Once upon a time, in a world very unlike this one, where gods and demons still walked the land, and dragons soared the skies, a dragon laid her first clutch of eggs. Due to their long lifespan and generally solitary nature, dragons rarely feel the need to reproduce, but every so often, when two dragons meet and find their souls compatible, they mate for life. And while they still soar the skies alone, they share their nest and hoard with one another, and upon the laying of a clutch, will care for their children together.
And so, it was that a pair of dragons named Sorella and Vithras did meet, and settled together. And it was they who laid a clutch of four eggs, which cared for well.
But before their eggs could hatch, both disaster and tragedy struck. A wizard, filled with a lust for power and a hatred of dragonkind, sent his minions, men and monsters both, to slay the dragons and take their eggs, so that he could syphon their power and raise them as powerful minions of his own.
As the army approached, Sorella and Vithras prepared for battle. Sorella with her magic and Vithras with their claws, and falling upon their foes with a fury, they slew them to the last. But during the battle, as the wizard's minions approached her eggs, Sorella cast a spell of protection, whisking her eggs away through both space and time, to points where they could hatch in safety and be raised well.
However, in the wake of the battle, Vithras succumbed to his wounds, for the weapons of their enemies had been coated in dragonsbane. Trumpeting her sorrow in a roar which could be heard throughout the mountains in which they had lived, Sorella sealed Vithras' body inside of their lair, now their tomb.
Taking to the skies, Sorella began a search for her children. Barely stopping to eat or rest, she searched far and wide, knowing that her eggs would only reappear when it was time for them to hatch, and knowing that whoever had sent her mate's killers after them was still out there.
And while she searched, Sorella's magic did it's work. One by one, as their time to hatch came, the eggs reappeared. The first appeared to a goddess. A little thing, it was the guardian of a waterfall deep within a forest steeped in magic, and the dragonling was raised with love and care by both the goddess and the tribe of fairies who made their home nearby. Talented with the magic of the land, Harmony grew scales of a deep and vibrant green.
The second appeared before a group of travellers, friends of different races. Outcasts all, they saw something good in him and took him with them in their travels across the land. They raised their newest friend to be courageous and strong, but compassionate and honest as their adventures continued. Naming him Rusag, meaning "Gentleheart", he grew boisterous and happy, but lived up to his namesake, earning himself scales of scarlet and gold.
The third appeared to a witch, deep in another set of woods, but the wizard who had started all this had not been idle, and shortly after her hatching, he appeared and stole her away in the dead of night. Neglecting her, the wizard was a cruel master, mistreating the hatchling and confining her to a cage when he wasn't torturing her, trying to break her will. Her scales, coloured by her pain and despair, grew black like obsidian and a deep, angry crimson.
And finally, the fourth appeared to a princess, in a clearing within the royal woods of Linderin, and it is upon his back that all of their fates rest.
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I'm alive! Sorry about the delay, thesis is still ongoing, and now I'm trying to find a job >< I will hopefully have time enough to get the next update done soonish though. So watch this space!
