Cherry

(This character was created by Starwatcher the RainWing-Nightwing and JadeSky2468 for ArtTheRainWing's shipping contest. Please do not use in any way without both of us giving permission. Thank you!)
Cherry is a twenty-year-old female SkyWing. She is part of the Skyfighters, a group who wants Scarlet off the throne.
==Appearance==
Cherry looks like a pretty typical SkyWing, but certainly not one to look like royalty or part of a rebellion. Her scales are a flawless ruby red, with a light amber orange mixture under her wings. Her eyes are a deep green, which is uncommon in the SkyWing tribe.
Cherry wears almost no jewelry, except for a small moonstone pendant around her neck. The necklace was given to her by her partner when he proposed. The necklace is actually animus-enchanted to make its wearer invisible by saying "Necklace, hide me from the world," and saying, "Necklace, show me to the world" to make them reappear. However, the necklace was stolen years ago and neither one knows who enchanted it.
Since Cherry usually uses brute strength when fighting, she only wears a small dagger hidden in her red bandanna for defense.
== Personality ==
At first, it can be hard to break through Cherry's tough exterior. To strangers, she can be cold, suspicious, and forceful, making her hard to talk to or sympathize with. However, once you've been around her, and she begins to trust you and your actions, you'll find out there's more to her than at first glance. Cherry can be loyal, honest, down-to-earth, humorous, and even kind to the dragons she decides to let in to her life. And once you've befriended her, there's no stopping her from being with you every step of the way you take, no matter how much you try to push her away.
Of course, Cherry's not perfect either. Most of the time she can be moody and impulsive, forgetting to stop and think before she plunges in. She can also be headstrong, refusing to listen to reason or a second opinion. Cherry also takes many things personally, even when they aren't supposed to be insulting or even directed at her.
==History==
It all started with an assault.
The city of Aspiration was functioning as normal on a sunny afternoon, when all of a sudden, hidden bombs exploded simultaneously all throughout the city, throwing everything into chaos. As the citizens tried to make sense of what was going on, twenty Skyfighters emerged out of the buildings, their eyes fierce with determination. They spread out and together, they began ransacking everything, stealing whatever they deemed useful and packing them into brown sacks. They mainly ignored the dragons of Aspiration near them, but if they put up a fight, the opponents didn't hesitate to knock them out or injure them.
All of this went on for half an hour, until the leader of the group whistled a note and the mysterious raiders scattered, leaving the citizens of Aspiration staring at their now pillaged town in open-mouthed disbelief.
When the Skyfighters involved in the raid met up with their allies in the safety of the mountains, they began going over what each had collected. Every item taken seemed normal enough...scrolls...blankets...pillows...but then, something odd happened. One of the last things that was examined was a small, ruby-red stone...that almost looked like an egg.
Upon further observance, the item was an egg, and strangely enough it didn't belong to any of the dragons in Aspiration. The Skyfighter who collected it exclaimed strongly that he found the egg in an abandoned alley, just as the heat of the raid was cooling down.
"What should we do with it?" asked the Skyfighters to each other. That was the big question.
Should they try to give it away, maybe to the next village they "visited" in order to "gather supplies"? Maybe leave it stranded in the desert? (This idea was immediately rejected.) Or even sell it to a dragon at one of the big trading squares, for a reasonable price?
Finally, one of the younger rebels in the group suggested that the Skyfighters keep the egg, raising the dragonet inside for their very own. "We could teach her the truth about Scarlet, a truth that she may not get to know if she's raised somewhere else," she suggested. "And, besides, we've already had dragonets in our midst, remember? They were raised in our community, and they've turned out into true freedom warriors, Skyfighters we can be proud of."
So it was settled. The dragonet would become part of the Skyfighters. Adoptive parents from the Skyfighters were picked for the child, the eldest Skyfighters began drawing up a plan in order to educate the little one in their ways, and the rest of the SkyWings watched and waited expectantly and excitedly.
Finally, Cherry hatched and instantly enchanted everyone she met. A small thing when she was young, Cherry's innocent looks, her curious nature, and her willingness to soak up any information she was taught charmed even the most gruff dragons who were with the Skyfighters.
There was only one dragonet who seemed to be opposed to liking Cherry.
The leaders' son, Drift.
At first, Cherry suspected nothing of the sort, as Drift made a point to stay as far away from her as he could and avoid speaking to her. But then, while most of the grownup Skyfighters were away somewhere, Cherry and Drift were forced to take a training class together. Cherry was mastering every move shown to her, while Drift was struggling more to perfect what he was being taught. Finally, in a burst of rage, Drift purposefully made Cherry fall and injure her leg. Immediately, the lesson was over, as Cherry doubled over in pain and the teacher of the class flew to find treatment.
After the Skyfighter group came back to the base, they were shocked to see Cherry hurt. Later, Drift's father, Falcon, heard a rumor that Drift himself made Cherry trip and confronted his son. Drift protested that he had nothing to do with Cherry's accident, claiming she injured herself (he knew otherwise). Nevertheless, Falcon made Drift go and apologize to Cherry, who was on bed rest. As you can imagine, it didn't go well.
As soon as Cherry saw Drift, she blew up at him, hissing at him to stay away from her. Drift responded the same way, and a huge fight ensued between the two of them. It ended by both dragons resolving to avoid the other, no matter the cost. And for a while, it worked. Drift and Cherry only interacted when they were forced to, and only professionally. But they hid their rivalry from everyone else in the Skyfighters movement.
However, fate forced them together again. During another training class three years later, Drift and Cherry were partnered up to practice a new combat strategy. They didn't look at each other and kept a cold silence as everyone watched them nail the skill on their first time.
The teachers training the class immediately reported to Falcon and Sycamore how well the two worked together, insisting that they should always be partnered in combat classes. Falcon was bewildered at the claim (he had noticed Drift avoiding Cherry), but he ordered the members to make it so, hoping that maybe the two would make up.
And they did, but not in the way that he thought they would.
About four months later, something happened that changed the Skyfighters forever. Just after Scarlet's daughter, Ruby, had crowned herself queen (after Moon Rising but before Escaping Peril), a rival group called the Defenders came on the scene, this time supporting the idea that Scarlet was the true queen of the SkyWings and should be back on the throne instead of kicked off. The Defenders showed themselves as more violent and ready to kill anyone if they should disagree with their views. All fired up, some of the Skyfighters secretly convinced Falcon that they should strike back at the Defenders. Unfortunately, Falcon agreed and led the Skyfighters into a battle against the Defenders in the middle of the SkyWing capital. Lasting for over an hour, each side fought ruthlessly until the Defenders surrendered and the Skyfighters won the war. 
Sadly, however, most of the combat did more harm than good to the SkyWings. 15 lives were lost during the fighting (some of them weren't even on any side but just happened to be in the wrong place), and more than 19 dragons were severely wounded. More than that, though, both the Skyfighters and the Defenders had broken their most important law. Before this, they had never taken down their concerns with anyone else, or killed anyone who wasn't in their conflict. But now because of this battle, they had earned a reputation as makers of war.
After everyone in the Skyfighters had returned to the base safely (some carrying prisoners from the Defenders side), almost immediately all the dragons began accusing, yelling, and fighting, resulting in civil chaos. Most of the Skyfighters were angry at Falcon for deciding to go to battle, but some others were convinced that Falcon did the right thing and were trying to push back those who disagreed. Not soon after the attack, the Skyfighters were temporarily split in two groups. One group reasoned that Falcon was "innocent" and deserved to keep leading the dragons, but the other group was convinced that Falcon didn't do what he should have done, literally clamoring to put another leader in place of Falcon. Originally, Drift was on his father's side of the fight, and Cherry was on the side that wanted to get Falcon out of the way.
But it wasn't long before the Skyfighters became even more divided, when one of the dragons on Falcon's side publicly insulted the other side and the fighting escalated into full-blown combat. It seemed that everything Cherry had known, everything she had believed in, was falling apart, and devastated, she ran away, resolving to find a better life and a new way to defeat Scarlet.
She flew non-stop for five days until she again flew into the capital of the SkyWings, disguised as an ordinary SkyWing guard. She snuck into the palace where Ruby lived and was horrified to see Scarlet again on the throne (this is during Escaping Peril). Deciding to stay in the palace unnoticed until she found out more, she began to eavesdrop on every conversation she could find out about, trying to gather information.
However, when she was listening in on a conversation, she stumbled onto something strange. Two of the servants working in the kitchen began to talk about a certain egg that had been mysteriously taken from the SkyWing palace many, many years ago. They remarked that Scarlet's missing daughter, Tourmaline, once had a number of suitors and the egg was rumored to be hers and the dragon she was temporarily in love with. One of them even told about seeing a figure snatch it from the nursery at night and head north, the direction of Aspiration. 
Intrigued, Cherry decided to abandon her quest (for a time) and head back to Aspiration to find out more. Putting on another disguise, she attempted to subtly interrogate the citizens of Aspiration as to the whereabouts of the egg. After questioning the oldest dragon in the city, she heard of the Skyfighters' infamous "attack" on the village, which is where the egg was last seen. Thanking the dragon for his "help", she flew off, her horror growing at what she had just discovered. 
The tyrant ruler who Cherry had been working to get rid of for her whole life...was related to her. 
Trying to get back to her mission after the shock, Cherry lived in a remote part of the SkyWing palace for about a month until she gave up and traveled back in the direction of the Skyfighters base, hoping that things had settled down. Unfortunately, she didn't stay around the SkyWing capital in time to see Ruby challenge her mother to a duel for the throne, Peril reveal her as Tourmaline, and Scarlet get killed. 
When Cherry arrived back at the Skyfighters base, things had settled back into a sort-of-normal life for them. Drift had successfully managed to provide a compromise for both sides of the fight by becoming leader himself, but tensions were still running high for some of the more serious fighters. Drift convinced Cherry to be taken in again by the rest of the group and gave her an abundance of chores for punishment. Cherry was surprised that Drift would be so compassionate towards her, since she thought that he still hated her. Drift smiled and shrugged as he admitted that he didn't dislike her as much, telling her that he'd developed a kind of respect for her and realized that she was a worthy addition to the Skyfighters. Cherry admitted that she didn't know if she felt the same way about him, but thanked him for letting her come back. 
A few more months after Cherry had been welcomed back into the group (and after Escaping Peril was over), the small remnant of the Defenders decided to rekindle the fighting by staging an attack all throughout the Skyfighters' base, trying to do as much damage as possible. Desperately, Cherry and Drift attempted to evacuate the settlement of dragons old and young, but only succeeded in saving about forty or fifty members out of two hundred. Sometime during the chaos, both Cherry and Drift were split from the other Skyfighters and had to take refuge in a small nook. Immediately after they had gotten into the hiding place, a blast from one of the Defenders sent a tumult of stones rolling towards them, causing a cave-in. Tense minutes passed as the two lay silently waiting. When they were sure that the Defenders weren't anywhere near, they began trying to push away the heavy rocks, each communicating out loud to the other. Eventually, they agreed on a suitable plan in order to regroup back with the survivors of the attack. 
As soon as they could get out of the rubble, Cherry and Drift took to the sky and flew towards the abandoned city of Sunrise, which was the preferred meeting spot for the Skyfighters should they ever encounter an urgent emergency. By this strategy, all of the surviving victims of the Defenders' attack rejoined without any trouble, and the dragons made a temporary home in Sunrise's buildings before relocating to another mountain. 
(During this time, the Skyfighters got the news that Scarlet was truly dead and Ruby was on the throne again. They were happy to hear that the SkyWings were truly free of the former queen's tyrannic rule, but there was some question as to what the Skyfighters would become, now that their "purpose" in life was seemingly resolved. Drift decided to keep the Skyfighters together, not as a rebel colony, but as a peaceful settlement of dragons from now on.) 
As more and more changes seemed to start for the Skyfighters, Cherry and Drift found themselves over their fierce argument that had started so many years ago. Instead, they had started a whole new relationship together-a friendship. It was about a year later that Drift began to feel as if he and Cherry could be more than friends, and after giving serious thought to the subject, he decided to propose to Cherry, as well as offer her a co-leader position in the Skyfighter village. Surprisingly, Cherry accepted both of Drift's proposals and admitted that she was thinking they could be "more", too. 
They are residing happily in their positions as husband and wife and as co-leaders today. 
== Trivia ==
* A cherry is a small round stone fruit that can be either black or red.
Category:SkyWings
Category:Content (Starwatcher the RainWing-NightWing)
Category:Characters
Category:Females
Category:Occupation (Soldier)
Category:Content (JadeSky2468)
Category:Collaborations
Category:Status (Rebel)