Bedal

Purebred Generation 3

Dyer, berry smasher, dye mixer

Note from Mother

Of my children, you hatched with some of the most beautifully vibrant colors; it's too bad they are almost always covered in dirt. It's as though you can not be happy unless your claws are burrowing into the land beneath your feet. I saw it as a harmless tendency until the gardener's flower beds were completely ruined. You are lucky she has a soft-spot for hatchlings, or she would have had your scales. Instead, the merciful woman invited you back to her garden and utilized you. Somehow she turned this destructive need to dig into a productive contribution to our clan, showing you where she needed you to dig and how deep you needed to go. It might have seemed like a chore at first, but I can see the light in your eyes when your claws are busy turning over ground. You'll learn so much being around the gardeners, I only hope your new clan has plenty of ground space where you can keep yourself busy.

Wings the color of a flowers petals carried the sleek body of the Imperial over the water, closer to the great Behemoth. A Ridgeback had appeared to him in his dreams, eyes the color of dragon fruit, and spoke to him through the tune of a tin whistle. She needed him. He had a place in her Clan, in her Family, and he was needed there.

She showed him a lake, with a barrowmound above it and a solid stone archway made of 3 slabs, one stacked atop the two. He felt drawn to that darkness and said goodbye to the gardeners he had once plagued and took to the air. But where was it? He made for the coast, looking for something, anything, a sign. He saw a fire roaring, warm and comforting in the dawning dusk, and set upon the beach to investigate.

Two guardians matching the sand and sea themselves spilled a strong smelling grog from wooden mugs and chuckled at themselves, speaking a language that lifted and rolled along ones tongue like a boat in a swell. When the female spotted him she seemed to stare, and then sighed. Patting her companion they rose and began to break camp even before he had spoken!

Nervously his busy paws churned the sand, and he looked from one to the other. What was, huh? They were walking over to him, both examining him lazily.

"Ahoy matey, she didnae tell us we were tea 'ave a visitor but she usually doesn't. Come along now lad, we've got to get you 'ome." She nodded, jangling her jewelery before setting off, with out him! He scrambled to catch up, a little tretrepidatebut followed them into a stream. The guardians were at home here, but he had a little trouble keeping up. As he swum, he could swear there was some thing, some, things, under the water, swimming beside him. It would not be revealed yet, for in a matter of minutes they came to a lake.

The lake from his dreams! The two guardians stepped onto land, and then walked out onto the lakes surface. He followed incredulously, until his next step was no longer solid. He felt himself fall, not splash but fall, for a second u til he opened eyes shut tight in panic. Where was he?

Stars he had never seen before hung in the sky, large and bright even in the day. The air was not humid here, like in the Gladeveins, but it was nearly identical. He was standing on the same lake, in the shallows he surmised as his claws churned the earth, and staring into what was obviously a clans hollow.

Before him sat a large, stately female ridgeback covered in vines. A breeze ruffled his mane, and her voice met his ears in the melody of a tinwhistle.

" Bedal, son of Solemn and Aster. Brigid, goddess of Art and Creativity has requested you by name. You have been summoned to assist my clans Dyer, Lustre, in making pigments for my clan. You have strong paws, good for grinding and stripping berries from trees, mashing fruit and mixing dyes. Tell me, do you choose to stay? All who step foot on the dry land of Tir na nOg will suffer the curse of Paradise. Should you leave this place, and should the sun strike your scales, you will turn to dust. You may return home, to your Gardeners, but you will have a place here no longer. Now, decide." Her voice was stern yet warm, she looked so young!

He deliberated, chewed his lips and churned the mud before him in a frenzy. But with a nod he stepped forward, and as soon as his last foot left the water he felt a pressure pull at his beard. It was braided now, and holding it together was a stone, like a beard ring. It glowed golden, and when he looked up the Ridgeback was gone. Instead, standing before him, was a female wildclaw with a basket of what looked like mulberries on one elbow. She canted her head, smiling at him as the feathers on her head raised and fell.

"Welcome to Paradise Bedal, I'm Lustre, would you like to begin?" She asked, motioning to the berries. He smiled, and joined her as they walked further into the depths of Paradise.