don

The Isle of Shards was far into the deep Sapphire Sea, waves lapping at the rocky beaches. Towering grey cliffs, carved away by the river, rose above the island in great spires. Evergreen trees grew like weeds in the temperate climate, covering the mountains and swaths of land. Today, the sky was dark and rumbling with storm. Rain lashed over the cliffs and forests, chilling the air and sea.
 

The Gull clan made the Isle of Shards their home, and springtime was when the tribe gathered together to lay their eggs. Many small dragons had landed in caves and cracks in the cliffs to nest, building dens from rocks and pine needles. A sand colored dragon spiraled around a cliff before landing at the nests, tucking his wings over his back. His face was wrinkled and scarred with age. Wrapped around his horns and tail were copper jewelry and small quartz crystals, clinking against each other in the wind. Other slim dragons watched him, surprised by his appearance in the nesting grounds.

“The Oracle always comes during laying season,” Cormorant whispered to his mate. He was a commander of the Gull clan, a dark gray dragon with the same slender build as the others. His face was long and hooked, with golden eyes. Most of the clan considered him quite intimidating and gave him a wide berth, much to his dismay. It was their first breeding, and Cormorant had the plesantries memorized.

“Do you think he will stop by our den?” his mate, Gannet, asked quietly. She was larger than Cormorant, with deep silver scales and unusual sapphire eyes. She was heavy with eggs, ready to lay at any moment now. Cormorant wrapped his tail around his mate’s.

“Of course. Maybe not tonight. Surely by the time our eggs are lain. He brings the blessings from the Twins so our broods will grow strong and healthy.”

Albatross nodded a bit, settling to watch the Oracle greet a neighboring couple. As the rain fell in sheets over the cliffside she cuddled closer to her mate. The cold, dark weather stirred ominous feelings in Cormorant's breast. He hoped it was just a feeling.

The clan was woken in the night by a horrible screech.

Cormorant had flung himself from his nest, claws at the ready, to protect his tribe. However, instead of finding trouble he found the Oracle writhing in his nest. Dragons were already around him as he rolled and howled wildly, his pale eyes rolling back into his skull. In the dim light, Cormorant thought someone had pulled the Oracle's eyes from his face, leaving only a dark hole behind.

“What’s happened here?” Cormorant demanded of a nearby guard, lashing his tail. The guard dipped her head in respect of her superior, rain still glistening on her pale grey scales.

“The healers say he’s having a vision,” she murmured, tensing her claws in the rocky dirt. “I flew over as soon as I heard trouble…”

Cormorant puffed a bit, pacing. No one had any reason to believe the clan’s weaver had any magic - no dragon did - but he wouldn’t dare voice it.

“It’s been decades since the Oracle has had a vision. Are we sure?”

A forest green healer with pouches tied around their neck nodded. Before they could speak, the Oracle wheezed deep in his chest and managed to roll to his haunches. His eyes were glazed and seemed to be looking very far away, pupils contracted to a dangerous degree. He opened his mouth, revealing his chipped and broken teeth, and out croaked a voice that chilled Cormorant to the bone.

“On the eclipse, the goddesses will once more touch Arth. A star scaled hatchling, the weaver here to protect us from devils from across the sea. The Starfall will rise again.”

Everyone in the small cave was motionless, watching the Oracle pant and cough. His eyes returned to normal and his wings folded neatly again. The green medicine dragon pushed a roughly hewn stone bowl full of a clear tonic towards him and he drank gratefully.

“Ser, do you know what that…?” the young guard asked Cormorant quietly, trailing off. He just stared at the elder dragon, the scales on his back flared up and his wings tensed. The air was thick with unease, crawling between his scales like ants. A thundercrack sounded outside and a healer dragon jumped.

Cormorant had no idea the Oracle was actually a seer. There was no other explanation for the sudden shift, and the sparking air around the den. No one in the Gull tribe had magical abilities in thousands of years, if they had magic at all.

“He must be talking about the coming dark-day,” the second medicine dragon, one with a sky blue hide, said. “The sky seers say it’s arriving within the next few days.”

“Are there any pairs who haven’t laid yet?” the Oracle asked. He still looked exhausted, his wrinkles deeper around his eyes and lips.

“All have laid except Cormorant and his mate,” answered the green healer. They put the empty bowl back in their pack carefully and offered the Oracle a bundle of soothing herbs to chew. After dipping his head in gratitude and swallowing the herbs, he turned his head to the shaking Cormorant.

“I have seen a vision of the future - something dark is on the horizon. Something beyond the Isle of Shards, beyond even the mainland. Good or bad, I do not know. But your eggs are the key to saving us all.”

"They can't be!" Cormorant spat, his scales rattling like a Dune's tail. "Magic isn't real! Weavers don't exist! You're...insane!"

A gasp circled the cave. The Oracle was the Queen's highest ranking sky seer, and not even her commander had any right to speak to him like a meandering chick. But the Oracle gazed at Cormorant and merely blinked his cloudy eyes, raising a thin talon to scratch under his chin.

"It has been many moons since a seer has had a true prophecy, yes," he said, his voice soft. "But, young Cormorant, I have had the blessing to watch you grow from a reckless chick to a well regarded warrior, and I have the fullest confidence yourself and your mate will do the right thing."

Being so close to the Queen, Cormorant had heard stories of weavers. The sky seers kept their divination close, but young members of the Court would let things slip. One evening, after a meeting with the Queen and her Court, there was talk of another Skyfall looming. The event from centuries before that wiped out weavers across the continent. The following cataclysm forced the Gull clan to live on this miserable wet rock.

Cormorant's blood ran like ice as he pondered the prophecy underneath the Oracle's mild look. Somehow, in his rapidly beating heart, he knew the words were true.

He would lose his status. He would lose his mate. The Gulls were a tiny tribe, and weak; they had no fire or venom nor strong claws to defend themselves.

Cormorant needed to do something.

 

***

 

The chick was scarcely a year old, crouched under their mother’s silver body. Scarlet could see they were both weavers – the chick moreso than their mother, the silver heart-threads shaking in fear. Blackbird stood to the side, wings outspread, protecting them from prying eyes. Scarlet lived in a fen away from the main Midnight’s colony, but of course the old seer was a paranoid mess.

“So you’re saying you were captured by runners?” asked Blackbird, voice stiff. Every scale was tensed. Scarlet nearly scoffed at his anxiety; what could a malnourished Gull dragon do to the most experienced seer on the continent?

The silver Gull shook her head, “No. My mate gave us up in exchange for wealth.”

Blackbird snorted and this time Scarlet jabbed him with her tail. He was always rude and high strung. It didn’t make any sense to her, and she ducked her head in respect to the Gull to ignore his glare. He acted so high and mighty, when she had at least three centuries on him...

“I admit, with the way things have been going wealth seems like a very tantilizing offer,” she said softly, “but to trade your own mate and child! Why, they haven’t even been weaned!”

The Gull teared at that, tail curling around the chick. They were indeed very odd, with a matte black pelt interspersed with shining silver scales like their mother’s. Their eyes were bright sapphire blue and filled with fear. Scarlet’s heart went out to them. To be a weaver, in this day and age, and then not be allowed to flourish! It burned her scales to the skin.

A heron called and splashed through the water behind them. The chick jumped and cried out, cheeping and clinging to their mother’s leg. Scarlet gently wove the thoughts of soothing rivers, and the warm spring sun into the chick’s heart-threads and they calmed quickly. They were exhausted.

“I am Scarlet, and this is Blackbird,” said Scarlet after a time. “I used to work with runners, before the great war.”

The Gull’s eyes grew wide in horror at that, but said “I am Gannet. My chick...Auk. How could you work with those terrible things?”

Scarlet flicked her tail a bit. It hurt to remember – the betrayal, the heartbreak. But she took a deep breath and let it out in a cloud of icy smoke. It clung to the thick scales of her snout. Birds flitted to and fro in the treetops above, pale midwinter sunlight scattering over them.

Blackbird hadn’t ceased glaring.

A chill breeze drifted into the fen and Scarlet gestured for the other dragons to enter her den. It was well hidden in a mossy bank, a curtain of ferns and roots hanging over the entrance. It did well enough to keep strangers at bay. Inside was her nest of furs and dragonmade lanterns – unlike a lot of other dragons, she wasn’t very quick to adopt runner technology. And now she had even less of a reason to use the damned things. She couldn’t imagine why the Dune queen had wanted to move into the great obsidian monstrosity the runners had built.

Gannet’s chick was whining for food, and Scarlet gave permission to nurse them in her nest. Her heart ached, they were both so thin; scales prickling over bones.

“My experience with runners is rather boring,” she said, making sure the chick was warm. “They wanted to know about weaving, and as I am one of the most skilled weavers in Tiaman I was more than willing to help.”

Gannet’s lips were a thin line. She groomed her chick for a moment, tail twitching erratically back and forth.

“I still cannot believe you worked with those...beasts,” Blackbird growled. He ran a paw over a scar on his foreleg. “After all they’ve done to us!”

The runners had done a lot of damage. They ripped up swaths of land that were only just starting to heal, centuries later. They had tricked dragons with their fancy gadgets and exotic food, and now it was impossible to return to the old ways. Why else would there be a market in the center of Midnight territory? Runners had come, and though they had gone after losing the war their toxic trail was everywhere.

Scarlet sighed. Not all were bad...they could love, and dance and enjoy life as well as any dragon. Her eyes strayed to her stone bookshelf, the roughly hewn dragonmade books looking crude next to the tidy runner tomes.

“Theyre planning on taking the Dune Queen’s first egg,” Gannet said softly. Here eyes were on her chick, as if she were afraid they would disappear. Blackbird growled deeply, gripping his scar.

“Of course they would. And they’re probably intending on helping her expand her control.”

The chick was finally full and sniffing around curiously. Auk’s eyes were bright despite their sickly condition, and they stared up at Scarlet, stunned at her height. She purred down at them and they chirped. Their scales were unusual...She hadn’t seen Gulls with that particular pelt in centuries. The twin sisters, Song and Sol, were considered deities and their scaled hides also hid the galaxies within that they used to weave the universe together. Auk merely yawned and curled up at their mother’s side.

“I’d like you...to care for them,” said Gannet, barely audible. Scarlet pricked her ears in disbelief and Blackbird groaned.

“why not the two of you stay in my den?” Scarlet asked. “I know you can’t fly back to the Ilse of Shards with a chick, and I cannot feed them milk. I’m far too old.”

“My mate will surely seek me out, and I can’t bear the thought of Auk being taken again,” Gannet whispered. Scarlet puffed clouds into the cold air, condensating on her scales once more. Could she be a mother? And to a Gull? After the war, it wasn’t likely they would be treated well on the mainland.

However, she could teach Auk about their powers, and their life and their legacy. Their scales were special, as was their magic pulsing within their sleeping chest. Blackbird said nothing, but reached into a leather pouch around his neck and removed an opal pendant. He handed it to Gannet in the palm of his massive paw.

“Weaversbane. It should keep the runner’s power from affecting you,” he grumbled, and Gannet took it gratefully. Scarlet sat back on her haunches and watched Auk sleep.

“I...I can take care of them,” she said after a long pause. Relief washed over Gannet’s face and she lowered her head in respect.

“I will come back for them, I promise.”

• species name: gull, shimmerscale
• habitat: coastal cliffs
• average length (snout to tailtip): two meters
• average wingspan: four meters
• number of horns: two
• scale type: small, round scales packed tightly together with a metallic sheen. underbelly scales are less clustered and softer to the touch
• standard colors: wide array of metallics, most commonly bronze. underbelly is always white with iridescence. eyes range from gold to green, uncommonly blue
• current ruler: queen abelone

at some point in the distant past, gull dragons had been run off of mainland tiaman after a great war. since then, it's rare to find gulls on the mainland. their culture is considered primitive compared to the mainland clans, notably by the hot blooded dune clan. however, most dragons still partake in the trading and collection of gull clan artistry. technologically, they are advancing to compensate for having no natural weapon such as fire breath or venom.

due to having nimbler talons than most dragons, gulls are skilled artisans. the islands that make up their home are rich in valuable ores, that they then carefully craft into gorgeous jewelry and trinkets. when trading for wristlets or tail bands, it's hard to find something that's not gull made. it's considered fact that the gulls were the ones who invented papyrus and writing, though years of prejudice have shuffled this around between clans.

gulls are primarily fish eaters, their narrow bodies and wings fitted for diving into the sea at great heights. unfortunately, they aren't as skilled at swimming and bob on the surface once they've caught their prize. with the advent of structured clan life, fisher dragons began catching food for the whole clan as well as occasionally selling produce to the mainland. the rest of their diet is berries and other fruit.

though weavers have been proven to not exist for thousands of years, there are rumors of gulls harboring them among their ranks. so far, these rumors are inconclusive.

In a sudden movement Vibrant slammed his tail on the stone wall, shuddering the floor. Auk jumped, flapping his wings in surprise.

"She can't. She knows you have to leave," Vibrant hissed. "She just wants the Star Weaver's power for herself."

"I'm not sure I actually have powers. Nothing odd has ever happened to me," said Auk. Vibrant's scales clacked together, like talons on rock.

"Being a weaver is innate. And other weavers can sense it. Have you wondered why you were raised outside of the Midnight caves?"

Smoke curled out of Vibrant's nostrils, and Auk could see him blink away tears. He lowered his voice to an barely audible growl.

"They sent away my sister after she hatched. The oracles can sense when someone has magic. And yeah, sure, they lie about weavers being gone but that's just because they're scared of them realizing their power and killing the rest of us."

His tail shuddered violently, rattling and clacking. Auk lied down next to him and rested his head on Vibrant's back, which seemed to soothe him slightly.

"She was barely born. But because she might've had the capacity to hurt someone later, they sent her away."

Auk wrapped his tail around Vibrant's, comforting himself as much as he was comforting his friend. Vibrant's chest heaved, though he still resisted crying.

"Weavers are conscripted into becoming sky seers, I don't know why they got rid of my sister instead of that. But I know you're going to help me find her."

as someone stuck at home a lot due to chronic pain, my life tends to revolve around the internet. i'm also an armchair zoologist and i love all manner of virtual pet things from tamagotchi to pokemon.

 of course, like many teens in the 2000s i had a neopets account. it was a perfect intersection of my interests: cute fantasy creatures and a massive world to explore.

sadly, i never really fell in love with neopets despite liking the concept. the art was always a bit weird to me, and i was disheartened to find that shortly before i made my first neopets account they had revamped all the art in a lifeless corporate way to sell cash shop items. for real money. not to mention TNT's overzealous moderation freezing accounts for seemingly no reason at all.


i am someone who tends to obsess over things easily, so when i fell in love with the pet site genre i was always on the lookout for more. i've played flight rising nearly every day since it's release, and lioden is eating up a lot of my time. however, these games can be rather complex compared to a site like neopets where you just play games, earn currency and set up a gallery or shop of items.

on happenstance, in late 2018, i stumbled upon icepets. i thought it was another site similar to marapets hinging on its similarity to neopets for success, and not really doing very much to stand out from the crowd. and honestly? it doesn't stand out from the crowd, which is it's strongest selling point.

icepets is a back-to-basics virtual pet and economy game. you adopt an icepet in a basic color, take care of their needs and play games to earn icepoints. similar to neopets, you can use snow jars and morphing potions to change your pets color. there's a unique variety of pets, from the baboon like audril, to the fuzzy bug krittle and my favorite the koala-nosed novyn. you can have a shop to sell items you don't need, and a gallery to show off your prized possessions.


unlike on neopets, icepets users can pay to request colors, items or custom avatars. new things are added regularly due to this, as opposed to neopets seemingly at a standstill with its progress. the devs are currently working on a recode and updating all the games to html5 for ease of playing on the go. the staff are very social and involved with the community, and want to do a good job making the game fun and fair.

overall, the developers have worked to make everything as simple as possible. other than a few missteps, everything is easy to get to. all the games, dailies and such are listed on a single page instead of spread across the site. the thing that irritates me the most is needing to go to the world map to access a wider variety of shops than the main street; they really should all be listed together and the world map there for flavor.

i've been playing daily for over 3 months now, and i've purchased a custom avatar and a gold account. there's something honest and charming about icepets. it's the simple, fun pet site that neopets wishes it was. i wasn't playing neo before the overhaul, but something in me thinks this is what neopets used to be. a close knit, creative community with adorable art and pets. if you long for neopet's glory days, give icepets a try!

~tstske