Primera

Primera is a young, upstart warrior who takes Plague's ideal of survival of the fittest seriously. She is determined to expand the clan's sphere of influence, and constantly tries to push the leader into claiming more of the surrounding territory. But her devotion to the clan is intense, and she would never consider overthrowing it to accomplish these goals herself.

Primera hopes to gain influence in clan matters, but is viewed as too impulsive to take a more active leadership role. Instead, she is often sent out as the leader of routine scouting missions. These scouting missions often turn into combat missions, as Primera would much rather deal with any trouble herself than return home for backup.

Even worse, that trouble is often Primera herself. As far as she's concerned, all of the southern islands belong to the clan, and the fact that Silas hasn't ever claimed them is merely a formality. And since there's quite a few islands out there, protecting them from encroachment is a significant feat. But not a feat beyond Primera's abilities! She'll often return home from scouting ready to brag about how she scattered some invaders and earned scars to prove it. This signals Kokoro to launch a second scouting mission, to confirm whether there was an actual invasion, or if Primera went and scared off some travellers trying to make camp again.

In the end, Primera does have the strength to back up her actions, even if she doesn't have the authority. While other clan members have more experience on the field of combat, Primera's youthful vigour along with her determination give her a nearly unmatched ferocity in battle. And an unmatched ability to run headlong into danger. Sometimes the danger is kind enough to run from her, but more often than not she comes home with at least a few scales missing.

While some may think that Primera hates the beastclans, she's quite willing to work with them. She respects their strength, and just wants to test her own claws against it. Unfortunately, she normally doesn't bother to explain to the beasts why she wants to fight them, and thus has quickly made a number of enemies. And the occasional friend, since there's some people out there who share her sentiment that the best friend is one who nearly kills you and then congratulates you on a good fight.

Her mentor, Zikel, found her as a child and was responsible for most of her upbringing. Thus Primera is a bit of an oddity among mirrors, and doesn't mind being alone and without a pack for a while. She'll crave company eventually, but is more than eager to take on a solo mission. Those are Zikel's favourite type of mission after all. Kokoro prefers to send her with another dragon or two, since somebody needs to be around to bail her out when she gets in over her head trying to be a hero. Or to scold her anyways when she succeeds. He doesn't want to see any of his warriors getting hurt. (Getting hurt's his job.)

Due to Zikel's influence, she does not care much for Plague's normal affinity for rot and disease. Well, she does like being mostly immune to illness, but she would rather not wallow in pestilence.

Her scalepaint is enchanted. Not to do anything interesting, much to Cress' dismay, but to not wear off easily. It takes days to get it applied properly. But even if she doesn't make much use of his enchantments, Primera gets along swimmingly with Cress. (Zikel is quite relieved that she was able to make a friend who does something other than fight.)

---

As with most mirrors, Primera grew up as part of a pack in the Wandering Contagion. There she learned to hunt and survive with others, and as she got older the pack slowly shifted westwards. She was barely more than a child by the time her pack had roamed all the way to plague's border, but she was still eager to hunt new prey in the Strand.

As her packmates took down larger creatures, Primera was allowed to hunt smaller meals. Her favourite was the java sparrow, but those birds are quick and difficult for a young mirror to catch. They also tend to make young dragons as hyperactive as a spiral, and make young spirals tie themselves into impossible knots. Of course, this made them all the tastier to Primera.

It was while chasing one of these birds that Primera found herself running over the edge of a cliff. Now, that's not really a danger for a dragon, but as Primera spread her still developing wings and began to glide down to the ground below, she realized that she might not actually be able to climb back up this cliff. And her wings weren't yet strong enough to fly that high.

Not that she'd let that stop her from getting back to her pack.

Many times she dulled her claws attempting to scale the cliff, and many times she lost her grip and had to glide to the ground below. (Her technique involved nothing more than trying to run straight up the stone face, so perhaps that wasn't too unexpected.) Eventually, she had the genius idea to try looking for an easier path upwards, instead of repeatedly dulling her claws trying to climb a cliff face. So she turned around and ran into the forest, looking for another path. Little did she know, but she had fallen into a crater formed by an ancient explosion, and the only ways out were to climb or fly. There was no other hope of escape.

Instead there was a cabal of Serthis, mutated by their exposure to arcane magics. A cabal which was looking for a dragon to use in its dark ritual. And here's a tip: if you ever become a cabal leader and are looking for a blood sacrifice, the small dragon gnawing on your tail convinced it's food is probably a good choice.

And thus Primera was quickly tied up, strapped to a wooden pole, and carried towards the Serthis' home. If Primera had been paying attention, she might have noticed that said leader and all his servants had more heads on their bodies than were strictly necessary, but she was much too focused on chewing through the ropes that bound her. She would have been gagged, but none of the serthis really wanted to go near her mouth if they didn't have to.

Now, with many heads come many eyes, and so one of the serthis lackeys did notice what she was doing. It took that head a while to convince the rest of its body that this was worth dealing with, but eventually it slithered over to her, a predatory glint in all four of its eyes. Primera's four eyes were instead full of terror, as with all claws bound and a mouth full of rope, she was in no position to prevent the serthis from sinking its fangs into her neck. As the poison began to flood her system, her vision blurred and her thoughts became foggy. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the second head coming in to make sure she'd be staying under. Though to her muddled mind it looked a lot more like a giant java sparrow.

When she woke up, she was still tied to that pole. She could tell from the wind she was still outside, but instead of being carried by a pair of serthis, the pole was now stood on its end, embedded into the ground. Tied as she was, wings bound, mouth gagged, and her other limbs wrapped around the pole, she wouldn't have been able to see where she was if she hadn't been tied upside-down as well.

Below her sat a solid block of marble, marred pink with flecks of chalcedony. On that sat a wickedly sharp knife, handle carved in the shape of a snake's maw, confirming the place of the serthis as the most narcissistic beastclan. It was so close that Primera could lick it, if only she wasn't gagged.

But she was still too weak from the poison to even think about trying to lick sharp objects. Instead she just hung there, for what could have been hours. (It wasn't.) Eventually, the cabal leader approached, flanked by his mutant entourage. From her position, Primera was able to gaze upon his five glorious heads, but she was in no state to appreciate them. He slithered right in front of her, and took a second to laugh at her pitiful struggles. Then he picked up the dagger, but instead of using it, he turned around and began to speak passionately to the other serthis.

Young Primera wasn't able to understand beastspeak, so she didn't know what the speech the leader gave his followers was about. If she had been able to understand it, she would have learned what he was planning to do with her, along with a very large number of ways to exalt one's own greatness.

His plan was simple: kill the dragon. Well, to be more specific, it was slit the dragon's throat, perform a dark ritual on the blood, and then imbue the blood, which would then transform him into a true monstrous hydra. He never got to explain what he'd do once he became a monster, because while he was still complimenting himself on a flawless plan, a flaw showed up.

Said flaw took the form of a nocturne, holding a rusted cleaver in each claw. The flaw announced itself with a screech, and then swooped in from above, leaving a trail of flying heads in its wake. The head serthis rallied his followers to battle, but the crowd of snake heads had no effective defence against an attack from above. Expect for the heads themselves, but those turned out to lose to a pair of swords quite handily. As mutant serthis after mutant serthis lost its heads to the nocturne, the leader snatched up the ritual knife, his five heads chanting a dark incantation in synchronicity. Completing the ritual would not only make him vastly more powerful, but for each head he lost to the attacking dragon cause two more to grow in its place.

It was as he was salivating over the thought of so many beautiful heads that he felt a sharp pain in the back of one of his necks. This was quickly followed by two more, and then another two, as he was efficiently stuck down by the nocturne. Primera's saviour didn't even bother to look over her handiwork, instead severing the ropes that bound her with a quick flick of her wrist. Primera fell onto the altar with a thud, all four eyes staring in wonder at her rescuer. But as her gag was removed, she suddenly screamed in terror at the sudden sound of the cabal leader's voice, who should definitely have been dead by this point.

Zikel, for her part, had just been trying to comfort the young dragon. She hadn't realized that in her haste to check if the mirror was okay she had subconsciously began mimicking the dead serthis' voice. She'd just been hunting a bounty, having to rescue a child wasn't part of the agreement!

Still, she couldn't just leave the mirror her by herself. It took Zikel a while to fish Primera out from her hiding place under a serthis' discarded cloak, but eventually two dragons left the scene of the battle side by side. As Zikel struggled to fly out of the crater while carrying Primera, she managed to piece together what had happened from Primera's scattered recollection. With a sigh, she accepted that there was no hope of finding Primera's pack, which could have roamed many miles away by this point.

The bounty would have to wait. Instead, Zikel needed to find a clan that this young mirror could call home. Little did she know, but Zikel would be finding more than that...

---

"I need you to go with Silas when he leaves."

"Leaves? Since when was he leaving? Where is he going?" Primera was very confused, for not only had the captain called for her in the middle of the night, but the clan leader had never mentioned he was leaving.

"I don't know! Seca told him something, and then he started being secretive." Kokoro was pacing, a sure sign he was stressed. His claws would be tearing through the faded carpet before long. "So I sent Riku to go figure out what he was worried about."

"And?" Primera asked.

"He managed to overhear a conversation, though he didn't catch much. He also doesn't know who Silas was talking to. He did speak some nonsense about there being a ghost, but I think it's more likely he was using magic to speak to someone far away." Kokoro said.

"I don't care about any ghost! Where is he going?" Primera said. Kokoro's frustration was contagious.

"As I said, I don't know! Riku was as unclear as always! All I know is he's leaving sometime tomorrow, and apparently he doesn't expect to survive."

"What?"

"So I want you to go with him and make sure he does."

"What!?" Primera stared at Kokoro's unflinching face, trying to see if this was some kind of joke.

Kokoro's expression was solemn, worry clear in the skydancer's eyes. "You're leaving tomorrow. Silas will probably tell you not to come, but he'll give in if you bother him enough. Our leader's too kind to keep saying no."

"So you want me to go to who knows where, by myself, with no preparations, and make sure Silas doesn't get himself killed?" Anger was beginning to creep into Primera's voice, none of this made sense. As much as she liked being set out on missions, this seemed rather extreme. Did Kokoro expect her to leave without any supplies as well?

"I wouldn't be sending you if I didn't trust you to be the best choice. And if I send a party, Silas will likely try to ditch the lot of you at the first opportunity." With that Kokoro stopped pacing, much to the carpet's relief.

"And you won't be entirely alone," he continued. "Gwenith will almost certainly tag along and show her face within a day or two." Ever since she helped Silas depose that rival clan's tyrant, the thief had taken to following him around. Some clan members found it a bit worrying, but at the very least Silas didn't seem to mind her company.

Primera's tone had softened, the captain declaring his trust having quelled her anger. "She's not really what I'd call reliable backup." Gwenith might be able to look out for herself, but Primera would be quite surprised if she was to sacrifice a single one of her scales for another dragon. "But still-"

The sound of fluttering wings came from the left. Both mirror and skydancer turned to look at the source. A fae, his blue and gold colouring rather difficult to see by the soft glow of the walls, hovered at the entrance.

"News, captain!" the fae said.

"What is it?" Kokoro barked.

"Simoeis knows!"

"Knows what?"

"Everything!"

Kokoro resisted the urge to strangle his spy. "Could I have a little more detail?"

Words tumbled out of the fae's mouth. "Well, you know how Simoeis is a robot and all, and wants to find whoever made her? Well, she's been trying to convince Auron to search with her for months, not that I get why she'd want his help. Anyways, Simoeis somehow learned that Silas was planning to leave, and I guess she thought that meant it was a good time for her to leave too. And it looks like she finally bothered the 'great explorer' enough, because he agreed to get moving. This must have happened a day or two ago, mind you. I don't understand how she learned of Silas' plans before me. That should actually be impossible! In any case, the two of them are also leaving tomorrow, and they're going to tag along with our leader as long as possible. Or convince him to make a side trip for them, you know how he is."

Kokoro blinked a couple of times, and then raised a claw to his face. There was no in between with Riku. The fact that fae spoke in monotone just made it harder to decipher his rapid speech.

After a short pause, Kokoro thought he'd at least figured out most of the story. "Well Primera, it looks like you're going to have more company than expected."

Primera rolled all four of her eyes. "Great. I get to nestguard four dragons instead of one."

The situation was desperate enough that Kokoro let the insubordination slide. "If that's how you want to think about it. Enjoy."

Primera was pretty sure she wouldn't.