Fiona

the Frankenflorist

Fiona is a lover of life, despite what her title might indicate. At an early age she decided to settle down with a handsome spiral and raise hatchlings worthy of the Arcanist. After months of an empty nest, the spiral moved on to start a family with a snapper and was soon rearing three hatchlings. When another relationship ended due to no offspring, Fiona couldn't stand staying in her clan anymore and left. Her strong affinity to nature led her to move to the Viridian Labyrinth. It was her hope that someone or something could provide a cure for her infertility. Priestesses of the Gladekeeper could find no curse or plague strain that could be the cause. They asked Fiona to consider adopting one of the Glade's many orphans, but Fiona yearned for a child of her own blood. Thinking she might be under the influence of something other than dragon magic, Fiona sought out a Longneck Mender for aid. The result was the same; there was nothing perceivably wrong. In a final desperate plea to the Gods, she gave up all her possessions as an offering and spent eleven days praying to each one in turn. On the twelfth day Fiona decided the only one who could help her was herself. "Not all flowers have thorns; this one has teeth."

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Fiona combined her passion for flora, fauna, and knowledge to create a conservatory that unnerves even the most veteran warriors in an attempt to learn the secrets of life. No one knows exactly how her creations come to be, but glimpses of a double-headed treesnake hanging from a tree with more teeth than a sicklemaw gar has kept clannmates from delving too deep into the mystery. Fiona's favorite creation is a strangler variant she has dubbed Morning Gory. It can usually be seen coiled around her neck. Supposedly it was created to hunt rodents who'd been nibbling on her flower specimens by hiding in plain sight. Her latest project is the Saguaro Spider. It roots its thin front legs into the ground and holds its thicker back legs in the air to mimic a cactus. It appears to have areoles with spines to enhance the ruse, but if one looks closely at the last two rows they'd see the spines missing; these are the spider's eyes. Though not deadly, if picked for a snack the spider will spring into action and bite the culprit with six needle-like fangs that can pierce even a dragon's hide. Fiona claims this creature is a teaching tool to enhance botany lessons she intends to teach.

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Chimeric flora and fauna were just stepping stones to her ultimate goal: creating a child she could call her own. Fiona learned through her experiments that it was impossible to create sentient life from lesser components. She sought out nesting parents with eggs that weren't thriving and offered a chance to save them.

Fiona proposed taking the egg and 'treating it' with a magical infusion that should strengthen it, the catch was she would be keeping the hatchling if it was a sucess. While most parents were wary of her offer and refused, there was an Imperial shadow couple who finally agreed to let her have their dimming egg. Fiona immediately went to work combining her own genetic material with a hearty megashrimp's and then infused the egg with it.

The egg took a longer period of time to hatch than normal. Fiona prepared herself in case the attempt was a failure, or worse. Finally a little imperial broke through the shell. He bore a resemblance to the megashrimp and not his parents, so Fiona knew outwardly it was a success. The following days she studied him closely to see if he was affected in any way due to her meddling. Other than choosing a megashrimp as a familiar and being a bit wobbly on his feet, he seemed perfectly normal.

Finally Fiona had the child she'd longed for, but why stop at one?