Castaliath

Beyla's Green Castaliath
Congratulations on impressing a dragon here at Ista Weyr! We hope that he or she is everything that you could want in a lifemate, though this inspiration is just a guideline for how to play your dragon. You are not required to follow all or any of it. The dragon is /yours/. Members of SearchCo have put many hours into the creation of your dragon, and we are excited to see how you develop the personality in your own, unique way. — Elle

Dragon: Castaliath
Color: Green
Name: Elle
Egg: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Egg
Egg Desc: Char; Saria tweak
Dragonet: Star-Crossed Lover Green Dragonet
Dragonet Desc: Elle
Messages: Elle
Inspiration: Elle

Clutching Message:
Quarith's sunset-touched flanks heave once, twice, then a third time, struggling to bring an egg of complicated — yet simple — taste onto the sands. Warm, golden brown gooey-ness spills onto the dark Istan sands, and gradually-melting dots of chocolate shade become apparent. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Egg, meet the oven.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Egg
Spots. And spots within spots. Like some complicated Shakespearean plot. Or not. Grainy lumps of golden brown, marred and blackened with chips of chocolate, and yet perfect; the pale complexion of an ovoid meltingattempting to meltinto the dark sands, chunks and lumps whirling together into the smooth ripples of cosmic creaminess enveloping its shell.

Hatching Message:
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Egg would not deign to melt, but is instead consumed from the inside out. Chocolate is the first to go, naturally. Cream follows after and dough is last. Dessert is relished as the scene unfolds. No actors here, only a sunset's beauty in the form of Star-Crossed Lover Green Dragonet.

Star-Crossed Lover Green Dragonet
Dusk's wan light spills over the horizon of her cresting 'ridges, leaving their jagged silhouettes in the depths of an evening's shadow while basking the rest of her svelte, draconic form with the last vestiges of a poet's vista. Twilight's glow shimmers across her rambling sage, beguiling the lines of her elegant visage while enlightening the sleek curve of her dainty figure. Alas, the beginnings of a star-spangled darkness creep up from tail' s sinuous length and encroach upon her tidy haunches to leave wide paws shaded in a murky forest. Iridian sprinkles blanket her wings' sails, defying the darkness after the sunset to twinkle their coy enchantment despite the boundaries set by spanning spars.

Impression Message:
Star-Crossed Lover Green Dragonet quirks her head to the side, twilight's glimmer sliding up and down the curve of her neck. Sparks seem to ignite in her eyes, their fiery gaze absolutely possessing the sight of one white-robed candidate in particular. Talon's rake the sands in her excitement as she gives a bit of a playful bounce before dashing all out to the one with the striped hair, the girl with a whimsy to mirror her own. Gazes lock and the question really does not need to be asked: Beyla, Beyla, Wherefore art thou, Beyla?

Personal Impression Message:
There is silence. Silence. Oh, so endless silence. Wait. What was that? Did-? The tickle of a summer's breeze runs its caressing fingers through your hair, ruffling the hem of your robe. It abates. Again, the silence, an agony in itself. Anticipation is rife. But, the onrush comes. Evening's wayward gust consumes your very soul as it rips through your body, claiming it thoroughly. Tickles of lemon and sugar wind their whimsical way through your mind, dizzying as it is clarifying. « Beyla, I have found you.. » A childish giggle chimes with delighted silver bells. « Beyla, I am Castaliath! »

~*~ INSPIRATIONS ~*~

Name Inspiration:
Castalia was a Greek nymph who leaped into a spring at Delphi, fleeing from the sungod Apollo who loved her. The spring that she leapt into was then named for her. The waters were deemed sacred, used to clean the temple at Delphi and were also said to inspire poets. Castaliath's name comes from this fleet nymph, who was loved dearly by one of the most powerful gods of Greek mythology and then there is the fact that the waters of her spring were patroned by poets -can we dare to think that her alluring waters also inspired Shakespeare? The pronunciation is all up to you, but when I speak it aloud, this is what I hear: Cas-TAHL-ee-ath

Egg Inspiration:
Ice cream, but of course! The solace of any good writer - MOOer - dragonrider… of anyone! And what better comfort food to combine with it but a Chocolate Chip Cookie. Mmm. :)

Description Inspiration:
I worked long and hard to find the perfect visual beauty to the dragon you envisioned: sleek and svelte, cute, elegant, but unique. And to put her into Juliet's form. It proved to be quite the undertaking, but it all came through with Juliet's words in one scene (Act III, Scene ii), where she begs for the sun to set so that it will be night and she can meet with Romeo. That is where Castaliath's colors come from -that time right at sundown. Sage was a softer green that seemed to take sunset's colors beautifully. And her stars were a necessity, not only did they make her unique, but they alluded to her 'star-crossed' origins.

Mind Voice:
Cassie is lemon verbena and powdered sugar with but a touch of key lime pie. She is so very sweet in smell, with just the slightest tastes of bitter temptation tickling along the edges. She has the sound of cultured elegance in her words, but she isn't afraid to place a tart 'curse' in now and again, her voice seeming to drop to a not so quiet whisper with the scandalous mentioning. Cassie's voice seems to tinkle with silver bells, much akin to wind chimes. Her feelings move to lighter colors, not especially bright, but cheery nonetheless. Pale yellows and sky blues, spring green and lavender, baby pink and peach. No black, but silvery greys and weathered white. These colors aren't sharp, but paled with age and set with wispy abandon to carry you about along their whimsical way. She has the feel of sunlight, brightening and warming in the same instant. When emotions are high, a storm cloud passes over, fracturing her sunlight and bringing the smell of a future rain, the low rumble of thunder, and the cracking expectation that lightning may strike at any moment, but the flashes blink in the background, far off, yet coming.

Physicalities:

Castaliath is somewhat small from the beginning when she hatches from the egg. She isn't the runt or anything, just smaller than usual. She will always be on the smaller side throughout her weyrlinghood and into adulthood, sort of middling between the smallest and the medium-sized greens. As she grows, it will be a steady process. Not exactly in spurts, where some will grow and then bulk, but at a constant rate that leaves her always in perfect proportions.

But, throughout weyrlinghood, Cassie will have all the trials and tribulations that are attributed to her growing pains. With the fact that she will ALWAYS be growing, it's hard to get used to your body when it is constantly changing. The typical bumbling about, tripping over her own feet, banging her head on the roof of her couch or bungling into this bucket of oil to stepping on a clutchmate's tail. It all comes natural. Alas, as she becomes an adult, some of her awkwardness comes with her. She will always be a bit of a klutz, especially when Pern-bound. Stumbling here and there over 'air pockets', banging her shoulder on the side of her weyr's entrance, getting her tail caught in the crook of a tree, and even tripping into her couch in a most undignified state, will be rather normal.

But, she will acquire a grace in the air that she decidedly lacks on the ground. She is a glider, not into flapping her wings about. Cassie could spend the rest of her days soaring on thermals, gliding to and fro in her ever-whimsical manner and enjoying the roar of the wind as she passes through it. With her small size, it lends to her agility: able to turn on a mark, seemingly tie herself up into knots, and remain as a rather fleet presence. Naturally, endurance places a factor when she is expanding energy showing off just how agile she is, leaving her winded after not that much time. Thus, her affinity for gliding, which is all the better to stay aloft and revel in her grace, and not bumble about on the ground like an awkward puppy.

Castaliath is a slender dragon. She is your sleek and svelte, slender and sinuous. She tends to a rather narrow appearance, especially down the length of her torso. Like when you look at a tropical fish, from the side she has substance, but when you move to look at her from the front, she is awfully narrow. Her head is somewhat squat, sort of compressed together instead of being long as some of her fellow dragons. It is almost a pixie-like countenance, with small nostrils, tidy eyeridges, and in comparison, her eyes are awfully large. Cassie's neck isn't all that long, but is very slender, her torso narrow, and her haunches flat. Tail is moderately longer than her neck, nearly prehensile in its slenderness as it grips things with the dexterity much akin to an elephant's nose, the end wrapping around sticks, your ankle, whatever. Her legs are long and thin, all the more able for her to easily bumble about, while paws are wide -think of a bloodhound. Her wings correspond proportionately with the rest of her size, ideally merged with length and width.

Cassie's color is by far and away the most unique part of her physical characteristics. It's what people remember most, because it is so startling. Her overall color is sage. It is a sort of muted green color, darker than jade, with a bit more blue in it, but sort of dusky and greyed at the same time. That would be her primary color, were not she bathed in the colors of twilight. Imagine the sky when the sun has just set, not a sliver of the sun in sight, but just after it has dipped below the horizon. When you look to the west, or Cassie's head, neck, and chest, the colors move from yellows and oranges and reds at the extreme, to slowly sweep up in paler hues. Often, clouds are lit in pale blues and pinks, but Cassie has no clouds -she is a clear sky. Those gilded and warm colors iridess her front, shimmering over her green and melding with it at the same time. Eventually, as you look straight up, the color wanes. This happens along her torso from shoulders to just shy of hindlegs, where sage sky is touched both with day and with night. When you look to the east, that is where night exists, the heaviness of marine and indigo shading 'til it is its darkest, where the peek-a-boo twinkle of stars begin to emerge. This occurs from Cassie's haunches on back to her darkest point, which is the tip of her tail in a marine-imbued green. A glimmer here and there of silver-white sparkles grace, rare though 'til they are a bit more pronounced as the darkness deepens. Her feet shade from the paws up, dark forest green with a cloudy greyness up to her sage. Her wings are the same sage, but are dressed with more star's glitter along the ichor-dark veins throughout her sails, but in a varying glimmer of rainbow-hued colors. Spars are a solid color in comparison to her sails, untouched by the many-colored sparkles. Her neck and tail ridges are dark, a shadowed green that nearly mimics the color on the end of her tail, but not quite. They are most pronounced as they crest along the brightness of her neck, untouched by the gilding of dusk, and standing in stark contrast with their shadows.

Personality:

Juliet was a character born of 'star-crossed' origins that were prophesied to have a bad end. She and Romeo were never meant to be, despite their professions of love. Their families were simply at odds with each other, stretching even to killing one another. A match between Juliet and Romeo could never happen, yet they came together no matter the outside world. It's too bad that they came to an untimely end. Thus, the play is one of Shakespeare's tragedies. But Cassie is not a tragedy. In fact, she is a glorious and wonderful comedy and romance that expands where a tragedy has no place.

Castalia just has this innate sunny personality that just seems to leave everyone she comes into contact with in a jolly mood to mirror that of her own. She is, to put it simply, perky. When she moves, there always seems to be a bit of an airy, yet happy spring to her step -which often leads to a stumble here and there and a giggle afterwards for her clumsiness. Her tail would be held high, neck lifted at a jaunty angle, and head cocked just so with an actual trim to her maw that gives the idea that she is grinning. Her bubbly personality echoes not only through her body, but also through her actions.

« It /is/ such a wonderful day. Isn't it, Yla? » The rumble of thunder echoes across the bowl. « Don't you just love the feel of raindrops? Isn't it just so… marvelous? »
She will always look to you to confirm what she thinks. Agreement seems to just tickle up and down her spine, in knowing that she is right. Disagreement on your part, causes her to admonish you in her sing-song voice.

« Oh, Yla. You are just teasing me again. You know that ovine blood tasts /so/ much better than wherry in the mornings »
She will be quite often 'Oh, Yla'ing you. Get used to it.

Cassie will always be making friends: fellow dragons, riders, average people, pets, dolphins, and so on. Getting down to their level, she will often drop to sit sphinx-style, lowering her head to the ground to hopefully get a good eye-to-eye view for conversation, play, etc. She will bespeak others now and again. But once bespeaking a single willing person, she will bespeak them more often. She enjoys having conversations with her fellow dragons, always having something to add to a conversation. Her additions won 't be trivial or silly, but will have a point, no matter if the dragons are discussing the shapes of clouds overhead or flying Thread. Her friends will be friends for life.

« My friend Joe has such the silliest idea. Oh, Yla, you know Joe, the one who gave you that bubbly at the gather »
Castaliath's humor exactly mimics that of Beyla's own. And she simply delights in that you both can nearly finish what the other is thinking before it is even voiced, and that just causes her all kinds of fits of silver-bell giggles. Ah, but once in awhile, a rather 'scandalous' comment on a humorous note is given to Yla, and only Yla, dropping to a harsh whisper, as if she is scandalizing herself and is afraid one would overhear such a thing.

« Did you /see/ what Fiviath did? She actually touched. well, /you/ know. I'll imagine he hasn't been touched there in forever »
Whimsy is one of the main themes of Castaliath. Her nature is born of capriciousness. Fantastic ideas are always being generated from her, and she dreams, be it day or night, some of the most amazing things, and she is more than happy to relate her ideas and fancies to you. And what is even better, she will act on these whimsies quite often. One day she will want her couch loaded with sand-filled pillows while the next day she changes her mind and believes pillows filled with wherry-feathers would be better. You will need to have a large assortment of riding straps, each one different.

« Shall I wear the lavender. or maybe the lime? What are /you/ going to wear today? »
Yes, complementary outfits. She must accessorize.

Cassie could lounge on her ledge all day long, looking quite languid as her tail drapes over the side, and head resting on the pillow of her forepaws as she gazes out over the bowl, crooning to herself. As Juliet calls to her love from her balcony, Castaliath dreams airily of her love, her Romeo.

Flirting just comes naturally with Cassie. It doesn't matter if she is proddy or not, she will always be casting airy glances to the guys, and if possible, she would even go so far as to batting her eyes, but in a most dignified manner, if a bit shamelessly at times.

« Itazurath, sweetling, do go on. What were you saying about how the sun shines on my throat? »
Flights:

Castaliath was born to fly and adores doing it. Ah, but what about the time when she is glowing? In the seven-day before she is full-blown proddy, she will take her time about it, slowly growing more and more proddy as the days wear on. It's almost as though she enjoys the feeling of being in heat, embracing it happily. She is pretty, and knows it. She is attractive, and knows it. The males are paying more attention to her, and she knows it. Her giggling becomes more pronounced and the airy nature of her being seems to become even more frivolous. She will pay attention to this male for awhile, then move on to another for some girlie flirting, and on to the next and so on. She seems to court her patrons as they play court to her, nearly in some kind of odd attempt to bring them to blows over her favor. And if they do get a bit owly to each other, she will be right in the midst of the fray trying to soothe tempers but more than likely egging them on as in one breath she will be fluffing up one dragon's ego and in the next nearly swooning to the feet of the other.

Alas, she still only has one true love, besides her never failing love for you, Yla… if only she knew who it is. And until that time when she finds him, she will be more than happy to sample all the glories of all the male dragons in the weyr. She will fly far and she will fly often. Most greens go up about 3 times a turn, Cassie will fly at least 5 times during that same turn. She will be one of the first to reach sexual maturity as well. When she does find The One, it will be him and only him to catch her in her proddy flights, allowing no other to be allowed to sample her. But, until that time, her flights will be very long and drawn out to her upmost enjoyment. She will be on the brink of dropping out of the sky before she allows herself to be caught, and then only to rely entirely upon the one to does claim her for that moment. When it is all said and over, she will muse. Is he The One? Her one, true love? But these aren't morose musings, but whimsical things, like schoolgirls have over their crush. And were Beyla to also be so inclined to the rider, you can just imagine the fits of joy dear Cassie will produce. Whoever is Yla's Romeo, will be Cassie's.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Beyla's Green Castaliath
Harper's Tale: 29th PC Clutch
Ista Weyr
Saria's gold Quarith and T'rell's bronze Sejith
April 29th, 2001
Clutchmates:
N'ano's bronze Bydelth, Lib's green Alishath, Hannah's gold Dhiammarath, Izz'y's blue Nuadayth, E'an's green Fiareth, Khaye's brown Itazurath, Tstar's green Elbareth, Sorcen's brown Neolyth, Jozzie's blue Riyth, and Naomi's green Kaith.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License