Sirce

Born by the outskirts of the Sundial Terrace, Sirce was a solitary and fiercely independent hatchling. She preferred to fight alone, dedicating her time to training and vowing to never allow herself to be tied down by others, as her mother had been. Often lonely, she was a dreamer and philosopher at heart, occupied with the workings of her mind but desperate to escape the circles of her own thoughts; she has a penchant for overthinking and over-analysis which often makes her distrustful, especially of dragons from flights where the truth is less highly valued. On the other hand, however, it makes her an excellent tactician. Her gem-encrusted scales, once merely speckled for decoration, grew into a thick and glittering armor even as her skills in battle increased, but as she became more and more driven and single-minded those close to her knew she could not sustain her progress for long.

Enter Aras, a fellow juvenile precisely one month younger than her and much less mature. Traveling from the Twisting Crescendo, the bright young hatchling unexpectedly echoed her serious nature. She couldn't help but like him, and so of course instantly distrusted her first impressions and impulsively challenged him to a duel for daring to intrude on her territory; it was a mark of how bad a place she was in that she even allowed the idea to cross her mind, let alone proceed to battle. Aras of course could not refuse, but as the two of them fought in a dusty and deserted amphitheater far from her clan, Sirce was impressed by the young warrior's skill. Finally, after a long and difficult battle, Sirce pinned Aras to the ground, ready to kill him. Unbeknownst to her, however, one of his hind claws remained free, and with it, he had a chance to escape her grip and win the duel - but the only way he could do this would be by impaling her spine, causing instant death... Despite Sirce's lack of anything resembling mercy, he refused to kill her.
At the last second, Sirce released Aras, unable to kill a fellow hatchling - unable to kill this one.

Having lost the duel, Aras was honour-bound to leave, but Sirce, realising what she had almost done, went back on her word and begged him to stay. Instead, Aras asked her to leave with him. Broken from weeks without sleep and the awful choice she had almost made, confused and distrustful of the strangeness of him somehow not hating her, she broke down, crying, eventually collapsing. When she woke, Aras lay beside her, bleeding from multiple wounds and with his claws still hooked around the throat of the juvenile warcat which had taken advantage of her weakened state to attack. While he rested, she gathered food, water, and medical supplies to heal him, and warded off sparrowmice and other lesser threats with a barrier of fire.

By the time he awoke, she had already sworn loyalty to him for life.