A small snort comes from lithiums maw as he looked around. The desert, home? He never liked being around his own kind since he was a runt. Something happened to his egg and now look at him! He was small! Larger than a horse but still, he was a runt to other dragons. He was built lighter, faster, but still with the bulk. He was odd, weird, didnt belong. He had a firey attitude and was never afraid to snap at the bigger dragons. Why pick on him? He could still kick thir butts. He shook his head and walked a bit. He had found a small water hole and had made sure to keep close to it. He turned his head the the west were it was, still visable in his eyes. He was so odd, his red pelt was so dark it was almost 99 percent black. Still when close it was able to be seen that it was red, just very dark.

His dark grey eyes looked around to see a dragon coming towrds him. A small snort escaped him before lithium walkd back to the water hole and laid down. His tail wrapped around him and he laid there, waiting for who ever it was to come. He let lose one small growl before getting up and dipping his snout in the water to drink.

Savas had spent the last several hours sunbathing on a collection of rocks not far from a watering hole. It felt like the heat of the desert had crawled into the very marrow of his bones, and he luxuriated in the coarseness of the sand under his idly flicking tail. But eventually, the tantalizing smell of the nearby watering hole became too much for the Patriarch. He got to his feet, stretching everything from his toes to his wingtips, and yawned.

He was closer to sleep than wakefulness when he gathered his haunches under him and launched into the sky. It was a short gliding flight to the watering hole, and the lump of glistening black-red scales among the greenery didn't immediately register as a fellow dragon. It should have, but Savas slept deeply in the sun.

He had just landed a small distance away when the lump moved. Savas blew out a heavy breath through his nostrils with surprise and instinctively reached for his inner fire. But he was quick to realize it was a dragon - another Red, and thus welcome in his desert. "Good afternoon," he called from a distance. "Would you protest to sharing your watering hole with a thirsty elder?" Savas's jaws opened in a laugh, which he invited the stranger to share in.

The black dragon looked at the bigger red. Now truly, lithium was scared. He was scared easily but never long. He gave a small snort in his usual manner. He looked up t the dragon and gave a small sigh.

"Yes you may, it isnt mine to keep from others in the first place... Im lithium the runt."

At the word runt he looked himself over. He was pathetic in size. He knew that he was small, and everydy was hell! The bigger dragons picking on the smaller ones, the smaller ones, picking on no one. Maybe that was why he prefered the isolation of being aone, when your alone, no one can pick on you.

His brood was a broken thing that was desperately in need of repair. The Reds had once ruled their part of Usearous with fierce pride and protectiveness toward what they called theirs, and he had been at the forefront of it all. They had been his, all of them, and Savas had taken his duty to protect his dragons seriously. The weight of their loss rested heavily on his wings that day, especially as he looked wearily upon Lithium and saw only bitterness and anger.

"There are no runts here, Lithium," Savas replied gently. He maneuvered around the smaller Red, painstakingly careful not to brush against him as he walked by. "You are still considerably larger than most of the animals on Eltica. Have you encountered the two-leggers on your travels?" He fell silent long enough to drink some of the sweet water. "Clever creatures. Making shelter out of stone and rock, keeping other animals for food, forming villages and even talking politics..." Oh yes, Savas had been watching the two-leggers. "They are considerably smaller than you, Lithium. But they can still do great things." He fell silent again, hoping that the words would sink in and be well received.

"I am Patriarch Savas," he admitted. "It is good to see you have made it from...the bad place." Every dragon had their demons, and Savas' darkness was thoroughly entrenched in the loss of their old home and way of life.