Aidan
(#33209964)
Level 1 Guardian
Familiar
Stormcloud Harpy
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
Energy: 50/50
This dragon’s natural inborn element is Light.
Male Guardian
This dragon is hibernating.
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Personal Style
Apparel
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
14.87 m
Wingspan
14.08 m
Weight
9800.02 kg
Genetics
Garnet
Metallic
Metallic
Sanguine
Alloy
Alloy
Twilight
Stained
Stained
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 1 Guardian
EXP: 0 / 245
STR
7
AGI
6
DEF
8
QCK
5
INT
5
VIT
8
MND
6
Biography
NOT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR LENDING
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Aidan
{ AY - dan } Nicknames: Dan, DanDan, DanDan Revolution Chief of Security ♦ Aestralla - Custom Lore Hatchery 
╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮ Separation Anxiety (written by Disillusionist / special thanks to Sienna) ╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯ |
Coven Viscera, the clan was called. Nestled deep within the domain of Shadow, yet tantalizingly close to the Scarred Wasteland's border, it was a forbidding place. Children were encouraged to leave the clan — it increased the chances of them finding more converts and supporters of their cause — and Aidan was educated on the clan's mission, ways, and abilities. His was a more lenient education than one might think, but he grew to scorn the rigidity that governed the adults' lives. If he found no reason to leave, he would probably be put to work as one of the coven's underlings. Or else he would get conscripted as a clan guard. His parents, Vyrek and Ilvastar, were among the clan's mightiest and most loyal protectors, feared for their cunning as much as their prowess. They had had a hand in Aidan's education and he seemed to be inheriting what might be considered their more useful qualities. Aidan had been quite proud to hear these remarks as a child, but now that he was approaching adulthood, the words filled him with something close to dread. The life of an underling or a guard was not one he would enjoy — he was headstrong and curious about the world waiting beyond, and the thought of squandering all those opportunities for a life of servitude made him scowl.
He had to get away....Even now, he's not sure if he can call it a chance remark. Perhaps it was not chance that he heard of a Guardian's Search at a young age. He queried his parents about it, but Vyrek and Ilvastar were their usual distant selves, too preoccupied with their duties to give a thorough explanation to the adolescent dragon. Aidan got a general idea of the Search from them, but that was all. Indeed, it was from an ancient vampire that he received more thorough knowledge of the Search.
Anita was a scarlet-eyed Spiral — or at least she looked like one. Over the years she had amassed great amounts of information, some of it stored in codices and manuscripts, the rest of it in her brain. She seemed quite close-mouthed at first when Aidan first approached her, but then he posed the question and her red eyes widened; her mouth stretched into a pike's toothy smile. Over the next few days, the young Guardian had his horizons stretched to their limits as the Spiral presented him with a dizzying array of tomes and papers, all of them centered on the mysterious phenomenon known as the Search. There were autobiographies, dry scientific diatribes, maps and sketches and stories....Over it all, Anita's low-droning lectures were nearly constant. They hung over Aidan like smoke, seeming to seep into his ears and nose, down into his lungs where they fed the hammering of his heart. Those two words: the Search, the Search, the Search...
When Vyrek and Ilvastar found that their son had left home, they were not at all concerned. They knew that he had been asking about the Search and that Anita had been sharing information. She preened when they confirmed this with her; of course she had been telling Aidan what he'd wanted to know! A dragon as wise and knowledgeable as her, why of course she had been willing and able to help him — and help him she certainly had!
It didn't matter much to the clan whether or not Aidan returned, as long as he didn't subscribe to any machinations supporting Coven Aestrella. For now, he was just another young Guardian on a Search.
Except that he actually wasn't....
Young Aidan scowled at the forest he had once called “home”. He turned his back on it, flicking his tail dismissively as he did. The dragons of Coven Viscera were all devoted to their leader (at least his parents would have him believe so), but such a life was not for him. And at this point in time, he was convinced the Search wasn't, either. It had been an excuse to leave the Coven, nothing more. He had eschewed his clan's ways, and he was his own dragon now. He would not be fettered to a god, a clan...not even a Charge.
The vampiric Spiral had chuckled indulgently when he'd voiced similar beliefs during her lectures; he had glared at her with blazing eyes. "Surely not every single Guardian has a Charge," he had scoffed.
His adolescent scoff had been smoothly overridden by Anita's harrumph, for it carried the weight of ages with it. "It is not a choice, young Aidan," she had practically purred to him. "It is instinct that drives the Search."
Here and now, he tossed his head. He'd left his clan only because he'd wanted to, not because he was being driven by some deeper instinct or feeling. The world was at his feet, and he was determined to pick it over on his own terms.
Over the next few years, Aidan wandered around Sornieth. The skills he had learned from his clan were very useful; out in the wilderness, he sometimes ran into trouble and had to defend himself. “A Guardian travels alone,” Anita had lectured him. “The Search is such that companions and their various errands usually hinder it, so if you are to find your Charge, and quickly, it is best that you journey alone.”
More than once he considered going against these words just to defy them, but Aidan was not a talkative dragon and did not take to others well. He disliked their prying remarks, how they looked deep into his yellow eyes to ascertain where he’d been born and then started pelting him with questions about his Search (because he was a young Guardian traveling without a destination in sight — of course he was on a Search!). Over time, he learned to deflect these questions with smoothly-placed statements, a lie or two. “The weather is peculiar today — but then, you must have lived here long. Have you ever seen a storm like this, old drake?” he would inquire. The other dragon would happily launch into a speech of their own, and it would be some hours before they realized they had revealed much about themselves but still knew nothing about the young stranger. It was like Anita and her lectures all over again — except now, Aidan was in control.
Although his manners improved as he became more familiar with the other regions of Sornieth, he was still very much a loner. The old vampire had been right — traveling was smoother without other dragons to worry about. No companions...no passengers...no Charge...
But also no friendship, no protection or assistance. Other dragons had said this to Aidan, but their advice had gone ignored, for it didn’t suit him. His arrogance was very nearly his undoing.
It was an inky night when he approached the end of the Windswept Plateau, where it met the open ocean. There had been a moon earlier, but it had gone behind the clouds. Aidan thought he could see traces of moonbeans where they flickered out from behind cover, gently touching the surface of the sea.
There were passages beneath the Twisting Crescendo, but they were long and exhausting slogs and Aidan was eager to reach the Reedcleft Ascent. He had the half-baked notion of swimming through the sea around the cliffs instead. He was an excellent swimmer and reasoned that if he stayed within sight of the shore, he would make it.
He stepped into the water, and he swam. His toes scraped against the sand, and waves lapped at his sides....Out of the corner of one golden eye, he watched the shoreline scroll past. He could see the great mountains, palm trees fringing the shore....
He stroked with his paws, found no purchase. He was now treading deep water. For a moment, he paused, confused — he hadn’t meant to swim out this far. Had there been a current, subtly pulling him away from the land?
He thought there was a breeze at first — his ears tingled, and he instinctively turned. But the surface of the water remained steady, and the clouds stood still overhead. He could vaguely see the moon, and it was reflected on the ocean....
Deep beneath the ocean...
A voice. His frills quivered again. Something was calling him; he felt the force of their voice press against his soles, wrap languidly around his limbs. His toes twitched, and he ceased paddling. He drifted gently in the water.
“Beautiful dragon...Such a beautiful dragon,” something whispered in his ear. It was obvious that the words referred to him, but after they sank in, twisting into his brain, they insidiously distorted his thought processes. Underneath the water...someone was waiting for him. Somebody was there, calling and singing; they were beautiful, and they were singing for him alone, and he had to see them....
Aidan didn’t even swim. He sank, his body sliding beneath the water as smoothly and silently as the moon sliding behind the clouds. He glimpsed it briefly, its silverness shining clear and bright, before the waters closed over his head.
And down into the darkness, down and down...The singing was all around him now, wrapping around his forelimbs, tugging him down. The moon blazed overhead; all the clouds had finally fled from it. “How beautiful it is, and the stars, too,” Aidan thought dreamily. He could see thousands of them, glittering and flashing, so close he could almost touch...
There was a thundering noise. The water swirled around Aidan — and the singing was briefly distorted. A frown chased across his face.
“Water.” Cold, he was so cold... “I’m under the water!” Suddenly the coldness doused his brain as well; he came fully awake, fighting and thrashing. He was staring through the surface at the moon shining overhead, but his forelimbs would not move; something was gripping his forelimbs.
And it was dragging him down! “No...No, not here!” Aidan craned his neck and beat his wings. He strained towards the surface — not so much to reach it as to tear himself away from the insidious force drawing him into the abyss. He didn’t look down; he wouldn’t look. He was afraid, deeply terrified, that he would look down and see a horror beyond imagining, something that would drive him mad just from how hideous it was. Its slimy touch still bound his forepaws, pulling him down and down....
And now he felt that same icy touch seize his back legs.
Deep within the water, Aidan howled, a roar of desperation as much as of rage. Caught here, in the darkness, in a land where nobody knew his name! “Up!” he wanted to bellow, and to his rapidly-darkening mind, it seemed that he could hear an echo—
“Up! Come up! Get up already, blast you...!”
Then the cold enveloped him, shocking in its intensity, squeezing all the air from his lungs. He’d struggled too much; there was no fight left in him now. Even as his conscious mind screamed, the rest of him sank into darkness.
Minutes passed. Aidan was aware of the world in a strange, half-awake way. There was the feel of the wind brushing his damp face, and sand rubbing against his scales. There was also the sound of lapping water, but it filled him with deep dread, and his mind instinctively shrank from it....
And then pressure, cold and crushing pressure, upon his back, between his wings.
Water welled up from within him. His shoulders heaved, and instead of a roar, he regurgitated a great deal of seawater. He struggled to his feet and dithered in place, coughing and hacking. He was shivering and had an odd headache, but he was all right...still alive, anyway.
“Are you well, traveler? You gave me quite a scare.”
Aidan stared at her. The other dragon was a huge Imperial, easily twice his length, her gleaming hide as dark as the overhead sky. Her antlers and underside glittered silver, like so many tiny stars.
She had a hefty trident belted to her waist, but despite her watchful stare, she didn’t seem ready to draw it. She was calmly cleaning her talons, scraping away crusts of sand and salt.
“What happened to me?” Aidan mumbled. The Imperial snorted at him. “I was passing by on my way to the Reedcleft Ascent when I saw you floundering about in the water. I pulled you out and pumped the water from your lungs. Are you new to these parts?” Her eyes narrowed. “There’s a vicious current just offshore, you know.”
“I thought I heard...a voice...” Aidan trailed off. It sounded stupid even to him.
“I am Mara, born in the Southern Icefield, but my family makes its home in the Sunbeam Ruins,” the Imperial introduced herself. Aidan didn’t really hear; he was too busy looking down at his forelimbs. There were no marks visible against his dark red hide, but there was...slime? Seaweed? “I was dragged down by a rip current and weeds?!”
“What did you mean, ‘a voice’?”
Aidan snapped to attention. Suddenly he was deeply flustered, and whenever he was flustered, he became surly. “Forget it. I misremembered things,” he snapped.
“Well, I wouldn’t be surprised; being under the water that long might’ve addled your senses a bit,” Mara responded. She seemed very casual about it, and Aidan’s ire rose as she craned her neck forward to peer at his limbs. “What are you shivering like that for? It wasn’t that cold. What are those?”
“Leave me alone!” Aidan barked. He pointedly turned away from her and started stripping the gunk from his forelegs. They shrank in the night air, rapidly losing moisture, seemingly dissolving right in front of his eyes.
As he flung the strips away, he heard Mara grumble, “You’re welcome — I suppose if I made a habit of helping only dragons who were nice to me, the world would be a whole lot emptier.”
“I already said—”
“No.” Mara was suddenly standing, and Aidan now saw how large she was. Not double his length...maybe triple. Her eyes glittered brightly, and he was startled by the waves of cold pouring off of her. “Actually, you didn’t.”
“I didn’t?”
He had always been able to stare other dragons down. It didn’t work this time. As he grudgingly looked away, Mara asked, with deceptive pleasantness, “Do you want to start over?”
He sucked in a deep breath. “Thank you for saving my life, Mara. I had thought I could go around the steppes and make my way by sea instead, but clearly I was wrong. It was such great fortune you happened to be passing by.” He knew he was being horrendously rude and bad-tempered, but it’d been a rough night so far, and he really didn’t care. He did force out a fake smile, though, just to attempt to smooth things over so he could continue on his merry way.
Mara looked at him for a long, solid moment. Just when Aidan felt ready to snap again — or, heaven forbid, cringe — she responded, “You are very welcome. I was pleased for the opportunity to assist you. By the way, Guardian, I didn’t catch your name...?”
“It’s ‘Aidan’,” he answered curtly. “Well. It’s late. Thank you. I had best continue my journey.”
It proved to be easier said than done.
He tried, he really did. He moved past Mara and strode up the length of the beach. He was deeply conscious of her standing behind him, her eyes boring into his back....He stopped. Tried to take another step forward, but it was as if something had gotten a hook into him and was hauling him back to her. He halted again. When he turned to look at Mara, the feeling eased, but his eyes were still bright with anxiety; something was wrong.
She had noticed his strange movements and was frowning at him. “Did you forget something? Maybe drop something into the water?”
“No, no...” He paced away at a right angle. He went behind a boulder so that he was out of her line of sight....
The feeling of repulsion was so strong that he nearly groaned. Before he knew it, he was veering back around the boulder towards her, consternation written plainly on his face.
The Imperial was now making ready to leave. “This place does not seem safe. It’s a bit creepy, as a matter of fact.” She tilted her head. “Are your feet all right? You’re walking very strangely.”
“No, I...it is...I can’t...” He gurgled deep within his throat.
“What’s wrong?”
He explained it to her as best as he could. At the end of his garbled statements, Mara looked ready to throw him back into the ocean. The only thing that stopped her was how visibly distressed he was.
“I feel physically sick when I try to move away from you; I think I’ll have to stay close to you!” Aidan said it as though it were a death sentence. “What could be causing this? I’ve traveled through Sornieth for many years and this has never happened to me before!”
That struck a bell in Mara’s mind. “A Guardian traveling alone...You’re not on a Search, are you?”
“No.” He gawped at her, horror slowly dawning on his face.
Mara’s eyes narrowed. “Or maybe if you were...you aren’t now—”
“NOOOOOOOO!” Aidan’s anguished howl shook the heavens. Mara thought she actually saw the sea heave in response; so loud was his roar.
As meetings between Guardians and Charges went, it was not a very happy one. Aidan had devoted his short life to staying unfettered and free, living on his own terms, and that had been abruptly destroyed a few minutes ago by a single chance encounter. He didn’t actually say any of these, but Mara got the message from all his rolling about in the sand with his forepaws over his face, howling and growling at the moon.
As the said Charge, it was very offensive to her. She soon got up and started walking away.
Behind her, Aidan’s head popped up like a lantern on a stick. “Where’re you going?”
“Away.”
“Don’t leave me!” he blurted — and immediately hated himself for it, but it was too late now. He gathered his belongings and slung them round his wings and shoulders even as he scrambled after his new Charge.
The two of them strode along in moody silence. It took some time. When the sea was a slim line behind them and they were some way inland, Aidan finally spoke: “What do you travel for?” He still sounded very surly about the whole thing.
Mara graciously overlooked that. “I come from a prestigious Light clan. My parents are collectors of strange and interesting curios, and I would like to deal in such objects. I aim to become a merchant and make my fortune someday.”
Aidan’s frills rose. “You have traveled, too?”
“Far and wide, young Aidan. I haven’t been apprenticed to anybody — parents were too busy to help, you know — so I took it upon myself to visit Sornieth’s various regions, get a general feel for the populaces and economies before I really and truly get started. And of course,” she winked, “dragons will be likelier to buy from someone they’re already familiar with.”
“Of course,” Aidan answered — though really, he’d only heard the first part, about her parents being too busy.
“Traveling with other dragons is not so bad, you know. I’ve done it many times! It’s quite pleasant; there’s lots of singing and talking and you learn so many things....Then, too, there is safety in numbers.”
“Safety.” Now that his earlier bad mood had worn off, Aidan was feeling very cold and very small. His ears tingled as if traced by a frigid wind, and he remembered the pressure on his forelimbs, dragging him down and down.... “You might be right about that, at least.”
The two young dragons set out into the world together, and at first it was every bit as bad as Aidan had feared. In the past, he had not thought twice about angrily expressing his displeasure or making snide remarks. Mara very quickly put an end to that, even cuffing him once or twice on the shoulder. “That is not how proper merchants behave!” she bellowed, before scooting Aidan forward with an enormous forepaw and making him apologize to the dragons he had offended. It was horrible, but he got through it anyway — and inevitably, afterwards, he realized it wasn’t actually that bad.
Anita had said that the Search was driven by instinct, and perhaps because Aidan had found his Charge, he felt more...settled somehow. More content, more secure. He always had a general idea of Mara’s location, and though over the years they managed to increase the distance between them, he always felt at ease whenever he knew exactly where she was.
The two of them grew up together on their journeys. Aidan quickly attained what Mara would wryly call “civility”; Mara herself remained as indefatigable and optimistic as she’d been the day she’d hauled Aidan from the sea. And speaking of which...
“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, Aidan?” Mara commented. It was a pleasant afternoon, and they were aboard her ship — yes, she had a ship now! Years of hard work, buying, selling, and trading with other dragons, and Mara was now worthy of the title merchant. The ship was a recent acquisition, something to make travel a little easier, for even mighty-winged Imperials and Guardians cannot fly for weeks on end, especially over the open sea.
She had not changed much. Aidan had, though. Necessity had compelled him to treat other dragons civilly and to observe good manners — and he had discovered that he rather liked it. Bellowing, posturing, and shouting threats had been so exhausting, but he could accomplish so much more with a warm smile and a few well-placed pleasantries. He was vaguely reminded of his mother....He wondered if she would be proud of him. He grinned back at Mara in response.
“Ours was quite a strange meeting. Do you remember?”
“Yes...I remember.” Now his smile was gone, and Mara considered that encounter. Trouble had been unavoidable during her travels with Aidan, but they had managed to protect themselves, and by now she knew that he was a strong and skillful fighter. She recalled that night, how calm the sea had been, almost as flat as a mirror....And yet he had been dragged under, sinking fast.
“A rip current?” She was beginning to doubt it; even then, Aidan should have been strong enough to fight it, given that he’d been conscious when she’d seized his back legs. And there was something else...
“Aidan, what happened? You spouted a lot of nonsense that time, but I remember something...You mentioned a voice?”
He was shaking his head slowly, as if rising groggily from a dream. “It’s a bit of a haze, really. I don’t remember much — just bits and flashes. I didn’t want to trek under the Twisting Crescendo, so I tried going around it...I thought if I swam past the seaside cliffs I could then find a trail, climb back onto the plateau, and start trudging again. But then I...got pulled under.”
“Indeed,” Mara answered. Like Aidan, she hadn’t wanted to go beneath the Crescendo and had picked her way beneath the cliffs instead. She had stopped and looked out to sea....She had had to pause. The moonlight had been so beautiful, glinting against the water....
They had only had the ship for a few weeks, and it didn’t even have a name yet, but Mara had hired a competent crew, and theirs was a happy vessel. Mara and Aidan were glad for a change of pace; sailing by ship was definitely less exhausting than walking or flying overland. Currently they were chugging around the Sunbeam Ruins’ eastern coast. Mara wondered how her parents were doing. Perhaps she could visit them next week, if time permitted.
It was difficult for the ship to make headway. The wind was contrary, whistling in the rigging, refusing to carry them where they wanted to go. It ate away at their travel speed until the night descended and they found themselves languishing off the coast. “We shall have to try again tomorrow,” Mara huffed. She gave the orders, and the crew dropped the anchor. Tomorrow they could fly ashore, hire an aeromancer to help them make up for lost time....It would be pricey, but Mara was eager to complete the trip as soon as possible. She felt oddly uneasy despite being back in her homeland. “Probably because I haven’t been here for some time,” she decided at last.
It was worse for Aidan, though. Try though he might, he couldn’t sleep; his berth creaked and juddered as he moved about, tossing his great bulk this way and that. He eventually rolled against the wall, his head pressed against it...and he awoke with a start, his heart pounding.
“I can hear a voice.” But when he scrambled upright, it was gone.
Still, he was concerned. The air had felt weirdly taut for some time, almost as if a storm was approaching.... “Has there been an accident? What if someone’s fallen overboard?”
He stepped onto the deck. He could see the distant outlines of the drakes on watch at the prow, but nothing else moved. Not even any wind...
Yet his ears tingled as if a breeze pressed against them, and his hide felt chilled and cold. Where was the moon? He could see its light glinting off the water. But when he looked up...
Darkness. The moon was hidden behind a mat of clouds. Yet what was that pale glow, deep beneath the sea? He crept to the gunwale and looked down into the depths.
“Pretty dragon...” The words seemed to melt out of the air, pressing against his mind. His frills quivered as if electrified.
“You’ve grown taller...more beautiful.” The glow pulsed deep beneath the water. Aidan peered down, trying to discern what lay beneath.
There was no outcry, no struggle. The boat rocked, and as the lookouts turned, they saw Aidan falling languidly over the side. He fell into the ocean with a great splash.
“Drake overboard!” one lookout roared. They hurried to the gunwale, uncoiling lines as they went. They knew Aidan was a strong swimmer, but it was quiet, too quiet; why wasn’t he coming up?
They heard the thunder of feet, the beat of mighty wings. Mara bounded over their heads, her eyes blazing with fury. She dove into the water like an arrow, leaving a stream of bubbles behind.
She was gone for a long time. The crew waited anxiously as the minutes ticked past. When she finally resurfaced, nearly an hour later, it was without Aidan. She was shaking with exhaustion and cold, and the crew stared at her as she growled that they should make for the shore.
“But the wind’s completely dead; our sails are slack!”
“Then row — row as if your lives depend on it!” she barked. The crew flinched back, stunned by the snarl in her voice, and then they quickly leaped to carry out her orders. Slowly, terribly slowly, the ship began to move to shore.
Mara wouldn’t wait for it. She spread her wings again. As the crew milled around her, she barked further orders, telling them to keep going, to get out of these waters. And then she flew towards the Ruins, searching for someplace, any place, where she could get help.
She had gone after Aidan, swum as fast as she could. But the creature had learned its lesson from before and had wasted no time. Mara had glimpsed it through the dark water, bearing Aidan into the abyss where she couldn’t follow, its dark wings wrapping around him. Silver and gold, glinting under the moonlight....
“He heard a voice. It was her voice, and we saw her, too!” Mara remembered now: the odd glints in the water even when the moon had been hidden by clouds, strange words whispering on the breeze, and the sea heaving despite there being no wind. Watching, waiting from beneath the waves...
That creature, that siren...She had tried to ensnare Aidan all those years ago and had failed. But she had not forgotten him. She had known where he was, followed the merchant’s ship halfway around the world. Biding her time, waiting for him to come within reach again...and he had.
She had him now. And she would not willingly let him go.
continued ►
♦ adopt by Renepolumorfous
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♦ adopt by Drytil
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♣ art by Disillusionist
♦ art by Macchi
♦ art by Valkael
♦ art by Fletcher
♦ art by Clya
♦ art by Lytic
♦ art by Rari0516
♥ art by Hyperrectangle
♦ adopt by Cocolatia
♦ art by Macchi
♦ art by Valkael
♦ art by Fletcher
♦ art by Clya
♦ art by Lytic
♦ art by Rari0516
♥ art by Hyperrectangle
♦ adopt by Cocolatia
Credits & Notes:
• Coding and dividers made by me.
• Special thanks to Sienna for allowing their dragons to be included and for background info on Aidan's parents and birth clan.
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