Chapter Text
She kinda had to be a SilkWing, right? Not like her color scheme fits anyone else. Plus, antennae are kind of like a jester hat, no?
(Pomni)
Name:Palmfly
Tribe:SilkWing
Special Abilities:Silk Spinning, can sense vibrations with antennae. Normal SilkWing stuff.
Physical Appearance:SilkWings tend to appear as one of the largest tribes, in part due to their massive wings. However, Palmfly is unusually small, with wings that are too big for her, which makes flying a bit of a struggle. Her face is mostly white with red antennae and blue horns. Her antennae drop a little to either side, like a jester's hat. She has a streak of gold running along her entire spine, with red and blue scales. Her underbelly is white, as are her talons. Her forewings are mostly blue, with red veins and red bordered on the ends. Her hindwings are the opposite, mostly red with blue veins and blue bordered on the end. Each of her four wings have one large golden circle. She wears golden stud earring in her ears, and at the ends of her antennae.
Unlike most of the other members of the Circus, Palmfly’s upbringing was actually pretty normal. The only thing that stuck out about her was her unusually small size. She got picked on a little bit, the way dragonets are, but it honestly didn’t affect her much. She was always just as capable as everyone else, maybe even a little bit more in some ways.
Once she got her wings, there was a small problem. Her wings were difficult to get control of, just a little bit too big for her to really use well. She still learned how to fly, and it is not like she is bad at it, but it is exhausting, and she can’t keep it up for very long. Because of this, she couldn’t take the gap year of exploring the continent(s) that most other SilkWings do right after earning their wings, which honestly sucked, because she had always looked forward to that. Instead, she ended up joining the workforce right away.
There is a particularly successful Carpentry/Construction organization in the LeafSilk kingdom that deals with combining Leafspeak and SilkWing Silk to create some pretty neat things. Palmfly handles their financials, counting and redistributing the Scales they make, and the like. She is lucky and she knows it. She has a well-paying job, living incredibly comfortable, and has dragons around her that offer to come up with new flight strategies. She appreciates it and knows she has nothing to complain about.
But she is also unspeakably bored. Most of her peers have left the Kingdom by now. She spent a lot of her free time practicing her flight, but you can only spend so much time trying to beat a dead horse. So, she worked on her other skills instead, climbing, using her silk-spinning to help her, and even fighting, sometimes. And, if she couldn’t explore the continents, then maybe she could explore the places not far from her home, the ones she had never gotten to go to…Because she wasn't supposed to. The ruins of Bloodworm Hive, for one. The Poison Jungle. The Abyss, if she could just get away long enough to get over there. Maybe it's all a little dangerous, but she isn’t stupid. She knows what she is capable of, and isn’t putting herself in any real danger. Until she accidentally did.
Palmfly’s crew was helping the Hive Kingdom out in expanding one of their Hives. This got her just close enough to get to the Abyss. The Humans had abandoned it long ago, now making a village in the Savannah, so it was fascinating to explore. Old ruins and art, mysterious Human inventions, tunnels and buildings too small for her to fit in. And…Gardens that were still being tended? Torches that were still running? As it would turn out, dragons had begun to live down here, a dangerous HiveWing supremacist organization that was trying to regrow the Breath of Evil.
Before Palmfly could get out of there, she was grabbed by two dragons, a RainWing and a NightWing, along with a little human. That’s how she met her first members of the Circus. They were down here investigating these HiveWings…and had immediately gotten caught. And now, whether she liked it or not, she was helping them escape.
There were some antics involving being used as bait, listening to quite the monologue, and being scared half to death by the Circus’ overzealous leader, Cane, multiple times over before that managed to free the other Circus members, all of whom were very confused about where this little SilkWing had come from. Palmfly was in a panic this whole time, of course. Who wouldn’t be? But she is still able to think quickly on her feet, enough to help them out. Free from the HiveWings, but left with a new problem-How did they stop them for good?...And how to escape from the Hole in the first place? Well, the first part wasn’t exactly Palmfly’s problem. It’s not like these dragons had displayed much concern for her safety through this whole ordeal anyways, so when she happened to find a small little crack that might’ve led to the exit, who could really blame her for trying to escape?
Once she realized how unstable the cavern was, she did try to turn back. But it was made worse by a SkyWing from the Circus, Kookaburra, tried to burrow his way out with her. There was a rockslide. By some miracle, Palmfly and most dragons did make it out. The leader of the HiveWing group, a couple of the HiveWings…and Kookaburra did not make it out. By finding the tunnel that caused the rockslide, Palmfly was simultaneously responsible for completing the Circus’ mission, and for the death of their friend. By Cane’s logic, this meant she was coming with them. The others tried saying he couldn’t force her, but Palmfly was rattled beyond all reason at this point, and eventually agreed.
It took a long time for Palmfly to even reach the Circus, and she spent her first weeks in a constant state of panic, surrounded by dragons who probably hated her, having to pretend like they didn’t because of an oblivious leader. But after a while, the panic subsides, and everyone kinda grows used to each other. Maybe they aren’t pretending. They are an interesting group of dragons, that's for sure, and they are starting to grow on her. She certainly isn’t bored anymore. And she is getting to travel, to see the things she wanted to see, although she did wish she wasn’t being put in mortal peril every time.
Palmfly is a valuable member to the Circus-Capable, smart, and quick-thinking. Maybe prone to panic sometimes, but not at the point of disrupting her work…usually.
Extra
-In spite of her fears, most of the cast does not actually blame Palmfly for Kookaburra’s death. They all saw him spiraling, and she did try to stop him. Logically, she knows she knows she shouldn’t blame herself, but logic is hard to listen to when you're looking at a crushed body. It’s more like Survivor’s Guilt than anything.
-Palmfly is incredibly crafty with her silk. She is capable of making things like sling shots, ropes and harnesses to help her climb. She is capable of weaving, but doesn’t have the patience for it
-Newer generation SilkWings who grew up side by side with LeafWings and HiveWings have less of a problem with eating meat(I refuse to believe that SilkWings have always been a vegetarian tribe. They have sharp, carnivore teeth, so I think it was a cultural shift starting with a Queen before Monarch). Palmfly still prefers digging up vegetables and fruit on the Island, but isn’t above catching a fish every now and again.
-Palmfly does not have a Skyfire, but she does hope that she can find one soon. She has no idea how to conceal her thoughts, and is told that they can get “loud, spiraling, and a little hard to ignore…Palmfly, are you going crazy?”
-Palmfly began to keep track of most of the Circus’ income and outcome once she arrived, which can get really stressful…Particularly because 99% percent of it is trying repeatedly to tell Cane that no, they do not need to buy 700 Flamesilk lamps to string around the whole island, these dragons have fire. Then he does it anyway.