Heart of fire, feet of stone, hide of forest, wings of bone.

Celtic Cross Egg

Cresting to the suggestion of a proud cross overlaid by a circle, the stern granite exterior of this egg is relieved by the semblance of intricate carving along its harshly hewn length. Lines knot and swirl over pitted grey stone, marred by stealthily creeping mosses that cloak its lower reaches in a gentle wash of deepest malachite. Daffodil-yellow and grass-green surround the egg's sturdy base, brightening an otherwise dour appearance and hinting at changes yet to follow.

Hatching Message

Celtic Cross Egg loses the battle, its demands on the dragonet within finally crumbling away like stone, after eons of rain and frost and sun: intricacy becomes simplicity, simplicity confusion, confusion an untenable knot of hide all a'tangled.

Wandering Celtic Bard Brown Dragonet

Weathered brambles ramble along the dusty sprawl of this fawn-brown bard: silvery rowan roams 'round each headknob and down the timber-ridged track of his neck, forking then to investigate the unbeaten paths of each long limb and that ever-winding tail. Liquid guinness flows as poetry along the contour of his spine: a vagabond's trail cloaked in the tattered burlap of his patchwork 'sails. But threads of gold glint from that mending, embroidering each 'spar with the intricate knotwork that belies his scruffy exterior, and bushy eyeridges twitch above those merry eyes in gleeful acknowledgement that there is more rhyme than reason to him.

Private Impression Message

Intricate tangles tie imaginary knots around your mind, twining through your soul, your innermost dreams, until you can no longer find the place where you begin -that moments ago was only /Adora/. Now the whole, far more than the sum of its parts, rises in triumphant, exultant symphony as your heart grows wings, and the bright refrain echoes through you- »I am - we are - Rwyth!«


Welcome Adora! We so look forward to riding with you, and hope Rwyth is all you could ever want, and more. It was an amazing process building him, because we were building him for /you/. Thanks for inspiring us. :)


Theme Inspiration

Along with Irish Rover images, Shakespearean characters, and various traveler/ranger ideas, Rwyth's original desc was inspired by the idea of the Mummer's, who would travel the countryside telling stories, singing, dancing, and putting on plays to earn their wages…

Loreena McKennit's _ The Mummer's Dance_

When in the springtime of the year
When the trees are crowned with leaves
When the ash and oak and the birch and yew
Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon
In the blue veil of the night
The shadows of the trees appear
Amidst the lantern light

We've been rambling all the night
And some time of this day
Now returning back again
We bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves
And summon the shadows there
And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms
In the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood
That when the fiddler plays
All their voices can be heard
Long past their woodland days

And so they linked their hands and danced
Round in circles and in rows
And so the journey of the night descends
When all the shades are gone

A garland gay we bring you here
And at your door we stand
It is a sprout well budded out
The work of Our Lord's Hand

Name Inspiration

"They call me the wanderer… yeah, the wanderer… I roam around around around around around…"

Rwyth: Rwyth is from the Welsh crwydro, meaning 'to wander', which we thought was appropriate to this brown. D'renn is our resident Welsh-speaker, and he informs us that Rwyth, in Welsh, would be pronounced 'Royth', but he's yours now, so if there's another way you'd like to say his name, well that's fine too :)

Mindvoice

Rwyth's mindtouch is guinness and wood-fire, like the smoky comfort of your favorite pub. Not all old smoke and sour wine, no no no, but of polished wood and lantern-light, and the mellifluous pleasure of a really good, stout beer. Perhaps an acquired taste, at first, but once its got hold of you, look out! He is rich, almost decadently so, and can almost make you feel drunk, Adora, if he wants to or if you're defenses are already down. He /melts/. A true Harper's control of tone and tempo, but also the vibrancy of color and flavor that is thought without words. *Adora's Note: I see his mindvoice as having an undertone, a flavor, of that deep, rich dark coffee that smells too good to drink. You know the kind - it just makes you want to sniff and smile and melt.*

Physicalities

Physically, he's a very pale brown: silver-chased fawn, though his wings are more vivid — they're a real medley of shades, pieced together and stitched up with spun gold. He's even managed to work some of that mending into proper embroidery: a complex, though delicate, interlacing pattern that reflects the convolutions of his knot-worked mind. Dusty, he is, this Rwyth. No thoroughbred here but a dusty dun brumby complete with the guinness-dark dorsal stripe. He's somewhat scruffy round the edges, and there's an awfully wicked glint to his eyes at times. And those eyeridges! They protrude rather a lot, which makes them seem rather bushy — like the craggy brows of a crafty old man. You see, he really is a bit of a rogue at heart.

Rwyth is mid-sized for his color, though perhaps he sprawls a bit more than some other browns: wandering limbs and wings, with a mere dalliance of muscles to hold him altogether. He's not weak though, not at all, just not really big and burly. Sparse, in form and frame, while his hide is more intricate and demanding to the eye.

And yet its beautifully worn, Adora. Both in how Rwyth carries himself, and in how his variegated hide has been made comfortable with wearing. Almost like a most beloved old teddy-bear that has been-loved-so-much-he's-scruffy sort of feel. He is that tall, dark, handsome stranger walking cloaked from the wood, of which you have no fear but only a fluttering of excitement in your heart. He's /lovely/, in a tattered, roguish, charming sort of way that knows nothing of delicate beauty or floppish, foppish ways. And when he's sleepy, especially as a youngling, he just melts into a pile of rags and, curled, up, all but disappears.

Rwyth wears himself well, without arrogance, but with mindful acceptance of all that he is. He is Rwyth! And you are his Adora. And all is well.

Personality

— A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.

lao tzu (570-490 BC)

Rwyth, in another time and place (and body), would have been an explorer. A Marco Polo. Sir Francis Drake. A Lewis. Or maybe a Clark. Point is, he's a hard guy to keep in one spot. Itchy feet. Wanderlust. Call it what you will, it's a trait this brown has in spades. If it exists, it must be seen. It's not enough for Rwyth to hear about a place, or even share the mental imagery with another dragon or with you. He'll always want to see it for himself, to experience the sights and smells and sounds of a new place completely fresh, without another's interpretation to colour it. Maybe that makes him a bit of a loner, but it's not that he doesn't like to share, or even that he avoids the company of others, because neither of those is true. It's just that he doesn't like to take anything for granted. Stories are eversomuch more vivid when there's truth behind them… which makes Rwyth's stories very vivid indeed! (All the better to share with Scherazade-Halaith too!)

Oh but he such a splendid spirit, Adora. So… rich. Intricate. And yet he lives life simply and to the fullest. He shares without thought for himself. He gives because it is in his nature to give. And oh, he can be a bit of the rogue, but a charming one, with just enough of a edge to keep him interesting. Rwyth is just so comfortable with himself, that others just have to be too: innate charisma, he should make friends easily, and keep them forever.

And sometimes, just sometimes, then the nights are long and the air is cold and the hearth is warm, he wants to be nowhere else but with you. Only you. Wherever you are is /home/, and there is nothing better than sprawling out where its warm and tucking himself around his very best, very his, very Adora Rider. He'll spin you tales of light and sound, weaving a mind full of stories that are only for you. You you you. You are his muse, his inspiration, his love.

Love. Rwyth's a natural delight. And he likes pleasure, be it the touch of oil to hide, or the taste of green or gold, or just the simple pleasure of a good feeding. But he doesn't really worry about it. He can, however, turn into a golden-tongued charmer when he wants to: croon the birds from their nests and the fish from the sea when he's chasing in a flight. He's no less sincere for all his flowery phrases, but he /knows/ how to make something sound good. Can he help it if he uses that advantage? Likes flying long whenever he can — after all, just because he's at A and wants to get to B, doesn't mean that C and D and E and F in between the two are any less interesting. Oh yes. Rwyth meanders, Adora. On the ground or in the air. He dallies, he wanders, he traverses the expanse of air and land and water as if the journey were the most interesting part… which, of course, it is.

Because Rwyth lives in the moment, his stories tend to meander as well. He can't remember too well, actually, unless you write them down for him Adora, and so each telling is different, though the story is not necessarily the same. I think, if I could hear him too, I'd want nothing more than to settle down with Rwyth on a cold winter's night and just /listen/. Dream. Sleep the half-sleep while the tale unwinds around me. Perhaps he'll spin yarns for the other dragons? Keeping them all up well past moonsrise. :)

When we were brainstorming for Rwyth, we came up with a variety of characters to base him on: Thom Merrilin, from Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, , Aeolus from the Hercules series, and Belgarath the Sorcerer — all very different characters in a lot of ways, but with a common thread running through: the wanderer; the storyteller; the rogue. It's all there, in Rwyth, but it's up to you now to decide which way the story goes. And we look forward to finding out!

But this is what we see, Adora, as Rwyth, for you. Do not feel confined or constrained by what we've imagined, but instead feel free to just use this as inspiration for what /you/ want Rwyth to be. He is, afterall, yours, and always will be. :) We just got to play with him a bit.

Credits

Celtic Cross Egg: D'renn
Hatch/Impress Messages: Nuff'n Aife
Puppeter: Nuff (Cuz Saoirse let me!)
Dragonet: Saoirse, Nuff, Pyrene, SearchCo brainstorming…
Inspiration: Nuff, Saoirse, Pyrene, Everbodeeeee!