Answering The Call

What High bumped into in the dark was the chest of a dragon, black and piebald silver. The great beast's face came down to snuffle at High, large faceted eyes whirling light blue with a hint of green. Something instinctive told High that these were happy colors.

Actually, the feeling that washed over High was a feeling that High had never experienced before, ever. Like soaking in a warm bath if the bath was full of love instead of water, soul filling up, finding its other half. Total completion.

It took you long enough to find me, my dear, the dragon, for the creature could only BE a dragon, told High in High's own brain. My name is Velorath. I'm not the only one waiting for you here, but as I was waiting the longest, I took it upon myself to cut the line.


In Perfect Light, In Perfect Place Black Mottle Female, Velorath
Speech: Bold#25252b

Would you believe that with time comes grace? High might not. Yet. Her past is rife with tragedy and trauma. The world she comes from is crueller than most, engineered on the death of High’s kind, but High escaped. Even if quite often it doesn’t feel like she’s escaped, and the predators are still lurking in the lights at the edge of the shadows, waiting to hurt her. Even if it still feels like she’s still on the run, and every egg she sees is in danger. But with time comes grace. Or at least a dragon intent on becoming High’s guardian, safe space, and guide into this new world called Teragaia, where things are very different, and maybe High can heal. Eventually, maybe, she’ll see that she did what she had to do to stay alive and meet her Velorath, and the intense guilt will fade to a distant sadness that such a horrible world existed, but with the assurance that High herself was not to blame for any of it.

Velorath grew to adulthood in the Weyr waiting for her rider to find her. She’s seen the highs, the good, the lows, the bad, the greatest kindnesses and the worst atrocities that people can pass on to each other. An unusually thoughtful dragon, she’s learned to take such things in stride. Embrace it all. It’s life, raw, unedited. That’s what makes it beautiful. And all of it led to her finding High, which makes even the worst heartache worth everything. Now that they’re together, Velorath also knows how her High feels about her past. And Velorath would like High to stop twisting in the wind, now, please. What is necessary is not always what is nice, and sometimes circumstances are awful, but you do what you have to do to stay alive. The important thing is to keep moving forward. There’s always a reason to keep living, and someday you’ll find it. Velorath’s policy goes something like, “Here’s to the heartache,” because it’s the pain of living that sweetens the moments of joy and brings worth to victory. …and it certainly has to be living that brings worth to victory, because Velorath isn’t the type to fight fairly and earn bragging rights. Like her wild black dragon ancestors, she’s an ambush predator. If it’s at all possible to hide and then attack from the shadows, that’s exactly what she’ll do. Black mottles are ideally suited for stealth, and Velorath capitalizes on that. She also has the black dragon love of sparkly objects, although Velorath is tamer than most and only hoards what sparklies she can come by without stealing. If High asks nicely, Velorath might even show her the stash. Nobody but High gets to see it. High’s got herself a defender now, a proper protector, one that will make any threat think twice. It’s not Velorath’s nature to react immediately with violence, unless she has to, but she’s not above puffing herself up and making herself look bigger than she is if that will scare someone off. Sometimes the best way to win a fight is not to fight at all, she’s found, and that certainly results in fewer injuries to see the Weyrhealer about! A little prudence never hurt anyone, rather, it pays to be cautious. Not so cautious that she misses out on life, but just enough that she’s not one of those dunderheaded bronzes that heads face-first into danger and then wonders why they got hurt. For High, at least, Velorath is a good listener, and sympathetic. Even if High doesn’t really want to talk about it, Velorath will be there.

For the most part, Velorath’s conformation is that of a Pernese dragon. Also, for the most part, she’s black. But her smooth, scaleless skin is piebald, shining silver bursting out from the darkness of her hide in irregular patches. There’s a small shield crest on her head with two small horns, suggestive of a wild silver dragon, possibly the source of the compassion in her nature. A dainty creature, Velorath reaches 19m nose to tailtips, with broad wings also suggestive of a wild silver dragon. Velorath breathes repulsion gas, knocking anything and anyone caught in it back and away from her.

Mountain winds through a salt marsh, cold but somehow fresh, the touch of Velorath’s mind, as patchwork as her body. To a stranger it’s more marsh than mountain, easy to get lost in the mire. High, however, is borne aloft on the winds of Velorath’s deep, unconditional love.