Grove

Grove never could stand the quiet. Her home clan was a cacophony of sound, whether from the idle chatter of dragons or the constant explosions that never ceased in any self-respecting arcane clan. But even arcane dragons must take breaks occasionally. As a hatchling, Grove would scream incessantly to fill the silence. Once she got a bit older, Grove moved on from annoying the entire clan at once to annoying them one at a time, picking an older dragon and following them around like a lost hainu. She would beg them to tell her stories, talk about themselves, or say anything thing at all, anything to keep the silence at bay.

And that’s why she feared the day of her Search.

To go on her Search would be to leave her clan, and worse – to be alone. Travelling Sornieth to find something worth protecting is the loneliest part of a guardian’s life, and Grove dreaded the thought of possibly spending years without company. Trying to defy fate, Grove vowed that she didn’t need a Charge, and that she would stay with her clan. Her clan warned her that ignoring the Search’s call would eat away at her from the inside, but Grove stayed resolute.

Grove tried to resist in away way she could. She distracted herself by trying to overhear every conversation her clanmates had, by volunteering for any experiment they wanted to attempt. She even covered herself in feathers and pretended to be a skydancer in the hope the Search would be confused and go somewhere else. But whenever there was silence the yearning to find her charge returned, an emptiness from within that hurt even more than the lack of sound from without.

Before long, she cracked.

In the middle of the night, Grove fled her clan. Her only focus was flying as quickly as possible; the faster she found her charge, the faster she would be able to turn around and return to the blessed company of her home clan. She flew until her wings burned, she was gasping for breath, and the only sound she could her was her own pounding heartbeat. The beating of her heart grew louder and louder, until it was so loud that Grove couldn’t hear anything anymore.