Natrix

Natrix is an IceWing-SandWing hybrid who currently resides in the Scorpion Den as the leader of the Cord Court. They are agender and mainly use they/them/theirs pronouns.
Natrix was created for this contest, hosted by Eden.
== appearance ==
Born to a SandWing mother and IceWing father, Natrix most closely resembles their mother and her SandWing features. They are incredibly tall in their old age, and rival the height of the average SkyWing. They have large, tattered wings with burn scars along the underside and around their back legs. Their claws are serrated like an IceWing’s, and they are missing a claw on their left talon.
Their face looks most like an IceWings, with a hard-pointed snout and straight horns. Natrix also has a few small, IceWing spikes behind their ears that appear to sparkle when the sunlight hits them right. Their ears seem to droop down under the weight of the plugs in their stretched ears, but that is simply due to their age. Natrix’s earrings are carved from precious stones and crystals that they’ve acquired during their exploits when coming to power in the Scorpion Den.
Natrix’s coloring resembles an orange-tinted natrix natrix, also known as a grass snake. Their SandWing ruff is an unsaturated orange, with dappled lines of orange and browns akin to the stripes on the back of a snake. They have eyes like a SandWing with a dark sclera and piercing, amber eyes underneath a half-lidded gaze.
Their scales are a pale orange color and jewel-hard, with highlights and lowlights of other shades of orange. Natrix’s underbelly is a pale blue, a sign of their IceWing heritage, and may appear to shimmer in low sunlight.
Natrix’s tattered wings are quite large, and the membranes have a pattern of orange and browns similar to the stripes on their SandWing ruff. They also have a very large burn scar stretching underneath Natrix's right wing to their hind leg. It may hurt a little to fly, but they make do.
Their only feature which would out them as a flat out hybrid would be the missing SandWing tail barb at the tip of their tail. Because of this, Natrix has made attempts to mimic a tail barb with heavy jewelry and other items.
== personality ==
“I used to move into the future, bring it all back; Let it bleed through my fingers, a treasure in my hands” (Cassandra - Florence + the Machine)
Hot-tempered and obsessively complex, Natrix’s hatred for SkyWings stems from the death of their Lover. After their Lover’s death, Natrix became closed off and only focused on finding the dragons responsible. Internally, Natrix believes that if they were more confrontational they could have prevented their Lover’s death.
An introvert at heart, Natrix was very meek as a dragonet. When they were with their Lover, they were stark opposites to the other dragons personality. Their Lover was boisterous and a competitive SkyWing soldier; Natrix was quiet, and a strict pacifist with very little fighting knowledge.
As a young dragon, Natrix was part of a performance group in which she performed corde lisse, most commonly known as the aeriel rope. They mainly performed in Possibility, but they also frequented the Scorpion Den on occasion. They loved performing and enjoyed the feeling of being weightless as an acrobat.
Now, Natrix is still quiet but a more foreboding presence than before. They can be seen often in their gangs' tents, fiddling with a braid of rope in their talons, or sorting through barrels of Poison Jungle fruit. While they don’t often talk, they are quite the observer and gather information by listening in on other dragons conversations.
== history ==
“We're living in the fast lane, speed up, it ain't no game; Just turn up all the beams, when I come up on the scene” (Lone Digger - Caravan Palace)
Natrix grew up in a small settlement right outside of Possibility. They were raised by their SandWing aunt named Bastet, who ran a bartering business throughout the Sand Queendom. Natrix never knew much about their parents- Bastet was tight-lipped- except their names and tribes. Growing up under Bastet, Natrix learned the ins and outs of the smuggling and bartering trade routes. However, they wouldn’t use these skills again until after their Lover was killed.
As a dragonet, Natrix’s education was headed by their aunt and was quite inconsistent in terms of what they were learning and when. When Natrix reached adulthood, they moved to Possibility to study as a medic in one of the local hospitals. During this time, they also met a group of performers who invited them to join. Natrix performed on the aerial ropes and quite enjoyed the feeling of being weightless in the air.
Natrix met their Lover while during one of their performances. Their Lover caught their eye while Natrix was on stage. They met up afterwards and have been inseparable ever since. As they got to know each other, first as friends and then as lovers, Natrix learned that their Lover had previously been a soldier in the SkyWing army, and they had recently deserted.
A year and half passed, and Natrix was reaching their graduation as a medic. Their Lover was still hiding from several SkyWing soldiers but was satisfied that by now they wouldn't catch them. However, one peaceful night was broken by the sound of SkyWing bounty hunters searching for the deserted soldier.
Natrix hurriedly woke their Lover up and they fled into the surrounding woods together, but were caught by the bounty hunters.
They weren’t able to take their Lover in alive, so they took them in dead. In an attempt to shield their Lover from the bounty hunter’s fiery blasts, Natrix jumped in front of the other SkyWings’ fire. However, Natrix was still unsuccessful, as the hunter jumped around the two and slit their Lover’s throat from behind a moment later.
Deeming the hybrid's injuries too severe to live, the SkyWing bounty hunters left Natrix for dead. It was by sheer luck that they were found several minutes later by two SandWings from the Outclaws who had been flying from the Scorpion Den to Possibility.
They took Natrix in and let them heal at the Scorpion Den. After several months, Natrix was left with harrowing scars, an inability to fly without pain, and a desire for vengeance. They took the Outclaws invitation to join, and was soon training as a combat medic and soldier under Ostrich, the de-facto leader of the Outclaws in the Scorpion Den.
Eventually, Natrix realized that staying with the Outclaws was getting them no closer to their goal of revenge on those who killed their Lover, so they left the Outclaws and hid from them within the Scorpion Den. Natrix often frequented Possibility before returning to the Scorpion Den in their search for retribution.
While gathering resources, Natrix worked odd jobs in both Possibility and the Scorpion Den. They also visited both the Sand and the outskirts of the Ice Queendoms. During this brief period Natrix worked as an underground medic in Possibility and helped smuggle brightsting cacti to and from the differing Queendoms. Having a knack for the smuggling of rare and forbidden items led Natrix to be recruited into “The Needles,” a smuggling group primarily based in the Scorpion Den. Natrix slowly but surely rose their ranks. Once they were of high enough rank, they branched off with a group of supporters and created their own group, the “Cord Courts.” This group, headed by Natrix, dealt mainly with connections over in Pantala, and smuggled dangerous Poison Jungle plants to be distributed within the Scorpion Den and Possibility. Cord Court also did private deals with mercenaries and anyone else with the money to afford hiring them.
During these several years, Natrix had a growing hate for SkyWings, whether they were involved in their Lover’s death or not. Once they were in control of the Cord Court, they didn’t allow SkyWings to join. Natrix viewed all SkyWings as untrustworthy and harbored a special, violent vengeance against all members of the SkyWing army in general.
As of now, Natrix is not spotted often by others outside of Cord Court. They make often, trans-continental trips all around Pyrrhia and to Pantala. Inside the group, Natrix is usually seen planning exploits with high ranking members, as well as hauling large barrels of goods and meeting with prospective clients.
== relationships ==
=== Auk (father) and Fennec (mother) ===
Natrix never knew their parents, only their names and tribes. Auk and Fennec were both caught up in a skirmish between the IceWings and SkyWings while they lived in Sanctuary, and were killed by the crossfire while Natrix was still an egg. Natrix often wonders what their life could have been like if their parents were still alive.
=== Bastet (aunt) ===
Bastet is Natrix’s SandWing aunt who raised them. While Natrix didn’t have the best relationship with her and often felt neglected, Bastet’s knowledge of smuggling and bartering became a key part in Natrix’s Scorpion Den experiences. Bastet is still alive and well living in a village outside of Possibility, and she probably believes Natrix to be dead.
=== Celadon ===
"When especially you love, it's like a tank; It may drive you mad so you can rob a bank” (Russian Girl - Jenia Lubich)
Celadon joined Cord Court after the secession from the Needles. He is a SeaWing from a pearl-diving village off the coast of the Bay of a Thousand Scales and border of the Sea and Mud Queendoms. Celadon is the head of the missions to Pantala, and leads a group of SeaWings who traverse the waters between the two continents. While he doesn’t rank very high in Cord Court, he and Natrix have a good relationship as they deem him trustworthy.
=== Coyote ===
“My boy loves his friends like I love my split ends; And by that I mean; He cuts 'em off” (My Boy - Billie Eilish)
Coyote was a member of The Needles, and left with Natrix when they branched off to form the Cord Court. One of Natrix’s most trusted officials and their right-hand dragon, Coyote is a SandWing originally from Possibility. They are very stoic and stern, and keep the Cord Court members in line while Natrix is gone. They are known to not have many relationships, and rarely speak.
=== Ostrich ===
“Oh Ana, I'll be with you still; You are the angel that I couldn't kill” (Oh Ana - Mother Mother)
Natrix’s former boss and eldest daughter of famed Outclaws general Six-Claws, Ostrich and Natrix were very close during their time in the Outclaws together. They loved each other platonically, which could have blossomed into something romantic had Natrix not spooked and left the Outclaws in search of revenge. Ostrich might still be harboring feelings and hasn’t stopped looking for Natrix, believing them to still be alive somewhere on Pyrrhia.
=== Their Lover ===
“I don't wanna feel better; No one's ever gonna love me like that again” (Feel Better - Penelope Scott)
Never named and never gendered in Natrix’s history, their Lover was a SkyWing soldier who deserted the Queendom’s army and was subsequently killed by bounty hunters. They met while Natrix was performing as an aerial ropes performer, and were friends before lovers. Their Lover was killed while running from SkyWing bounty hunters and Natrix was heavily burned and scarred trying to save them. Their death sets off Natrix's obsessive desire for vengeance and retribution on those who they deem even some-what responsible for their Lover’s death.
=== Tyto ===
“But when my head hit my cheap pillow, I could tell I had a heart; And I wanna tear this fascist Milky Way apart” (Feel Better - Penelope Scott)
One of the youngest members of Cord Court, Tyto is a IceWing-MudWing hybrid who tried to steal from the group before getting recruited by Natrix who recognized his skills. Tyto has never been on the missions to Pantala yet, and mainly accompanies Natrix to meetings with clients. Natrix acts like a mentor to him, however, they don't have a particularly close relationship yet.
== trivia ==
*Natrix’s lover is never named, and never gendered. They are only referred to as ‘The Lover.’ If they were named they would probably be called Starling.
*Other names in the running were Adder and Gloydius.
*Natrix was originally going to be a SandWing-SkyWing hybrid before that choice was vetoed given their history with SkyWings.
*Their voice claims are Cate Blanchett as Valka Haddock from How To Train Your Dragon, and Lucy Gray Baird/Rachel Zegler in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes for Natrix’s younger voice.
*Natrix’s gang is called the Cord Court as a throwback to their background as an aerial ropes performer. As well as to show that Natrix acts like the jury, judge, and executioner on those who they deem responsible for their Lover’s death.
**The Cord Court also takes in orphaned dragonets to work for them.
**
==gallery ==
File:Natrixalbluu2023samphnj.png|Natrix before burns (ALBLUU base; Edited by Sammie and colored by Sammie)
File:Natrixburnsalbluu2023samphnj.png|Natrix with burns (ALBLUU base; Edited by Sammie and colored by Sammie)
File:Natrixnatrixmacarequest2023.png|Natrix by Macanut23
File:Natrixnatrixwolf2023.png|Natrix by Ace
File:Natrixnatrixcrowji.jpg|Natrix by Crowji
File:Natrixheadshot2023samphnj.png|Natrix by Samuel
Category:Characters
Category:Work in Progress
Category:SandWings
Category:IceWings
Category:Hybrids
Category:LGBT+
Category:Status (Leader)
Category:Occupation (Criminal)
Category:Content (Samphnj)