[ShadyBro]

This babe had a pretty rough experience with a hunters trap. They lost most of their tail and one of their back feet, which has been replaced with a metal paw.

Rider: I ᶫᵒᵛᵉᵧₒᵤ Ian ♥
Name: Caer
Gender: Male
Species: Terrible Terror

Are all the tasks completed?: No

[parlaymars]

Name; Caeruleus, "Caer" for short. Meaning "dark sea" in Latin.
Gender; male

(Complete) Task #1 - The Hunter
(Complete) Task #2 - The Village
(Complete) Task #3 - The Girl

[parlaymars]

Task #1 - The Hunter

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The hunter was very tall. Neat, black hair bound at the base of his neck kept unruly strands out of
his startlingly green eyes, lids slitted against the setting sun. Three days had passed since he had
reset his snares, nearly double that since he last visited the deadfalls. It was time for him to check
his traps.

A low, silent form slid through the forest on his left, tawny scales all but invisible in the dappled
light. "Verena." the hunter chided, raising a hand towards the beast. She stopped - for the
moment, but Verena was her own creature and no amount of Leto's disapproval would keep her in
one place for long. Her rider stepped lightly to the first snare, retrieving a dead rabbit and
tossing it towards Verena before moving on to the next. Another rabbit, and then a porcupine -
that was rare this time of year. Leto made a mental note to give it to the village seamstress after
he'd gutted and skinned it - as a purse, it'd fetch a hefty sum.

The hunter shielded his eyes against the setting sun, and made his way to the next snare.

The sudden silence was the first thing that alerted him to the wrongness that surrounded
this part of the forest. Previously there had been the scuttling of small woodland things, the
mournful chirping of solitary birds. This time of year, most of them had flown south. But there
was no birdsong at all. Leto, ever wary, approached the snare with caution. At first he could
hardly believe what he was seeing - a shapeless mound of gray, scaled flesh, it's foot and tail
mangled with blood. He dropped to his knees, hastily, and undid the first wire. The creature
did not stir, but the hunter could see the rise and fall of the little creature's chest.

"Hang on, little guy. Hang on."

[parlaymars]

Task #2 - The Village

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Leto cradles the insensible terror to his chest, mindful of the claws and teeth that move
weakly for his throat even as the creature lay dying in his arms.

"Verena, hurry." he urges, untangling the creature's claws from his vambraces yet again.
Blood leaks slowly from the creature's tail and mangled foot, in pulses, and Leto worries that it
is in time with the creature's heartbeats. And even that, too, is slowing.

It seems a lifetime that the lights of the village finally come into view, and by some miracle the terror
has managed to hold on -weakly- to its' life. Leto does not land outside the village like he normally
does, instead, he touches down a hair's breadth from Nura's house and slams his hand into the
dark oak of the door as hard as he can. The wood rattles under each blow, until his hand is on fire
from the pain, and finally Nura opens the door, sleep blearing her eyes.

Three children peek out at him from behind her skirts, but Nura takes a hard look at the dragon in
his hands and bustles her children back inside.

She tells him "set the creature in the barn, I must get my kit," and he does, spreading out the
little form on the dusty table. Verena spills light from her mouth until Nura arrives with a candle
and her medicine, then the dragon is booted from the room by the medicine-woman herself.

"Press here, watch his fangs;" she says, and he does.

[parlaymars]

Task #3 - The Girl

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By some miracle, the terror makes it through the night. Ieorthil and her siblings spend
half a day coddling the creature, feeding it morsels of fish and other meats, but after
a while all three grow bored and venture down to the water to fish.

Leto stays with Nura as she tends the wounded creature, holding it down when she
changes the gauze and poultice covering it's tail and foot. The tail is a clean cut, but
the foot is messier - a maimed ball of flesh and bone. Nura will have to amputate.

It is Ieorthil, Nura's daughter of five, that holds down the creature while it hisses and
writhes. The amputation is a straightforward one, and Nura is quick, and Leto leaves
with a promise to bring back food enough to feed the creature for the rest of it's life.

When he returns, it is to a grey terrible terror scampering up and down Ieorthil's arms,
missing half a tail and a foot but otherwise doing okay. He saves enough coin selling
his skins to buy a mechanical replacement, and his face burns when he hands the machine
to Ieorthil - but the little girl takes it solemnly, brown eyes serious, and goes away to
help fit it to the stump where the creature's foot used to be.

It takes the little terror a few weeks to figure it out, but after that he is just as
rambunctious and difficult as Ieorthil's other terrible companions - the grey got along
particularly well with Hemingway, the other male. Drysi was a different story - the
female was much bigger than the little grey terror, and she often nipped at him
when he got too close.

But Ieorthil chastises her when she sees it, and soon Drysi learns that the grey
is not to be bothered. Ieorthil names him Caeruleus, but shortens it to Caer -
and he is happy.