Amoxtli » Lair » Shiloh

Shiloh

(#36524535)

Level 1 Pearlcatcher

Energy: 0/50

Personal Style

Apparel

Skin

Scene

Physical Attributes

Battle Stats

Measurements

Length

4.31 m

Wingspan

4.04 m

Weight

648.86 kg

Genetics

Charcoal
Petals

Eggplant
Shimmer

Coal
Smoke

Hatchday

Oct 10, 2017
(6 years)

Breed

Adult
Pearlcatcher

Eye Type

Wind
Common

Level 1 Pearlcatcher

EXP: 0 / 245

STR

AGI

DEF

QCK

INT

VIT

MND

Lineage

Parents

Offspring

Biography

Ex-Hatchery attendant | Infected | Frightened

Taking care for Dusk's and Taiy's eggs robbed Shiloh of everything. The strange mist surrounding the eggs wasn't Shade, it was something else. It left our dragon in agony as the mist embraced her body, swirling as if she had coal-colored smoke trapped under her skin. The panic caused by the unknown condition made her claw wildly at her arms, hoping to release the "trapped mist", but to no avail. Frightened and feeling isolated from the rest, she left her homeclan and went on a search for answers.

Notes from the Solemn Healer's Reference:

I didn't have high expectations for Fire clans. However, I needed to rest somewhere, and it turned out that the lair that welcomed me was brimming with bright minds, all trying to find a cure for an improbable alignment.

Can I hope that they'll help with my situation?

---

When I approached the clan leader, she examined me herself. She looked into my eyes, grabbed my wing, pulled on my tail and generally seemed to be looking for something specific.

"It's not an illness that can be easily cured..." she quietly murmured to herself, though I was pretty sure it was directed at me. She poked at my sides and marks a little bit more and took out a piece of paper from under a heap of books, making a few drop to the ground. From my point of view I could see some alchemical formulas, a detailed picture of leg bones, and some other scribbles in the books. The red dragon was furiously writing something on the paper. I awkwardly stood there, absent-mindedly scratching at my bandages.

After a beat, I cleared my throat and said, "Excuse me, can you help? If not it's alright, I just need to rest for a--"

Abruptly, the dragon turned around and laid her pencil down.

"We will help. It's our job to find and help." she stood and instructed a black Mirror dragon to go get someone. "We will at least treat your wounds. Please, stay for a few more days, we'll figure something out. I don't want you going without at least some kind of a plan on how to proceed."

After a while, someone quietly approached us. The Guardian introduced herself as "Aurelie" and took me to the quieter part of the lair. She tended to the wounds on my arms, filling the silence with chatter about their lair.

---

After a few days, I knew the case wasn't easy. I kept scratching my palms to the point of drawing blood, and Aurelie kept changing the bandages. Finally, the clan leader came to me with a grim expression. She handed me a long list of what looked like various trinkets, potions and food.

"I'm inclined to believe that it's not the Shade... but it operates similarly. You can't stay long in one place or you will risk other dragons' health." Then, she placed a bag next to me. "Here's some food for the journey. I'm sorry we can't help you more than this. The list I've given you contains things that can help. Maybe. They are rare and most are in completely different parts of the world."

I took the bag and started to walk out of the lair, the clan leader at my side as she continued to explain the list. "There are notes on the list. Some of the trinkets need to be transmuted, others simply crushed or eaten in a specific way." We stepped outside and I thanked her for all the help. She smiled sadly and said, "Goodbye. When you gather some of these, come back. Maybe I'll be able to come up with something new."

---

I left a safe place behind but at least I had something. Even if it was just a piece of paper... or hope.

I traveled onward to the Scarred Wasteland, for who would know more about unrelenting illnesses than the Plague-born? Within the Wyrmwound I was disappointed at first, having found a clan that centered around war and violence rather than knowledge of the sick. Somewhat surprisingly, I was welcomed by these warriors, and brought into a clan where I had expected them to be more interested in tearing me apart.

I soon came to realize that not everyone here was quite so violent. I was taken to the clan medic where he and his mate tended to my bandages, and while his mate was kind and gentle, the medic himself had the bedside manner of a grizzly bear. He was very interested in my illness, and summoned for the clan's scientist to have a look; this odd female wore a strange mask and seemed a few cups short of a full glass.

The medic and scientist both requested that I stay for a few days to see if they could find some answers, so I agreed. Much to my disappointment, and I am sure theirs as well, there was nothing that they could find at all that could help me. I left from there no closer to finding answers then when I started.

Something strange came over me while I was leaving The Scarred Wasteland. It left me in an awful daze, sent me shambling mindlessly across the plagued plains and veering far off-course. I felt as though my whole body was asleep except for my brain and my eyes, and I was sleep-walking but just couldn't muster the strength to stop myself. The whole time, I was hallucinating; malevolent voices whispered to me on the winds, and large, shadowy beings were always visible just from the corners of my eyes. Each seething voice sent a shiver down my spine and made my fur prickle.

By the time I had built up the willpower to break myself free from this strange state, I had wandered from the Plague domain to the Sunbeam Ruins; all the way across two flights! It wasn't long before I collapsed from exhaustion, but before my legs gave out, I had managed to limp my way up to a pearly, marble temple. The whole area around me was surrounded by thick, murky fog, and the shadowy darkness enveloped me as I fell into an uneasy sleep.

...

I woke up wrapped in bindings and locked in shackles, tethering me to the wall and chaining me low to the floor as though I were a wild animal. I weakly looked around the room I was in, but my eyes were far too bleary to make out my surroundings, especially in this low light. From the darkness, a clear, monotonous voice rung out to me:

"So you've finally come to, Shade creature. Can you speak?"

Straining to see, my eyes finally came back into focus and revealed the dragon in front of me. She was a tiny Fae, with her pink wings and head crest fanned out wide to make herself look larger than she really was. Her soft yellow eyes peered intently at me from under the brim of her witch's hat, and despite her expressionless face, the panic and terror that dwelled just behind those eyes was all too apparent to me. Though my tongue felt like it was made of lead and my jaws appeared to be restrained by a tight mask, I struggled to say, "Yes, I can speak. But I'm not a Shade creature..."

"Don't lie to me, you are too. The black lines snapping their way through your scales... that's Shade energy, is it not? And your eyes, they're darker than night." She said in a low voice. Oh no... my eyes? My scales? I lifted one of my claws to my face to see if what the Fae was saying was true; she flinched at the sudden movement, and I grimaced as I saw Light magic begin to illuminate her claws. The light from her preparing an attack was enough for me to make out my claws... true to what she had said, I could see thick, void-black lines weaving between the scales.

Seemingly insulted by my confusion, her head frills curled forward into a cone-like shape; a Fae's look of indignance. "I've seen Shade beings before, and you're certainly one of them... you're far too coherent to be a corrupted dragon. If anything, you rooted yourself in that Pearlcatcher and hollowed her out from the inside."

"No, you're wrong!" I exclaimed, and the Fae skittered back a few inches. She was terrified of me, I could tell. "This isn't Shade corruption, it's... something else. It behaves like the Shade does, it's contagious like it, and I do think it's slowly trying to take control of me, but it isn't corruption. I promise, I'm not here to hurt you, spread my curse, or anything else."

The Fae paused for a moment, and to my great relief, her wings and head crest began to fall. "I've never heard of a curse like this before," she admitted, "but... I believe you. You don't seem to carry any aggression in your heart, and you sound legitimately honest."

Then, the Fae bowed her head in apology. "I'm sorry for treating you so poorly, miss. My name is Myura, and this is my lair, The Purified Temple. As residents of the Hewn City, my clan and I have had many encounters with the Shade before... we're less than willing to take any chances with it."

"I understand why you'd be so afraid of me, then. Anyways, my name is Shiloh," I said, pawing at the mask that was binding my jaws mostly shut, "and now that we've gotten things straightened out, could you get me out of these restraints?"

"Oh, of course," Myura nodded, and with a snap of her still-glowing claws the chains unlocked. I wrestled the muzzle off of my face as she untied my bindings, and soon, I was completely free. As I stretched my stiff joints, I had a sudden realization; I had no idea where the list of ingredients that Fire clan's leader gave me had gone! Rushing to feel my side, I grimaced as I realized my notebook was gone as well.

"Don't worry," Myura assured me, "your belongings are safe, they're just in our clan's hoard. We put them there since we weren't really sure if you could be trusted, but now we'd be happy to return them to you." I nodded desperately, and the little Fae rushed off; soon, she returned with my notes and the recipe for my cure. As she handed them back to me, she gave a vaguely curious look to the list. "Are those ingredients you'd need for a remedy, by any chance? I happened to skim through it, and it sounds like we have a lot of them stored here."

My eyes lit up, and my heart filled with a newfound hope that I hadn't felt since I first obtained the list. "Yes, it is. I would appreciate any help you and your clan could give me with creating this cure." In return, Myura offered me her best attempt at a smile and an affirmative nod.

...

Over the next few weeks, every dragon the clan had to offer was there to help me in my plight. Myura, along with Aqua, the plague doctor Coatl, worked together on various remedies to slow the accumulation of the darkness under my scales. Their alchemist, Tango, helped me to transmute some of the items I needed to create my cure, and she also brewed some medicines to help me with the pain the curse caused. The other members of the clan were there for me as well, aiding me with their emotional support; those weeks of stress and uncertainty might've just killed me if it hadn't been for Imriel baking me batches of delicious comfort food, as well as Shesh and Love soothing me with their favourite lullaby.

It took us some time, but it wasn't long after my initial encounter with this clan that my cure was mostly ready. I was still missing a few reagents, such as the horn of a Zeeba and crushed Dragon Coral, but we were getting close. Still, even the best remedies this clan could provide me were losing their effect, and I could feel myself slipping further and further into an inescapable murk. My mind was hazy, and locked in a dissociative state. A few times I even entered that dazed, sleep-walking state that brought me here, and shuffled wordlessly about the temple like a zombie. Myura was becoming visibly distressed by my condition, and one day, she pulled me aside to talk.

"Shiloh, I'm concerned for you," she began in that empty, monotonous voice, "your condition is deteriorating. We still have progress to make on your cure, so... I'm going to suggest you leave our temple. Look for Smoke. She's a stark-white Tundra who visited us some time ago; she was able to purify the Shade that had taken root in my husband and possessed him years ago. Maybe she can do something for you, too."

My face twisted into a grimace; I didn't want to leave now, not when I felt safe for the first time in months. Not when I was so close to creating my cure. But still... Maybe Myura was right. Maybe this 'Smoke' was the miracle I needed. I nodded reluctantly, and she gently patted my arm with her claws. "It's going to be okay," she promised, "and if you're ever losing control and need a place to stay, I promise that I -- no, we'll be here for you."

...

The night before I was planning to head out in search of Smoke, the curse took complete control of me again; and this time, it was violent. I awoke snarling and snapping at the dragons around me, and even took a good swing at Myura as she and the others attempted to get me restrained. I struggled violently in the chains and bindings, and against all odds, I managed to pull free; my chains broke free from the walls and clattered to the floor, and my leather bonds snapped from the pressure of holding me back, flying free from my body. The only restraint remaining on me was a white, muzzle-like mask that held my jaws shut tight, locked around my neck by a tight belt.

As my possessed body ran from the temple in a panic, I faintly noticed that Myura had slung a heavy bag over my back. A bag that must've contained my notebook, and from what I could smell, our work-in-progress remedy was in there as well. As the otherworldly smoke brought my body to Windsinger-knows-where, I found faint solace in the fact that I still had my cure with me, at least.

(feel free to write about her adventures here)

Uh-oh, looks like this sick Pearlcatcher left her home lair (Strukla, #90706), and now she's off to find out more and possibly find a cure! If ever you feel the need to exalt, she'd rather keep trying to live her life, so send her off to the 'Dragons Off To See The World' thread, here, or if you think she gathered the courage to return home, send her there...

Posessions:

Hidden message?

(text select, down)

"Everything you want is on the other side of fear."

...Also, this is here for formatting reasons. ;A;

Encountered:

* Strukla (#90706, home lair)
* Lewa (#327177)
* ShepherdOfFire (#220519)
* Bachuchuru (#338516)
* Volrin (#261879)
* Sparkbreeze (#295659)
* ZenithNadir (#44542)
* ApostasiaAin (#282121)
*Amoxtli (#362908)
(add your username/lair number here)

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Click or tap a food type to individually feed this dragon only. The other dragons in your lair will not have their energy replenished.

Exalting Shiloh to the service of the Lightweaver will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.

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