In a world locked in a con­stant bat­tle with the forces of undeath, the brighter times shine through the dark­ness of undeath and bat­tle. The small respites of joy and bright­ness that shine through the dark­ness like an arrow. So it is that I find myself once more attend­ing a mat­ing cer­e­mo­ny.

It had been many years for me. In years long past the elder drag­on known as Ica­bald would per­form many of these cer­e­monies. They were a reg­u­lar rit­u­al that I would attend in bygone days with such fre­quen­cy that they did not even mer­it a note of quill to parch­ment. How­ev­er with the pass­ing of time, less of such cer­e­monies have tak­en place it feels like.

I find myself fas­ci­nat­ed as an old Saris woman attend­ing Drag­on mat­ing rit­u­als like it is some­thing scan­dalous. Yet here I am! A Lunus and and a Helian, quite an inter­est­ing pair, and old it’s old Goldie — the Drag­on that fol­lowed me in Shard Report­ing and has always had my respect. Tsar­goth and Tek­ka, a Helian and a Lunus, gold and blue, a cast­er drag­on and a melee drag­on. Quite a study in oppo­sites, but as a wise per­son once told me…. like mag­nets: oppo­sites attract.

And the num­bers! I was par­tial­ly drunk on ale and cat­nip dur­ing the affair but a quick count of noses net­ted around thir­ty per­sons all told — most­ly drag­ons. These days such num­bers are hard to come by at once, to say noth­ing about all of them being gath­ered in a sin­gle place in Istaria for a sin­gle event! It is safe to say these days that this qual­i­fies at as an event of spe­cial mag­nif­i­cence just by func­tion of pure mag­ni­tude of the num­ber of atten­dees!

It is a pure joy see­ing the return of the old drag­on priest Icabald’s return and so many voic­es — new and old — gath­ered togeth­er under the old priest’s majes­tic words, and the return of the old tav­ern keep­ing Sslik Dra­nar from times of olde who came to pro­vide food and drink! It brings a hap­py tear to an old Istaria’s eye.

So con­grat­u­la­tions to Tsar­goth and Tek­ka! Prais­es to Drulkar, and may there by joy!