Heart

• MAD HEART •
Heart & Maddit

familiars: Mimolette, Rat God

Slight Eyewing

Familiar

This graceful, celestial bird uses its many supplemental eyes to easily escape anything, from the sneakiest predators to the very best ornithologists.

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Ornamental Eyewing

Familiar

There is an old legend that tells of a bird-like creature who can bestow the gift of sight to dragons blinded in battle. No one has witnessed it happening, unfortunately.

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It was dry.
The Aberration huffed, tossing her heads and making identical expressions of annoyance at the feeling of static crackling in her mane. She didn't like the Lighting territory, she thought.
She had wanted to explore Sornieth, see what was beyond Wyrmwound, but Mad Heart sorely missed the hot humidity of home. This place was dry, electric, and while it got warm in sunlight it froze under nightfall. Wiretangle Walk was indeed just a walking point to wherever Mad Heart wound up.
"Sun's setting," Maddit, the gruff, three-eyed head murmured. "We need shelter before it gets cold."
They both made that face again.
"There's a cave just ahead. See it?" Heart nodded towards said cave, her voice softer.
Maddit made a sound of confirmation as the Aberration trotted a little faster.
The cave was ancient, the entrance mostly covered with pale sand and the rock worn nearly smooth by the wind. Mad Heart sniffed cautiously around the inside of the cave entrance, the dragon tensed to fight anything if need be. But the scents were faint at best-- no one had been in the cave for years.
"Good enough," Maddit snorted. "Hopefully we'll be out of this territory tomorrow."
As she wandered a little deeper into the cave, Mad Heart's eyes adjusted until she could see draconic carvings along the walls. Both heads tilted in confusion-- the runes were Guardian, and she couldn't read them, but there were pictures enough to understand what had happened.
"There was a clan here," Heart spoke quietly, her voice barely above a whisper as she thought aloud. "Dragons coming and going, while only a few stayed... but they all went to sleep."
"Hibernation." Maddit squinted at the runes. "This was the... Steam Clan?"
The Aberration's eyes widened at that. There had been rumors, whispers, over the years about a lost Lightning clan that welcomed travellers. Yet so few dragons stayed that is was said the Steam Clan disappeared like sand on the wind. Mad Heart, like most dragons a decade later, believed it was just a story-- something to remind hatchlings the importance of a strong clan, or inner strength, especially in Plague. But it was true.
And Mad Heart had been the one to find it, or at least what was left of the story.
The two heads didn't need to exchange words to know what was next. With a nod to one another, Mad Heart ventured further into the cave. There was too high a chance the lost clan was still in the ancient cave, their scents too faded with time.
And after a long while of walking, she came upon a pair of massive shapes in the dark cave-- too large to be just rock. Heart lifted her head to sniff. "Dragons," she whispered.
"How do we wake them?" Maddit asked, her only answer a shrug from the opposite shoulder. She furrowed her brow. There had to be something.
Then the Aberration realized there was a smaller shape among the two massive dragons. Carefully Mad Heart stepped closer to see the now-dusty sheen of a pearl. Maddit nodded and Heart reached out to shake the smaller dragon's shoulder. Waking a Pearlcatcher would be much easier than trying to rouse a Guardian or Imperial.
A wing twitched; an ear flickered. "Wake up!" Heart leaned near the Pearlcatcher to speak gently.
Shadowy eyes blinked open, slowly, sleepily. Dust shifted and Mad Heart tilted her heads this way and that as a metallic clicking echoed quietly in the space, the Pearlcatcher's wings stretching up and out to reveal armor made of gears and wires. The Pearlcatcher cracked and snapped every which way as she sat up, a decade of bones at rest popping with every movement. Finally she lifted rose gold goggles from her eyes to peer at the strange dragon in her space.
"Who... what are you?" Her voice was hoarse, rough and scratchy from a decade without use, and it took a few tries to get all her words out.
"Mad Heart." Maddit responded as the Aberration sat down in attempt to look less threatening to the other dragon. "We are an ancient of Plague."
"An Ancient..." The Pearlcatcher frowned, confusion lighting her violet eyes.
"You've been asleep a long time," Heart chimed in. "A lot has changed in Sornieth."
"Wake your clan, Pearlcatcher," Maddit said, taking command of the situation with a firm tone. "It's time you saw the world again."