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Aisling

(#9190008)

Level 25 Ridgeback

Familiar

Swamphaunt Kelpie

Energy: 0/50

Personal Style

Apparel

Skin

Scene

Physical Attributes

Battle Stats

Measurements

Length

15.51 m

Wingspan

16.72 m

Weight

6789.18 kg

Genetics

Steel
Crystal

Azure
Facet

White
Runes

Hatchday

Dec 29, 2014
(9 years)

Breed

Adult
Ridgeback

Eye Type

Ice
Rare

Level 25 Ridgeback

Max Level

STR

AGI

DEF

QCK

INT

129

VIT

MND

Lineage

Parents

none

Offspring

none

Biography

アシュリン
AISLING
THE FROZEN SPIRIT | 氷結の精

AN UNTOLD TALE

Aisling's egg appeared seemingly from nowhere. A group of dragons found the lonely egg, like an icy rock on the early autumn tundra, and incubated it. Out came a Ridgeback, glistening and spiny.

Being a large dragon in a clan of mostly Tundras was rather inconvenient. While her adoptive family usually ate whatever grasses or lichen they came across, she refused to eat it. One member of the clan would hunt for her, and she ate small animals ravenously. Once she fed the baby her first taste of seafood, though, she refused everything else. The Ridgeback was also unusually quiet, emotionless, a loner, unwilling to play with other hatchlings.

She preferred instead to concern herself with the affairs of adults. More often than not, she was lectured about how difficult it was to find resources out in the harsh desert that was the Southern Icefield. The clan was lucky to have settled where they did, however. They had access to abundant food in the summer, and their den kept them just warm enough. It was easy to scrape ice from nearby rocks and collect it in a communal pool for drinking water.

At the end of autumn, when she had grown a little, a layer of ice was beginning to freeze over on top of the nearby lake. Fish were getting harder to come by. A quick dive into the lake to catch food for the Ridgeback often meant the older Tundras had to sit freezing for several hours, hoping their fur would dry off in the diminishing sunlight. The Ridgeback was eating a fat trout when she overheard the adults talking.

"...going to do when winter comes? She won't eat anything but fish!"

"And she eats so much, too. It's nonstop. She is always hungry. I guess she can't help her size..."

"Winter is a time when everything is scarce. She's just going to have to learn that, and learn to eat plants like everyone else."

The lake froze over. Seafood was inaccessible. The Ridgeback girl did learn to eat plants and grass... but her hunger was insatiable. Even when it gave her indigestion, she would barrel through her Tundra clanmates to swallow any food she could get her mouth on. She forced others to sacrifice their meals for her comfort and hunger, in this way. It quickly became a problem. The adults whispered amongst themselves every night, figuring out how to deal with the Ridgeback's behavior.

She quickly realized on her own that her behavior was harmful to the greater good. It hurt the other members of her clan, and she wasn't getting enough to eat, anyway. For the clan, it was inefficient for her to remain. The next day, she emerged from the den of Tundras who had kept her warm and trotted away through the falling snow. The group would get on much better without her presence.

Within a day or so, the wind had whipped the snowfall into a frenzied storm. The Ridgeback was freezing. Her muscles trembled with hunger and exhaustion. For a moment, she wondered if there would be a clan of dragons to take her in, ones more suited to caring for her than her original clan. Then, she shook her head. What were the odds of there being a group of dragons, especially Ridgebacks like herself, to adopt her and feed her more effectively than her first one? Slim to none, she figured. Even if one were to appear on the horizon right now, who was to say she would be able to fit seamlessly into their lives without jeopardizing their survival in this harsh land?

Perhaps there would never be a clan for her. And as far as she was concerned, that was okay.

PRISM

____x | Katrina
MechanicalFillet | x_______________
______

Immonia | Merky___

_{(modular bio template by hylozoist)}

On the dawn of her second day alone, she fell over in the snow, weak from hunger. She needed to find something, anything, to eat. She clawed at the snow, trying to dig downward in hopes of finding a root or a scrub to eat. She didn't make it more than a meter down before she had to stop. This was much too difficult for a youngster like her to do in a snowstorm like this. She wrapped her wings around herself in a feeble attempt to keep herself warm, and she settled down in the snow. Her eyes closed. Even the sound of the wind wailing in her ears wasn't enough to keep her awake. Would she ever wake up...?

She had no idea. And she accepted the uncertainty just as she slipped into unconsciousness.

The next time she opened her eyes (by some miracle), she was staring into the cyan eyes of a Tundra. For a moment, she wondered if he was one of the dragons from her old clan, but upon closer inspection, she realized he just a stranger. His eyes welled with tears when she awoke, not that she could understand why. He introduced himself as Mann, and when she didn't speak upon his asking of her name, he decided to call her Aisling, a name resembling a dream.

Aisling was grateful for Mann finding her. She had no idea how long she'd been unconscious, but that didn't matter so much now. When the snowfall was especially heavy, she burrowed into his fur, unaware that her spines hurt him when she did so. (It was a difficult feat due to how big she was; she rivaled him in size even though she still needed to grow and fill out.) Just like in her last clan, Mann presented her with all the plants he could find, but he found just barely enough to keep both of them fed. Even though she always felt like having a snack, she grew in size and weight in little time.

Aisling grew out of the toddler stage, and after hours of watching Mann sniff and find plants, she adapted his movements and taught herself how to hunt. At first she started small, killing and wolfing down rabbits and mice, before moving up to arctic birds and skunks. Each time she brought a dead animal back to Mann, he seemed to squirm in disapproval. She called him out on it once, asking why it made him uncomfortable.

"I don't like the idea of killing smaller creatures as a food source," he said, drawing circles in the ground with a claw.

As emotionless as she ever was, Aisling replied, "The skunks and foxes kill smaller creatures for food. It's the way of life. Weaker creatures sacrifice themselves to a stronger creature, to help the strong survive. The sacrifice isn't even a waste; the strong eat the weak. It's to ensure survival, and if we're going to be living out here in the middle of nowhere, we need to get used to it."

It was at this point that Aisling realized that she didn't really like Mann's ideals. He went out of his way, sacrificed his time, to care for her, who was weak... He could have been taking care of himself in that time. It made no sense to her. Was he the type of dragon who let his emotions get the best of him? How asinine.

When Aisling realized she had excellent tunneling skills, though, she found herself doing the same for him. He couldn't dig an effective den out of the thick snow that covered the land, so she was responsible for that. She dug a temporary den big enough for both of them in several meters of snow, and there they stayed to ride out the latter half of winter. She found it a bit cowardly of him, though, to even ask for her help.

While in the shelter, Mann told Aisling the story of his old clan, and how he'd been so devoted to its members while never truly bonding with any of them. He also told her that he knew they would be wasting precious, scarce resources if they went searching for him, but he still felt depressed at the idea that they never made an effort to look for him. He cried as he talked about it, though Aisling didn't understand why. The clan was doing what was best for the greater good. If that meant leaving him alone, so be it. But, she knew his ideals were different, if foolish. She tried to comfort him nonetheless, a little awkwardly.

Mann then asked her why she had been alone when he found her, if she could remember. In her trademark undemonstrative tone, she answered that she was being a burden to her original clan, so she expelled herself, not caring about the consequences or how close to death she had come. The contrast between their actions was highlighted with Aisling's story. While he felt that his old clan's dumping him unacceptable, she volunteered to go out into the world by herself as if it were as natural as eating a meal.

Aisling found herself beginning to enjoy Mann's character, despite how she hated his distaste for sacrificing the weak. They needed each other if they were going to survive the winter. She foraged for whatever plant life she could find whenever she was out hunting, since animal flesh upset his stomach. The longer she stayed in the temporary den with him, the more she learned about him. Though he never admitted it, he was tormented by his emotions.

In her heart, she knew it would be more beneficial for him to receive the care from a clan. But she also felt like she needed to keep him to herself. Aisling liked him, and she worried that they were accepted by a clan, he would return to the self he was before, the dragon no one could get close to. She was afraid he would close himself off to her and she'd never be able to get close to him again. She knew Mann didn't like her attitude about self-sacrifice, but that was something he could hopefully get over in time.

I could trap him here, she thought. He was emotionally unstable now. Mann didn't need to leave the lair, and she was more than capable of playing a few tricks to keep him where she wanted him. So when she came back from hunting one day, she suggested that they stay in their current den, since the heavy winter snowfall was making tunneling difficult. Mann agreed right away without thinking too much about it.

Spring finally arrived. Much of the surface snow was melting from the warm sunshine. Once it was finally warm enough to move, Mann suggested that they begin to look for away out of the barren wasteland. In spite of her reluctance to move on, Aisling agreed. Because of her enormous size, she could carry Mann on her back while he rested, which saved them some time.

After flying aimlessly for several hundred miles, they came to the mountain range at the northeastern side of the region. Evergreen forests grew all around the mountains, and baby plants were beginning to push up from under the melting slush. An oasis of life in the midst of a icy, dead desert.

Overjoyed at being able to eat fresh, new greenery at long last, Mann coaxed her to rest for a day or two before gliding over the mountains. The trip would be a long, exhausting one, especially for Aisling, who would carry him. Aisling sighed as though annoyed that he would suggest such a thing. The reality of it was that she still hated the idea of him becoming a cloistered shell if and when they found a clan that Mann wanted to settle with. Nevertheless, she dug a new, small lair in the wet, slushy earth for them to stay in.

The following day, Aisling went out on the hunt early in the morning. Though she saw plenty of signs of edible lemmings, and she found a stream with silvery fish swimming through it, she didn't go for the prey immediately. She killed some time just gazing at her surroundings, resisting the idea of having to give Mann away to a clan when she'd spent so much time with him after he'd opened up. With a shake of her head, she finally made her kills and collected meat, fish, and edible plants to cart back to the temporary lair.

The lair was empty.

Dropping the food, Aisling followed Tundra footprints across the thinning snow. Mann had found even more prints, it seemed, and decided to track them. It was a few minutes before she finally found the end of the trail. Mann was amid a group of dragons, seeming angry at one in particular. He roared and leapt at the dragon who had set off his wrath.

This was his old clan. The one that had forgotten him in the frozen desert. And the dragon Mann was attacking was probably the one responsible.

Rushing over, Aisling pulled a wounded Mann off of his rival and demanded, "You! You're the one who sent Mann into exile, didn't you?" And without even waiting for his answer, she crashed into him with his head.

All at once, the other dragons began to attack, aiming their attacks magical attacks at her and at Mann. Mann was petrified, and Aisling took it upon herself to take all the magical bolts aimed at him, even the bolts that overpowered her Ice element. She retaliated bolt for bolt before turning and leaping upon Mann's rival, pinning him to the ground.

Aisling pressed her claws into the soft fur and flesh of his throat and repeated her question. Every time the rival said no, she pressed her palms down into his throat. When his throat was nearly pinned shut, he choked out his confession, that he did give false information that ultimately led to Mann's winter-long wandering. Not knowing whether or not it was a true confession, Aisling took his entire head in her claws and snapped his neck.

Panting hard from the fight, she unsteadily rose up on her feet and asked what the clan planned to do with Mann now that he had returned. The other dragons were afraid to stray any closer to the fierce, but then a few elder members took a few steps forward to whisper their apologies to him. As more dragons came forward one by one, Mann began to cry for the first time in front of all those dragons whom he had grown up with. The leader declared that things would be decided later.

Unable to keep herself standing, Aisling fell over in the snow, eyes sliding closed. Her glittering scales were covered in scorch wounds and lacerations from the brief tussle. Aisling had fallen over into the snow, exhausted from shielding him from his blows. Mann rushed over, much to the surprise of his old clan, and nudged her awake.

Aisling raised her head slightly, still breathing laboriously. She inhaled deeply. "I'm not leaving here until the leader of this clan made a choice." She shot a glare at the leader, who hesitated.

Finally, the leader declared, "Mann, you may rejoin our clan once again as our staff officer." As the other members of the clan surrounded Mann to apologize or congratulate him, the leader added with a glance at Aisling, "But you can't."

As the dragons buried Mann's rival and gathered up their few belongings to move on, Mann didn't move right away. Aisling stared at him, wondering why he wasn't preparing to go with them. She watched him approach her again. "But what will you do now?" he asked.

Aisling let her head fall into the snow before sighing. "Don't worry about me. You're home now. Go with them; they are waiting for you."

To her shock, and that of the other clan members, he refused.

She scoffed. "Why not?" she wanted to know. "You need a clan to take care of you."

"I know I do," Mann replied. "But not this clan. There isn't one dragon here that I've let as close to my heart as you have gotten to be." He turned to the rest of his, now former, clan and nodded at them. "Go on without us."

What an idiot. He was letting his emotions get in the way again. But somewhere inside Aisling, she was relieved. She didn't want to lose him to a clan. When she questioned his plans now, he said he still wanted to escape, to leave the Southern Icefields.

Aisling frowned at the idea, but there wasn't much she could do, not when Mann insisted on taking care of her until she healed up. He helped her limp back to their temporary den, fed her, and made a makeshift ointment out of certain plants that grew nearby for her wounds. It took only a week for her to get well enough to fly again.

Mann climbed upon her back, and Aisling beat her wings against the air.

They climbed the mountain and flew to lands beyond, resting in different territories such as the Ashfall Waste and the Windswept Plateau. There were many welcoming clans, but Aisling refused to let Mann stay at any of them. Not one of them seemed to be good enough for them. As they traveled, though, Aisling knew that they would have to find a place to stay eventually. They couldn't keep traveling on forever.

Their pickiness changed when they came to the Starfall Isles. They found a clan near the Observatory who not only offered to welcome them both into their ranks, but also offered to help them practice their magic skills. After the fight with Mann's former clan, Aisling realized the need for her to get in touch with her elemental magic. She and Mann agreed to make this clan theirs, and there they stayed. Together.

Thank you, Aeranautics (#80182)

Hexus | RoseWishes | dreamoforion | wolfsbainhaku | Shelybear

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Exalting Aisling to the service of the Arcanist will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.

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