Clash of the Clans [PRIVATE]

[zorayda]

Spoiler: show

PLOT:

Eons ago, a single family of dragons split apart to form two new clans of the Sea and Air, and they have been bitter enemies since. Centuries later, a single hybrid dragon struggles to find his place among Clans, rejected by both the Sea and the Air. Tensions arise once more between the feuding families as he goes off in search for a place in the world, but unexpected truths will be discovered in this story of love, hatred, secrets, and war...

Players:

AustralianChaos
Zorayda
SnowyCheetah

Characters:

Slanke- SnowyCheetah
Duik- SnowyCheetah
Darwing- AustralianChaos
Bor'red- AustralianChaos
Aimara- Zorayda
Zorayda- Zorayda
Odet- Zorayda

Secondary Characters (NPCs or other):

Air Clan:
Ysira, Ondar, Tryst, Kweli, Nonta

Sea Clan:
Sakoor

(Okay, I'm just gonna start as Zor for now and introduce my other characters as I go ^.^)

The air was fresh, cool, and clean--it whipped across the young dragoness's gray-specked feathers, giving her body a thrill of refreshing lift. Zorayda shivered mid-flight, her wings tilting slightly in response to the new gusts of wind as they slide above and below her aerodynamic figure. The glittering sea stretched out below her, full of life and prey for her to chase and catch. She scanned the waters closely with her large, crystalline eyes, focused--there was a sudden silence, a whoosing noise, a splash, and then, a second later, a sizeable albacore tuna struggled between her birdlike jaws. With a quick jerk of her head, Zorayda tossed the fish back into her throat and swallowed it whole, much like a giant heron.

With a simple twist of her right wing, the feathered dragoness performed a barrel roll. She twisted into the air and into the sun's morning rays, using her long tail as a rudder. With a happy crowing roar and a flick of her long ears, she spread her wings again above the clouds and floated above the air drafts, along with the rest of the Air Clan dragons.

Life... was simple. Life was good. Life was perfect.

[AustralianChaos]

In a word, Darwing was lost. He had no idea what he was doing or where he was going...the only thing he could focus on was his mother's last instructions before his self-imposed exile. She had told him to fly inland, away from the Sea Clan he had grown up in, and to stay near the clouds. She had told him that, if he followed these instruction, he should find what he was looking for.

Darwing understood that his mother was being deliberately vague, just in case someone was listening to their private conversation, but it did not stop him from become frustrated at her instructions. Fly inland? No Sea Dragons ever went inland. Stay near the clouds? Again, no dragons he knew of ever flew so high up. And what in the world did she mean by finding what he was looking for? By leaving, he had lost Aimara, his mother...the one dragon in his life who cared for him, who loved him. That sort of care and companionship was all he was looking for.

The Sea Clan, to put it mildly, hated Darwing...hated everything about him. He was too different, looked way too strange, from his physique to the bright yellow scales, which clashed violently with the charcoal grey skin of his wings and belly. Even as a hatchling he had been tormented and ridculed by everyone in his clan, except Aimara, his mother. But now, now he was in exile, forced to flee or else eventually get killed by one of his tormentors, and now he had no-one, and nothing, left...just the ache of lonliness and the wind in his face.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't notice the speckled purple and grey dragon until he was almost upon her. Giving a startled roar of surprise, he twisted his wings violently, a headache pounding behind his eyes at the rapid change in direction as he dived, missing the feathery dragon by mere inches, if that. Now in the clear, he flared his wings, pulling himself to a stop, turning around, looking for this dragon. He was sure he was seeing things, but he could have sworn that the dragon, aside from having a much more feathery coat than his scaly one, looked a lot like him...and definitely very different from any dragons back at his Sea Clan.

[zorayda]

Zorayda gave a sort of half-caw, half-roar of shock when another large being threatened to crash into her and end her flight prematurely. She expertly barrel-rolled to the side and righted herself, her sharp blue eyes seeking out the creature that had nearly brought her down. She assumed that it would be a fledgling flier of one of the Air Clan or something along those lines, so when she focused upon the other dragon, she did a literal double-take at his appearance.

Scales, not feathers--Sea Clan? But... this dragon, if she were to call it that, had wings! It was a male, bright yellow in color, and he looked just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

"Wh-what..." Her stammering was lost to their ears, the wind swiftly carrying the sound away. Zorayda was on auto-pilot, letting the air drafts carry her above sea level. She twitched her head and ears in a sign to land so that the two of them could view each other more clearly, even though she was unsure that he would follow. Zorayda turned on a sharp angle and banked towards a precipice she knew was close by, wondering if the dragon would come with her. Zorayda had no intention of harming him--she was smaller than he, in the first place, and secondly, she was extremely curious...

---

Aimara sighed heavily, the burden of her recent emotions still fresh on her mind. She lay upon a flat, water-worn rock, slick with ocean spray and mist. Her head and neck were curled into themselves, her bright eyes glazed with tears. She had just sent her son away... probably for good. Her beloved Darwing... the mix of Sea and Air, the first hybrid she'd ever seen of the two clans in her lifetime. It was because Aimara had fallen in love with one of the Air Clan--strong, sleek, beautiful, and free, he was something to behold. And now... now she was with one of her 'own' kind, though he wasn't very gentle or kind to her or her children, especially Darwing.

Two fat tears squeezed their way between her closing eyelids. Maybe... maybe her son would find happiness, wherever he was now. Maybe he would find out the truth and find it in him to forgive her...

A sudden splash half-startled the middle-aged dragoness out of her wistful state, and she grimaced when she saw who it was. Odet, one of the younger generation of the Sea Clan and a perfect example of their attitude.

"Missing that winged jerk?" The blue dragoness hissed. Odet's eyes narrowed in dislike. "It's all the same to me, I'm glad he's gone. I never liked him anyway."

Aimara did not feel like dealing with the others speaking of her now missing son this way. She lifted her head and growled softly, her mothers' instincts drawing her to do so. Odet smirked, her serpentine features sinister.

"Hmph. You should get back to the hunt instead of moping. All need to participate in the work before partaking of the feast." With that, the younger serpentine dragoness slid back into the water, her sparkling fins slipping under easily before she vanished deeper into the ocean.

[AustralianChaos]

Darwing eventually found the dragon he had nearly crashed into, and for a moment, he was mesmerised by the sheer uniqueness of the sight. She was completely different from any of the Sea Clan, having wings instead of fins, and her hide being covered in a feathery coating, similar, yet different, to that of birds. Her physique was remarkably similar to his, although she was smaller by a noticable degree, and seemed just as stunned to see him as he was to see her. In a state of mild shock, Darwing was only kept airborne by instinct as he stared rather blatantly, not realising what he was doing, simply too gobsmacked by the appearance of this 'new' dragon to realise how impolite he was being.

Darwing was eventually snapped out of his trance when the female twiced her head and ears, in a signal of some sort, one that Darwing did not know at all, before she turned and flew off at a slow pace, obviously heading somewhere, yet not running from him either. His curiosity taking voer, especially since this dragon had yet to give him the customary insulting greeting the Sea Clan always welcomed him with, he slowly turned and followed her, trying to figure out what was going on, as his shock started to morph into a mix of curiosity and confusion.

Soon enough, the feathered dragon lead him to a high precipice, and Darwing had his way to it and landed with the careful grace of a dragon experienced in flight, although his did give his wings a tired, pained stretch, wincing as the overused muscles protested. He had been flying non-stop for quite some time, practically since he had left the Sea Clan behind, and now that he was on solid ground again, his wings had quite plainly had enough. Folding them gingerly by his sides, he turned to face the dragon, intended on giving her a cautious greeting, by losing the words before they could be voiced? Would she even understand him? Was she merely luring him somewhere where she could bully him all by herself, like the Sea Clan dragons always liked to do? Stalled by his nervous hesitancy, he said nothing, and merely sat down, looking at his forefeet, clearly submissive, despite his obviously superior size.

----------

Bor'red knew where his mate would be...her favourite rock, her one quiet, private place where she was often left alone, had almost become her new home ever since Darwing left. Even in his thoughts, Bor'red spat the name with venom. He didn't care that Darwing was his own child...he hated the mutated, freakish abomination. The cursed child brought shame on him, and to this day, he was still hard-pressed to believe he could have fathered a child like that. But, completely unaware of Aimara's affair, Bor'red did believe it, and that made him hate the winged fiend all the more.

But as much as he hated Darwing, he still, in some deep part of his soul that he rarely tapped into, cared deeply for his mate, Aimara. He may not be the most loving, caring, or even gentle mate, but he wanted what was best for his 'normal' children, and for her, and that involved making them strong...physically and emotionally. And right now, Aimara's emotions seemed to have snapped.

As he sliced through the waves towards Aimara's favourite rock, he spotted a younger dragoness who, judging by the blue scales, could only be Odet, and judging my Aimara's curious mix of sadness and anger in her body language, it was obvious she had come to make another scathing comment regarding Darwing. The whole clan had become more and more open in their hatred of Darwing now that he was gone...if that was even possible.

As Odet left, Bor'red approached Aimara with mild caution...he figured her mood was tense, at best, and knew she could be just as vicious as him when provoked. He had heard the parting words of the young dragoness, though, and understand that part, at least. "Come on, Aimara," he said calmly, about as gentle as his voice ever got. "Odet's right, laying here is not accomplishing anything. And you know that th-...he's not coming back," he added, pulling himself short before he called Darwing something nasty. No point fraying her already-fractured mood. He was gone now, and not coming back...and Bor'red could live with that just fine.

[zorayda]

Zorayda landed easily, her naturally preferred back right leg hitting the ground before all of her other feet did. Her ivory claws clattered against the slick, sea-sprayed rocks and she fluttered her wings before tucking them against their sides. Her bright eyes watched the other dragon carefully as he made his own landing, the sounds of his feet having a bit more weight behind them as he lighted upon the precipice alongside her.

The dragoness was watching for any signs of aggression, ready to fly away, when the larger yellow male seemed to close in upon himself and look down in a gesture of submission. His feet tucked in in an awkward sign of shyness, and, despite her underlying feeling of mistrust, Zorayda's heart lurched a bit in sympathy. Poor guy, couldn't even look her in the eye properly.

"Uh, hey." Now that he was here, what was she supposed to say? Dumb idea. "I'm Zorayda of the Air Clan..." she continued, still a bit awkward but eager to find out more about the other. "So... who're you? And, um..." she hesitated, knowing that her next words might be rude. "Well, what kind of dragon are you, exactly?"

---

Aimara lifted her head to look her mate in the eye as he spoke. She could hear the undertones of concern for her, but she still was resentful of his implication that Darwing would be easy to 'get over'.

"I suppose not," she snapped at his last sentence, showing more teeth than necessary in the statement. "I'll just act as if he was never here, then? He was my son, Bor'red. Not just some rogue dragon. I know I must go back to participating in the Clan's activities, but..." she sighed, her angry expression crumpling into a mask of sadness once more. "It's just too soon... I just need time alone."

With that, she lay her head down once more, not meeting Bor'red's eyes.

[AustralianChaos]

Darwing looked up slightly as the dragoness introduced herself...Zorayda of the Air Clan. He did not fully meet her eyes, clearly not used to proper social interaction. Instead he mulled over her declaration of her identity...the Air Clan, it seemed familiar somehow, like a distant memory was tugging for his attention, begging him to search deep within his mind to find it, but try as he might, nothing seemed to click.

In the end, Darwing was forced from his thoughts as Zorayda spoke up again, asking him about his identity. Looking up again, briefly meeting her eyes before ducking back down again, Darwing idly fidgeted nervously, wondering what Zorayda was going to do to him...if anything. "I...My name is Darwing," he said slowly, hesitantly. "And I'm..." he was about to label himself as one of the Sea Clan, but stopped short. He had never belonged there, and the Clan had never truly accepted him. There was only one answer he could give. "...I'm nobody," he finally admitted, clearly believing that latest declaration. "An outcast..."

He paused for a brief moment, before raising his head once more, looking back at where they had flown from, noticing the distant silhouettes of a few more dragons, obviously the rest of this Air Clan. "I'm sorry for trespassing," he said, an edge of fear in his voice now, clearly expecting some harsh repurcussion for his invasion of their land. "I did not realise...there was another Clan here. I can leave..." he finally said, actually standing, preparing to fly off without waiting for an answer. No-one liked him...no-one ever wanted his company...he might as well just leave before they decided to punish him. But even as he stood, he hesitated. He did not know why, and what he never realised was that some small, long-forgotten part of him actually held the tiniest, vaguest hope that Zorayda might protest his sudden departure...might give him a chance to destroy the lonliness that had consumed his whole life.

----------

Bor'red gave no outward reaction when Aimara reacted rather scathingly to his words, seeming ready to work herself up into furious temper...before simply crumbling back to her misery and requesting to be left alone. Usually when Aimara got worked up, she could be difficult to calm back down...seeing it happen on it's own simply proved to Bor'red just how hard Aimara was taking Darwing's exile...and how attached she had become to the mutated, pitiful excuse for a dragon.

But he said none of that, knowing it was pointless...Aimara was aware of his dislike for the one she dared to call his child, and repeating it would only serve to provoke her further. As she lay back down, clearly not wanting his company right now, Bor'red gave a quiet snort. "Fine...I'll leave you to your thoughts," he said, forcing his tone to stay neutral despite his annoyance at his mate's self-destructive behaviour. He turned to dive back into the water, then paused once more, glancing back over his shoulder, the slightest note of concern reaching his voice for once as he added one final statement. "Just don't stay up here forever..." he said, before turning back and diving into the water, swiftly slicing through the waves, heading to meet up with the rest of the Clan for the daily hunt, wondering if Aimara would actually bother to join in today, or simply go hungry in her misery?

[zorayda]

"No, wait!" Zorayda shouted at Darwing's retreating back. She noted his hesitancy to leave, and his abrupt assumption of her rejection of him. "I've never seen a dragon like you before, and I think my family will be curious too," she said, hoping that she sounded persuasive. It would be nice to have a friend, someone to talk to, someone her own age... and he was a flier! A darn good one, if what she saw was any indicator.

Her heart went out to this stranger--it felt as if destiny tugged at her soul, making her encourage him to stay.

"Please stay..." she said, a little more softly.

----

Odet had seen the exchange between Aimara and her mate, and the older female's distress made her feel satisfied. Somewhere inside, Odet blamed Aimara for the abomination that was Darwing, for harboring his freak nature and coddling him, shielding him from the clan. That she sent him away made Odet proud of the Sea Clan once more. No more would they have to hide the freak, the stranger. No longer would there be a flier among their clan. She snapped at her brother, who had been attempting to steal the prey that she'd caught. Yes, the Sea Clan would prevail. Nobody needed that creature Darwing any longer to taint their seas. No longer.

----

Aimara watched her mate leave with a tinge of regret. Even if he was unkind to her, she still felt a soft glow deep in her heart for the dragon she called a mate. He was once so much kinder and more charming, doting and caring... but the birth of Darwing seemed to have hardened him into what he was now. She sighed, wishing she hadn't been so harsh--but she could not sit by and let her mate attack her son's honor so. It wasn't right for a mother to do...

She lifted her head and looked at the sky with more than a little wistfulness. The ones she truly loved were out there, Darwing and her beloved Slanke, the ones that would forever be in the back of her mind.

Finally, she slithered off of the flat rock in search of dinner, hoping that she could force herself to eat at least a little, for the sake of her mate and the rest of her children.

[AustralianChaos]

Darwing, paused, flinching lightly at Zorayda's sudden shout for him to wait. He did turn around, facing her once more as she tried to convince him to stay. He cringed rather noticably at her reference to his highly unique looks, which had always been the main cause of all the abuse he had suffered. But her tone seemed kinder, almost pleading with him to stay for a little while. It reminded him of his mother, Aimara, the only one who truly cared for him.

Sighing shakily at the memory of his mother, Darwing firmly planted his half-open wings back against their sides as Zorayda made a gentler plea for him to stay. "Okay..." he finally said. "Only if you're sure I'm not intruding," he added, his shy, submissive tone returning. He found it hard to believe that Zorayda would genuinely want him to stay, for any other reason than to hurt him somehow for intruding. But the kind tone, so similar to Aimara's, stayed the worst of his fears, and let him trust her...to an extent, at least. He was cautious, and showing it.

----------

As Bor'red made his way into the hunt, he caught sight of Odet briefly, pausing as he noticed the rather satisfied smirk on her snout. He knew that she was revelling in Aimara's despair, and he could feel his own anger boiling up to the surface. He might not like Darwing either, but he was gone now, and Aimara was still his mate...taking satisfaction from her misery was pushing it too far.

Twisting rather rapidly, catching a moderate-sized prey with practiced ease, he then turned and made his way to Odet, his slight frown showing he was displeased, if not outright furious at her. "Odet," he greeted, his voice sharp, biting. "While I hate the winged freak as much as the next dragon, taking it out on my mate is going too far. Our leader accepted anything we might do to Darwing, but I'm sure he won't be so forgiving if he finds out you have been harassing my mate in his absence." The implied threat was less than subtle, but then Bor'red wasn't really the subtle type.

"Now, if you're that desperate to have a go at the abomination, get out there and find him yourself. Aimara may have birthed the thing, but she's still my mate, and if you keep forgetting that she is still one of the Sea Clan, I can assure you that there will be consequences. Your troubles are with Darwing, not her. Get that right, and we won't have a problem." His rant over for now, Bor'red paused, waiting for Odet's reaction to being put in her place.

[zorayda]

Zorayda couldn't suppress the grin that came to her mouth, flashing some of the white, even teeth that had just earlier caught a wriggling fish straight from the ocean. A friend! A friend her age, someone to talk to and fly with! Someone other than just her mother, or sometimes her father or the elders... she was the only truly young dragon in the clan at the moment, so having someone like Darwing was exciting.

"Oh, thank you! I've been so bored, I don't have anybody young enough to talk to me without telling me some kind of experienced story or another," she snorted, ruffling her light gray feathers. "You look kinda funny, but you can fly, so there shouldn't be a problem with the rest of us..." she trailed off, eyeballing him and really taking in his appearance. Scales... featherless and smooth yellow scales. That was odd, to say the least.

"Anyway, come and fly with me, I'll find my mother and the Clan elder to introduce you!" The dragoness was smiling, thrilled to have someone to introduce to the others, someone new and interesting. Nothing fun had happened in the clan for so long... boooooring. She shuffled to the edge of the precipice, preparing to take off. Her feathered tail swished back and forth in happiness. "Hey, at least you're not from the Sea Clan," she added, rolling her eyes as if Darwing would get what she was talking about.

She didn't really get the subtle nuances of his speech and body language--though she knew he was shy, Zorayda was naturally not, so she didn't get that Darwing would be extremely cautious when meeting strangers. Nevertheless, she gave him a cheeky smile, encouraging him to come with her. She had a feeling that this dragon was going to change something... something big. And probably for the better.
------

Odet's senses tingled as she turned to find Bor'red staring at her, his gaze full of contempt. She took his speech unblinkingly, bowing her head to be below his as was proper for a younger dragonet to do with an elder one. Odet was aware of the threat behind his words and nodded slowly in understanding, her eyes never leaving his.

Without a word, she tilted her chin up slightly in a somewhat defiant gesture. She understood what he'd said, but she would not allow another to threaten her without some kind of subtle retaliation.

"Of course," she hissed quietly, the words coming out in a fluid tone. She kept his gaze, her deep, cold gray eyes never leaving his hostile ones. She waited an uncomfortably long time before escaping back into the waters, her message clear: Odet would never submit. And though her words said otherwise, she would never forgive Aimara for coddling that winged freak.

[AustralianChaos]

Darwing hopes started lifting as Zorayda went into a long, drawn-out, excited speech on how great it would be to have him here. He faltered slightly as she mentioned his appearance...he never liked being reminded of how different he was to everyone else. But when her continue rambling suggested she did not really care about that too much, his happiness soon returned, as he came up beside her as they both prepared to take to the skies once more. his wings protested, still strained from his long flight to get here, but he ignored it, revelling in the rather strange feeling of actually being happy for once.

Then Zorayda made a comment about the Sea Clan, and reality snapped back into existance...hard. He easily caught the implied meaning behind her reference to the Sea Clan...no-one here liked them, obviously. He froze, on the verge of taking off, very nearly tripping over his tail in surprise in panic. They weren't aware he was from the Sea Clan, and they obviously had a thing against them. he completely forgot about Zorayda's offer to take him to see the clan elders as he tried to figure out what to do. He could always avoid talking about his home clan, or outright lie, but somewhere inside him, he knew that the truth was bound to get out eventually. One way or another, he could not escape the fact that he was just found a clan that would not like his past home.

----------

Bor'red watched Odet, noting the defiance in her posture after his speech, and the lack of honestly if her two quiet words. He knew she would not submit to his threats, and would defy them if she could...Odet always had been highly rebellious, and probably always will be. He just hoped that his words made her think twice before taking her hatred of Darwing out on Aimara...his tolerance for that was low enough as it was.

After a long, tense silence, in which Bor'red never took his gaze from Odet, the younger dragoness finally turned and left, Bor'red finally dropped his hard, almost angry look, turning back to Aimara's favourite spot...only to find her gone. The sight actually brough a ghost of a smile to his snout...at least Aimara wasn't going to wallow in her misery all the time, at least. It was a start, and Bor'red could accept that. Pulling his mind away from that, before he got to thinking too much about Darwing again, he turned and made his way back to the hunt. He may have already caught something, but maybe he could snatch up a second catch...every little bit helps, after all.