Laerin

Laerin rather liked it here. She was used to the sweeping glaciers of the north, that suffered half the year in the moonlight, half the year in the sunlight. This den was perfectly placed. Dug into the ground, forming a burrow, a cave system, neigh impenetrable. No open land, no open sky. Nothing for her to be caught and killed in.

The people weren't so bad, either. Precious was distant, in the way of the sun-starved snowbanks of their shared home. But it was made up for with stern Acid and cunning Midnight. Laerin enjoyed verbally sparring with them. She would enjoy more with them, they were both beautiful dragons. But it seemed neither were interested. Sundae the cook was a cloying taste in the back of her mouth, her many hatchlings flooded the dens, but Laerin didn't count this against her. Starlight always had a tale or two to tell, if Laerin was in the mood. Mosey sang incessantly in the den next to Laerin's, the calm song of a trapped bird.

Really, though, Laerin was interested in this strange isolation that pervaded the den.

She wasn't really the social sort. She never really had the chance to be and frankly that didn't bother her. But this den, this lair as a whole was quiet. Laerin had thought it a problem with the soundproofing or some structural error, but then she made a point to visit the other dens. This lair was, by design, lonely. Crafted for the illusion of community but with impeccable privacy. Someone had tried to have their cake and eat it too.

Personally, Laerin thought that it was Poison to blame. Hadn't he built the lair? Didn't he maintain it? She itched to discover whatever it was he wanted.

She couldn't just ask, of course. Acid would not take kindly to that, not when Precious was the clan's most blamed member. She'd overheard Nox when picking out her familiar, mumbling and muttering about how Precious was a curse or something. How fascinating! How fascinating that he thought that, when he actively participated and actively encouraged the isolation of the different members of the clan!

And it wasn't just Nox, it was all of them! They were all like this!

Each clanmember found a few others and stuck to them, clung to them, and considered the rest of the clan to be their - what, enemies? Rivals? Definitely no one to befriend.

Laerin wanted to figure out all the secrets she could. She wanted to eat them up and swallow them, store them inside her between her stomach and her liver, amidst her entrails, she wanted to know so badly it ate her up inside. She could feel it at all times, burning like the midnight sun or frozen in her chest like a particularly unfortunate pray animal.

How she wished she could act on it. . .