Yantaria: From the Dark to the light to the Darkness again

Yantaria has always been an evil aligned character. She started out raised in the underdark as if to be a pet to some Valsharess. However, as she grew and became more knowledgeable, she was better served as an ally rather than a pet. Even the most paranoid of ilythiiri found themselves trusting her. If not for the greed of the ilythiiri she would have been a queen of her own right. Not that any would attempt to murder her or even could. She had won the freedom of her kind in a way. No longer subject to be 'pets' but as formidable equals.

Being the smallest of the dragon kind was never an easy thing. You sometimes had to make deal with the two legged flesh bags just to be sure you survived. Yan was highly sought by many males, none of which ever got close enough to touch her let alone breed with her. She kept to herself, it was safer that way. Hard for someone to back stab you if you never let them close enough for even an arrow to fly.

After a while, however, this started to become daunting. Male dragons always attempting to claim her for themselves... She constantly had to watch her back, learning shadow tricks from the ilythiiri to escape such battles.

A Valsharess of high standing requested a child by Yantaria once. Yan allowed it.. a cross breed between her best ilythiiri guard and the impressive black dragon.. why not? She never saw the child again. Shortly after the baby was born a war broke out between the surfacers and the underdark. Yan, weak, fled from her home in search of someplace new. Perhaps there the males would not give her such a hard time. She escaped to the surface, and for a while was happy just to explore. However nearly everywhere she went she met with resistance and hate against her kind. A few times she managed to talk her way through the door in a diplomatic form but ultimately she was limited and always in danger.

Then he came. Threatening to run her from the land she had worked so hard to claim herself. The strange part.. he did not want her to leave.

Taq'Kornari was the purest of silvers that Yantaria had ever met. His annoying frustrating chaotic good personality usually drove her insane from time to time. He would not force her from the home she had worked to create, but he would also not leave. Years were spent, her yelling at him face to face.. and him standing there! Calm expression with a soft quirk at the corner of his lips as if it was all just a joke to him. He never made any move to harm Yantaria. Even when she attempted to hurt or kill him. He would simply overpower her.. wait until she calmed down.. and then watch as she left in a dejected way. She was nothing but a toy to him for his amusement.... or was she?

One day she decided she would be good to him.. gain his trust more.. make him believe she loved him and then.. she would tear his heart out and reclaim her home for herself. Yes... she could do that. Years went by.. attempting.. trying.. at first it seemed as if he was onto her.. then one day.. as he held her in his arms atop a cliff, his purest of blue eyes staring down into her red tainted ones.. he said those words.

"I am forever yours, all I could ever hope is that you allow me to stay by your side." Yan at first was happy, yes.. her plan was working well...but then the night came.. and passed. Passionate nights came.. and passed.. children came... and then the metabond.. She...was in love? He had accepted her for all that she was and ever would be...He never pushed less he absolutely needed to, and she never gave in less she wanted to. Life was suddenly not so dark and manipulative. It was no longer some twisted joke. Inevitably war would come to their lands. No matter how far they traveled to get away, the rest of the rest of the world always seemed to drop by with some dark omen or news.

Their eldest son Mor'Kaleb agreed to go with Yantaria as they went to search for a new home. Perhaps somewhere that the children could meet other dragons. Mor'kaleb was a strange formation of a dragon. Part black, part Silver. The rest of the offspring came out as either or.. but not both. Yan had not been sure exactly how this worked, but her son was beautiful in so many ways. They traveled out for miles in search.. finding someplace close to what they wanted, but ultimately the land would show to be in turmoil and war as well as any other. Eventually years started to pass by.. then one day mid air as Yan was flying over a swamp she felt her heart thump so heavy and a pain shoot through her body.

Something had happened to Taq'Kornar. She could feel it. The pain was so intense that all Mor'Kaleb could do was lift his mother into his arms and turn to attempt to fly home. When Yan awoke next.. there was no sign of her son. She felt.. still.. quiet.. her body weak. She forced herself up.. and slowly began her journey home. She could not know the devastation that awaited her.

While she was away a great bloated red dragon had taken over the lands with a few other dragons. They were preparing for more than just a small war, recruiting by force any that were in the area.. and murdering any who refused. As she came in, she took on her human disguise. Hearing rumors of the red and what he had done.. bones of dragons and man and orc lay for miles. The earth tainted by the blood and foul rotting corpses. In the center.. the mountain that she once called home. At a few points, Yan had no choice but to turn to her shadow tricks and full form to get through.

Whispers from souls she collected on the battlefield told her of the war and the battle.. a few.. of her family. Taq'Kornar was the first to be murdered. Outnumbered and unwilling to leave his home and younglings behind, defending the little silver ones brutally until the bloated red managed to snap his neck. The younglings had no chance.. the silver ones were murdered instantly.. the few of her lucky children that had black scales were forced into training or murdered as well.

If not for one dragon, this red's attempt to rule the lands would have worked. The day the bloated red fell.. there was black lightning in the sky. The force of the fight caused such a crater that there was no telling what really was left of the red or any of the army that was under such a spectacle. All that was seen left were the bones of a hybrid black and silver scale dragon. Left to mark the greatest battle that land had ever seen.

When Yantaria walked upon the gravesite of her son, there was no describing the amount of dead inside she felt. Her mate gone, all of her children gone.. this was the only gravesite she would be able to find. Long dead.. Mor'Kaleb lay in a patch of obsidian diamond and gold fragments. Surprisingly none had been there before Yantaria.. as nothing seemed to have been disturbed since the day it happened. She placed her hand upon the solid stone like corpse of Mor'Kaleb, purple tears sliding down her pale human face as she walked around the grave to where her son's skull lay in a horrific painful roar. As night started to fall upon the bone yard, shadows started to whisper and rip from the land and bones. Souls slowly starting to gather and be sucked into a well of darkness.

Yan created her first rift.. and traveled to the depths of the underworlds for days in search of her children and her mate. Mor'Kaleb was the only one she found. Eventually she decided that the only reason she was able to find him, was because she was at his gravesite when she started. When she returned she found her body untouched but hunched over. The only food for miles would be scavenging through dead for rotten meat. Slowly she started to absorb the souls she had still collected in the well. Regaining her strength enough to move her own body once again.

As Mor'Kaleb guided her to where their home used to be a loud screech was heard in the air. A rather large green dragon diving down at Yantaria in her human form. Shadow stepping she managed to get herself to a safe place to change into her dragon form.. and thus the fight started. Doing what she could to try and escape but not having the strength to get to far from the green. Her wings torn, her body slashed she was left to travel by foot for miles after the attack..

Shortly after she awoke in a field just outside of three large towers. The one in the middle slightly taller than the other. Man made structures... with the taste of magic? Trying to lift her head she found she had been chained down. Not able to look at where her tethers went, all she could do was growl and release her miasma. The dark thick purple smoke causing the grass to wilt in front of her. A word was spoken.. and her mouth was held tightly shut.

The torture of being held captive by a mage was bad enough.. but having him force her to use her ability to open rifts before she even knew exactly how to control them.. that was cruelty. It tore at her body and mind. Threatened to rip her apart.. and when he was done.. he had no mercy. Forcing her into a semi human body so that he might have his way with her. She stayed calm and quiet for what she could. There was no point in fighting against such a powerful being. She did what she could to learn of his abilities and how he captured her. Learning that the moon elves had a part in it only enraged her. As time went on, waiting for her window to escape... it came in an odd fashion.

Packed into a crate lined with runes and shipped across the oceans like an animal...Yan's spirit was broken.. What would be the point of living? she would think to herself just as she started to slip into unconsciousness. The world would become hazy for a bit.. and she would find herself awaking on a beach.. of an island called amoras.

There standing over her.. a bloated red dragon boasting and acting as if he were protecting his mate as others came to inspect yan and her odd form washed up onto the beach. The bloated red offered her food.. and eventually offered her home.. how fitting..

Yantaria played nice.. did as she was asked.. seduced who she could to get information.. she wanted the murder of this bloated red ass to be perfect. The more he drooled over her the better. Making it obvious that he wanted to breed with her, she did what she could with her masks to hide the bile rising in her throat at the thought. However, it was working to well.. He trusted her to much. Perhaps he was onto her? He made her council and eventually started to talk of making her his queen. She would face punishment with the rest of the Aerie for what she planned to do to him.. but he was the focus of her hate. Even if he was not the one that killed her family, it still transferred over. His ideals of how he wanted to run the Aerie were laughable. Making most the females brood bitches and running off more suitable males because he wanted his own seed to prevail.

Just as Yantaria made up her mind to entrap Tyl... Soumia and Davros came back. The rightful king and queen of the Aerie... so kind and graceful.. they reminded her of...shadows of life she had before. Of a life she could delude herself with, perhaps once again. Losing her focus on vengeance and turning her attention to the fact that.. there was a family here. Even Tyl's offspring were quirky little characters themselves... And then there was Aguni.

Aguni who freed her from the prison the mage had locked her into. Aguni that warmed her cold dead heart. Aguni that shined the light in with a simple smile and took her hand to his chest. Who embraced her in a passion she had not felt in so long.. that she was not even sure she really survived that shipwreck. All through it.. no matter what seemed to come her way, Aguni played the light in her darkness.. so that she might better find her path out.

When the Amoras started to fall apart, Yantaria could not let her family die again. She would not. She lied, manipulated and gathered them to where they needed to be.. and in the end risked her life to save them. The rock that they called the Aerie might have fallen into the ground below.. never to be what it once was again.. but the Aerie would always be.. the heart of the dragons. No matter where they went. This helped Yan to be at peace. She watched as the door closed.. and awaited that finale blast....into darkness.

"Fade to black, as the shadows do when their light goes away." Several voices chant in unison through the black void.

"She is rather interesting." The voices would chime together. "Powerful enough to pull us from this realm, manipulate us.. infuse us.. and send us back at will." They whispered again in unison. Almost as if a haunting figure were talking to themselves. "Though she is weak physically.. we could strengthen her... All of us? All of us... She has shown respect and control. A fitting master? Yesssssss. What of the other? That one...has denied us for far to long. No, she fears us. And this one does not? No..she fears nothing. Not even death. She does not worship the light and her light is now gone...she will be perfect. Yessssssssssssss" The voices grow quieter until a deafening silence is left.

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Yantaria opened her eyes.. nothing. She would see nothing and yet everything, as black would be void of any shape. Her eyes would open wider, attempting to take in any light.. there would be none. So this was oblivion? Nothingness stretched on to no end. So this was finale death. How fitting she would be aware of it.. no doubt she would slowly go mad. She did not bother to move or stand.. no.. she was dead, there wasn't a body to manipulate anymore. No matter how the phantom limbs stung from burns or ached. She listened to the silence...wait..*thump* wait what is that? *thump hisss thump whisp thump* The sound of a heartbeat and a breathing being?

Her head would raise up.. she could feel nothing around her. No rock, no grass, no water. Not even wind under her wings.. was she floating? *thump* Was.. she breathing? She held her breath...*thump* No breath sound followed.. but the heavier thump of her heart continued.

"I'm alive?!" She said, her own voice sounding so loud and yet bouncing off of nothing. Her talons clacking against her scaled breast as she grasped her chest. "I...I CAN FEEL THAT!" She held out her hand looking for it.. but not seeing in the darkness. "I.. am blind?" She asked herself. As she moved to feel around her.. she would find nothing. Her wings would not touch air enough to raise her up.. even if they had..how far up could she go? Why was she not falling...where was she?? "Hello!?" She called out.. no answer came. The darkness was all that was there. She was alone...in the dark... how fitting.

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~There was no telling how long Yantaria had been in such a dark place. Unaware of if she was truly alive or dead. Pain would come to her. Physically, emotionally and trying at her sanity with each ticking moment. When she did sleep, she could hear voices talking around her. She would hear her Agni's voice and listen to horrible things he said. She would hear her dearest of friends crying out in pain and blaming her. She would have no ability to pull herself from this fitful slumber till the voices would stop and she would have that long awaited sound of her own breathing and her heart beating. As if taunting her to believe she still lived.

Eventually she would come to believe she had failed. That she had not saved her family and that she alone was in this purgatory because of their deaths. Months had passed. Perhaps even a year or two. She could have been there for a decade or a millenia and would not be the wiser. Her finale light was that of her mate. His face and features slowly fading in her mind to the darkness. It caused her to much pain to remember any of it.. So she sent it away. ~

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Yantaria awoke gasping for air and flailing with her wings and limbs. There was no sense of up or down, left or right. Had she been dreaming? Or was she remembering something? was she sleeping? Damn this darkness. Already it was starting to drive her mad. She was starting to doubt that she really was alive.. perhaps all that had happened was just an echo of life.. How long had she been here? Days? Weeks? Can't have been that long...could it? Again she focused upon her own breathing. The one sound that held her sanity and hope.

"I am not dead." She repeated. Suddenly a loud grumble and a soft pain from her stomach would catch her attention. "See.. I cannot be dead if I am hungry..." she said to herself. Perhaps the darkness was starting to take its toll upon her mind already. Annoyed she lashed out. Wings, tail, claws neck. Anything that she could flail out in an attempt to find something in the nothingness. After a moment of wearing herself out with no reward she stopped and curled into her body. A soft whimper came from her. "But.. If I am hungry.. If I am alive.. I will starve to death." She wrapped her now humanoid arms around her knees and buried her face into them.

She had learned she was able to shift in the darkness.. and had hoped that somehow she would dislodge herself through magic. No matter how much she tried, nothing seemed to change. She began to sob in frustration as she fought with her own sanity to believe that she was indeed still alive...or.. maybe she wasn't? Maybe this was how Oblivion worked. Maybe she had to accept that her life was over and accept oblivion.. clear her mind as if in meditation and be done with it?

Slowly she lifted her red eyes from her arms and looked into the darkness. Feeling the tears as they seemed to just linger in her eyes. As if there were no gravity to pull them down her cheeks. First she thought of Soumia. A strong and impressive blue dragon that welcomed her not only as a friend but as a sister into the Aerie. Then she thought of Kyr, the strong white dragon. Her love and loyalty and strength held no bounds. She thought of the memories that had flitted through her mind of the white scale during the last moments.. and smiled. The talks they had at the camp fire made her feel almost warm again.

Sililuuth the Amethyst that she had spoken to.. Perhaps she was not as close a friend.. but there was unfinished business with her. The death of her mate, was Yantaria's fault. She believed that.. At least perhaps they were together now? Reunited in death? Why couldn't that be where Yan had been sent to? Tears would well up in her eyes once again.

Agni, her friend and mate. He reminded her so much of what it was to love another. The memory of him stung deep into her heart. Choking slightly on her own breath made, as it made her want to stop thinking of him all together. Her chest hurt so much just at the memory of his face. Suddenly she would start to sob. No, she didn't want to remember those who were dead. Those she would never see again. She would start to allow their memories to fade. Each one of them in her mind, she watched as their features faded into the dark pools of her mind. Davros, Soumia, Adelrune, Sililuuth, Kyr and finally Agni. She would stare at this image in her mind for a long while until the lava dragon was blanketed by the dark pool. His light fading.. till her mind was as dark as her reality.

Slowly..again she would drift back to sleep. Not knowing if it were sleep or if it were real. Madness had won. She would remember nothing of these beings from before. The pain seeping away from her heart. *Thump......hiss......thump.............* -Deafening Silence.-

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~When Yantaria woke again, she had no memory of anything but her own name and the darkness. The pain was gone, both physically and emotionally. ~

Yan awoke again. Or had she already been awake the entire time? It did not matter. Faceless beings yelling and fighting and glowing all through her visions. No idea as to who they were or what they wanted. They made no sense and had no reason or explanation. Shadows had been murdered. Her own brethren. She would call upon them and never be answered.

Twisting slightly she managed to set her feet upon solid ground and stood, stretching her full length before she would relax upon the ground. Folding her wings her eyes gleaming through the darkness. Slowly she walked among those beasts, knowing who they were, sensing them near by... but not remembering who she was or where she was from.

The clicking and chirping of Sprite eaters. The gurgling chuckle of the shadow husks. They were her family and this is all she would remember. Darkness.

~As Yantaria traveled through the dark forest, listening to her shadows speak and play she would hear voices that did not match any of her dark family. One that seemed to ring out calling to her over and over again. There was a flash in the darkness and not that far away seemed to be beings of light coming through a portal. Upon the sense of the darkest light she found it offensive and instantly stripped the female's abilities.

When she got close enough to hear them a fight erupted. The female that she had stripped of her abilities apparently turned upon. The beings of light attacking and drawing attention from Yantaria's dark family. Frowning, Yantaria would watch at first. Allowing her dark family to move in to feast upon those beings of light that would dare enter their realm. Watching as they murdered one another. The loud crack of thunder shortly after a bright flash of light caused Yantaria to flinch and look away. When she looked back, the being she had stripped was now dead.

She moved closer, watching as they seemed to have the ability to fight back against the shadows.. and then that voice. That voice that made her feel guilt.. that made her feel pain in her chest.. That threatened to make her remember. She bared her teeth.. how did that voice know her? Moving forward she watched for a few seconds more as the obsidian mirror was destroyed then stood among them. They seemed frantic at first, worry over their comrades. Yan would hear as other's were feasting upon those who ran into the forest to escape. When Yantaria spoke, the others seemed to respond with elated and happy greetings.. to her.

She demanded to know who these beings of light were that seemed so sure they knew her.. she escorted them from her realm.. and was encouraged to join them as they had one who needed to see her. Once back at the Aerie Yantaria found herself misplaced, lost and unsure of what she was doing there. She slipped away from the group as they celebrated and found herself sitting in the shadows cast by the light of the full moon. A voice would call out, pained and unsure. ~

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"Yantaria?" He asked.. As she turned she would see a lava dragon in full form.. tears made of diamonds scattering down his face before he shifted into a smaller form and came to embrace her.

"I.." he took her in his arms. "Y-yes. That is who I am." she said confused. He took her and held her back, the sorrow and happiness upon his face was obvious. That familiar pain was back. She moved away from him breaking his hold upon her. "Who are you?" She asked before rubbing her chest. The male frowned, confusion now added to his expressions.

"No, I will not let you forget." He said in a calm cool tone before taking her in his arms again. He placed his forehead to hers, and though she struggled it was such a shocking vision that followed. Images of her in his arms. Of him upon his knees.. Of a floating island.. of a silver dragon.. of a long dead son. Yantaria cried out in pain. Her body going limp in his arms from the shock..

When next she awoke she was miles from the Aerie now. Within Agni's arms held tight. As he landed he looked into her eyes. He would tell her of his intentions, of his love, of their future life together.. and the pain would only grow. Yantaria would nod, smile.. and pretend this was what she wanted.. However one night as he lay sleeping in the light of the moon she would watch him. Pain filling her heart once more. *Thump* She growled and grabbed at her chest. No.. She did not want to feel this again. She glared at him as he slept.. and then slipped back into the shadows and returned to her dark family.