Akki

While Akki is now an esteemed member of the Clan of the Summer Sky, her beginnings were not quite so prestigious. No-one is entirely certain why, but she was abandoned as an egg, in the wake of the last Great Nocturne Migration. Perhaps her parents had died, or abandoned her... or perhaps she had been stolen or dropped. Whatever happened, though, it resulted in her crawling out of her shell, all alone, in the middle of what seemed (for all intents and purposes) to be nowhere.

She would later learn that it had probably been somewhere on the Shattered Plain, but that is, all things considered, fairly irrelevant.

What is relevant is that she was a small, newly-hatched youngling without a single adult dragon nearby. Now, had she been a Mirror, or a Guardian, or a Spiral, or even a Pearlcatcher, then perhaps that would not have been so disastrous. But she was, and is, a Nocturne, and while other breeds are born with a strong survival instinct, or an urge to find something, or do something – anything – or with inherited memories from their parents, a Nocturne is born with the instinct, the need, to mimic.

There was nothing for the newly hatched Nocturne to mimic but cracked earth and rocks, and she was on the verge of death when, one day, something blotted out the sun despite there not being a single cloud in sight. That something was the Smoke Gyre which now accompanies her – it had been drawn in by her body heat and had landed next to her. Intrigued, she opened her eyes and focused on this new presence. She had long since learnt how to properly mimic rocks, after all, so the Gyre provided a new and welcome challenge.

With great difficulty she forced her atrophied muscles to work and sat herself up to be able to better observe the Gyre. Startled by her movement, it exclaimed: “ka-kiiiii!” and flapped its wings to gain some distance. The hatchling tried to mimic it, but the best her unused throat could manage was a cough-like “kah-kih”, and her body, unused to movement, simply fell backwards. Losing sight of the Gyre and once again coming face to face with a rock, the hatchling once again stilled in an effort to become like the rock.

The Gyre, calmed by the fact that the small dragon did not seem to be a threat, hopped around her to inspect her. As soon as it entered her field of vision, she once again tried to mimic it, failing when her body did not cooperate. The Gyre, hopping still closer and cocking its head, let out a questioning “kii?”, which the hatchling once again coughed an “kih” in response to, after which the Gyre let out a triumphant cry and flew away. The young hatchling tried to follow, but barely managed a couple of stumbling steps before her small body gave out on her.

Fortunately, however, the Smoke Gyre seemed to have taken a liking to her, and returned not long after with a dead snake dangling from its beak. It tried to feed her, but she simply took it into her mouth like it had done, not understanding. The Gyre solved the problem by tearing the snake in two and swallowing one half, prompting the hatchling to do the same to her half.

This was the beginning of a very peculiar relationship, but the Gyre adopted her as its own and nursed her back to health, and in return, she adored it.

Once she was strong enough, the two of them started journeying about Sornieth together. They saw many dragons, but from a distance – the Gyre was wary of them, and reluctant to go closer, so the hatchling simply accepted this and did the same as her foster-parent.

Their habit were broken one day, however, when they stumbled upon another Nocture hatchling on the Windswept Plateau. Sunburst, as she presented herself, had gotten swept up in a storm and become separated from her parents, so now she was trying to find them again.

Not that the Hatchling understood any of this, having never learnt Draconic (even if she was fluent in Gyre by then). So when Sunburst stopped talking and looked at her expectantly, she simply cocked her head and asked “akki?”. Sunburst, having not yet understood that the other Nocturne could not comprehend a word she was saying, took this to be her name and happily kept on talking, simply thinking that her new companion was the silent sort. Then, when the newly dubbed Akki and her Gyre parent set out to leave, Sunburst tagged along, happy for the company and not hearing (or rather: not understanding) any protests.

The three of them kept up their journeying for a while, content in each others' company (especially after Akki had learnt to speak Draconic and Sunburst Gyre) and with no particular goal in mind, as Sunburst soon forgot about the parents she had barely even known before she got separated from them.

They would have happily continued on in that manner forever, actually, if it was not for a most fateful encounter in the western forests of the Sunbeam Ruins. The trio had stumbled upon a Serthis nest, and the savage Beastclan, seeing the two young dragons, had attacked immediately. The Gyre did its best to hold them back, but there was only so much it could do when there were so many of them. Just when it all seemed hopeless - the Gyre had broken one of its wings, Sunburst had been thrown into a tree and gotten knocked unconscious and Akki had been blinded in her right eye – there burst in a great Guardian into the clearing, roaring and with her war-fins flared, knocking the Serthises aside as if they were nothing.

Once she was sure that they were safe, the Guardian – Esmua, she introduced herself as – invited them to recuperate in her Clan. They accepted, and Akki, having seen Esmua's fighting prowess, did everything in her might to become just as strong as her once she had recovered and adjusted to the loss of her eye.

She wanted to be able to protect her sister and parent the next time something happened to them.

She succeeded, and not wanting to leave since Sunburst had decided to stay, she now aids the Clan of the Summer Sky by raising their young to become strong warriors, so that they will never have to face the same terror as she did.