and forth, unable to know their meanings, before her bag was pushed lightly into her hideout. Do these dragons not want to fight? She had seen dragons run after beasts, or even their own kind, but never knew if they were playing or hunting.

They didn’t seem like they planned on hurting her, so she slowly poked her head out of the remaining plants. They were both dark coloured dragons, one with green eyes... and the other with ones like her own?

The two dragons tried to communicate with her for a while. As far as she knew, they were both kind. Then she felt a chill run down her back. They must had felt it too, they grabbed their bags. The dragon with the eyes like her own offered a claw to the bright child after she had clawed together her own things. She looked at it for a bit, unsure as to what it meant, but she had seen other dragons offer a claw to ones on the ground, and helping them up.

She took the claw.

Jumping into flight wasn’t a thing she did much, as she preferred ground under her feet, but she was pulled into it. The other two wanted to get away as soon as they could, the shadow dragon still holding her claws tightly, pulling her into the air. Looking at the trees and mushrooms slowly getting farther and farther away, she could see the dark mist creep over the land below her wings.

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Marie liked it in this clan, one full of misfits who couldn’t live in their flight’s home, like her.
Over time she learned to speak the same tongue as the others, and that the two dragons that she met that day were called Xion, and the one she shares eyes with was Iridina.

She was given the name “Marina.” It took her years to realize the pun with it, her scales being a colour they called Aqua, combining them together they sound close to Aquamarine. This place loves their puns when they can create one.

She loved not having to look for food everyday, and her memories of being kept up by her grumbling tummy faded, as they had a hoard full of every kind of food, even if it was an uphill fight to keep the pantry packed with enough plants to please the lair’s plethora of pearlcatchers.

To this day she still can’t speak all that well, or sleep comfortably in the lair’s chambers, preferring the outdoors. Iridina has tried time and again to get Marina to sleep inside, saying it’s safer, but she let it go after Marina’s location allowed her to spot a groups of beast clans approaching and warn the others last winter.

After that, the clan set up a night watch, and while Marina may not be one for fighting, she’s out of the caves at night anyway, so while she plays in the bamboo she keeps a watchful eye out for anything odd.




(random magical girl art from before lore)