#bee quest

The clan was started by Airileus and her mate ,Intwind, along with Wndrwll and his mate, Elenya. Air and Intwind were originally guides for travelers and had grey eyes not associated with any flight. In my lore this is common if you travel a lot but when you settle somewhere they take on that flights color. Air was born with grey eyes from a foundling egg, Intwind was originally a Fire dragon. The group was travelling to find a cure for Elenya’s sickness but once they were turned away by the healers in the Light flight, she gave up the search and decided to live out her days on the cliffs between Lightning and Light where she could breathe a little easier. Air and Intwind stayed with the couple and Elenya soon nested and then passed on. Air took care of the eggs along with her own first clutch while Wndrwll buried and mourned his mate. When all the eggs hatched Air bid her two sons goodbye as they left for other flights and for the Eleven and two of Wndrwll’s children and Airs own daughter died of the same sickness that took Elenya. Heavenstrike was the only child of Eleynas to survive but the young imperial was sickly and would never hit his full growth or fly. Still Air stayed taking care of the small imp even when Intwind left to serve the Stormcatcher. A few other dragons joined at this time, Stormtide following the trail of his lost clanmate Eleyna, Carnofiera and AutumnBreeze running together from the harshness of the Drifting Icecaps. Wndrwll surprised everyone by bringing a fae back with him after a long flight away. Diamondshimmer was gentle but stern with the still mourning coatl and took Heavenstrike under her wing, giving Air time to realize that she had gained a clan of her own. Before long the humble shelter she had made for Elenya turned into a large cave and then smaller dens were found for all the new clan mates. Looking in the water at her reflection Air was surprised to see her once colorless eyes turning a pale blue. Soon Technox joined the clan, sent as an envoy from the Stormcatcher himself to welcome and help the budding clan. But boredom grew in Heavenstrike until he started climbing the cliffs and exploring the caverns there, but it wasn’t until he began bringing back old artifacts that Air grew worried. Had their territory once held another clan? And if so what had killed them? She looked over the artifacts now crowding a corner of the den Heavenstrike dwelled in and wrote a letter to an old friend. **** Heavenstrike knew he had found the remnants of an old clan but he didn’t know that the spirits of those long dead were still sealed into the caverns. He followed well-worn paths and dug out cave-ins the best he could with his body protesting the hard work and hours. Finally his work paid off and even though he could barely move he dragged himself in front of a large sealed door. He laid down to rest in the cavern with the door, peering around disinterested in the bones that were scattered on the stone floor. After all the voice that called him here had already warned him. All he had to do now was get up and open the door and he would be healed by the owner of the voice that whispered to him. He shook his head to clear it, the warnings and threats of the spirits who guarded the door were becoming annoyingly loud, but he had also been warned not to listen to them. Above in the clan Air mourned the loss of her daughter to the shade and laid down, carefully curled on herself. She no longer answered her clanmates and slowly lavender crystal encased her form. Called to the clan by Airs letter the Ridgeback Snowhex had finally arrived, a student of both magic and science she had come to investigate the cave findings. But she had just introduced herself when the door under the cliffs was opened and a wave of magic shook the cliffs echoing like the laughter of a giant beast. **** So all this lore is just to explain the different factions of my clan. Technically at this point I took a two year break from flight rising so that’s explained by Air’s coma and why she’s not in this next section.  Also this is where I stop mentioning dead or exalted clan member and only explain who all’s still in the clan. So backstory I guess. **** Startled by the magic but unable to tell what caused it, life in the clan moved on AutumnBreeze, Diamondshimmer, Technox and Stormtide forming a council to rule until Air woke up. Three guardians, Firewall, Midnightterror and Copperfritz ,were sent to guard the cliffs in case the barer of the magic showed itself, gifts from the Stormcatcher. Heavenstrike was seen as rarely as his father but now only at night and shying from bright lights. Snowhex had sit up a lab in a small clearing and felt homey enough to send for her assistants. The council had granted her the land in exchange for her looking into both Airs condition and the magic from the cliff. She was happy with her current situation and patiently waited for her assistants while testing the magic levels of the area. Ruby her magic specialist was the first to arrive and instantly went to work saying that there was an odd magic in the air. Dragons came and went in this time and sadly many went missing within the territory. The research team were joined by their mystic Ferrovax who began talking with a group of spirits that told the story of a sickly imperial and a forbidden door. After many trials the first of the spirits were reborn in a homculi. Snowhex had called in a favor with a surgeon with a bad reputation, Vespana, and with her help they began to craft bodies using the old bones from the caverns and a sort of magic clay. Crimze, Vespana’s caretaker and a trained fighter also settled down nearby and began training dragons. Meanwhile in the deeper Caverns beyond the closed door, the dark forces had been freed but were weakened and found they could no longer take physical form. So they sent their Night cursed Heavenstrike to bring them new forms and prepared to fight the reborn spirits and then spread out to do as they wished. They soon found that even in new forms and rested from their imprisonment they could not venture past the doorway so they plotted and Heavenstrike slipped away. Kristofell the lich leader of the Cavern spirits and his mate the vampire Nictis were the first to gain new forms followed by the twins Summanus and Morrigana and then the Ravens Megera and Migora. Their gargoyle guards Mistwalker and Stonedancer were awarded before Nictis’s apprintance Mistress, who pulled away from the group. The remaning magic and shreds of spirits formed Thorn a past seer. They all had trouble in their new dragonic forms and their powers were nearly gone but Kris still tried to escape the caverns to no avail. Back above the guardian spirits were adapting to life anew.  Their story was sad, they were the remands of a once great clan but one member had turned on them and tried to release a great evil that had been sealed by the progens of their own clan. The progens spirits were destroyed and the clan members used their own lives to keep the door shut and had remained as guards for centuries before the new Progen Air had awakened them. Sadly they were faded and many parts were filled in by the magics that rebirthed them. Chloe, touched by life and light itself, was their leader for the  moment followed faithfully by her mate Dryad, who seemed to be part earthen with skin like bark. Xiome and her mate both glowed while flowers and vines sprouted around Viridian. Cherrywing and Autumnbark could turn into trees and Tidestream and Seaglass were never far from water. Equinox even with fur and feathers that moved like flame had fallen in love with Ruby and his inquizative mind and together they created machines that never quite worked.

But Snowhex happy enough with the sucess still mourned her friend Air who still slumbered. The spirits although old could do nothing for her and slowly life moved on. Soon Chloe nested and oddly Heavenstrike was always around the eggs.

The quiet clan was soon thrown into panic when the eggs went missing, a single black and red feather the only clue. Chloe and Dryad searched franically but Wndrwll had been following his son and realized where the eggs were. Together a group descended into the caverns through a tunnel in the cliff wall. Chloe and Equinox leading with Snowhex, Crimze, Midnightterror and Stormtide. Together they follow the turns in the tunnels until they found themselves in front of a large open door. Off to the side lay Heavenstrike bleeding from many open wounds and his gold mane shot with black and red streaks. On the ground in the doorway were the crushed remains of two of the eggs and one perfect whole egg. Chloe shot forward to save her last child but collided in midair with two black and white forms from the other side if the door. The ravens sneered at her as the rest of the Caverndwellers stepped through the doorway. The sacrifice of two of the eggs had broken the seal on the doorway and Kris taunted the dragons, apparently Heavenstrike had been controlled since he first opened the doorway with a curse. Somehow after the first egg was destroyed he had broken free of Nictis’s control and attempted to defend the eggs but was no match for the stronger dragons. So they had left him there to bleed out as they crushed the other eggs. But one was left and the fight for its safety began. The dragons from above fought the dragons from below until Kris stood ready to fire a blast of magic at the egg which had rolled to the mouth of the tunnel. Before he could release the spell a large black shape slammed into him and tore his chest open with crystal caked claws. Air had awoken and now stood glaring down the other dragons her eyes blazing bright cyan. She hovered over the egg as it began to tremble and crack, her wings spread out in warning.  Within the guardian the forces of the guardian charge call and the progens magic had warred since the nest was layed. She had been the force keeping Kris and the others sealed but the call of her charge being in danger had woken her.

Under Airs belly a tiny tundra with black and white fur opened her eyes and stared up at the black scaled guardian. After a glance at Chloe, Air lifted the hatchling and disappeared down the tunnels. Chloe broke free of the Ravens hold on her and ran after the progen, the rest of the above dragons hot on her heels. The cavern dragons chased them but were stopped as the sunlight blinded them. As Stormtide passed the openening carrying Heavenstrikes broken body Dryad cast a web of stonelike vines over the entrance and stayed on the lip of the cliff holding the spell and shifting into the landscape.

****

Time passed as Air slowly took charge of the clan again. She knew most of what had been happening but encased in crystal that still clung to her she had been powerless to help. Chloe had taken Heavenstrike and was slowly nursing him back to health even as the curse ravaged him anew every night. His only solace had been the happy bundle of fluff that was Niles and Airs quiet presence as the clan was reformed.

Snowhex had tried to help the imperial but shook her head sadly at Air as her final idea failed. Air hummed and rolled the ball Niles was playing with back to her, a half finished letter sat off to the side. She had just come back and ahe was already asking someone for help, but as clan leader it must be done.

Niles was playing with Heavenstrike when Air felt someone enter the territory she whispered to Chloe and then took off to investigate. She found her old friend Bamaen sitting juat inside the territory line. Bamaen was a foundling just like Air but instead of travelling he took to books and studied anywhere he could. He had mentioned to her in one of his few letters that he had studied  curses in the Shadowbinders domain for a time. She had written him to see if he knew anything about the curse on Heavenstrike and had expected a letter in return and not the reculsive dragon himself. But he admited as he read her letter his own charge instincts awoke and pulled him to her territory. But he wasnt sure of what his charge was yet but agreed to him with the cavern dragons ans the curse.

Air and Bamaen clung to the cliff speaking into the vines. Nictis refused to lift the curse until they were freed but Air refused to let them bring more destruction to her clan. Bamaen offered a solution, he would bind Kris to Airs progen instincts making him unable to harm the other clan member but keeping him in line. Both grudgingly agreed. Kris was tired of being trapped and Air knew that Dryad couldnt hold them forever.

A contract was signed in blood and magic used on the two leaders. Kris’s black eyes changed to cyan and Air’s scales took on streaks of light purple.

***

The cavern dragons began to merge into the life of the clan but they still lived in the caverns. The above dragons began trading with other clans and moved on with life as Heavenstrikes health improved and Bamaen stayed. Other dragons moved into the clan, the bakers Irissa and her mate,Xocolatl, started a busniess and nearby Nabgeir opened at tavern with his guard Eurwyn. The gambling theives Asia and Brazil stayed at the tavern while treasure hunting with the twins. The sudden appearance of a green guardian in the hatchery worried noone as Goldbriar would never harm an egg or hatchling. Snowhex’s finally assistant ,an alchemist named Jack finally arrived with his new mate the fortune teller Duskshine.