History of The Strong

The Strong was a group of hunted who had banded together to protect themselves against the hunters.

The story starts with Feather, who led a secret life apart from her MudWing siblings, where she stole to earn extra money for her and her family. She stole a lot from a merchant, one of the items being a cloak, which she used to try to hide her identity. The merchant found her, tracked her down, and threatened to turn her in. Not wanting her siblings to find out about all of her crimes and not wanting to be forced to leave them as she was their BigWings, she fought the merchant in an attempt to get away. The fight ended up with the merchant being killed by Feather, who was then horrified by what she had done. She knew she had messed up and what she had done could not be undone. Feather came back to her siblings, injured. Her siblings were shocked to find Feather injured, and pressed her on what had happened. Not willing to say anything because she didn’t want to face her siblings finding out about what she had done, she simply said that a dragon had attacked her, not telling anything else. Feather didn’t want to face the consequences of killing a dragon, and so she decided she had to flee before she could be caught. Feather said one last goodbye, not giving any explanation as to why she had to leave, and put the second oldest in charge: Snipe, who was insecure and most definitely not fit for being the replacement BigWing, especially in comparison to Cuvier and Pygmy, who were slightly younger but much more fit to lead.

Feather, after a few months, came across a dragonet, Oilspill, who had run away from home after an argument with her parents. Oilspill wanted to find a better path in life than becoming a simple seed planter or trader like her parents, and so her ambitions led her to leave, seeking adventure. Oilspill lied about being lost to Feather, and so Feather took her in, feeling guilty for abandoning her younger siblings.

Feather within the following months, in the forest, found many dragons, hunters and hunted alike. She befriended many hunted and narrowly escaped many hunters, and in time, she had soon built a small group of hunted who worked together to try to provide a better life for each other. Sure, their way of life was dangerous and fights broke out between each other, but these dragons were fine with it. Feather was fine with never confronting her problems. Maybe. Oilspill enjoyed the adventure and danger of her new life, although she longed for more.

Oilspill, at the age of five, came to Feather to request something she had planned for a long time. Oilspill had sought out Feather for this, as she knew that everyone respected Feather more than anyone else, and Feather was their unspoken leader. Feather also had a soft spot for Oilspill, and so when Oilspill proposed her helping to lead the group of hunted along with Feather, Feather accepted. Oilspill knew this would not satisfy her ambitions, however. She wanted to be the sole leader of a large, formidable, organized group of hunted. She believed that she could make the world a better place for herself and Feather. That’s what she wanted. Oilspill did not want Feather to have to worry about being caught, her only knowing that whatever Feather had done, that she didn’t want to see Feather face the seemingly horrible consequences. Oilspill was ambitious and believed fully that she and she alone could protect Feather and other hunted by forming a better, more secure group of hunted.

The rest of the hunted weren’t too keen on a dragonet leading them, but Feather assured them that Oilspill was merely an apprentice to her, and that she would make a great heir to being the unanimous leader of the group, as Oilspill had the most experience in being a part of the group except for Feather. Hunted argued that maybe Lioness, who was calm, level headed, and older would be a better option, but Feather decided she wanted Oilspill. Feather still felt guilty about her siblings over the years, and would constantly favor Oilspill in a way to substitute for her guilt. By over compensating her love and loyalty to Oilspill, she felt less guilty about abandoning her siblings. Over the course of a year, Oilspill kept quiet. She stayed an apprentice, she did as she was told, she didn’t stir up any drama. She was glad to help Feather, but she knew that she could help her more by being the only leader. Soon enough, the dragons began to respect her. And this is when she began to take advantage of her position.

Word spread of how Spider, a NightWing hunted who had been highly respected amongst the group, had been killed by a hunter brutally. While others grieved, Oilspill coldly took advantage. After all, it was all to protect Feather in the end. She began using what had happened to convince the hunted that hunters killed all hunted. She was able to do this as all of the hunted in the group never really made contact with the hunters, and if any of them were caught, well…they never returned. There was an air of mystery surrounding the hunters, and Oilspill spread false information throughout their secluded group to give them a common enemy. It worked to Oilspill’s plans. Fights and bickering stopped for the most part amongst their group. Oilspill, at the age of six, set a call to action: to kill any hunters they came across before they could take more hunted lives. To protect their family, their friends, their dragonets. Feather faded to the background as Oilspill shoved herself into the spotlight, the hunted beginning to accept her as leader rather than Feather, as now Oilspill provided something that Feather didn’t: a promise of protection against the murderous monsters she painted out of hunters. Feather didn’t stop this. She was glad for Oilspill, who seemed like a promising, noble leader.

The group of hunted praised Oilspill when she gave them an official name: The Strong, because they were strong together when defending each other from the evil hunters. She recruited dragons to join her group and become members, calling those dragons Recruiters until they fully became Strong. In order to become a Strong and to be offered protection from the rest of the hunted in the group, the Recruiter had to recruit another dragon to prove their loyalty. The recruited dragon would become a Recruiter in their place as the Recruiter became a Strong.

Oilspill did not want her position of leadership to be threatened, so she set herself up to seem almighty. She called herself ‘The Mighty’ to intimidate dragons from challenging her and threaten her position, where she was able to keep Feather safe from the hunters. …but was that the true reason? Maybe once it was, but…Oilspill enjoyed being leader, and felt that it was righteous and that she deserved to be leader. She grew to hunger for the power she held, never wanting to let go. It was no longer about Feather, yet Oilspill lied to herself that it was.

Oilspill oversaw all of the role ceremonies, and in secret threatened any dragons in the group who posed a threat. Once two hunted found a hunter and captured the dragon. Oilspill, when they came to camp, ordered all three of them to follow her. Feather, worried for Oilspill, followed as well and was a witness to Oilspill ordering the hunted to kneel before she murdered them, letting the hunter escape. Feather confronted Oilspill, and Oilspill was shocked to see Feather had seen what had happened. Oilspill had let the hunter go on purpose, as what she had done was to prove to the hunted that hunters were all merciless and cold blooded killers, planning on framing the hunter to cause fear. It would lead the hunted to avoid the hunters and therefore protect them. Feather didn’t know this. Oilspill would’ve killed Feather, and even had a moment where she considered it so that Feather couldn’t spread the word, but Oilspill couldn’t bring herself to hurt the sole dragon she truly longed to protect. Oilspill threatened to kill Feather if she said anything about what had happened, or even stepped out of line.

Feather believed that what she had done by allowing Oilspill to become leader was a mistake. She believed the power had gone to Oilspill’s head. Back at camp, Oilspill gave Feather a high rank as second command (even though technically she already was that, it just became official) in order to keep a close eye on Feather. Oilspill often led the Strong to fight hunters, ambushing and killing them. Oilspill kept a tight rule, an iron grip, over the group. Feather eventually worked up the courage to try to confront Oilspill again after a while, going out of her comfort zone to do so. Oilspill threatened Feather’s position, and as punishment for daring to defy her and her true leadership, as well as to referring to her as ‘Oilspill’, Oilspill demoted Feather to Recruiter, forcing the once unanimous leader to recruit another dragon: Peregrine. Feather was now a low ranking Strong, while Oilspill was practically worshiped by the Strong and Recruiters alike, whether out of fear or love depending on the dragon. Oilspill felt she needed to make an example out of Feather, and so that was why she had demoted her, although she inwardly regretted her decision as she made Dorado her replacement second in command. Feather said nothing, not wanting to face her problems with Oilspill. She knew that if she had not agreed to letting Oilspill become leader, that Oilspill would never have done all of those bad things.

Two dragonets, Hawk and Robin, were found by a patrol, and invited to join the group, in which they did. Feather, over time in her low rank, had strengthened her bond with Lioness. They both didn’t want Oilspill to be leader, although Feather still kept quiet, not willing to do anything so that way she wouldn’t have to face Oilspill. It was easier to flee all of her problems, after all, right? Surely if Feather ran fast enough, she could escape them all, right? Lioness, on the other talon, wanted to take Oilspill down as she didn’t like how Oilspill corrupted what had once been a simple, small group of hunted who had seen each other as family instead of competitors in a life game of trying to vie for The Mighty’s appreciation, and rise through the ranks. Lioness stared a secret revolution, that at first had no traction, with only Feather knowing about it, and Feather not wanting to join, trying to pretend like everything was all fine.

One on patrol, Feather and Lioness were together when they came across a hunter. They had taken Hawk with them when he was the age of four, this being one of the first times that Hawk was allowed to leave the camp and join a patrol. Lioness and Hawk both believed that hunters killed all hunted, but Feather knew what Oilspill had done. Feather did not want to kill anyone else, although she also did not want to confront Oilspill again at the expense of her own life. She simply obeyed Oilspill’s orders and began throwing rocks at the hunter. Lioness was at first not willing to kill the hunter, but Feather claimed that she would be counted as disloyal and possibly seen as a hidden in disguise hunter. Lioness did not want that, so she began also throwing stones at the hunter. Feather threatened the same things to Hawk, and told him to stone the hunter to prove his loyalty. After a lot of hesitation, Hawk did it. Hawk pelted rock after rock against the hunter with Feather and Lioness, Feather determined to try to ignore her problems and her conscious, while Lioness was determined to not be caught, feeling the need to keep her position and rank amongst the Strong secured until she could take down Oilspill, and Hawk just simply following orders and not wanting to be disloyal. The hunter died and it led Hawk to have nightmares, remembering what he had done to the dragon, and feeling terrible about it. He said nothing about it as Strong praised him and Hawk was moved up a rank to Second Level Strong. Of course, nothing was different between being a First Level Strong and Second Level Strong other than the title and proof of his loyalty, and how much more Strong would respect him. Hawk didn’t like this, feeling that it wasn’t right. He had helped murder a dragon. It was not long before Hawk took Robin, his younger and much more innocent brother, and fled under the cover of darkness from The Strong. Hawk did not want Robin to make the same mistake that he had made, and when morning came, The Mighty pronounced Hawk and Robin dead.

This stirred trouble and conspiracies throughout The Strong. Lioness took action and listened into the conversations of dragons who believed that threatening a dragonet into killing a dragon wasn’t good, even if that dragon was hunter or not. Lioness, having given up on trying to get Feather to join her in taking down Oilspill, instead grouped together those dragons and dragons she felt that she could trust, and formed a slowly growing group of dragons who disagreed with Oilspill, whether they were a part of the group before Oilspill ever came to power or not. Many of these dragons, Collaris, Sunset, Magpie and Crow, stood up to Oilspill directly and were threatened with various tactics. Those dragons left, and The Mighty claimed them dead. Anyone who left, The Mighty found a way to manipulate the rest of The Strong to believe that they had been killed by hunters.

Eventually, Lioness left, in hopes that she could better help The Strong from the outside. She doubted Oilspill and it caused her to question if the hunters were really killers, as it was hard to believe for her, and she had seen first talon Oilspill using the hunters as a fear tactic. Dragons who disliked Oilspill needed a new leader. Feather, against everything she wanted, left her comfort zone and stepped up, knowing dragons needed her. She never wanted to go against Oilspill or face her problems. She could still see the tiny dragonet she had raised in Oilspill, and remembered how Oilspill was before she became leader. This, however, convinced Feather that Oilspill’s leadership needed to be taken away, as all of the power had corrupted the dragonet. At least, this was what Feather believed, not knowing of how Oilspill was conniving and had been lying to Feather ever since they first met.

Feather still did not have the courage to straight up confront Oilspill, so she just worked on leading the dragons on trying to undermine The Mighty. Spider, a young NightWing dragonet who had been named after the legendary, glorified original Spider, was their rebellion’s messenger. Spider had been taking a message with inside information of The Strong, of weak points they had, to Lioness. However, soon after receiving it, Lioness was killed by Frost, a hunter, right in front of Spider. The hunter took Spider and imprisoned him, Spider having been charged of being a murder accomplice. He had never done this, but Oilspill had planted evidence in many scenes of the murdering of hunters to make it so that any dragons who were a part of The Strong, hunted or not hunted, were all hunted, so that she could have something to threaten them with. Spider discovered the truth about the hunters, along with Collaris, Bowerbird and Pelican who had all been captured by them, yet claimed dead by The Mighty.

Spider, determined not guilty of anything, was set free and left to fend for himself. He managed to find his way back to The Strong, and he said nothing in fear that The Strong would kill him for being associated with the hunters. Over time, with how impressionable he was, he went back to being convinced hunters were murderous, and just let him go in hopes of making The Strong trust the hunters to make hunted easier to kill.

A hunter by the name of Oleander was eventually found, and escorted into The Strong camp.