Kait

Kait took after her father.

Not in a professional sense, oh no. She was much too earnest for card games and fortune telling, her poker face dashed in an instant with reckless enthusiasm. But Kait had a bright grin and a magnetic personality that could draw others in, and a genuine interest in others that let her pull their secrets right out into the open. A personality like that could be dangerous in the wrong hands, but Kait had never been anything but empathetic. Hearing the hurts of others, though, can carry a high cost to the listener. Kait was no exception.

She took to hiding, after a while, her gaze turning inward as she took some time to find herself. She'd spent so long being a sounding board that sometimes she thought that was all she was good for. Kait found herself drawn to little river snails, often smushing their shells in her claws after she'd eaten the meat within. She started smudging the crude pigment on rocks. It was just smears, at first. She carved out her own little territory in the Tangled Wood and marked it with little smudge drawings.

Slowly, as she started to find her 'voice', her rock and tree paintings grew more complex. She found more sophisticated pigments, and her media started to change. Her heart sang the first time her claws touched a canvas. She painted dark things and bright things, most abstract, but heavily steeped in feeling. Many of her pieces featured bright, wild, oppressive lights hunting down a small hatchling in the darkness.

Of course, word spread. Word always did. Soon, dragons traveled from far and wide to see Kait's little painted corner of the Tangled Wood. Many offered to buy her pieces, and she even got a few commissions. It was a lucrative business, but Kait couldn't help but feel herself shrinking again as time went on. Each personal piece sold felt like she was selling off a little bit of her soul. It wasn't like before, exactly. She wasn't giving away her heart for free. Kait couldn't shake the feeling of being trapped under the weight of her own skill: a skill she'd developed specifically to make herself happy.

Whatever the reasoning, it was time to move on.

Kait found the Ashen Nomads almost entirely by accident. She'd left the Tangled Wood, bouncing from commission to commission, and never staying long in one place. She'd long ago learned that her value only extended so far as she could provide something someone else wanted... or, at least, that was what her experience taught her. It was lonely, very lonely, for someone as intensely social as Kait had once been, but it allowed her to set her own boundaries and keep some of her energy for herself. She had just finished up a commission for a wealthy iron baron near the coast and was traveling at night, as she preferred. Suddenly, she felt more than heard a vast presence settle itself behind her.

"Well, I do believe, in my humble opinion, that that's more than far enough for you for right now," a deep, feminine voice rumbled from the shadows. "Please state your name and your official business for recordkeeping purposes. We mean you no harm if you mean us no harm in return. Can't have someone coming after our most vulnerable members, you see. We have had our fair share of raiders before, let me tell you. This one time, we had a group of Maren... Maren! Can you believe that? They swam up the creek we just so happened to be camped next to, and--"

When Kait could finally get a word in edgewise, she explained to the camp guard that she was really just an artist, and had no idea there was a camp close by. The chatty Imperial explained that her name was Betan, and that Kait would have to visit with the clan leader if she was to pass through. Kait agreed, and soon found herself face to face with Tecla.

More than half of diplomacy was listening, and Tecla provided Kait with something she'd scarcely ever had before-- a listening ear. Soon, Kait had poured out her life story to the first dragon who'd bothered to actually listen to her. Kait's artistic background appealed to Tecla's Wildclaw senses. There was a space for Kait within the clan, if she so chose-- Kait could make the clan's tents and living spaces beautiful as she and their owners saw fit, but if she didn't want to, she didn't have to. Her worth wasn't based on what she could do for others. She had her own inherent worth, just by being a dragon, just by contributing to the clan's safety in numbers. Kait joined them on the spot.

She is never in one spot for long, and over time, the others in the clan have grown to be like family. They value her for who she is, and she values them, which is really all she ever wanted in a clan. As Kait became more comfortable, the tents that go up at night became more and more beautiful, painted inside and out with gorgeous designs in special weatherproof paint. She paints them to suit their owners, whether on commission or as gifts, but is just as happy to pitch in and help with the day to day operation of the clan.

She wasn't rooted to one place, but one couldn't pry Kait out of her new family with all the crowbars in the world.
written by: Axqu

Region