Queen Jasper

(OC page is being reworked, so have a cry-your-eyes out backstory for why Jasper is the way she is while I code)

"Imagine you are me."

"One moment, you're playing happily and hoping your rarely-present mother will notice you. The next, your home is going up in flames-for no reason, in your eyes. You're forced under the earth, and then you learn that your mother has disappeared. You and your tribe are forced to hide like rats from dragons who would love nothing more than to see you dead, who have taken over your home and refused to give it back. Then you're tasked with caring for and leading said tribe, even when there's nobody to guide you. Your family is dead, and there's nowhere to turn that doesn't end in defeat. You know that above you, innocents are dying by the thousands, and there's nothing you can do. The enemy is deadly, with poison that can kill in seconds, fire, and sheer numbers. Starving, alone, you're starting to give up hope."

"But then you get your home *back.* As a 'gift', from a queen who killed *innocent dragonets* in the flames, who has the power to *breathe on you* and you'll drop dead. You hate her, have hated her since you learned that she was behind it. But you take your land back anyways, and realize that you have power equal to hers. Not in your talons and thoughts, no, but in your written words and muttered commands. And you start to build a plan. A plan that will guarantee your safety, fix the cracks in the thin earth below your claws, that will keep your kingdom stable for years to come."

"But you are hated for it by everyone surrounding you, except for a distant ally you don't understand and have never seen, your illegitimate hybrid brother, who *despises* his half-tribe, your own frightened subjects who you want to shelter and care for but can't, and a friend who's more than a friend..."

"And then once your kingdom's first issue has been sorted out, a second arises; an alien, deadly plague consumes half your kingdom. You're powerless to watch your subjects, the dragons you were supposed to *protect,*perish as blood flows from their bodies in an endless stream, saving only one-your precious son, the last talonhold you have to sanity-from an early demise. Your brother, with the magic he recieved from the lineage of the terrifying queen halfway across the world, heals the land-and your remaining subjects-and then disappears into the abyss with his younger sister, the one who's had her eye on your throat since she was old enough to learn that by killing you, she could become queen, never to be seen again. You're scared, cold, alone, and weak-so weak, for such a physically strong dragon-with only two dragons who truly appreciate you. You shove down your terror, and marry the one you've loved for so long, bring dragonets into the world who will grow to make their mark on this world."

"But the fear, the pain, the hate doesn't go away. It only grows, and shifts and changes into something *awful*-something you regret creating, but cannot bring yourself to destroy-until it explodes. You can't bear to know that she's alive and unharmed; the dragon who ruined your life. You know you have to kill her, and you start by striking at the ones she was supposed to protect-if she has the same queenly instincts you do, it will hurt her-her subjects, her tribe. So you go through with it, hunting down and capturing every one of her dragons unfortunate enough to be one of her subjects. The world hates you for it, of course, but you feel the years of pain and terror and hatred burning away. But so long as it's there, it's going to keep growing and growing-you need to destroy them all. Every last one of them must perish before you can truly be at peace."

"That is why I am what I am. Not of cruelty, or spite, or sadism-because I need to..."

"I-I'm scared..."

"...please don't hurt me..."

"...I-I just want to protect the SkyWings."