Quart

image made with Portrait Workshop

STATS
Name: Quart
Gender: Male
Age: 25
Species: Human
Class: Hunter, Tracker

Appearance: Lean and lithe, Quart is not very noticeable. He has brown eyes and brown hair and a generic face that doesn't linger long in the minds of people he meets. He usually wears clothes that disappear in the forest (green, brown, black) so he doesn't scare of potential game.
Personality: Sturdy, dependable and quiet. Quart is someone you can count on. He is the oldest human in the group and has the most experience in survival. He believes the expedition to be a wild goose chase but will go along because it's a well-paying job. 
Skills: Tracking, hunting, survival. Can use daggers, bow and arrows and plays darts well. 

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ARRIVAL at VELLA CREAN
A strange pulling sensation and Eeny stepped out on the other side of the portal, still clutching Quart's shirt, vaguely aware of her hurting hand as she saw the alien landscape unfold before them.
"Sansan!" she called, "Deux? Nill?"
Quart turned around and motioned for Eeny to be quiet. The troll could still be around. As it turned out though, it wasn't and neither were their 3 party members. Deeming they were safe, Quart lowered his hand and started looking around. They were standing on an outcrop that wasn't exactly stone. Behind them was water and before them more of the unfamiliar material formed roads that swerved in the air like the material weighed nothing, yet it felt firm underfoot. Some greenery formed a park underneath and seemed inviting enough.
"Let's go there." Quart pointed to the park.
Eeny nodded and followed, looking around in wonder as the unfamiliar scenery stretched out in the distance. It looked like a city, but not like she'd seen before. For one thing it was quiet. And clean. And the buildings were just... undescribable. It felt like her eyes wouldn't be able to record it all.
Reaching the park, Eeny and Quart breathed a sigh of relief. There weren't people nearby, or they didn't see them and this felt like a good spot to regroup. 
"Where are we?" Eeny asked.
Quart shrugged. He didn't have a clue.
"Should we ask someone?" Eeny tried.
Quart shook his head, he felt it would not be prudent to make their presence known before they at least knew where they were. "Slowly" he said.
Eeny sighed and looked around, suddenly seeing movement.
"What's that?" she asked as a small humanoid figure with feathered wings and large eyes fluttered close. Seemingly carrying a note. Quart jumped in front of Eeny, determined to protect the princess but the little creature didn't seem to care and flew right over his head, landing on Eeny's hand.
"It's so cute!" she called out, accepting the little note, "Why thank you."
Quart groaned and waited as Eeny unfolded the note and read the message. 
"It says we're at Vella Crean and we, that's our leader and one candidate of noble descent or flawless impreial pedigree are invited to attend a hatching. 
"I see you received one as well." a voice suddenly spoke.
Startled, Quart turned around and stood eye to eye with a woman who was about a decade older than, and who seemed to find this all very amusing. "Who are you?" he asked.
"My full title is Laedrys Trix, but you can call me Trix. You see I'm also one of these leaders though I'm lacking a candidate of noble descent. But I'm coming for the networking and the party."
"Nice to meet you." Eeny said and curtsied, "My name is Eeny, a princess of Edenburght."
"Well now, maybe we should join up. You'd definitely do well at the hatching. Do you have proof that you're a princess."
"My word." Quart said.
"My signet ring." Eeny added.
"That might do it. Let's go and meet Shy. If all else fails I'll be tossing him some Shadow dragon DNA or a Dragonder. Pesky critters always follow me around on diplomatic missions."
"We're also missing our friends, you see we stepped through a portal and... ended up here." Eeny continued, foregoing decorum a bit by unloading their troubles on the first perfect stranger that was nice to them, but what else could they do? 
"First step to solving portal problems is getting your very own dragon. That and maybe sending out a notice about your friends through the network of nexus worlds. If you ended up here, chances are your friends also ended up on some world."
"Thank you." Eeny said
"Oh no, thank you." Laedrys Trix added, "we always need more candidates for the dragons."
"Dragons?" Quart asked.
"Sure, like my Frynod." Trix said, pointing to the bright green winged lizard that stood a bit away.

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Laedrys Trix and Quart were still sitting on their places in the stands when the other dragons appeared overhead. Even without proper knowledge of the Vella Crean courts, everyone with half a brain would realise these dragons were up to no good. As the leader made it's announcement, chaos erupted in the building. Quart jumped up, his only thought to go find Eeny and keep her safe. Taking stock of what he had on him, he realised he was hardly armed at all. He had a few throwing daggers fastened around his thigh and a leather belt he could maybe use like a whip.
Trix had a short flashback to the shadowling rebellion they had only recently been able to resolve. A mere human could do little against a dragon unless hope the dragon overlooked them and didn't see them as a threat. The dragons that had crashed the hatching would not know any of the people that came from offworld and she certainly wasn't one of the more elaborately dressed spectators of royalty. Maybe they could sneak toward the place where the hatchlings were eating their first meals.
"Frynod." she called mentally and hoped non of the dragons could hear the conversation, "Go protect the young ones. I'll try to come to you."
From outside, the relatively small (compared to all these Pernese sizes anyway) bright green dragoness replied: 
"I'll come get you."
She appeared and crushed quite a few benches, but hopefully didn't harm one of the spectators. Grabbing both her rider and the huntsman, she hopped into the Elsewhere again and brought them to where the hatchlings were, where the three of them hit the floor in a tangle of limbs. Teleporting with two grown adults hanging on her arms was not something Frynod would attempt again any time soon.
Quart had just time enough to notice the dragon appearing before them before he was grabbed and next he knew he was feeling quite sick and disoriented. That feeling passed quickly though as he noticed he was now right beside the new pairs. Eeny was shielded by Frynod but she was dwarfed by the attacking dragons, and since she possessed no magic of her own would not hold up very long. 
Luckily, the other attendants weren't quite as powerless to stop the attack. One of the women that had attended as a candidate stepped up. 
"You dare approach our hatchlings?" she bellowed, clearly not willing to take things laying down.
It was not the rushing of wings that caught anyone's attention, it was an incredibly sharp banging of hooves. Eight hooves, two horses bearing sharp teeth and ears flat back, burning red eyes, and what looked like steam coming off of their flanks. They were big, not anywhere near as large as the dragons circling in the sky, but they had it in their heads to charge the area. At first it looked as though they were joining the attack but then they seemed to be rounding up those in need of aid.
The fierce steeds screeched horrendously but there was strength in numbers and Quart grabbed Eeny and rushed toward the horses. The fighting raged on and it became clear that the death court dragons as they had named themselves, were after the last dragon egg. 
The attention shifted away from the other hatchlings and Laedrys Trix motioned to get close to Frynod.
"I'll be taking you home with me. There's no use staying here when we can't fight."
"Take Eeny." Quart said, "I can at least help somewhat."
Eeny seemed to want to protest but the Laedrys did not argue, taking the size of her dragoness into account and promised:
"I'll be back."
Quart watched as they disappeared and found himself a discarded weapon that he could use.  
--
It was a few days after the death court intervention when the Vella Crean started to function back like normal. Well, close to normal. A lot of the infrastructure had been damaged and there had been some casualties to be mourned. But things could have been much worse. Quart had made it through unscathed, though he'd made his way outside pretty quickly, trying to get a clearer read from the outside. The worst part of the battle had raged far away from him. 
Shy, the leading scientist of the Vella Crean had returned and he had promised that his next project would be dragons that would strengthen the guard. And Quart could only agree that they were needed. He had already signed up to attend this hatching. Even if his dragon would be younger than Eeny's Salamasinath, at one point they would catch up and be able to keep the pair safe and that was all that mattered. 
He stared out the window and saw Frynod appear on one of the broadways below. Their timing was so good they probably had received notice of the new clutch that would be waiting. Quart rushed out from their rooms, they'd only been apart for a couple of days and for good reason, but Quart almost felt like a part of himself had been missing. Maybe because Eeny was the last connection to his home? Quart only knew that remaining at her side was important. 

Quart is waiting to impress at the Vella Crean's Imperial Guard Clutch

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HATCHING
The eggs were impatient, cracking and rocking and snapping into two, revealing richly coloured hatchlings. Hornless, crestless, they looked no different from the Court dragons that had hatched on these sands for decades. The first to hatch was a pale, pale hued bronze that shivered, shadows coalescing around their body as if he was shrugging on a cloak. The dragon wasted no time and headed for the visitor, followed by a blue hatchling. 
Shiqinth flew down on wobbly wings and landed with a laugh next to Salamasinath. They peered over the edge of the stands and watched as eggs continued to hatch. 
“Are you excited?” he asked. 
A little blue dragon freed themselves, and immediately moved towards their clutchmate’s aid, using their teeny tiny claws to poke at the neighbouring egg.
Salamasinath peered down as well, nodding her head. The cracks in her hide glimmering rosegold before shifting to darker, more vibrant hues. 
“Is that what we looked like?” she asked, her eyes swirling with amusement as the little blue successfully freed a much larger brown hatchling, and seemed to fall back for a breather. Something glinted, rosegold at first, than darker, vibrant hues.
“We were probably much more beautiful.” Shiqinth proclaimed. 
They were Imperial, were they not? Shy was always telling him what a beautiful boy he was. The blue Imperial’s tail swayed back and forwards and he leaned over to jostle his clutchmate. 
“Are you really going to leave?” he asked.
Salamasinath laughed. “When we are bigger, maybe.” she answered, her eyes taking a more amused whirl as the blue and brown hatchling trudged towards the candidates. There. She was not wrong. Their hide glistened and glowed the way hers did!
A little squeak, a half snarl, and both hatchlings paused as a much smaller green scrabbled towards them, letting out yips of annoyance at being left behind. Salamasinath’s eyes continued to whirl. Amusement, concern, curiosity, as the trio headed straight towards her princess (a queen, Salamasinath told herself) and her huntsmen.
The little green paused in front of Eeny, tilting her head. ‘I can help you, on your quest.’ she supplied, looking towards the stands where the dragons watched. Her eyes met the Imperial Red’s and the little green ducked her head once shyly. ‘If you’d like.’
“And we will help you Quart.” the blue’s voice was clear, sweet. The female blue turned and nudged her brown sibling who let out a grunt of assent. “We’ll train, and grow stronger. We’ll protect the Princess with you.”
Spectators couldn't help but notice a similarity. It was a trick of the light, surely. A coincidence that the Guard that had selected the princess seemed to mimic and match the Imperial red.

Imperial Shield Brown Aahilith 

Gender: Male 
Abilities: Telepathy, Teleportation, Verbal Speech. Fire Breath, Fire Balls. Venom Bite and Claws, Poison Stinger. Elemental magic The Imperial Shield harnesses blood activated elemental magic to create shields and barriers against both magic and physical attacks. To a limited capacity they are able to harness the four elements, but primarily in shield and defensive magic.
Special Notes: Aahilth is very adept at working with his two clutchmates in creating almost impenetrable barriers; he is especially attuned to Salamasinath’s unique abilities despite not being bonded to Eeny. His wings hold the same cracked red markings as Salamasinath, and if you were to observe very carefully, you would realize the colors ebb and flow to match Salamasinath’s own hues exactly. Aahilith is a Big dragon. Most probably the size of a bronze. 
Plot Points: The lab has grown very used to having Quart and Eeny around: Shy’s own team is trying to cajole and convince Quart to stick around and help them build out a fully formed, well trained Guard and bond team for the Empress.

Imperial Sword Blue Saadiyath (Sponsored) 

Gender: Female 
Abilities: Telepathy, Teleportation. Verbal Speech. Elemental Magic activated by Blood. Imperial Court augmentation
Abilities (Inaras Thain): Healing, Acid Breath, Magic Breath, Naughty/Nice (Ability to identify motive and intent of others) 
Abilities (Aegeria ve Vanwanar): Holy Magic, Healing Magic, Electric breath.
Special Notes: Saadiyath considers herself a little bit of a brood mother. She has not bonded to Quart, but considers him hers, and may be inclined to bond herself some time in the future. Her hide cracks and glows with the same markingsas Salamasinath, and if you were to observe very carefully, you would realize the colors ebb and flow to match Salamasinath’s own hues exactly. 
Plot Points: Shiqinth the Imperial Blue who lives in the Labs is delighted to see another “blue” dragon, with such shiny markings.

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ADULT
Night was falling after a full day of training and Quart looked out over their group of dragons. His brown Aahilith wasn't fully grown but he was alreayd as big as Eeny's Salamasinath who was older. His blue Saadiyath came next and Eeny's new green Saaliath was smallest. All dragons had different characters but they seemed to work together. Salamasinath being the abslute ruler and Aahilith her second in command. The two smaller Imperial Sword dragons however were fast and efficient and also a bit louder, not wanting themselves to go unnoticed. 
Eeny dropped down on the bench beside him and slumped, clearly tired from the day.
"What do you call a group of dragons?" Quart asked her.
"I heard people call them a wing. Or sometimes a weyr." Eeny answered, knowledgeable about such things.
"I knew you were the person to ask." Quart smiled and put his arm around her to ward of the cold.
Eeny snuggled closer, inhaling his comforting scent of woods and home. It'd been a long time since she'd thought of home. With all the things that had happened in the relative short time they'd been at the Vella Crean, it had been hard to think of anything aside from what was happening at that exact time. There'd been the parties, the hatching, the appearance of the death court and then the training of Salamasinath. 
"Which wasn't very hard." her Imperial dragon told her, "I'm not the most difficult."
Eeny grinned and was surprised to see Quart do the same.
"After the hatching I started to pick up on her majesty's thoughts." Quart told her.
"I can sometimes hear your dragons too." Eeny confessed.
"They're just such a coherent group it's like they were made for each other."
"Of course we were." Aahilath told them, "It's in our markings and our names."
"We are linked." Saaliath said.
"We are one." Saadiyath said.
Quart wondered about the blue dragon that had tagged along. She hadn't bonded him, or so she told him, but she was with them so in a sense she was part of the group and linked to them through the others. Quart didn't think too hard about what the difference was. He didn't consider Aahilath something he owned either.
"You own me as much as I on you. Saadiyath also considers you as being hers. She's finicky. She'll follow us so it doesn't matter."
"I am my own." Saadiyath replied.
"And you are ours." Salamasinath told her.
"It's the truth." Saaliath added.
"Where do you want to go?" Quart asked Eeny.
"I honestly don't know. I always thought we'd be going home one day. But the longer we stay, the harder it gets to leave. I'm free here, freer than I've ever been. I can go where I want, do what I want and nobody acts like I'm special. Well, not more special than anyone else is. But..."
"You also miss home." Quart supplied.
"I wonder about my parents. About Sansan and the others. What happened to everybody? Did they get sent to other places like we were, are they back or are they still lost? Shouldn't we go find them?"
Quart pulled Eeny closer and said: "Take a breath."
"I honestly don't know what to do."
"Going back to let your parents know you're fine shouldn't be that hard to do. We should at least leave a message for the others in case they come back... and if they don't there is no rule about going to look for them."
"What would I do without you?"
"You'd be perfectly fine." Salamasinath supplied, "You have me."
Eeny giggled, "That's true. But I'm still very happy that I didn't land here on my own."
"That makes two of us." Quart whispered. 

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STORY - [NILL] [EENY] [DEUX] [SANSAN] [QUART] [ITSUTSU]
Lantessama Isle