Welcome to Gaia! ::

***For anyone, and especially for the new dragons like myself!***

The brown and purple dragon woke as if from a coma. She felt refreshed and alert, but some 6th sense told her she had been deeply asleep for a long time. She wondered why, but decided that it was the least of her worries. More importantly, she found herself in a deep cave, hidden behind thick, fragrant wisteria vines. She stood, finding her limbs and wings stiff from inaction. As she padded forward, she wondered who and where she was. She had no recollection of a name, but she soon settled on Wisteria, because the delicate tendrils of flowers had hidden her cave while she was asleep, thus protecting her from anythiing eager to prey on a young, comatose dragon. Besides, her wings mathed the violet screen of blooming flowers. Wisteria eased past the curtain of vines, and stepped out into the sun. She noticed that the vines were growing from the top of a huge, jutting boulder, which had allowed a cave to form underneath as the dirt eroded away. The earthy mountain shape that she was on was abundant in flourishing plant life, and Wisteria could see that she would have no trouble satiating the pangs of hunger that were beginning to rumble in her stomach. Stalking around the boulder, she used the huge rock precipice to get a better look at her surroundings. She was on the side of a mountain, with a lushly green glade beneath her, which in turn opened up to a well populated plain. The wide expanse of grass was divided by a glittering blue river, which fed from somewhere in the foresty glen below her. She growled hungrily as she eyed the large herd of deer at the edge of the plains. Just then, a rabbit shot by in the corner of her vision. She lunged without hesittion, leaping from her perch in a flurry of feathers and claws, but upon landing, she realized with a jolt of dissapointment that she had missed. However long she had been alseep, it had certainly not assisted whatever hunting skills she might have had. With a sigh, she opened her wings and stretched before pumping her wings as powerfuly as she could. At th same moment, she thrust herself upwards and soared forward with more strong scoops of air flowing past her straining wings. She drifted towards the plains, then wheeled around and dropped straight down upon a small doe. It never knew what hit it, but Wisteria felt that she had made a fortunate and lucky kill. The rest of the herd had bolted in terror by time she had fully landed beside her prey. She, however, had not a speck of interest for anything but the much needed food before her. She clipped off bites as swiftly as she could swallow, eager to make up for the lack of food from her long sleep. With the glade before her and the plains at her back, she felt a playful breeze tug loosely at her feathers. She settled in for her meal...

Engrossed in her meal, Wisteria paid no attention to the tingle that flittered past her head-feathers. Eventually, though, the feeling that she was being watched became stonger, and she licked away stray droplets of blood from her snout as she looked warily around. Wisteria peered between the trees ahead of her, then turned her head and surveyed the plain. She then looked up into the sky with a quick glance, but all she saw was a couple smallish clouds. She raised from her crouch and turned towards the plain, trotting delicately forward. She slitted her eyes, wondering where her observer was, and why he or she would not show themselves. Was it another dragon...?

Wisteria eyed the dragon that had appeared from behind, no-within, a cloud. Her eyes still slitted, she raised herself to her fullest height, larger than the other dragon, but still not quite as large as she would one day be.
"I've called myself Wisteria. I wouldn't know my own hunting grounds, for I have slept from a time beyond my knowledge. What is this place in which we so evidently now dwell within? What is the hierarchy in this remote yet beautiful land? Answer my questions and I shall be inclined to answer any you might have of myself." Wisteria finished with a challenging look in her eyes. She did not know this land, nor could she remember any other dragons she might have once recognized. She knew that she would have to keep her wits about her, even with this feathered dragon that was smaller than her. She could assume he would not advance until his apetite was satisfied, but she could not assume that he was safe to trust until she knew more about him...

Wisteria had relaxed slightly as the young dragon talked, wondering who this 'master' was, but stiffened at his question of her gender.
"Yes, of course I'm female!" She scowled instead of delivering a biting comment, and then managed to relax, telling herself that he was younger then she, and they had just met. He had talked of never meeting any other dragons before, it would stan to reason then that he would not know a female intantly, or even another type of dragon.
"I...am I an angelic dragon? What other dragons are there, do you know? I have no memory of a past, so I cannot tell you if all dragons look differently from each other, but we both have feathered wings, and feathers on our heads, so perhaps we are of the same species." Wisteria studied him for a moment more, wondering if and where there might be any other dragons.
"Who is the master?"

At first Wisteria just stared, trying to absorb the other's dragon's excited chatter, then she practically dented the earth as her jaw fell, watching fog whisp forth from his maw, concentration written in his eyes. Polite conduct thrust itself into her mind, and she snapped her jaw up with a decisive click. She blinked, then nodded elegantly.
"Yes, I should like to assist you in your hunt. I am a bit rusty, I am afraid, from lack of practice during my long sleep, but my claws are sharp and my fangs are ready. I am at your service, if you only tell me where the prey is."

With a small but graceful bow, she stood ready for action, her wings half-furled and her head feathers and ridge feathers fluffed and flowing in the faintly playful tendrils of wind...

Wisteria watched the gray mist swirl and expand. She breathed in the scents of prey. The warm, oaken scent of deer, and the fresh glittering scent of dew-kissed grass. She nodded to Varnox silently, and stalked around one side of the herd of deer. She could reach her mind forward, feel as the herd grazed, almost taste the life that would soon flow between her jaws, strengthening her and envigorating her. She could almost close her eyes and send pulses of like through the fog to richochet of the hapless lives before her. She felt just then that she was what she always was meant to be. A hunter, true and pure, and she was ready to take her place in the hierarchy of the world. Her jaws parted, her eyes deadly, she slinked forward, and leapt when she could almost touch them. The fog had dampened all wind, and the helpless deer never knew what had caused the black oblivion of death, but two deer, an elder and a doe, dropped with just a whisper of feathers. Wisteria had the deer clasped in her steely jaws before they had a chance to hit the ground. She clamped her teeth around a leg on each of them and dragged them out of the fog like a proud kitten dragging her first mouse between her forelegs. She pranced a bit, proud of her swift, silent kills. She emerged from the edge of the fog, feeling the stress that the deer had felt creep up their spines as well as the sense of belonging, the feeling of magic grasped between her claws, fade and stay with the fog. She looked back, wondering if it was just the magic in the fog that had affected her...

Wisteria spotted Varnox as he emerged from the swirling tendrils of fog. She felt a keen urge to learn how to use this magic that he knew. She wondered if she had any magic in her...
Glowing with pride at his praise, she considered her claws and wings, and then nodded towards the disk of cloud which Varnox had already placed his skillfully attained kills upon.
"You did very well yourself, and I should like to help you tow the cloud with all our successes upon it. That way we shall move faster, and not be burdened by a cumbersomely awkward load, but a streamlined and swift load. Can you connect it to my ankle as well? We can fly side by side and pull twice as well as alone."

She turned and looked back at him over her shoulder, her ankle easily accessible so that he coul dwrap another tendril of fog around her...

Wisteria was vaguely glad of her dark coleration, which hid her self-conscious blush. She had to wonder how she, a dragon, could blush, but she felt the heat under her scales nonetheless. She waited as he finished, and then straightened.
"Yes, I am ready. Let us fly together." Wisteria smiled at him, her eyes, which had been wary of him, were now warm and gentle. She wondered what the warm feeling that bubbled within her was. She spread her wings, and they took off together, pushing up from the ground with powerful back legs and determined stokes of their wings. The disk rose smoothly behind them, and Wisteria reveled at the flow of wind over her feathers and her new friend at her side...