Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tayma scowled at her reflection. Scars. Wounds. A tough exterior. A drop of blood dripped off the edge of her snout, disappearing into the water of the mountain stream below. She had just finished fighting off an angry young male who wasn't happy with the advice that the guardian had given him, and although she'd gotten rid of the brat easily, she hadn't exactly come out of the battle without a scratch... Any poor little hatchling to stumble onto the female Northern dragon at that moment would no doubt flee in terror, maybe scared to such an extent that they would try to flee South to the land where the Mountain Dragons dwelled... or used to dwell anyway...

Tayma sighed, and her face softened. She knelt down with her head resting on her forelegs, watching the water flow past. She wondered if she would've been this way normally... If she had remained with her pack... If she'd never become the Guardian's advisor/bodyguard.

She barely remembered it now. The fued that her pack and gotten into, long ago... At first it was just a spat over territory, but all too soon it escalated into malicious acts; damming up the stream so it wouldn't flow into a certain territory, stealing the products of the day's hunt from the opposing pack... and then... physical violence. After the death of a hatchling... Tayma's brother... Both packs decided that enough was enough. They went to the Guardian, who lived in an area somewhere in between the disputed boundary.

She had declared Tayma's pack to be at fault (if Tayma's memory was correct, the guardian's reasoning was this; the other pack had first brought up the fight over the boundary line, but Tayma's pack had been the first to actually do something cruel on purpose). The guardian would have left it at that, but the other pack still wasn't satisfied. They demanded that Tayma's pack get some kind of punishment (as if losing a hatchling weren't punishment enough). The guardian wasn't happy about it, but she agreed. However, she sentenced Tayma's pack to something that some might consider a blessing, rather than a curse. She ruled that Tayma would come and serve her ((her being the guardian, sorry if that's not clear. sweatdrop )) and become an eventual adviser, or maybe even a bodyguard.

Hatchling-Tayma looked up at her mother in confusion (her father had died several years ago), hoping desperately that she would refuse, and that she wouldn't have to go with this strange old dragon that seemed to get so much respect... But her mother turned away. Tayma's brother had always been her favorite, but they were twins, looking exactly alike... having Tayma around was too much of a reminder...

"Alright," Tayma's mother said. And without further discussion, Tayma was sent with the Guardian. She grew up to be wise - from studying under the Guardian - and also tough - from protecting her. And she still didn't have any idea if things would have turned out differently if her mother had really refused the guardian...