Peculiar

Ice Subspecies: Oreiades

<sub>There are woods deep and filled with evergreens. The trees begin to play tricks on you before you realize they are really dragons, Oreiades. To understand these mysterious beings you have to understand from which they came. These are Dryads, living spirits of the trees that surround them. Some may even call them nymphs, they consider themselves to be one with their environment. Nature dragons become Dryads, while Ice dragons are born as them. Becoming a dryad is a survival mechanism specifically for Nature dragons, it is something that only happens under very extremes conditions when there's no access to food and water, no other means of survival. The dragon has to be fiercely clinging onto its life during their last moments, it's only until then that survival instincts take over and the dragon's conscious mind is overridden. This is painful process as their bodies literally change to become more tree-like and with that they become bound to the tree to sustain their life.

They share a life force with the tree that helped them to continue on living. The tree shares its’ lifeforce with the dragon and in return the dragon is willing to give everything to protect the tree. The dragon, regardless of circumstances, main priority is the tree and the land surrounding it. They will do anything to protect the tree because if it is harmed they will be harmed as well. They do not care for much outside of this bond they have created. Rather than conscious care it is more of an instinct: if it is not a threat, they don’t react to it.

After the bond's complete, any memories prior to the bond are very rarely retained. Their mind feels as though it is constantly surrounded by fog, they rely mainly on instinct and instinct only. The dragon doesn't have a conscious mind of their own. Due to the bond, they can pick up signals that the tree sends to them, and in return, they can turn those signals into words and sentences. Most of them probably don't like talking out loud because it can take awhile to find their voice, and it's especially hard to untangle their memories from the tree's. Food is not necessary when it comes to gaining energy, rather, exactly like a tree, they can survive only off of sunlight and water.</sub>

You look up from the scroll, and glancing around the room, it finally hits you. The contents of the room truly belong to one not like most dragons. Pine cones are lined up at the back wall, sorted by and arranged from largest to smallest. There's a box of pine needles - the box itself has a label on it that makes you do a double-take. At first glance, it resembled the standard draconic language used by most dragons, but the symbols were unintelligible. It looked as though it had been written by a creature who thought it knew what draconic looked like, but didn't. There are multiple buckets of stale water at the ready, but they give the impression that they haven't been touched in quite some time. As you try to put the pieces together in confusion, a voice interrupts you.

"It rarely stays here, instead, it flies to a pine tree in another land and watches over it. That pine tree is, well, the being itself. They share a life, and it's the most peculiar thing I've ever seen. It doesn't have a name, but I've been thinking of dubbing it 'Peculiar' because of its nature. It occasionally comes back to store these things," she motions to the pine cones and needles, "that the tree loses. I suppose it's like a mindless drone. Or perhaps not, we cannot quite tell. Before it leaves once again, it absorbs the water from these buckets."

Arjibi puts her hand on the box of pine needles, stroking the label gently with her thumb. There's a sad air about her. "I have an inkling of who this dragon used to be." There's silence between you and the queen, before she dejectedly ambles out of the room. You conclude that she's not comfortable telling you more at this time.

cross flight dividers | original dividers

Note: The Oreiades lore came in his bio, I didn't write it.