Saera

Saera is just one among many lindworms in the Deep Jungle that have newly reached adulthood and thus scattered from the nest in search of new territories. Those that don’t go willingly are forced; the parents don’t want to be challenged and potentially forced out by their own children, after all. Once they hit adulthood, they are no longer hatchlings, but rivals. So they are pushed out to make room for the new mouths that need to be fed. And should the parents’ territory be conquered, the victor tolerates none of the former occupants to stay, chasing them out of their former lands. This is a death sentence for any hatchlings at the time, as their parents will abandon them to prioritize their own survival. Such is the way of the jungle.

Things are different in the cities, they all know, but they’ve also been brought up on horror stories of pollution and excess, injustice and disaster; the reasons why their ancestors fled to the depths of the jungle to begin with. Stories to scare little hatchlings into obedience, not ones really believed, not anymore, after so much time has passed. But the warnings are there. 

It’s not really done, for wild and civilized lindworms to mix, or convert from one to the other, though that doesn’t stop the truly determined from doing so. Each side has their own prejudices and assumptions about the other; social stigmas that cling to outsiders like a sticky film. No, the two cultures have an unspoken agreement to generally leave the other alone. Sure, things can get tetchy around the border where forest ends and civilization begins, but that’s just the way of things when you have such radically different cultures living side by side. Nobody has died, so the lindworms are content to leave it at that.  

Saera, for her part, values her solitude, though by no means does she hate other lindworms. Quite the opposite, actually - and while she doesn’t go out of her way to invite them, the nocturnal lindworm welcomes any visitors (not conquerors, there’s a difference) to her lands, so long as they respect her boundaries and rules. Hatchlings especially are welcome; Saera has always had a soft spot for little ones. 

As for her standing in the jungle, Saera would prefer to immerse herself within the lush confines of her territory and dance the nights away rather than push the boundaries and fight. Sure, she’ll defend her territory as vehemently as anyone else, but she has no interests in expanding. After all, why would she want more when she’s happy with what she already has? Some call her soft, but those who have fought her know better - especially when lives other than her own are on the line. For the jungle has more occupants than just the lindworms: monsters lurk in the deep, more than willing to take their pound of lindworm flesh. No, life in the jungle may be hard, but it’s her life. And Saera wouldn’t live it any other way. 

~*~

Trivia:
- Lindworms in Saera’s story reach maturity at age two and can live up to ten years…in the cities, that is. Wild lindworms usually live 6-7 years, a point of contention for lindworms on both sides of the divide (and the reason why the rare migration across cultures is 9/10 times from the wild)
- Wild and civilized lindworms are the same species of, well, lindworm, just with a massive cultural divide. There are dozens upon dozens of different subspecies, however, some of which are generally only found in one area or the other
- Wild lindworms tend to be more creative with magic than civilized lindworms
- City lindworms and wild lindworms have different diseases circulating at different times where they live, so any mixing tends to result in everyone catching what everybody else had
- There is actually an relatively even split of nocturnal, diurnal, and crepuscular subspecies among both the cities and the jungle
- Contrary to city stigma, wild lindworms know how to read, write, and draw. Not as technically advanced does not by any means mean stupid
- Saera is a firefly lindworm, a very rare nocturnal subspecies that was up until recently believed to be extinct
- There are currently seventeen extinct subspecies of lindworm. Firefly would’ve been the eighteenth