Dawn

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DAWN { /dɑːn/ } Nicknames: N/A • The Unshattered Child ╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮ Roar (written by khry) ♫ Yuki Hayashi - Darkness In Heart ♫ ╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯

The massive form of the Guardian shifted, hearing his lifemate cry out. As soon as the neurons in his brain connected enough to register that there was a possibility of danger, he ran. He ran so recklessly that he would carve permanent marks into the path between his chamber and the nests. As his claws dented the earth beneath him, and the ever-shining sun beat down its rays upon his glimmering hide, Krazol barely realized time had passed during his transit as he skidded to a halt inside the nest area.

The sight before him was… odd. Above him, Ayano stood upon a rocky ledge on the back wall of the nursery. To Krazol’s left was Astra, poised as if to strike. Finally, Purastella leered towards what had caused all this noise in the first place. Ianto stood in the center of the room, scroll clutched in his hands, looking more irritated than usual.

When the assembled dragons see Krazol’s arrival, they have varying reactions. Purastella, Astra, and Ayano all seem various flavors of relived, but Ianto’s eyes narrow. “Oh wonderful, another uneducated fool to ignore my advice.” His claws tighten around the scroll, and attention returns to him. “I’m sure you also support the use of precious artifacts on lost causes?”

Purastella stands to her full height, flapping her wings. “How DARE you!” She has a smaller stature than Ianto, but her wingspan dwarfs his. Something primal in his brain recognizes a superior force before he shakes it aside. “Who gives you the right?!” Purastella continues.

“The Lightweaver!” Ianto snaps back. Literally, as his head shoots forward at Purastella. “She would not see her natural order defiled like this!” It is only now that Krazol notices that Ianto is standing near a recently hatched egg, but the dragon inside is barely breathing, and pale.

Krazol inquires, “What is this? This hatchling…” Seeing only its pale coloration, the Guardian turns to Ayano, then to Astra. “This one, is it yours?” In response, Astra shakes her head, and Ayano looks down somberly. A sick smirk spreads across Ianto’s face as Purastella turns to look at him.

“It’s ours, Kraz…” she says weakly.

The shimmering Guardian looks again, approaching the hatchling. His massive form means he does not go far before he can crane his neck to be mere inches from the thing. A Skydancer, to be sure… and yes, it seemed to have the same genes he himself had but… but this color made no sense, unless of course it was horribly sick. “What… can be done?” He said, trying not to show fear in his voice.

“Nothing!” Ianto cried. “Nothing can be done for this hatchling. It is already in the process of dying.” He spoke so matter-of-factly, it was as though he were reading out of a tome. As though this were an unchanging rule of the universe.

Ayano growled above him. “Be silent, Ianto!” The Mirror bares his teeth and narrows his forward set of eyes. “I remember. You were drenched by the rain when you came to us. Practically dying from exposure. Yet, we took you in happily, nursed you back to health. I still do not regret it, do NOT make me.”

It was Astra’s turn to speak as she turned to the Guardian. “There is a way. We think that if we use the Scroll of Eternal Youth… it may have some rejuvenating effect.” Astra’s eyes were full of worry, of doubt. This had never been tried before. The idea of the Scroll of Eternal Youth as a medicine seemed desperate.

“Or it does nothing and goes to waste!” Ianto shouted, clutching the scroll even closer. “It took us much to get this scroll, don’t you remember? It’s far too valuable to waste on a hypothesis! Shall we begin to melt our coins down as a remedy for a sore throat, hmm?!” His gaze darts around the room, reminding Krazol of the birds in the Training Fields.

Ayano growled, before throwing his head forward into a roar. Astra followed, then Purastella, then Krazol. Dirt fell off the marble walls from the reverberating noise. In the early days of Lumenstar, the roaring was little more than an inside joke of sorts. Over time, it became a recognized political and social strategy. Ianto knew this, and he knew that the roars meant a few things. ‘You are outnumbered. You have been voted against. Give up the scroll.’

When the roars finally died down, Ianto scoffed. “Barbaric.” He threw the scroll to the ground, and sulked past Krazol to the exit. “Childish.” He spat as he took flight back towards the main structure of Lumenstar.

Ayano jumped down from his perch, handing the scroll to Purastella. “You are the strongest magic-wise among us, and I fear we don’t have a lot of time.” Indeed, the hatchling had begun to breathe even shallower in the time the argument took. Purastella, claws shaking, opened the scroll.

Over the next hour, Purastella didn’t leave the hatchling’s side as color slowly returned to it. Krazol remained coiled around them both as the hatchling’s breathing slowed to a normal pace. Astra had taken it upon herself to wrangle the other two hatchlings, Guardians both, whose hatchings were somewhat overshadowed by the day’s events. Krazol and Purastella were the parents of three new hatchlings, all of them as healthy as could be. “What should we name her?” Purastella asked, holding the hatchling as close as she could manage.

Astra unfurled a long piece of paper. “I have a list of prospective hatchling names for this exact occasion! There are names based on historical figures, by occupation, by appearance…” The nocturne would go on to read off category upon category of name, never quite settling on something herself. Ayano would visit briefly to suggest some difficult to pronounce ancient word he learned from one old tome or another.

As Krazol craned his head up, towards a window where the sun’s light shone through, glittering off the hides of his gathered family, he had a spark of inspiration. “I have a suggestion, if you promise not to laugh.” At Purastella’s nod of approval, he said, “Dawn.”

The hatchling’s eyes fluttered open, looked to her mother, then to her father, and made a soft cooing sound. Ayano placed a claw on Krazol’s shoulder, “I think she likes it.”

Not that everyone else did. When the gathered dragons returned to Lumenstar, some dragons were giving them dirty looks, turning the other way. Ianto had been talking, stirring up trouble since he knew he lost this fight. Dawn was put up in the High Tower where Krazol could keep complete watch over her. The use of the Scroll of Eternal Youth seems to have started something, and Ianto and Ayano have never been more at odds.

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