Couldryn (caul-drin)
Bond:
Holongalas Selamputo
Age:
? (Young adult)
Rank:
N/A
Sex:
Male
Species:
Unknown Feral Hybrid (Wolf/Feline/Horned Beast?)
Height:
3' at shoulder
Fur:
Orange-Brown-Reddish-Blue
Eyes:
Dark Green
Place of Birth:
Unknown
Current Residence:
Sitheil Tirean, Splintyr Sector
Personality:
Couldryn is quiet, almost withdrawn, and will not initiate conversations. He has no problems talking to others and isn't antisocial, he just doesn't seem to have much initiative. He suffers from nightmares about the injury that caused him to lose his front leg, and they often cause him to be even quieter than usual. He is friendly and loves to help.
Story:
Kaere tripped over a bundle of rags lying on the floor of her lab. Several of the wrapped packages she had been carrying flew from her hands and thumped to the ground. Cursing softly, she glanced down, preparing to kick the rags into the corner with a vengeance.
Two dark green eyes gazed at her from the pile. "Gaah!" Kaere yelped, her splotched white fur standing on end. "Oh. It's you, Couldryn. What in the world are you doing on the floor?"
The two-eyed bundle of rags struggled to a standing position, revealing itself to be a strange mostly-canid creature. Only three paws held the creature upright – its left foreleg ended in a stump a few inches below its elbow. "Lanatus had to help the Samanayrs with something," the creature said, balancing easily on his three legs. The injury appeared old; the stump was covered in fur except for a bit of scar tissue along the bottom of it. "He asked me to sit in here and keep an eye on things until he finished up and came back."
Kaere sighed, hunkering down to pick up the packages she had dropped. Couldryn grabbed one in his jaws and offered it to her. "Thanks, Coul," Kaere said, taking the package. Couldryn gave his long tail a brief movement that could have been a wag, causing the tiny, useless wings on its tip to twitch.
Kaere regarded the creature briefly before standing up. Couldryn was a hybrid of more or less unknown ancestry. He looked mostly wolflike, but his tail had feline qualities and those two strange, tiny feathered wings at the end. His forehead bore a small, sharp horn that was straight, not spiraled, and his fur was a motley of decidedly unwolflike colors. He was one of the true rare wanderers, a being who had happened across the Gate on his homeworld completely by accident. He had appeared one day in the Gate Management building, setting off a minor riot because of his "unauthorized" travel. Unfortunately, the bewildered creature could not remember anything about his homeworld or his origins. The magical Gate-travel had wiped his memories except for one: he had lost his left foreleg through violence and not an accident. It gave him nightmares sometimes, unformed things with no clear images or events.
"Did anything happen while you were here?" Kaere asked, dumping the packages onto a table. "Any fruit-dragons escape, anything explode?"
"No and no," Couldryn said, showing a brief smile. "Although Pomarius Bete stopped by and asked about the lemon-dragoness. He wants to know when he can meet her."
Kaere groaned. "She's not going to be awake for weeks yet," she said, glancing at the glassed-in tank in the corner and pushing her glasses up on her long muzzle. "Pom needs to realize she'll be sour if I wake her up too early." She let out a dry chuckle at her own wit, but Couldryn didn't respond. She looked over at the little creature. He was staring down at the ground, at the one paw that held up the front part of his body. The one paw.
Something felt pinched in Kaere's chest. For everything she could do, create life, hybridize fruit and dragons, for the love of the gods, she could do nothing to help the forlorn three-legged Couldryn. She could not regrow his leg through genetic manipulation – knowing nothing about his species or his homeworld, she was wary of tinkering with his DNA. She had tried to create a mechanized leg for him, but after the attachments were made, the leg hung lifeless and useless. Either Couldryn did not possess the tiny spark of magic that nearly every living being on the Core Worlds did, the spark necessary to work Kaere's mechanical creations, or the metal leg was simply incompatible with him. After each experiment, each attempt, Couldryn had grown a bit more withdrawn, a bit more homesick for a land he could not remember. Finally he had asked Kaere, very politely, to not worry about trying any more. He had lived with three legs for as long as he could remember (literally). He would live with three legs for the rest of his life.
No one at Sitheil Tirean outright pitied Couldryn, since pity was a useless emotion that got nothing done for anyone, but everyone felt badly for him and made certain to make him feel wanted and needed. He was given plenty of odd jobs and assignments, and everyone quickly got used to the sight of his unique, hopping, three-legged gait as he maneuvered through the caves.
Just then, Lanatus appeared in the doorway. "Thanks, Couldryn," the watermelon-dragon drawled in his slow, deep voice. "I'm all done now. Thanks for watching the lab."
"No problem," Couldryn replied, although his winged tail drooped a little now that his assignment was over and he once again would be alone with his frightening lack of memories. He started to hop-hobble out the doorway.
"Oh, um, hey, Couldryn," Kaere said, racking her brain for something for the little hybrid to do. She glanced at the packages she'd dropped on the desk – her mail was mixed in with them, and she noticed a bright, shiny flyer. She snatched it up and scanned it, and then her furred face broke into a toothy grin. "I have something for you to do," she said.
Couldryn's colorful face lifted, a small bit of hope lighting his dark green eyes.
Kaere showed him the flyer. It was advertising a place called Driolo, a school/bonding complex situated on the planet of Atu. Thanks to Lakota's acceptance into the Nexus realm, the Gates could be configured to take travelers to Driolo without any problems. "It's a school, too," Kaere said, reading the back of the flyer as Couldryn gazed at the front. "I bet they could help you find your magic, your abilities," she said, her tail wagging eagerly. "You could stay and study there… and maybe find a bond, too," she added, smiling even more broadly at Couldryn's eager expression.
"A bond," Couldryn said, barely above a whisper. In his eyes, Kaere could see the potential for so many things: friendship, someone to talk to, someone to help keep the nightmares at bay, someone who would not look at him with sadness whenever he hopped by. A friend, a truer friend than any other he had ever known. "Would Lakota let me go?" He asked, lifting his gaze to Kaere's.
"It can be arranged," Kaere said, and winked.
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