Koln

Guard

"The Gaolers never should've returned. What they call the Shade is just anything not of the Ice... mostly. Regardless, they have no place in this world. I have spoken to many dragons who are 'Shade touched'. It is clear to me that they will bring no harm because the Shade is almost entirely long gone, no thanks to the Gaolers. Their mission is not only futile, it is beyond immoral and cruel. These dragons did nothing to make themselves 'Shade touched'. There is nothing right nor just about locking away innocent beings simply because of circumstances they have no influence over. I am not one of them, never was. I am glad to say that I firmly stand against them and stop at nothing to protect my new family, my true family from them."

Your name is Koln.

Like many non-Ice Gaolers, you are the child of a couple of Seekers. When your egg was laid, they were stationed in the Scarred Wasteland. Some Seekers would keep eggs such as yours, but it wasn't uncommon for the newly hatched to be sent back to the Fortress of Ends. However, your parents kept you... at first.

You were a rebellious little hatchling. You refused to fall in line with the culture around you and often snuck off to explore the nearby territories. Unknowing clans would occasionally welcome you in, thinking you were just a lost hatchling, albeit a strange one, though it was assumed you were just a mutated Tundra. After all, in the Wasteland, extreme mutations are far more common than in other parts of Sornieth. This exposure to other cultures and being able to socialize with "Shade touched" dragons opened your eyes. You went from a resistant adolescent to someone truly against the Gaolers. If you'd kept your mouth shut, you may have been able to permanently slip away one day, but you didn't consider that at the time.

Around the "Shade touched" dragons, you felt truly safe for once. Before you came to your senses about the injustice, your largest concern was that everyone around you addressed you as female, but that never seemed right to you. It caused a great amount of discomfort and insecurity, but such a thing was unfamiliar to you. Everyone else seemed fine with such things, and so, you kept quiet about it. The first time and only time for years you ever mentioned this sense of wrongness, sense of actually being male, was to a kind-hearted Skydancer. You remember him most distinctly from your younger years exploring the Wasteland. He could read your emotions easily and comforted you, assuring you that one day you could make things right and that how you handled things now was up to you. You never confided in anyone else until many years later. Though you have no way of knowing where he is now, you wish you could thank him for comforting you and giving you hope to finally have true comfort in your own fur.

Your declarations that the Gaoler adults around you were all cruel and evil was not appreciated and eventually your own parents had enough of it. They personally took you to the Fortress of Ends and only stuck around long enough to find new caretakers for you. Your new family didn't take kindly to your ravings either, but instead of getting mad, they just got passive aggressive and blew you off. That's what everyone did. You were shunned. The most acknowledgement you got aside from that of your adoptive parents was occasional attention from Overseers, as that's what your new parents were.

One of them stood out to you: Moi. Moi ignored you for the most part, just like everyone else, but she seemed to listen to what you had to say, at least to an extent. But of course, during your time in the Fortress, you felt very isolated, being constantly ignored and belittled for not choosing a job and accosted for speaking out against what the others did.

You were surprised when one night, you awoke to Moi nudging you with her muzzle. To your shock, she not only apologized for ignoring you, but admitted that she agreed with you. She said she didn't deserve freedom from this place after everything she'd done as an Overseer, but you did. She took you into one of the most secure cells and introduced you to a very strange Tundra who could teleport. After Moi asked him to take you somewhere, he grew larger than both of you and closed his wings around you. For a brief moment, you were floating free, completely weightless among the stars, for once clear of the clouds of the Crags or smog of the Wasteland.

When you landed, you were happy to find yourself once again in the Wasteland, but this time you were somewhere new. The ground beneath you swayed as the absolutely gigantic creature you were standing on slowly walked through the Plague territory. You were surrounded by well made tents and could see a fire nearby. You were approached by a Wildclaw, and Moi took charge as you were in a joyous awe at being back in the place you considered home.

And that's just what this travelling camp became. You consider the residents of Nowhere Hospital to be family in a sense and now protect them all with your life. Watching for threats is easy for you, though that's because you have the advantage of having eyes all across your body.

With a fresh start with dragons who'd never seen a Gaoler before, it was easy to convince them that you were male. In fact, it took no convincing other than telling them, especially considering Gaoler dimorphism is very subtle. However, those subtitles were some of your greatest discomforts.

Moi was at first confused when you introduced yourself to these dragons as male, but when you later had the chance to explain to her why you'd done so, she understood and accepted the truth. There were no further issues with her on the matter.

At first, you only let the doctor in on the truth of the matter. He was one of the first inmates you met. He was all over you and Moi because he absolutely needed to know everything about Gaolers and you two were a wealth of knowledge, you know, being Gaolers and all.

You told him about everything you wanted to fix about yourself and though it wasn't easy as he had to come up with procedures to help you reach your dream. Most females with the Gnarlhorn mutation have prominent colored upper tusks, while most males have prominent lower tusks and a much stronger jawline. This was the feature that everyone could plainly see that you were most intensely uncomfortable with. You tried to hide your tusks by growing out your mane and trying to hide your face with it. Dr. Krova cut out your bright red upper tusks, which he has stated was not easy given how tough and boney Gaoler jaws are, filed down the area around them to conceal the evidence of the removal, and filed down and replaced your less prominent lower tusks with the red ones. The difficulty here was in creating a medical adhesive that would keep them in place while promoting bone and cartilage growth so they'd stay permanently. Such adhesive was formulated and crafted by Betzat. He did the same removing parts of the growths on your legs and attaching them to your jawline to increase the prominence of the growths along your jaw. Keeping all the bandages on your face wasn't exactly fun, but you were overjoyed to finally see the results and are forever thankful to him. Since then, you've undergone other various procedures, including methods to maintain all these changes, to reach total comfort with yourself. You are beyond happy to finally be rid of the constant discomfort that loomed over you for your entire life up until now.

Some residents have asked about the changes they've noticed. Others haven't and you haven't felt the need to publicly let everyone in on everything. You've explained things to those who have asked and they've all been rather understanding and accepting.

You and Dr. Krova have been spending a lot of time together since then and have grown rather close. If you were a Guardian, he would be your charge.