Sing The Songs of Spring With Me! [Valhallan Spring Festival Opening]
Ardyn
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (240)
Knight
Bloodletter
6 Years
Male
1056
BrienaSkysong
He’d been pinned down along with his siblings and groomed, bathed, brushed and preened to a high gloss shine. By the time his grandfather and some of the Nomad ladies were done with him, Ardyn looked every bit the young prince he was. He’d been admonished – thankfully along with all the rest of his sibs – to stay clean until the opening was finished.
Now he walked beside his grandsire in a careful imitation of the easy dignity the crimson man walked in, though without the subtle hop Regulus bore, trying his best to look… well… royal?
His ink black, shimmering coat glowed with each movement, each breath, each flick of the ear as he looked around when they reached the platform, his eyes lighting as he spotted his mother and his tail transformed into a blurred torch.
For a few beats, his glowing mother was the only thing in the world, before he was gently nudged by his grandfather and his attention was brought to the guests, a smile on his features as he nodded to the strangers. Where was Da? Still getting his own deep clean?
Regulus gave in to the glances Ardyn cast up to his mother and nudged the boy onto his head, lifting him to the platform. Ardyn grasped his grandfather’s muzzle in a hand-like paw and smooched his cheek before moving to sit with his mother, getting a good view now of the coming guests. “There’s so many…”
The lady with horns, and the boy with the spurs, long teeth and strange forelegs were hardly given a glance more than it took to grin at them. After all, with his family, odd mutations was a given.
While his initial instinct was to tuck himself behind his mother’s foreleg at the sight of the many strangers, he made himself step a bit ahead of her to get a better look. Maybe there’d be some pups to play with around his and his siblings’ ages.
Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Labhair an Sean-Teanga." ---- "Hear" ---- Think |
Ardyn at first glance is as black as can be imagined with a raven sheen.
Closer inspection proves that he shimmers in fire tones in every hair on his hide right down to his lashes.
More obviously, he glows like a bed of coals and flames with every movement and brush of fur. His tail is usually wagging, so blazes like a torch.
His adult teeth are in and his saber canines have grown to their full length (see profile). His mane and tail hair have grown to full length, as well as being lightweight and easily buffeted by breezes.
A look at his front paws will give the impression of hands, with his dew claw dropped low and lengthened into a functioning thumb, and his toes elongated into fingers. He has retractable, solid black cat-like claws on every paw.
Ardyn has developed a glowing mast of intricate markings in fire and ice colors over his face, symmetrical over the last seasons of Year 17 (see profile for details). During hunts or raids/sieges, he will smudge them out with black soot to cover the glow, otherwise, they are bright enough to note at first direct glance at his face. Not all his artwork currently portrays the mask markings.
He is also often bedecked in beads, small bells, feathers in blues, ribbons and braids thanks to the Ooze Event of Halloween 2021, and the Coathanger item that he got. The accessories generally are seen most in his mane and tail hair. He removes the brighter items and bells for hunts or battle.