#i think ill call this series

[lost4pandora]

Here's more content for that HTTYD Reader in LU. This one has been proofread, and the reader will be using the term Y/N and they/them pronouns.

I'll be writing for more of this, and with that I'll be needing a name, so the HTTYD Reader series will henceforth be known as the "Sparks and Embers" series. I will be taking inspiration from all of the content up until HTTYD Homecoming, which includes the movie trilogy, the series between the first and second movie, and those fun bits such as Book of Dragons, Gift of the Night Fury, and whatnot. I will also be adding in my own personal headcanons here and there in terms of HTTYD dragon lore because I think they're neat and could use some of the fun stuff.

Some trigger warnings for this fic may include but are not limited to: mild gore, mild to fair descriptions of violence, mentions of a monster in pieces.

Now with that out of the way, I do sincerely hope you enjoy this as much as I did writing it.

_________________________________________

Sparks and Embers

They heard whispers from merchants and travelers about a truly mystifying sight. A warrior donning a wolven mask, accompanied by two dragons of black and white. Who have been seen cutting down monsters in a flurry of movements, too fast for the witnesses to comprehend. All they remember is the haunting eyes and gleaming fangs of the mask the rider wore before disappearing in either a spark of lightning or a flash of flame.

Honestly, just hearing "warrior" was more than enough to catch the group's attention.

They had recently landed back into the champion's era, as told when he spotted a familiar tower in the distance. After regaining their bearings, they let the Link in question guide them to the nearest settlement, which happened to be the East Akkala Stable. It was there that they had decided to rest for the night, perform an inventory check, tend to wounds, repair damaged clothing or items, and the like.

In the midst of such, they happened to overhear the conversations from the other travelers that came and left. All about the individual who rode on the backs of dragons.

One individual, a hylian merchant, had been speaking to the stablehand about what he saw on the road. He spotted the trio resting along the tops of the Dueling Peaks as the sun began to set below the horizon.

Another traveler, a Rito, had chimed in that on her flight here, she swears that she saw someone walking on the dragon's backs, performing tricks for the fun of it. She remembers that they were hylian, with silver ornaments in their hair and a fluffy fur cloak wrapped around their shoulders. 

Lastly, a pair of children, the stablehand's sons, told the gossiping adults they were saved from monsters by one of the dragons. They said that it was white and sparkly, giggling madly when they mentioned that it sounded like a really big cat.

All these stories had the Chain curious and somewhat suspicious. It was the topic of conversation once they had left the stable the next morning.

"A hylian with a wolf mask accompanied by two dragons," Warriors echoed. "I can't say I've heard that one before."

"Me neither. It seems a bit surreal, doesn't it?" Hyrule replies, looking toward Wild. "You said there were dragons here, do you know who this dragon rider could be?"

The champion shook his head. "Not a clue. The dragons I know are huge and are surrounded by so much elemental magic that no one could even safely approach them."

"You think it's related to our problem?" Legend asks aloud, arching a brow.

"It could be," Wild replies. "But I doubt that it is. You heard those kids, the dragons and their rider saved them. It'd be weird that they'd be willing to cut down their own allies if they were working with the enemy."

Warriors nods at the reason. "Agreed. It has to be something else."

Time finally decides to make his opinion known. "No matter the case, it would be best that we seek this dragon rider out. We will most likely be getting something useful out of it either way."

The rest of the group didn't argue, coming to a consensus on their leader's statement. So they kept trekking onward toward their next destination: Hateno Village.

It was a fairly calm trip from there on out.

You know, up until they were ambushed.

One could call it an unexpected turn of events, though they knew that really it wasn't. It was inconvenient and extremely irritating at that point more than anything, but at least they were somewhat prepared for it. Weapons were drawn, magic was sparking, and everyone in the group had steeled themselves as the enemies came in droves.

When the first monster approached the Link that was closest to it, their sword came down in one sweeping motion. When sharpened steel sliced through soft flesh, a messy stain of black blood coated the blade's edge.

The situation had gone from irritating to bad very quickly.

Upon witnessing the sight of the ebony ichor, each Link had made a silent yet unanimous agreement. Pick a section and focus on your batch of monsters. It was easy enough.

Or it would have been had one not been corralled away from the others, and it had to be the youngest of them too. The sailor in particular could feel himself getting angry about the idea of being cornered, mostly because of how he'd definitely be getting babied by the captain, rancher, and probably even the old man once he rejoined the group later. Alas, he was preoccupied with fighting for his life to really let the anger settle into his bones, so instead he chose to channel it into his next set of attacks.

Swing, dodge, parry, duck, swing, swing, roll.

A familiar set of words that would repeat themselves in Wind's mind in random patterns. A mantra that every hero knew by heart, or would soon come to learn one way or another.

Wind couldn't remember how many monsters he had cut down. His sword was coated in their foul smelling ichor, his heart was racing, and his mouth felt dry. He was tired and the adrenaline pumping through his veins wouldn't last forever. Despite this, he doesn't let up.

He then felt something invisible seizing his lungs, a dreaded feeling. Fear, he deduced. He feels his posture stiffen as he looks around frantically for the cause of it. His head jerks up as a thundering roar rattles the trees around him. He turned his head, his eyes growing wide as a white maned lynel entered his field of vision.

It was safe to assume that the lynel was black blooded as well, and the sailor was in no position to even consider engaging it in battle. The only thing useful he had on him was a single, half empty healing potion that would do very little in this situation. The thought of making a tactical retreat to regroup with the others crosses his mind, but the idea is quickly discarded when he sees that the lynel has spotted him from its place across the field.

He can't outrun it.

It knows that he can't.

So it charges.

Wind thinks he can hear the distant shout of one of the others. He makes an attempt to call for them, opening his mouth to yell—   that's when he hears it. A strange whistling, high pitched and piercing, echoing through the air and in his eardrums. It was unlike anything he's ever heard before, and his mind still riddled with adrenaline shook itself for a possible answer. Although, the more he thought about it, the more he began to realize… that……….

…was it getting louder?

The sound distracts him to the point where he almost forgets about the lynel galloping towards him rapidly. He can feel its heavy footsteps shake the ground as it gets closer and closer. The beast is more than halfway across the field when it happens.

A speeding ball of violet blue fire comes out of nowhere and hits the lion centaur straight in the chest point blank. The impact knocked it to the ground, and he thinks he can see its black blood splatter across the grass. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that the monster had sustained an irreparable amount of damage (a polite way of saying that its top half of its body was definitely in pieces).

He feels his namesake blow past him, a blur of white entering his field of vision as it lands just mere feet away from him.

It's big, noticeably bigger than Epona, with a lithe and lean body shape. Its features were surprisingly round and soft from what he could see, and it was coated in white scales that shimmered with blue, purple, and pink undertones. Its wings were noticeably larger in comparison to the rest of its body, and its tail was adorned with fins shaped sort of like fairy wings. It almost looked like it was…

…like it was a dragon.

Its body was crouched in front of him, its back arched into a defensive posture with its wings raised to make itself look bigger. He couldn't see its face, but he could hear it snarl. It was most likely looking at the body of the lynel it had just blasted to hell and back.

He peered over at the lynel's body, or what was left of it really, to see it crumble and dissipate into smokey red embers before fading completely. The dragon relaxes as it folds up its wings, its head raising up and allowing Wind to see two round ears perk as it scans its surroundings, though he could also see that there were also two smaller nubs beneath them. Its gaze soon fell on the young hero, causing it to let out a soft warbling purr.

He wasn't expecting to see such non-threatening features on a mythical creature that had just taken out a lynel in one attack only moments ago. Now that he had a much clearer view of the dragon, it looked less like a dangerous beast of ire and flame and more like a scaly marshmallow that someone had dumped an entire box of glitter on.

Lavender hues eyed him curiously, once hostile slits rounding out to more passive ovals. He could see two separate leather strings decorated with various charms and precious stones hanging around its neck. A black armband with silver ornaments was secured along its upper right arm, the ornament itself shaped like a four pointed star.

It squinted its eyes for a moment, before leaning its head forward to sniff at him from a distance. Wind wasn't sure what to do when it began to approach him, taking slow and careful side steps toward him. It stopped for a moment, and he saw its eyes staring at the blood stained sword in his dominant hand.

He could practically hear the lecture that he would definitely be getting for what he was about to do next, but had since decided that his curiosity of the result outweighed the certainty of consequence. He put his sword down, and took a good few steps away from it.

That seemed to be enough for it to continue its approach. Once it was right in front of him, it lowered its head with its ears flattened against its neck, as if to assure him that it meant no harm. He raised his left hand, the one that wasn't nearly as bloody as the other, and held it out to the dragon.

It tilted its head, sniffed, before leaning forward and rubbing its head against his hand.

Wind couldn't stop the smile that tugged on the corners of his lips, spreading out wider when it began to purr. He pressed the palm of his hand against the top of its head, marveling at the smooth feeling of its scales. He noted that it felt somewhat warm, and that its body was vibrating from the intensity of its purring.

He let out a shout of laughter when it suddenly pressed its whole body toward him, thankfully not on. It curled around him until the front half of its body was on one side and its tail on the other. It rolled onto its back, exposing the pale blue coloring going from its neck all the way down its chest and underbelly. Wind was more than willing to indulge the dragon and give it the pets it desired.

"You're way nicer about being pet than Wolfie is," he comments, scratching the dragon's belly. "You don't even growl or bite either!"

Wind hears the same whistling sound that the dragon had made previously, though this time it was brief and much more calm. He was about to turn to see what it was before he was distracted by a wet and slimy tongue dragging itself across his cheek. His expression morphs into one of disgust as he reaches up to wipe off the dragon's admittedly very sticky and thick saliva with his arm. Though it's clear that he isn't actually that mad about it, judging from the smile that was still present on his face.

"Lux, there you are! Why did you…."

He freezes, standing up straighter at the sound of an unfamiliar voice.

"What have I told you about personal space!" He turns to the owner of such. "Shoo, off! Dårlig drage, skam!"

The white dragon, whose name he now knew to be Lux, cooed softly in apology. It rolled back onto its feet, nuzzling Wind's shoulder one last time before darting toward the newcomer with its head ducked down. It cooed and warbled at them once they had dismounted the black dragon they had arrived on.

Wait, black dragon?

His expression changed into one of shock and realization.

The warrior donning a wolven mask, accompanied by dragons of black and white.

He looked the person over, and sure enough he spotted a wolf mask with its face twisted into a threatening snarl attached to one of their belts. They wore a fur cloak around their shoulders and a pair of dragon fang earrings. From what he can see of their arms, he spotted a myriad of tattoos depicting swirls of dragons painted across their skin.

The black dragon, who was also glaring at Lux trying to suck up to the stranger, was noticeably bigger in size. The ears along its head were much longer and in great numbers. There were shark fin shaped dorsal plates running a line down the length of its spine that became increasingly smaller as it trailed to the end of its long tail. Speaking of, its tail also seemed to have that set of fins on either side, though they were sharper looking than the other dragon's in comparison.

Well, he might be forgiven for petting the dragon now that he's found who the group has been looking for.

Speaking of whom, he saw them looking towards him after scolding the white dragon.

"I'm sorry about Lux, she doesn't exactly understand the concept of respecting people's personal bubbles," they said to him "Did she hurt you at all? I know she likes to lean, but I don't think she realizes that she weighs nearly a ton."

Wind blinks, taking a few moments to register the question before he shakes his head. "No, she saved me actually," he replied with a smile. "It-  uh, she absolutely destroyed that lynel earlier!"

The stranger's brows raised up in surprise, their gaze turning to Lux. "So that's why you suddenly disappeared. If you want to dive into battle, at least tell us first. We can't keep doing this or else I'm going to get gray hairs before I even reach thirty."

Lux rumbled softly, nudging her rider with her nose. She received a pat, which she purred under.

"They're yours?" Wind decided to finally ask, recapturing the rider's attention.

"I guess you could say that," they answered, "They're my family, more like. Sisters that I never had."

So they were both female, he'd have to remember that. "The white one's name is Lux?"

Another nod of confirmation. "Her full name is Faeralux, Lux for short," the stranger then raised a hand to gently stroke their fingers across the black dragon's head. "And this is Rhae, which is short for Rhaeneir."

"Of course, my name is Y/N," they added. "Might I know the name of the boy my overly affectionate Light Fury saved from peril?"

"My name is Link! But I'm going by Wind right now," he answers, biting his tongue on the reason why he's going by the name Wind.

Thankfully Y/N doesn't question it. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Wind. Thank you for tolerating Lux's affection, and not attacking her."

It doesn't take a genius to understand why someone would attack Lux, yet even if she's a dragon, she doesn't look or act like any he's ever seen. Granted, he only really has Valoo for reference on that front, but his point still stands.

He opens his mouth to ask another question when he was suddenly interrupted.

"Wind?!"

"Sailor, where are you?!!"

The trio of dragons and dragon rider all perk up to the voices. Y/N turns to him and speaks, "Is that your flock?"

Wind nods, and Y/N turns toward Lux. "I'm staying with you from here on out. I don't need you to get any more ideas about diving without saying anything."

The white dragoness coos softly at her rider's decision before leaning down for Y/N to hop on. Yet before they could, Wind interrupts the action.

"Wait!" Y/N turns to look at him questioningly. "Me and my group were looking for you actually, so if you wouldn't mind, could you stay here until they come?"

The black dragon, Rhae, narrows her eyes scrutinizingly at the sailor, causing him to shrink the slightest bit under her gaze. Y/N waves a dismissive hand to get the Night Fury to let up.

"Are they as friendly as you?" the rider asks him. "Because if they're not and are prone to the 'attack first ask questions later' instinct, I don't need them trying to kill me or my dragons."

"I promise they won't, not if I tell them that you're safe," Wind says, gazing at them hopefully. "Please?"

Rhae remains unconvinced, but she sees Y/N's resolve start to bow at the sight of the sailor's look. She grumbles lowly, her expression morphing into a look that said, Are you seriously going to bend that quickly to some random hatchling's pleading eyes??

The Night Fury gave her rider a flat look when the answer was yes, as told by the sigh of resignation Y/N breathed out. 

You're weak, Rhae warbled.

Y/N's only reply was a halfhearted swat in the general direction of Rhae's face, an attempted hit that was nowhere near making contact. It was the rider's way of saying that they didn't need her judgment right now.

"Fine, I'm choosing to trust you on this one. Don't make me regret it," Y/N says, dismissing the little mental talk that they just had with Rhae. The rider turned, to which something shiny was seen in their peripheral vision. "If that sword is yours, best you pick it up so your flock doesn't assume I disarmed and cornered you. Gods know I don't need a repeat of that problem."

Wind nods and goes to retrieve his weapon he dropped in favor of coaxing Lux toward him. Y/N hummed, perking up when they heard the bushes rustle and a mop of blonde hair emerge.

"Wind?" Crystal blue eyes search the area frantically before they land on their target. "Wind!"

The boy, who had just sheathed his sword, called back to the other. "Warriors! Check out who I found!"

The captain's face displayed confusion, brows furrowing as his lips were parted just the slightest amount as he was stopped before he could speak. Wind points to his left, and Warriors follows where it goes and is gobsmacked by what, or rather, who he sees.

Y/N's arms were crossed as they were leaning on Lux, who was currently sitting down. They raised their hand momentarily to wave, trying to look as non-threatening as possible.

Lux looked curious about the child's sibling, at least, they smelled like siblings to her.

Rhae was passive, not particularly interested or disinterested, merely there to witness.

It wasn't exactly the strangest ragtag group of individuals the captain has ever seen and believe him, he's seen his fair share. Though he would admit that this one was definitely in the top five.

Now to go tell the others about all of… this.

So much for a peaceful trip.

[nerd-who-likes-cats]

Elias Tsum!

Elias belongs to @r-aindr0p 💙

I put him off for a while because I didn't want to draw the ignihyde uniform, but he's here! I figured since tsum Ortho couldn't fly, tsum Elias wouldn't have Elias's cool prosthetic arm, and like tsum Ortho would get some cool technomantic upgrades while at Night Raven. (Story under cut)

Upon noticing the lights in the sky, and more importantly the hunter in a tree with binoculars already aimed at them, Elias swiftly activated his unique magic to get a quite literal birds eye view. He watched the scene through the eyes of a bird, fluttering around between the small round creatures falling from the sky. When he spotted one with familiar scruffy hair covering its face. He flew closer, this creature really did resemble him to a bizarre extent... as he fluttered around it, an arrow shot up from the nearby copse of trees. Just as Elias was realizing who shot it, the enchantment on the arrow activated, and rather than piercing the tsum, it transformed into a bubble around both the small creatures. Elias had seen enough.

Deactivating his magic, Elias rushed outside. On his way he tripped no less than three times, but he made it.

Elias! I do believe I've just encountered your tsum lookalike!" Rook said cheerfully.

This was a good chance to test a new feature Idia had added to his arm. Elias pointed and shot a tiny technomantic beam at the bubble, breaking it so the tsum and innocent bird could go free. It was barely a fraction of what Ortho could do, but only a fraction of him was robotic compared to Ortho, and hey, it was still pretty cool.

The tsum dropped down and stood at Elias's feet looking up into the tree where Rook was.

Rook was unphased "is that a new feature? Magnifique!"

"Yeah, it is" it was meant to help him be an even better hunter, but after having Rook catch his tsum before him, he didn't feel worthy of claiming it was working quite yet.

"Also!" Rook continued "I noticed les chats espiégles had a tsum companion aiding them in tripping you on the way here, I do believe we are due for some trouble while the tsums are around."

Rook had seen that? This was humiliating. "Yeah whatever" Elias said, picking up his tsum and returning to the main building, not looking back at Rook.

Once inside he noticed the new message he'd gotten, the headmaster was calling all those who caught a tsum to his office. He sighed and looked at the tsum in his hands.

The little creature was hard to read with its hair in its face, but Elias did notice something about it. While the tsums he'd seen before all had four nubbins as their appendages, this tsum was missing the front right one. Well, Elias had his first project in mind for once the meeting with Crowley was over. He was going to make this guy a prosthetic nubbin. (Or more likely convince Idia to do it for him, but eh, same result.)

[blatantprinterpropaganda]

so far in the world of thamepo we've seen over and over that silently sacrificing your own happiness for the good of someone you love is ultimately never the way to go (thame tried it for the sake of the other mars members, jun for thame, and inevitably all the sacrifices po made for his ex who then promptly dumped him also feature in there), so my god, i hope that this well-intentioned lie of gam's comes to light at some point asap and she and pepper still get their happy end

[kishiar-la-orr]

not incredibly well-thought because i'm just typing down thoughts briefly but

to me, the first timeline is the slightly less fairy tale-like version. the second timeline can be called a fix-it, an everything-goes-right, a best case scenario, which needed a grand plot device in the form of yuder regressing in order to happen at all. there must be tons and tons of different versions of first timeline where some things go right, some things also go wrong, in different ways whether miniscule or catastrophic. its not the worst though. things could go even worse, im sure.

there's a lot of takes surrounding first timeline kishiar with differing points. (also, as you know, im a glazer). and after running through a lot of them, it just makes me think that personally, a novel so nuanced and with a lot of complex interpersonal and intrapersonal happenings like turning needs to be approached with good faith and compassion. in my experience, doing that helps maximize my enjoyment of it.

second timeline kishiar is a 'green flag ML', yes, but he can only run because first timeline kishiar walked. what is turning if not about love and humanity? and the thing about loving while being human is, love doesnt stay pure all the time. sometimes its twisted, sometimes its murky. sometimes even when the love is pure, the communication gets lost in the middle. love happens even when people have a lot of difficult situations in their lives or even when they think they're not in a good place to be loving other people. first timeline yuder was also still green and less mature than second timeline yuder, a lot less equipped in many ways. second timeline yuder himself also needed to mature a lot before he could properly begin a relationship with second timeline kishiar that's grounded in trust and the expression of genuine care.

so many factors are being taken into consideration when writing turning, i think. thats why it becomes such a beautiful piece of work that can touch the hearts of many people, with characters and storylines that resonate with a lot of the fans. i find that it's turning's biggest charm. first timeline kishiar isn't a perfect victim nor a perfect 'toxic ex-boyfriend'. he tried his best and his best still had repercussions that are less than ideal for the people he loved whom he left behind. of course, there's also the fact that the story is mostly written through the main character yuder's perspective. i think i enjoy turning the most when i can see it through this type of lens, trying to keep in mind where the characters are coming from and empathize with them and taking the novel (as all fictions are) as a lesson in humanity.

[todayisafridaynight]

[sarcasticidi9t]

anyone play littlebigplanet? i still do >:D i plan on making every single qsmp member from scratch, starting with:

Missa!

heres a better look at the costumes. i couldnt decide whether i wanted him to be fully skeletal or a human skeleton, so i did both lmao. the go to hc is cat q!missa, but personally i like depicting him as a jurrasic park sized velociraptor.

i am begging for more dinosaur missa. guys please

also he glow in the dark. glowstick guy

[corvidaearts]

ive made some updates to the sashimi's design

anyway go read lost in the dark (he's got a heavy heart)

[19slvt89]

tried drawing debra and it took 2 full hours just to get to this point so i accepted my fate and gave up. take the sketch

also i'm only on season 2 so no spoilers pls i beg of you

[luigixfanxayjay]

i finally did it.

after almost 60 entire hours of gameplay... and numerous mental breakdowns...

i completed brothership. and BOY do i have far too many thoughts.

some thoughts and game review in tags (SPOILER WARNING AHEAD)

[t-u-i-t-c]

"Good luck, Tsugami."

[potatobugz]

i feel as if im going mad so im going to just put this out here. real quick. movieunleashers starters ramble.

i cant stop thinking about how mudkip broke down in that one scene in "Typomaniac," when Chespin called him mean. for a second he lets his mask slip a little bit and to me he just... acts his age. he starts crying and calls chespin mean back. maybe im just hyperfocusing on this one detail but mudkip is about 12 years old.

and that just makes me wonder what happened in this guys life that brought him to where he is now. and it makes it all the more tragic how his whole world revolves around chespin, but he is the one bringing him the most pain. and how young he was when he died.

there is a large theme of growing up in "Rare Candy." the characters ages are emphasized in that particular episode, and one of the main conflicts is fennekin wanting to evolve faster.

the thing about characters in these stories is that they're not allowed to just be kids, to have a childhood. so many bad things happen to them. like. mudkips whole, Everything. fennekin when she was famous in typomaniac, or dealing with her own insecurities/pressure from society about her relationship w chespin. and chespin always having to shoulder his friends problems & always somehow managing to stay positive despite everything.

why cant they just. play video games. eat ice cream or something. go to the movies

at the end of the day, i think both mudkip and fennekin are characters who grew up too fast. by distancing himself from them, chespin refused to follow in their footsteps and just wanted to stay a kid.

good for him.

[ty-bayonet-betteridge]

3l!grian is frequently depicted as a tragic figure and sometimes i wonder if we even watched the same series

[marcmorrigan]

i finished the duel monsters dub for the first time ever last night (!!!) so i figured i oughta lock down my faces for the aibous... what a show, man

[todayisafridaynight]

[marsbotz]

i ship inhun in a way that differwnt and more swagful than anyone else btw.

[findingcrow]

Halt: I can’t tell which I’m more surprised by- the fact that you didn’t realize you have intense trauma, or that you thought you were straight.

Will: Okay now that’s not fair