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 Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 4:30 pm
 After all these years, Aaliyah still wasn't sure there was any place she belonged. She'd just felt like an outcast for so long that she wasn't sure she could ever belong to anything ever again--she'd always feel like an outsider, like she didn't fit in.
But she liked being in Anuyidan Danayi, a herd that felt like her home. And if she didn't have many close friends, that was okay, too--she'd gotten used to the solitude a long time ago, and long since resolved to not let it get her down. She wanted to live her life to the fullest, not wallow in self-pity. She was an artisan, a creator, a crafter--she had plenty to occupy herself, and plenty to be proud of. She was a member of the herd, no matter what happened. If nothing else, anonymity was safety from the dangers of fame.
Not everyone made peace with their lot in life so easily, though--and having felt so lonely for so long, Aaliyah recognized the signs of it in other stars. She'd especially noticed the signs in Badr's latest daughters. Where the rake had found his latest paramour, no one knew, but the story would be as exciting as it was degenerate: his daughters were...
Oddly shaped. Yes, that was the right way to put it. Unusual. Scaly. Horned and fanged. And yet, they seemed nice enough. And both seemed lonely, which was enough to attract Aaliyah's attention. She resolved to meet at least one of these poor girls and get to know them better. With that in mind, she set off for the water, keeping an eye out for either one of them.
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Posted: Wed May 31, 2017 4:59 pm
It was true, Ngal did not have many friends in Anuyidan Danayi; in fact, she would venture to say that she had no friends at all. Sometimes she wondered why this was. It was possible, of course, that the reason she had no friends was that she was the daughter of Badr Basim, who had a very poor reputation in the herd indeed. In a herd that valued Virtues, Ngal's beloved father was considered to be someone who had left his Virtue behind in the womb. He was known to father many children, which bothered many a star around them. It didn't bother Ngal, of course--she loved having more siblings. But it bothered everyone in the herd, which sadly meant that sometimes she and her siblings got painted with the same brush as he.
It was also possible that she had no friends because she was a terrifying sight to behold. She was fanged, spiked, venomous, with deep-set eyes and raking claws. Such bestial traits could frighten anyone--most stars, after all, were herbivores, and herbivores were not fond of predators (even if they were not, in fact, predators at all--Ngal had never hunted anyone in her life).
Both of these options, however, suggested that friendlessness was a factor out of Ngal's control, which was not an idea she liked. Instead, she preferred to think that it was simply because she wasn't able to get out and about much. She was very large, and she hated flying, so getting over to other stars to talk to them was...difficult.
But maybe not that difficult--not for much longer. A star was approaching the water, watching it. Ngal poked her head above water and called out to the mare. "Hullo! Are you looking for someone? O-or something?" she added, as she belatedly realized that a star could be looking at the water so that they could find a missing belonging. Anything was possible, after all!
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Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 10:50 am
Aaliyah didn't recognize the voice, but she did recognize the head sticking out of the water. The voice belonged indeed to one of the mares she sought, Badr's brown dragon daughter. She couldn't remember the girl's name, unfortunately--it was something very long and difficult to pronounce, something foreign. Aaliyah resolved that by the end of this conversation she'd remember the name and how to pronounce it. "Hello, there!" she said, and headed out to where the other mare was sitting. "I'm not looking for something, no, unless you count company as something."
Up close she could see more details on the strange mare's face. Unlike her sister, she had no mane, just a large, purple fin on her neck. Her face was surrounded by ivory horns and her forehead was covered in scales like a crocodile's. She was terrifying, and yet...she had her father's blue eyes. Not precisely the same, but recognizably blue, not red or black. And the tiny scales on her body shimmered like tiny jewels. She was kind of pretty, even if she didn't...look like a normal person did. "Actually, I was looking for you. I thought you might like some company." She settled down by the water's edge, flicking her tail around her body in a more graceful way. "My name is Aaliyah. What is yours?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 26, 2019 11:43 am
She was--? Looking for Ngal? For company? With Ngal? Oh, this was wonderful! This was fantastic! Ngal swam closer and settled down in the water so that her head was sticking up but most of her body was under the surface. That way, she wasn't totally towering over the other star, and she wasn't, y'know...intimidating them. She was very intimidating, she knew that. She didn't want to be intimidating, she was just, y'know...big, that was all. And spiky. And scary. Being scary wasn't what she wanted to be at all, but it was what she was...she couldn't exactly help it and all. She was a dragon, and dragons were scary. There wasn't any such thing as a dragon who wasn't scary (not that Ngal knew of, anyway).
(Okay, she hadn't met that many dragons, but they'd all looked intimidating, okay? Mom, Vutha, Val...yeah, they'd all been intimidating in their own ways...)
Aaliyah. She should be able to remember that. She thought she might have heard about the chestnut mare anyway--she was very pretty, and she was an artist. Dad traded some of her products to other herds. She made tack and such--pretty stuff. Ngal sneaked a glance at her own enormous claws. She didn't think she could ever make pretty stuff like that without tearing it apart or damaging it. She hadn't tried, but...well, she wasn't elegant like Aaliyah was, or graceful. She looked so pretty when she sat down to talk, while Ngal...didn't. Oo, she hated feeling this jealous, but she couldn't help it, she wasn't like other mares! Sometimes it just felt so unfair!
"My name is Ngalnamam," she said. "But you can call me Ngal, or Nama, or something like that. It's a little hard to pronounce, I know. It's nice to meet you, Aaliyah."
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