Cedric

Cedric

the Eccentric Shadow Priest

 The Tangled Wood is a dangerous environment for young dragons to grow up in. The land has sunk into the ground and darkness abounds. The thick mist makes it easy for sneaking and trick playing, as is the nature of a Shadow dragon. But it makes it hard for hatchlings. Especially hatchlings without parents like Cedric. The young Wildclaw was abandoned at a young age by his parents because of his small size. He was an incredibly small hatchling and wasn’t expected to live very long. He was left within the insides of a huge, hollow, rotting tree trunk. Alone and afraid, every sound had the young one crying for his mother. But his mother wasn’t there. She was long gone, and so was his father. He stayed in the log until he was famished. He was so hungry he could hardly move, but fear kept him in the log. When at least he crept out he didn’t know what to do. Nothing was familiar and he could still hear the strange noises in the night. He sniffed the air and looked around, but he was at a loss. Where was his clan? Where were his mom and dad? After some time he finally left the site of his abandonment. He searched for food, but only found bugs and fungi. They were not as tasty as the food his parents had fed him when he had been with them those few short hours. Giving up, he sat beneath a tall, spindly tree and began to cry. Large wet tears fell from his purple eyes onto the dark ground below. But then he heard a voice. It was a strange, wispy voice, and he couldn’t tell where it came from. It sounded almost like it was in his head. “My darling, don’t cry, Mother is here. There are plans for you, though great darkness still lies ahead,” as the voice spoke it faded until it was completely gone. Cedric was confused now, as well as lost and alone. But somehow he felt better. He didn’t feel as alone. Somehow he knew the Shadowbinder was watching over him, even though he couldn’t see her. Time passed for the Wildclaw. He found other dragons and became friends. They were a small group, but the survived. With the three of them there was more food and better protection than when they had been alone. Cedric was happy for his friends... until they betrayed him. He had been fishing for the group, as one of them was a Coatl. He liked this female very much, but when he returned to their camp she was kissing the other male. Cedric felt outraged and left. He was heartbroken, and the Shadowbinder’s words came back to him. Darkness still lies ahead, he remembered. Cedric got older, and he learned that the only one he could trust was himself. The Shadow dragons truly were tricksters, even to their own kind. But he kept his goddess’s words close to his heart. She truly was his mother, in ways his other mother hadn’t been. He would pray to her when things got hard, like the time his one partner almost murdered over a game of dice. It was after that incident that he swore off making new friends and alliances. Cedric wasn’t like most of his brethren, but he did love his Shadow Momma. So he became a priest. He set out on the quest for knowledge, and found it in libraries, universities, and archives across the world. But he missed the shadows and the trickery of his own kind. He moved back to the Tangled Wood. This time around he spent time getting to know a clan before he joined it for good. His new clan found him wise, and he earned a certain respect from them. His speech was strange, because of his use of big words. Cedric had also developed into an eccentric. But he was a spectacular priest, and claimed he had heard words from the Shadowbinder. At last Cedric had a place, and he could be a proper Shadow Priest with these dragons. His rituals with sparrow skulls and feathers were odd at first, but eventually the clan accepted that. They were all strange like him, some more twisted than others. Cedric learned how to keep himself safe from the worst of them, but he still likes to participate in a little trickery now and then. He is really wary of making new friends still, and is very mistrusting of others.