Take Your Place Young King
Ardyn
Master Fighter (250)
Master Hunter (240)
Knight
Bloodletter
6 Years
Male
1046
BrienaSkysong
| Ardyn Cadeyrn Aodhán Phoenix Adravendi |
He’d known it was coming. His mother looked no older than he remembered, but he knew she was tired. Still, she’d been diligently preparing both himself and the pack, individually, no less, for his rise to King. There was the possibility of a coronation festival, but he’d be alright with or without.
Lyr fluttered and tumbled through the air, playing on the breeze as Ardyn climbed the hill along the path hewn into the ground and layered painstakingly with stone, gravel, and sand hauled in with Taliesyn’s immense help from various locations, near and far.
It made the climb easier, but there were still the harder paths for training. He came to the top in time to hear his mother’s voice but not her words.
Lyr settled on a pile of stones beside the Heir as Ardyn accepted his mother’s embrace with one of his own before he settled onto his haunches. He nodded in agreement with her words. He didn’t doubt she would have ruled much longer than she had, but the winter and spring had wrought havoc on the world and both he and she had come out of it alive, but much older in spirit.
He drew in a breath, looking beyond her to his father and back, then said softly, a deep rumble, “I am. It’s a big step, but I’ve had you and Da at my side, and many good mentors, the whole way.”
His skin tingled with the certainty of the words. It was a shiver of nerves and anticipation. It was where he was meant to walk, from birth to now, and many years beyond.
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.