Coyote (FrameTrap)

Coyote 	Coyote
Creator 	FrameTrap
Main Attributes	Laconic, cold
Song 	Man with a Harmonica
Age 	20 Dragon Years
Birth Year 	~4996 AS
Status 	Alive
Gender 	Male
Pronouns 	He/Him
Orientation 	Aroace
Occupation 	Vagabond, Bounty Hunter
Tribe 	SandWing
Goal 	To use his skills to help others in need (and to earn some money, a dragon's gotta have some means of getting by)
Nicknames 	Ground Lizard
Residence 	Tarantula Oasis (Formerly)
Relatives 	Gila, Terracotta, Cerise
Allies 	Barbary, Cottontail, Cardinal
Enemies 	His bounties, the Whiptails, the Talons of Power, Lobo, Diamondback
Likes 	His fur scarf, roasted camel, hunting, traveling, helping the helpless, money, afternoon naps, walking, sleeping in the sand
Dislikes 	Scavengers, cheese, bugs with many legs, water, flying, career criminals, the cold, powerlessness
Powers 	Fire, venom barb
Weapons 	Poison darts, throwing knives
Quote 	"In this desert, actions speak louder than words, and survival demands more than sentiment."
==Appearance==
Coyote's a somewhat large and lean, with desaturated, very light, red-tinged yellow scales and wings not dissimilar to the color tacao. His body is dotted from neck to tail with black diamond scales and marred with scars. His horns and tail are noticeably longer than that of the average SandWing, making it a little uncomfortable for flying. Even his sail is a tad shorter than one would expect. He's a little unkempt, with his talons and legs almost permanently caked in sand and dirt. He wears a large fur scarf and has several pouches underneath it.
==Personality==
Coyote is a quiet, stoic dragon with a dry sense of humor. He's willing to fight dirty and will be the first to kill if he thinks it's just. Over the years, Coyote has carved a strange sense of justice for himself. While previously being self-interested and only in it for the money, Coyote now will more often than not choose to help others if he thinks he owes them or feels especially compelled to do so. Even going so far as to risk his own life for the sake of those he's helping.
Coyote is independent and often spends his time walking alone, hunting, satisfying his voracious appetite, or taking naps. Coyote is good at reading and gleaning information from dragons and using that information to his benefit. He does not like to be vulnerable about himself or his past and tactfully obscures his true motivations, fearing that they could be used against him. However, this lack of openness and somewhat asocial behavior has led to a sense of loneliness that has gnawed at him since he left home all those years ago.
==Occupation==
Coyote drifts from oasis to oasis, searching for odd jobs and bounties. He wants to use his fighting skills to help dragons (often at a price), perhaps to fill the hole left by his isolation, but somehow whether because of his own principles or by pure misfortune, he loses almost everything he earns in the venture.
==Biography==
===0-11 Months===
Coyote hatched in the earlier years of the war of SandWing succession. He was the only offspring of Gila, a SandWing coffinmaker, and Terracotta, a Sand/Sky tailor. They lived with Terracotta's mother, a SkyWing named Cerise, in the poor small town of Tarantula Oasis (pop. 124) on the outskirts of the Queendom of Sand. Things were relatively peaceful until the Whiptails came along a few months before Coyote's first hatching day. The Whiptails were a SandWing gang paid by Blaze to intercept Burn's supply lines and smuggle weapons and resources to the Ice Queendom, and they just happened to make Tarantula Oasis their base of operations. They killed all who got in their way, including Terracotta and Cerise, because of their SkyWing heritage. They were so ruthless in slaughtering the townsfolk that the population of Tarantula Oasis dropped to 29. The only reason Coyote was spared is because the leader of the Whiptails, Asp, perhaps after having a change of heart, could not bring herself to kill a dragonet.
===12-17 Months===
The town was forced to work on the whim of the Whiptails or risk death. However, this was not the case for Gila and Coyote, as being a coffinmaker was suddenly an essential job. Despite Gila despising the gang, she grew popular among the Whiptails and the rest of the townsfolk. She got so popular that Asp worried that she might be able to cause the town and the Whiptail members to rebel against her. So, Asp followed Gila as they went on one of their weekly hunting trips and ambushed them with a stinger through the back. She dragged Gila's body back to Tarantula Oasis and claimed Gila was murdered by some of Burn's dragons. This invigorated in Coyote a need to avenge Gila, enough to the point where he wanted to join the Whiptails at just 1.5 years of age, much to the reluctance of Asp. Nevertheless, he was allowed to join because most Whiptail members were fond of Gila.
===1.5-5 Years===
Coyote was officially a member of the Whiptails. He would join them in hunts, raids, and smuggling operations. The Whiptails had nicknamed him Ground Lizard due to his distaste for flying. Asp became a mother figure to the dragonet. She taught him all she knew about fighting, hunting, tracking, preparing food, finding water, using the sun and landmarks to navigate the desert, building a shelter, keeping a fire lit, first aid, and trading. However, Asp secretly detested Coyote and would train him in unorthodox, life-threatening ways. She would leave him with bruises and lacerations when fighting, almost let him die of thirst when she left him out in the desert alone, and let Coyote go hungry for days until he could catch prey. However, Coyote, out of a need for approval from the only parental figure in his life, would shut up and persevere, growing a knack for surviving precarious situations. Whether out of guilt or just to use him, Asp tolerated Coyote. 
===5-6 Years===
That is, until one day, several months after Coyote had his fifth hatching day, a small SkyWing battalion attacked Tarantula Oasis. With Asp's guerrilla tactics, the Whiptails were able to fight off SkyWings, not without heavy casualties, however. They had lost more than half of their members. Coyote was a hero of the battle, killing nearly twenty dragons (with some help) at a chokepoint, using his abnormally long tail and small size. He was congratulated by the remaining members of the Whiptails, but strangely enough, not Asp. Something changed within her that day. She grew more vitriolic; she would openly insult and berate Coyote, even going so far as to blame him for the loss of life from the day the SkyWings attacked. This only drove Coyote to try to impress Asp more, to the point that he started to consistently beat her in fights despite her being twice his size. Asp's hate for Coyote drove her mad. One night, she entered Coyote's chamber and attempted to kill him. However, Coyote was still only half asleep and could dodge out of the way of Asp's stinger. Throughout the fight, Asp insults him, saying she hates him, even confessing that she killed Gila and Coyote's father, Terracotta. Out of rage, Coyote thrust his tail straight through Asp's neck. Almost immediately, Coyote regretted the action. He could hear the Whiptails outside, wondering what all the noise was about. He grabbed his fur scarf, a gift from Gila, and flew far away from Tarantula Oasis.
===7-8 Years===
Coyote had trouble finding a job after landing in a town called Stenocara (he's very illiterate). He eventually found himself a job with an eccentric camel breeder. His job was to handle and watch the camels. Yes, he worked there for two years. No, not much of interest happened during that time. One of the other handlers was a MudWing named Peat. They were always at odds with each other, to the point where Peat challenged Coyote to a fight to the death. Peat got merked, and upon later inspection, it was discovered that Peat was a wanted fugitive, and a small reward was given to anyone who could apprehend or kill him. This finally gave Coyote the idea to become a bounty hunter.
===9-13 Years===
Coyote established himself as a competent bounty hunter using the skills he learned as a dragonet. He only did a little with the money he earned. He only bought throwing knives, empty poison darts, and medicinal herbs. He can't sleep where he can be seen; he instead sleeps under the sand. He had many adventures, never staying in one place for too long, always looking for the next opportunity or challenge. He met a variety of characters, some enemies, others allies. Once such ally was an older SandWing named Barbary. She ran a trading post called Cholla, north of the Scorpion Den, and they became great friends. Barbary gives him information about the local criminal underworld, while Coyote protects Cholla from the dangers of the Queendom of Sand. However, Vulture became aware of Coyote's activity in the Scorpion Den and sent the Talons of Power to terrorize Cholla and extort the townsfolk. Coyote, unfortunately, could not stop their cruelty, and Barbary was killed. Filled with anger and revenge, Coyote tracked down the Talons of Power to Vulture's compound, where he was quickly surrounded. He was captured, tortured, and robbed of his riches. Just before they were about to kill him, one of the Talons recognized him. It turns out he was a former member of the Whiptails. There was a decent reward by Burn for anyone who caught a Whiptail member. So, Vulture turned in Coyote to Burn. His weapons and fur scarf were confiscated, and he was thrown into the stronghold dungeon.
===14-15 Years===
Coyote rotted in the dungeon for 2 years. He was alone in the dark, having to experience the smell of decayed lizards, eating dried camel every day, scorpions littered on the floor, and the incessant screeching and hissing of the other prisoners. That is, until the war ended. He was released by Thorn, who gave him his fur scarf pouches back. Thorn, knowing his reputation as a bounty hunter, suggested he check out the town of Parodia. She offered a large bounty to apprehend or kill an outlaw named Lobo, responsible for raids on banks, caravans, and other settlements in the region. So far, Lobo has yet to be caught and has left local law enforcement helpless. Intrigued by the reward and the challenge, Coyote pursued the bounty.
===Time in Parodia===
Once Coyote arrived in Parodia, it became clear that the town's residents were terrified of Lobo. From what details he could extract from gatherings and everyday conversation, he learned that Lobo had a vendetta against the town due to a perceived injustice by one of the town's officials. During his investigation, Coyote encountered a SandWing dragonet named, Cottontail, whose mother was killed in one of Lobo's raids. Her determination to seek revenge resonated with him (whether he would admit it or not), and they formed a plan to undermine Lobo's operations. Cottontail understood the dynamics of Lobo's gang (due to her older brother once being a part of it). Members were not bound by any sort of loyalty to Lobo, as Lobo recruited most of them under the promise of money. So, Coyote infiltrated the ranks of Lobo's gang, not taking part in raids, but dispensing knowledge and rumors, sowing doubt among gang members. He played into their insecurities about getting paid and turned them against each other. Using some dragonflame cactus, he caused a distraction in the town at night, allowing him to burn down their stockpile of riches. Of course, those who stayed behind tried to stop him, but using some strategic positioning, Coyote took them down individually. By this point, the vast majority of Lobo's gang ditched him, dropping the numbers down to just a few. Lobo connected the dots and realized that Coyote must have been working with Cottontail. The following morning, Cottontail had been taken hostage by Lobo as a means to draw Coyote out and kill him. So, Coyote used another dragonflame cactus bomb to draw their attention away from Cottontail, then knocked out seven of Lobo's dragons with poison darts and kicked up dust and sand to obscure Lobo's view and free Cottontail. Yet, when the dust cleared, Lobo was still there. The confrontation ended in a final brutal fight between Coyote and Lobo. However, thanks to Coyote's quick reflexes and long tail, he finally defeated Lobo. He collected the reward from the local authorities and drifted away.
===16-19 Years===
After leaving Parodia, Coyote had a brief state of respite. A time when he did some introspection on his past. His encounters with ruthless criminals, violence, and his time in Tarantula Oasis weighed on his conscience. His fur scarf serves as a reminder of his desire for connection. Coyote spiced up his equipment in Possibility and lost the rest of his reward. Thus, he continued his journey through the Queendom of Sand, driven by his solitary existence. He drifted from town to town, taking jobs that fit his skillset. Through all of this, though, Coyote could not shake the feeling that something was missing in his life. The echoes of his past and the faces of the dragons he crossed paths with followed him wherever he went.
===20 Years===
Coyote drifts into the town of Fennec Gulch, which he thought would be a nice place to rest and relax after all the action. However, he quickly saw through the town's façade of tranquility and saw the tangle of corruption and fear which lay beneath. The town was essentially owned by a SandWing named Diamondback, a wealthy dragon who manipulated law enforcement to maintain her grip on Fennec Gulch. She exploited the town by levying enormous taxes on the populace, and subjecting them to a tremendous amount of labor, basically enslaving the town. Coyote had a sense of déjà vu and decided to keep a low profile and quietly leave the town before encountering a SkyWing named Cardinal, a dragon who lost their family to Diamondback. Cardinal's devotion to liberating the town and Coyote's own experiences inspired him and Cardinal to form a secret resistance, slowly gathering like-minded individuals who wished to challenge Diamondback's authority. Coyote orchestrated several heists on Diamondback's financial resources, not only helping to undermine her grip on the town but also inspiring hope among the townsfolk. Diamondback's corrupt enforcers became a problem when a mole within their ranks revealed their headquarters, leading to a deadly raid. However, this only further served to undermine Diamondback's power as the public now saw her desperation. After gaining an astounding amount of new members, the resistance now had a new base of operations. They carefully planned several confrontations against Diamondback's forces, ultimately ending in a climactic showdown. In the middle of the fierce battle, Diamondback attempted to run away before being burned by a blast of fire from Cardinal. With Fennec Gulch liberated, Coyote rested before returning to his nomadic life. He knew his work was far from over. He had just seen what the power of ordinary dragons could do against injustice and realized that he could use his skills to aid dragons throughout the desert. Thus, affirming his commitment to battling corruption and oppression. He continued to drift from town to town, seeking ways to make a difference.
==Relationships==
===Terracotta===
The father Coyote barely knew. All he remembers of him are vague memories of happier, more innocent times. He's also responsible for some of his more SkyWing traits.
===Gila===
Being a coffinmaker served Gila well, perhaps a bit too well. Gila's love for Coyote was deep and unwavering, trying create a sense of safety in their home. Gila tried to shield Coyote from the harsh realities of the world, trying to give him a dragonethood filled with warmth and affection. Gila's values and principles would influence Coyote's sense of justice, as Gila remained kind and selfless even to those they hated. Although, Gila never bothered to tell Coyote about how his father died or that the Whiptails were the ones who killed him. Coyote keeps his scarf as a reminder of Gila
===Asp===
Asp takes on the role of mentor and surrogate mother for Coyote. She taught Coyote critical survival skills and groomed him to be a capable member of the Whiptails. This ultimately makes Coyote into the skilled dragon he is, but Asp's mentorship is tainted by ulterior motives and manipulation. She puts Coyote in life-threatening situations, possibly to test his loyalty or prove her detachment from Coyote for herself. She harbored some genuine care for the dragonet, as her twisted affection was based on her involvement in Coyote's past tragedies. Asp's frustration with her inability to detach her emotional connections with Coyote contributed to her conflicting treatment of him.
===Peat===
They got off on the wrong talon when Coyote caught Peat trying to eat one of the camels. Peat was generally very loud and disagreeable, only further compounded by the fact that he would constantly brag about fighting in the war, despite being a deserter. They had many confrontations and heated exchanges during their time as camel handlers. As time passed, their relationship became even more tumultuous and volatile as the dull monotony of caring for camels started getting to them. Climaxing in a final physical altercation.
===Barbary===
When Coyote wandered into Cholla, Barbary helped him navigate the landscape of the nearby Scorpion Den's criminal underworld. This mentorship ended up becoming the foundation of their burgeoning friendship. Coyote admired Barbary's desire to protect her community and agreed to protect the trading post. Eventually, they got close enough to share their past, dreams, and fears with one another, with Coyote's guarded nature becoming more relaxed around Barbary. Coyote's somewhat solitary existence is disrupted by Barbary's presence. Their companionship gives him a sense of belonging and friendship he had been missing since he left Tarantula Oasis. Her passing not only represented the loss of a guide and friend to Coyote but also shattered the sense of security and connection he had just found.
===Cottontail===
When they initially met, Coyote was cautious about getting close to the dragonet, partially because he wanted to avoid involving someone so young in his job. But as Cottontail continued to bother him and revealed more about herself, Coyote empathized. Although he never directly tried to involve her in his work, Cottontail's connections with Lobo helped Coyote devise schemes against Lobo. Inevitably, Lobo would trace it all back to her. However, Coyote cared enough for Cottontail that he devised a plan to rescue her.
===Cardinal===
Cardinal's similar to Coyote in that they both experienced significant loss within their family. In other words, they understood each other. When Coyote was going to quietly disappear from the town, Cardinal and their story helped to convince him to stay and make a difference in the town. Coyote's experience as a bounty hunter proved to be a boon to Cardinal's cause, especially when paired with Cardinal's local knowledge and connections. Cardinal's trust in Coyote caused him to tear down some of his emotional walls and find solace in their camaraderie.
==Trivia==
*I watched too many spaghetti westerns and had to get this character idea out of my head
*He's basically my take on the Man with No Name
*Coyote never properly learned how to read
*He is too creeped out by scavengers to ever want to eat them
*He sleeps under the sand because he's paranoid
*Coyote has never been on the eastern side of the continent
== Things to Improve If I Ever Get to Writing a Full Fanfic ==
# Coyote's fears and vulnerabilities need to be elaborated on
# His personal relationships should delve deeper into his character interactions and motivations
# His dialogue should align with his personality traits
# Coyote's sense of justice and morality should be challenged more
# Add some longterm goals(?)
# Take into account how his physical traits limits his actions and influence his relationships
# His character arc would be neater if it could be tied up with reconciling his past
# Fill some gaps and plot holes in the biography
Category:SandWings
Category:Characters
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Category:Mature Content
Category:Males
Category:Hybrids
Category:Status (Commoner)
Category:LGBT+