#cand you guess who their new advisors and guards are??

[honey-minded-hivemind]

The 🛖MudWing🐊 Monarch Backstory Post:

(Small note: Reader is the MudWing Monarch, named Platypus, there is mention of a plague, and descriptions of violently ill dragons and death, as well as themes of loneliness)

They never thought it would be this way. The crown rests upon their head, a small weight that grounds them. The room is cast in shadows, the gauzy curtains waving faintly in front of the window. It seems even the palace itself is in mourning. It was never supposed to be this way. It was never supposed to be them on the throne, the sole ruler of an entire tribe, all counting on them after the worst disaster since the Battle of the Delta thirty years prior. This might have been even worse...

A plague had swept through the MudWing tribe. It was fast, too fast. It went from dragon to dragon, spreading throughout their blood and poisoning them until it was too late to reverse it. Their doctors tried every trick, every remedy, anything to try to save who they could. But nothing worked. No one seemed to be spared. Entire troops of siblings killed within a week, clutches of eggs never to hatch, dragonets sick and weak in their huts, unable to move another inch. Not even the royal family was safe.

It was their unborn sibs who went first. The last clutch of eggs the queen ever laid, gone within a night, turned a shade of sickly gray... The next to go were their cousins, choking on the fluids that filled their lungs, drowning them within the week. And it kept spreading, even to their aunts and uncles, leaving them hacking up blood and shivering with fever. Not even their own sibs were spared. Platypus only had two, both tended to by them until they passed in the nights to come, wrapped in their wings and held until their final moments...

It left Platypus, and their mother, the queen, as the last two members of the MudWing Royal Family...

Yet even that wouldn't last...

Soon, the illness that had left their tribe to only a few thousand settled within their queen, reducing the once mighty MudWing queen to a frail, shivering dragon, barely holding on. She and Platypus were all that remained of the royal MudWing family; everyone else was gone, taken by the illness that had overrun their tribe. Platypus bonded with their mother over the last two weeks of her life, listening to stories of her younger days with her sibs, the victory they had at the Battle of the Delta against the SeaWings, the nights spent reading to her own sibs and their dragonets, even how she watched over Platypus and their sibs while they were only eggs, excited how they would turn out... But by the end of the fortnight, she too was gone... Leaving Platypus as the sole survivor of the royal family, and the only option for the tribe's monarch...

And here they were now, a month and a half later, sitting in their and their sibs' old room, reminiscing on what was now only a shadow of the past. The plague was finally gone, leaving the tribe to recover from the epidemic. The first month was spent having their tribe's doctors making vaccines and studying the plague, and Platypus trying to help the grieving MudWing families, offering extra food and supplies to those who needed it. The last few weeks, they've been appointing new advisors and guards for themself and the palace, hoping to give the struggling dragons jobs and provide a sense of purpose to those who might have lost theirs...

But, now... there was a small problem...

"Your Majesty," says an older dragon, who had entered the room. They looked around, puzzled for a minute, then realized which room it was. They dipped their head slightly, in a small bow. "Monarch Platypus, I am deeply sorry for your loss... The whole tribe is, and we thank you for taking care of us... But... we think we need to take care of you, too..."

Platypus raises their head to look at the dragon. They are bigger than them, an older dragon, possibly as old as their mother had been. Their eyes are kind, if not a little sad.

"What... what do you mean?" they ask, ruffling their wings. It soothes their anxiety, at least letting them pretend that their sibs, their cousins, any of their old family was there too, with a kind word or funny joke... They were truly lonely...

"Your Highness, we... your advisors, guards, and palace staff, believe it is best that you are not alone. Our doctors have proven that it is not healthy for us MudWings to be alone; that it's natural for us to live with sibs, to all act as though we are siblings, united by our ancestors and the Great MudWing of the Delta... You shouldn't be alone, especially so young..." They pause for a minute, letting out a small sigh. "Your Majesty, we think... we think perhaps we should find you a group of sibs, to be your new ones... Please don't take offense! What we mean, is... they also have lost some of their sibs, if not all of them, and we believe it would be healthy for you, and for them, to have another sibling to care for, another dragon to sleep with, to break bread with, to protect and be protected by... Please, Your Majesty, think it over... I'm sure this would be of great help to you..."

Platypus thinks it over for a moment. They don't want to replace their sibs, never! But... they could help other sibs, those who are just as alone as they are... Who need warm wings and blanket forts and a bounty of food... They... they don't want to forget their family, to push them aside... But... They need to be cared for, too. They're so lonely, overwhelmed by the weight of an entire kingdom relying on them threatening to drown them... They had hardly any friends, and those were all gone now...

It was not an easy choice, or one that left them dry-eyed, but... in the end...

"I... will do it..." Platypus responds. Their voice is soft, filled with a deep, solemn sadness. They stand, stretching their large wings out slowly, and walking over to their mother's old advisor. "Please bring me to the candidates." And in a whirl of brown and amber, they leave, the once warm room empty once more...