Coral

Breed Specifications: Fae & Guardian
Colors Specifications: Blue-Green (Primary), Brown-Pink (Secondary), Any Color (Tertiary)
Genes Specifications: Poison/Noxtide/Capsule

Noted for: Poisonous fin tips, intolerance to immoderate water temperatures.

Lore:

Noxious Coralguards are a bit of an oddity, even among Water dragons. They occupy a specific niche within the oceanic ecosystem at large. Their subspecies is also rather small in number, only being able to live in temperate waters associated with coral reefs. In fact, their culture generally revolves around these reefs.

Behaviorally, these dragons are known to be rather friendly, but equally territorial. They are willing to share their reefs with each other in times of need, however, they also take pride in spreading their reefs all across the warm waters that will host them. They are gardeners, yes, but do not be deceived. They are extremely talented mages and warriors in the art of Water.

Most are willing to die to protect what is theirs. In terms of physiology, they generally follow the normal morphology for Fae and Guardians, with one major exception. In their fins, there are poison barbs, akin to lionfish that swim their waters. Their poison is stored within a pouch in their chest, which can also be harnessed through their fangs. In addition, they tend to sport bright, flashy colors as a way for blending in with their corals.

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Coral was as good a name as any. It was what had sheltered her egg, shielding it from the battering waves; and as she’d grown, it had given her grottos to rest in and corridors to dance through, gardens and forests that gave her sustenance. The corals sheltered her, and after she’d come into her inheritance she had taken it upon herself to shelter them.

She was safe inside her fortress of living stone....But it was hard not to feel sympathy for those myriad beings that floated past like flowers on the wind. Coral’s home sat like a great knot amidst a winding network of currents and tides. It wasn’t uncommon for her to find poor, soft things flung by the sea against the walls of her reef. Many of them were already gone when they reached her, their flesh and fins ripped to tatters. Others, however, still clung tenaciously to life. Their hearts fluttered against her great fingers, thrumming a tattoo of words: Save me, save me, save me...

A reef welcomes all that seek shelter within it. Indeed, something would have to be done.

~ ~ ~
The Spiral cast a long, twisted shadow over the reef. Coral’s first thought was that he was swimming; so gracefully did he rock within the swell of the waves. And then she saw his eyes: golden...but glassy and glazed. His face was bereft of expression or thought.

She plucked him out of the current with a delicate touch. He draped limply over her fingers: Save me, save me, save me...

A fire awakened within Coral. It did more than sharpen her focus: The coral reef’s gift, distilled by generations of breeding and magic, thundered through her veins. Without such a potent serum, life beneath the waves might have been unbearable. Coral had heard stories of land-bound savages who took hours to dispatch their quarry. But the reef’s gift made it so that death came swiftly, mercifully, to her prey. A brush of her venom-filled fangs — that was all it took. But Coral had learned a way to make the gift bestow life.

The Spiral and his prayer fluttered in her left paw. She lifted her right, pressed it to her heart. It thundered in response to that primal cry: I will, I will, I will...

The liquid that passed over her heart brightened to orange, and then to gold. Its brilliance filled the water. The ocean creatures, spying it, did not flee; instead, they turned to stare. They watched the Guardian arch her neck, and life-liquid gleamed on the tips of her fangs before sinking onto the Spiral’s tongue. Life-liquid, not venom — not as red as blood or death, but gold like the dawn, like the Spiral’s brightening eyes.

Coral clasped him close as she swam, and swam, and swam.

The shore was some distance away, but she made it. The waves carried him in. He washed up on the glistening sand, and by the time she left him, he was already stirring, blinking in befuddlement. Soaked and weary — but alive.

She hoped he would be safe. All the creatures she had saved so far had belonged to the sea, and it had whisked them away again. But this dragon belonged to the land and the sky, and she could only hope he once again found a place among them.

As for her, she already had her place in the ocean’s embrace. She returned to her nest of polyps and lime, where the fish clustered about her in rainbow shards and the seaweeds wove their strange dances. It was rare to find land-dwellers here, but if any of them were ever sent her way again, she would pluck them out of the current and listen to their prayers. Some she would not be able to answer; for all her power, she was only a Guardian of the reef and could not cure all ills. But perhaps she would hear that whisper from the heart again — Save me, save me, save me...

And the gift of life would answer, I will.

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