Ibex (Animal OC Contest)

Ibex is an IceWing SkyWing hybrid gladiator living in the mountains of the SkyWing kingdom. He is created by Nibby the Bird for the Animal OC Contest.
== Appearance: ==
Although possessing a combination of two physically striking tribes, Ibex himself looks rather dull. His colors, especially, make him blend into mountain slopes, but not into a big hybrid meeting of crazily colorful dragons or performers adorned in beauty. He simply has dusty, tan scales with pale violet underscales, the tones muted and grayish brown tinted. His leathery, pale blue wings stretch like a miniature, permanent sky above his head, as if he were a microcosm of his landscape.
Ibex’s main features are his long SkyWing horns, curling backwards and indented like a ram's, with lots of little pinkish-brown IceWing spikes, in a thin, swept back, almost mane shape draping over his neck and forehead. His talons are sculpted, veiny, and muscular, with every little tendon and claw visible. They are serrated.
Ibex is also extremely strong built, his muscles and skin weathered from exercise and the sun, and he has a surprisingly long and graceful torso and tail with bulky legs. Roundish almond shaped brown eyes peer from deep sockets in his skull, while a tuft of reddish fur/feathers grows from his chin.
== Personality: ==
Ibex is a known challenger type, easily angered and willing to stir up a fight. He almost enjoys feelings of frustration and determination, however, and will push himself and others beyond reason to satisfy his need. Skilled and adept, Ibex loves to teach others, and has a soft spot for whatever younger dragons call themselves his students tor apprentice. He believes very firmly that there’s enough skill to go around and that more experienced, dedicated, passionate dragons in the world are needed. Despite his feelings,of self worth and amazing confidence in himself, he also keeps a lot of that same confidence for others, and is, at the end of the day, a good person.
In conversation, you’ll rarely find him not boasting or talking about his own successes. It‘s almost charming, and almost not, the way he never fails to make sure his status is known to the world, as it often annoys others trying to get a word in. He always needs to the the dominant one in discussion, and usually turns to arguing if he feels challenged or threatened.
For a hybrid, Ibex is shockingly confident in himself, never doubting for a second that he’s great and has “made” it. Many assume his sheer braggy-nature is a way of compensating for his appearance and heritage, and training and succeeding gives him an outlet to our his energy into and make up for his status. He loves attention and all eyes on him.
Ibex loves to seek out drama and trouble, either to act like a savior or to be saved. Everything to him is a big deal, something to make a fuss about, and when there isn't much going on, he gets bored incredibly easily and may even turn himself or others against each other to give himself an opportunity to step in and make himself out to be a hero, or just to have some fun. He is a very lighthearted dragon, and although he can get pretty intense in the heat of the battle, he takes everything with such a severity it almost cancels out and makes him come across as carefree-- since a new care steps in every second. Of course, his true "care" is fighting and succeeding, but a little gossip or flying races is always good to him.
== History: ==
=== Birth and Parents ===
Little is known about the life of Ibex's parents' affair; what is known is that they did not ever intend to have a dragonet, nor did they intend to keep him. In a panicked flurry, IceWing celebrity Thaw and SkyWing soldier Tercel set up the poorest and most basic of nests for their egg on the way, constructed on the lower cliffs of the SkyWing mountains. Why Thaw was in the Sky Kingdom and Tercel so far from his post is unknown, although discretion and plenty of nooks and crannies probably played a role. They were hiding out from the SkyWings at that moment, Thaw knowing that if she was caught, it'd mean certain doom and a reputation trashed, and Tercel aware he could lose his job for such a scandal. At the same time, though, they dearly hoped some kind SkyWing hunter or soldier would stumble across the egg once abandoned by all adults, and keep their child alive enough so he'd have a reasonably good life. Tercel, despite his devotion to his work, did his best to sneak out food and hunt scraps for his mate. Had it been the SkyWing, familiar with the land and knowing the territory, and able to divert soldiers from their hiding spot who was pregnant, the egg might not have been healthy enough to live.
So, guarding an egg haphazardly balanced on a drey of fabric shreds and week-old feathers, the dragons hunkered down and waited. During this time, the flingers grew angry and frustrated with each other, for their lives were too different and their love more like silly, drama seeking lust (You'll get where Ibex picked up on that trait). They both planned to flee to their respective worlds the second the egg hatched, away from crumbling footslopes and scratchy shrubs and cold nights and overly bright suns. He would return to the tough barracks and become a militant soldier, a representative of his tribe's masculine ideals, and she would continue down the road as a cultural icon, influencing art and politics in a rather shallow and vapid way.
And this all happened, sure, but the egg hatched sooner than normal. Tercel and Thaw were forced to spend the next day tending for the little creature, hoping, praying, that somebody would stumble across it. He ate tiny scraps of meat and snuggled to his parents for warmth, sprouted horns and flapped wings, breathed tiny pitches of fire the perfect size to light a candle. His parents didn't name him, for they didn't want to get attached, but the familiar desire to care for little ones was enough to keep him alive for long enough.
Soon after, Hover, a SkyWing hunter on the team, discovered Thaw along the side of the mountain. She and Tercel chased her out, with Hover under the lie Thaw constructed that the IceWing was a tourist overstaying her welcome. The pair of mates never saw each other again, although Tercel often heard legends of the warrior Ibex became, more indifferent, if a bit relieved to his son's survival.
=== Dragonethood ===
That left Ibex, a tiny newborn dragonet, a few burrows and holes dug out by his parents, a bit of eggshell, and whatever they left behind. Because they were gone in a rush, he had several objects with him- a store of food in a cliffside burrow, a spear, helmet and set of small weapons abandoned by his father, and scrolls and some jewelry by his mother. For several moons this was what Ibex lived off of- he would wake to the sunrise in a den crumbling with dirt and pebbles, eat a bit of the now stale food stockpiled in his "room," go down to the brackish creek to bath and drink, explore the mountainsides and burrows, (during this time was when he found the numerous objects, even a few not owned by his parents), practice flying, and then go to sleep. He knew little words, and the faces of his parents even less, but one of the scrolls contained an illustrated Pyrrhian guide to the tribes- he recognized himself as something of a SkyWing, knowing it as one of the few words his parents repeated in their shared time. The scroll wasn't colored, and since he couldn't read the blurb saying "Skywings are usually shades of red, brown, gold, or orange," he had no clue he wasn't supposed to look the way he did.
Up until he was eight months old, this life continued, undisturbed. He was beginning to deplete the food stock, and had taken to hunting bits and pieces for himself. But incidentally, his first interaction with another dragon aside from the ones who birthed him was a fight. It was a colder day than normal, and he ventured past his initial "territory" in search of small mammals or birds to eat. He crept down a burrow hoping for a ferret or rats when suddenly, he realized another dragon had blocked him inside. He scrambled to flee, and upon realizing the only way out was behind the other dragon, he simply headbutted his way through. At this point, his horns, although long enough to do real damage, were still developing, and he got a chip in one. This crack in his horn was "solidified" in the softer material and he kept it throughout his life, never healing.
The other dragon was shocked by the odd appearance of the dragonet, who he couldn’t see clearly in the dark before, and was taken aback enough for Ibex to get the upper hand and pin the dragon down as he did with prey. Ibex eventually grew bored of the sort-of-fighting and walked back to his burrow, to continue eating the food scraps left behind. The dragon, who he later learned was a student named Fir, stalked behind him, impressed by his fighting abilities. When it occurred to Fir that Ibex had no home but a few holes in the mountainside, and nobody raising him but a store of food left behind, he told one of the hunters who dealt with intruders: Harrier.
=== Education ===
Ibex remained unsure of what exactly happened- he knew that Fir looked an awful lot like the SkyWings in the books, more so than Ibex. He saw the drawings of mountains in the SkyWing parts of his scroll and came to the conclusion that was where he was- and there were other SkyWings too. 
But what he knew, and felt, most strongly, was that he lved the fight. He loved to be able to ram his head into that dragonet, to overpower him. It almost felt like he had made a friend, for he felt not anger, but rather giddiness. He found his passion. He could ressle, or headlock, or spurt sputtering flames at something other than an aggresive ferret he would have for lunch. 
=== Current Life ===
Born in the bottoms of the footslopes of the mountains as a poor hunter, scavenging for himself. His methods of tackling prey (and intruders) were recognized by the royal hunter, Harrier, who recruited him. He dropped the hunting job to pursue a life of entertaining through being a gladiator after becoming dissatisfied with the strict ways of a SkyWing life, knowing he wouldn’t fit in as an IceWing, and wanting to return to a more wild, natural state. He now is the champion of a secret, underground fighting ring distributed throughout the mountains.
== Trivia: ==
Has a common SkyWing mutation where his hours are extra long and curl back, hence his name
== Abilities: ==
Extremely capable with fighting, can “lock” horns and likes to use his tail and strong legs in combat a lot
Can exhale a kind of smoke, a very weak form of true SkyWing fire. Is not very fasn in the sky, on smallish wings, but he can run fast on land.
Category:Characters
Category:Hybrids
Category:IceWings
Category:SkyWings
Category:Males
Category:Work in Progress
Category:Occupation (Soldier)
Category:Content (Nibby the Bird)