Brave

When the little coatl's eyes opened for the first time, she was four days old. Her brother and sister had already been adopted into reverent homes; her mother was busy with a new epidemic of a mild sickness that had spread throughout the clan, and her father was away on a vacation. Unnamed, cold, and lonely, she tried to stand up- but her limbs were nearly useless. She lay on the ground crying for hours on end until her mother finally returned.

She was told then that she had only weeks to live.

Her bones were slowly deteriorating, and she wouldn't be able to move for long before her body gave up and her heart stopped beating. It was a rare sickness, and the tiny girl was miserable; why, why, why did it have to be her?

Only a few hours after her scant world was shattered, it was shattered again; an arc of purple and black shot through the sky, and with sudden, sharp pains in the gold coatl's sides, the ground disappeared and she was lifted high into the sky in front of her incredulous mother. The little coatl mewled and wailed until finally the odd dragon that had lifted her up placed her down again. When the gold coatl stretched her eyes wide, warily, she was assaulted with the sight of at least thirty dragons staring at her. She yelped and shut her eyes again, but then there was noise... unbearable noise. Everyone talking all at once.

The crowd quieted, and the coatl's eyes opened again.

A white and purple skydancer wearing long, flowing robes greeted her with coldness in her icey blue eyes.

That was the day that Brave joined the clan.

Irene, the cold dragon wearing the robe, made a place reluctantly for the baby in the clan. She explained that the nameless gold coatl had belonged to Clan Forest Moon for a long time. Then she had looked at the child once and left.

She lay abandoned in that clearing for days; no dragons cared to visit her because of her deadly sickness. Somebody had spread the rumor that it was contagious.

All the coatl wanted was a name and some strength. And when nobody came to name her and strength was all but impossible to have, she asked herself: What do I want to be?

And the answer was strong. But she knew that would never happen, so she asked herself again: what do you want to be?

She thought long and hard about it, then came up with an answer that surprised her.

Brave.

She wanted to stand up and face the dragons that were too scared to visit her.

She wanted to be able to beat down the menace that consumed her.

She wanted... to be brave.

So that was what her name became.

And Brave raised herself to her feet in impossible circumstances, and limped into camp, wincing with the pain of every step.

And the dragons welcomed her.

When Blackberry arrived, Brave knew she had a place. She joined the fighter and helped him train Princess Hykra, and when beastclans come, she is always the first to beat them back. With the help of Shad, Irene, and Trinity, Brave found a remedy for her sickness that at the least would buy her more time.

There is only one question.

Is it enough?



'cool hands pressing to your forehead when you have a fever, easing the pain and comforting. hot chocolate or tea when you come in from the cold, heating up your hands and the feeling that it warms you from the inside out. amber, when the sunlight hits it, looking golden and radiant. volunteer teams, afraid and maybe underqualified, but determined to do right.'


Description by mikeal
Code #4a Cherubine by Kaldwin