Art Credits: by Syrcaid, (base?) and quad base by igiveyoulemons; some edits for colors done by Lethe

Name: Pao, "you know, like POW" (and you are now unconscious) ((note that Pao might have had a tribal name or more than just this one word, but he does not know what those might have been))

Gender: Male

Age: young adult, not older than 18 (Kind form is shown at youth, he's bulked up a lot since then)

Species: Wyldkin Kind-Born Shifter Lion; clearly a 'large' feline, but his colors and features mixed seem to indicate he's not a pure lion and not a pure tiger (or sabertooth? what is up with those teefs?) so he might be a natural hybrid of those, or some variation with grandparents being different

Racial Oddities: born Kind, only transformed into a biped after around 2 full years, and can consciously control this shifting, to those forms only

Family: unknown, was abandoned by his tribal family upon shapeshifting; locates his cousin (probably from father's brother) Norano

Origin/Current Location: Whether he was born in the area or not, Pao has wound up gravitating toward Echo Valley in the Wyldqueen Wood. An unusual choice of venue, but not unwelcome to his kind of chaotic personage. It is south of Matmata, where he knows there are a greater number of Fey Tainted folk - and he's always wanted to try fitting in with them, since he's failed anywhere else with others... even shifters think he's a little weird

Height/Build: bipedal Shifted form 7'2" head and quite buff though not as 'ripped' as some tigers are; Kind form 3'7" at shoulder and not scrawny as shown, but he is definitely more slender and long-looking in that shape than his upright one

Hair: graphite black-brown, just a forelock and a little frizz on his head, in both Kind and Shifted form; he's never been able to grow a mane like he should, which may be due to the mixed feline nature of his parentage

Eyes: Bright green, with yellow sclera; very expressive particularly as a biped, because he gains more hefty eyebrow spots. And also they're above those massive teeth

Appearance: as a Shifted biped, he is tall and imposing, with bulky shoulders and chest, and very strong leg muscles; as Kind he looks much lighter in weight and less toned, this is very deceptive as that shape is at least as powerful. His fur on both forms is mainly grey dusted with brown-black stripes, with paler belly and face, tail tip, and fingers/toes. His stripes aren't remarkably tiger-like, large and angular over only the grey portions of his back and upper limbs. He has large pink-tan nose leather, and a broad, well-packed toothy grin in that muzzle. Pao's voice is the loudest thing about him, as he can normally move silently on two or four feet in virtually any setting. And his voice is loud, believe me. Pao's fur is rarely covered by anything more than a loincloth, his 'tribal upbringing' makes him less apt to want to bother with such things even though consciously he is aware that people 'want him to put something on'. He would clean up really well but he'd also likely rip off anything he didn't need the moment its usefulness is done. He has the scent of ... maybe a deep forest with lots of wetness, slightly dank, an abandoned house in the woods perhaps.

Dragondeep Specs

Weapons and Armor Skills:

History: The tribe of wandering types he descended from, and was kicked out of, consisted mainly of feline and larger, hardier folk. But they had wandered through many Fey Tainted locations in the past, and had a long list of offspring that turned out 'wrong' - if they kept a written record that is. Which they did not. Of all the folk to have given birth to a Kind-shaped child, you'd think that a lion-based family would have kept him close? A pride and all? But no, they are actually considerably less civil than he is. And he's nearly Fey Tainted himself?? Perhaps the taint works that way, who even knows. But it wasn't a terrible thing that they had a child who would prefer to run on four paws rather than walk upon two. No it was that on his second year, Pao (whose birth name was not the same) did grow thumbs and wobbled to toddle with the water buffalo twins in the group as they played by the river. They left him at that river, when the tribe moved on.

It was a river that he followed, going upstream, always with that massive frozen peak looming on the East, blocking the morning sun. While it took him several years to find his way along this river, he grew stronger and stronger with both his body and shifting skills. Perhaps he was encouraged by those odd people in the woods. They had strange furless faces, some had little wings, others dripped of the mossy water they swam in. All manner of people did live here, he was hardly alone.

One afternoon however, he spotted a strange glimmering light, which also had a smell to it that he still cannot really identify. Like a lit fuse, like ozone from a busy modern workshop. And then there were other people, 'proper' people wearing proper clothing and carrying weapons and some amount of gear. They all looked very flustered to be where they were.

He did not approach them, he only watched and followed. They were going the same way he was, after all. Up waterfalls and through deep woods. They met with other 'regular people', and it was perhaps the first time that this shapeshifter realized that he wasn't truly alone in this world... Since when those people followed the pointed hand of the local and vanished up a long hiking trail, that person then shifted from their upright two-footed self, into a sleek, long, black-striped-brown lioness.

Pao sped up that hill but she was nowhere to be seen. But he didn't have to see to perceive... and put his nose to work. It turned out that Norano was his cousin, tainted as he was from birth as a Kind and shifting into a half-attempted biped now and then. She truly is wild, and while she may be smarter than Pao by a good bit, she's not even remotely interested in being 'civilized'. Norano however has helped him reach those civilized parts of the area, and he will return to her territory once he's done exploring to his own heart's content.

**

"POW, as requested!" He said, proud as ever. His fist opened and closed, shook free from the bit of spittle that remained from that punch.

"We needed him awake," Jovio muttered with an undertone that Pao didn't notice.

"You needed him alive, that was the request," Pao said with a toothy smirk. "You didn't say anything about awake until now."

The other two in the small bounty-hunting group actually sided with Pao this time. While it would have been nicer to have their mark awake to question him, Bey and Bil the Chihuahua twins consoled Jovio the Raccoon kin while also suggesting that he'd probably awaken while they trekked back into town.

The Deer had put up more of a fight than they expected, not like his companion that they'd nabbed the day before. She still sat, fuming but very well contained, on their cart. Apparently she was too civil to chew through the muzzle they'd put on her Badger-face, but she absolutely spewed insults the likes of which most bounty hunters had never heard.

They bounced off of Pao's striped shoulders even as the deer slid off and was bound on the other side of the cart from his partner. Pao would be seated between them - he could hardly fit onto the group's burden beast let alone in a saddle, but he did the heavy lifting and the hard work for the smaller trio - and that included making sure that their 'alive' bounty remained both alive and in their care during the trip.

Once back in town, paid up and settled with the bounty office, it was time for more of a break - the trio had come from another city across the province, and now had little more need for the big burly addition to their team. Amicably they split the finders fee; they'd be getting far more for the rest of the gear they'd grabbed and meeting up with the rescued Duchess later on anyway. So now Pao was on his own once more. But he was in a town, on his two feet, look at him go. And wearing pants at the request of the trio, which he'd managed to get them to pay for. If they didn't want to see him at his loincloth-wearing 'worst' they could afford a few coppers to get a basic outfit on him. Since none of them even came up to that loincloth ... they had pitched in.

Pao was not a tremendously smart man, but he was completely aware of his surroundings and the implications. Folk didn't really recognize him as such, not as a person with a name and history, but they sure did cast those looks that said they knew he wasn't quite 'right' here. He liked most aspects of towns and even that one big city he'd visited, at least seen from afar. Iloza was on the northern side of the mountain range, while Pao's chosen home was well into the south of that same area, so it had been quite the adventure, trekking out on his own and coming back down with Bil and Jovio and Bey.

They didn't ask all that many questions, and that was fine because if they thought he couldn't answer them they'd just ignore the responses anyway. That was why he did sometimes surprise them - and others, a few had come through his territory - with odd puns or turns of phrase. Pao knew the difference between one architectural style from another, bits and pieces of local history, knew how to exchange money for gear and food, he wasn't exactly a 'savage'. No, that would be his birth tribe and probably Norano, he realized that while he watched tourists and travelers from his rooftop perch.

Was he a little envious of those kids that squealed and laughed and clutched their new gifted straw dolls, or even of the thieves that slipped around a group watching a local juggling performance, unseen except from his vantage? Possibly, there was always the tang of 'missing out'. He consoled himself by noting that there were precious few Kind walking on four paws down there.

He hadn't realized that there were Kind eyes on him, but he would soon understand a little more about the world because of those observing.

**

"I... Didn't think you'd be able to even find me," the voice was deep, raspy, almost spooky if not for the overtone of surprise and a drop of too-tired-to-fight-it. "Why exactly do you need my... assistance?"

The other voice was exactly as deep and resonant in ways, but sounded more like it was amused, a purr to it, the hint of chaos sprinkled in between the pauses. "Dewkith can't make this trip, and we need access to the right... directions."

Pao was only faintly aware of the conversation going on, he couldn't move and didn't feel unsafe. Just not quite asleep, in a daze he kept listening. Unaware that he was being held gently in a magical device, placed on a somewhat crowded shelf at the moment. A mirror among many such trinkets. But this mirror had a face, feline like the other two men talking in the room. Pao's eyes were closed, every sound faintly muffled with an echo, so all of this was only half-heard, hardly comprehended. The way these two spoke it sounded like they were ... plotting to bring him somewhere? Would it be slavery he'd encounter, or ... no it didn't seem like that. Something else, they kept saying 'sponsor' or 'bond' or 'impression' or things of that nature, terms that Pao had heard but didn't have a way of defining.

He wouldn't need to wonder for too long. He also didn't really remember any of the conversation, nor his transport to another world entirely. He did remember a very weird sensation of being sloshed around sideways, before coming to another paused halt wherever they'd brought him.

Pao's knowledge of magic was extremely limited, but he recognized it when he heard it spoken. There were odd sounding syllables, a phrase he would never be able to recall or pronounce. And then he was standing. Well, crouching a bit as if he'd just run through the woods and had stopped to catch his breath. He didn't have the energy to shift, for some reason. It was his first instinct and his instincts ran strongly. But... he didn't get the impression he needed to flee from either of the--

"You're green," was his first utterance at seeing this pair of 'felines'. And... beyond them, a small... dragon? A very different dragon than he was used to seeing or trying to look at in the Valley. It was also green. The pair of men, tall and stately looking, and green, let him catch his breath and collect his wits, with one of them, the one with short dark hair on his furry head, briefly giving a little finger-wave to prevent the other from doing or saying something. "You're... both... shifters," Pao stated, after sniffing at the air, or somehow just 'reading' the pair of them.

That brought an appreciable glance from both, perhaps they'd underestimated him. Pao was actually quite used to that, after all he was head and shoulders bigger than them as they stood before him, people often thought he was just a brute.

When the brighter, more mottled-marked one did shapeshift, it was... boggling, Pao had hardly ever seen anyone other than Norano actually shapeshift. He'd watched himself in smooth reflective water once or twice, but this was nothing like that. And... when that shift was over Pao was the one looking up at the broad velvet snout and long large ears of this man.

Still a man, but definitely not still anything other than Fey to the instincts Pao had. Yet of course, he wasn't afraid of that aspect. More of the... "are those ... tentacles?" He breathed the question leaning around and following their slight undulating wave over the being's shoulders. "Never seen that in a Fey before..."

The smirk that the one had was strongly echoed on the more 'normal Kin' of them, "they are, but he's... not from around here."

As if that was enough to satisfy his curiosity, Pao also let his glance wander to the dragon. "Neither is that," he nodded and the dragon tilted her head with a strange colorful swirl to her insect-like eyes.

"She isn't, but she's definitely not from the place I would like to... bring you," the taller tentacled cat man said, 'friendly' enough to keep Pao calm. When his huge paw came down on Pao's shoulder in an actually-friendly nudge Pao realized he was big but not burly. And he felt the tiniest little flutter of those huge pawpads when that thought moved through the aether into the pair of shapeshifters' minds.

Of course they were prying. Both of them were well known for it, at least among people who knew them. Pao didn't, but also didn't care to think on it too much. He'd listened and understood something.

"Where? Where will we go that this dragon won't get eaten straight out of the sky?" The vision of a massive local dragon snapping a large vulture out of the air drifted into the green men's minds, something Pao had actually seen, not just an imagined worry. While the dragon was certainly much bigger than that, big enough to ride and almost big enough to not be able to ride but just cling-on to, the vulture had been but a snack to that dragon.

"I think... you will be able to hold your own," the tentacled man said with a chuckle. He reverted to a more kin-like shape, "I think you might even be able to hold your own territory," the other tilted his head, and the dragon behind them even gave a little nod. "We... have to live in hiding, like many Kind... and Shifters," with that the other man had become a four-footer, sleek celedon and malachite greens on his fur. Spontaneously Pao also shifted, more 'skinny' than they thought he should look. Soon enough though they had finished with that showing-off-session, and agreed that the one of them would have to bring them to this specific place.

"Dewkith isn't confident in reaching it, but I've scryed this location. It came up again and again, so. I think having found a good candidate for these dragons means it's time to do something about it." 'Shortcut' was the name that the tentacled one gave, and 'Ravenheart' was the other. Only one of them was local, they eventually chatted a little about that fact. Ravenheart was able to directly open a portal to the world where whatever was going to happen occurred, and as Shortcut helped Pao onto the shoulders of his green dragon friend Dewkith, the dragon herself seemed to tell her bond that she'd be able to bring them back 'here'.

Everyone including Pao knew that he didn't really understand all of that, but they did all know that it wasn't going to be important enough to worry over. The bright edges of this strange portal flickered like a line of sparks, it was only large enough for the dragon to sweep through with her wings closed, but the moment she had done so she took to the air strongly. Shortcut laughed a little and over the wind in their ears he commented, "she says you sit like a sack of bricks," and added moments later, "at least you're not going to fall off!"

Pao's claws had come out and were digging slightly into the dragon's thick green skin, which she clearly acknowledged but didn't actually complain about along the flight. They were not looking over the woods where Pao lived, no. No sign of Griffinfall, nothing that Pao could recognize from his many trips across Echo Valley and places nearby. But he did spot something in the distance, something... strange.

"What is that," he said, mostly to himself, but because Shortcut easily read his mind, the 'tabaxi-displacer' commented.

"The Bale Lair," the words sounded somewhat sinister, but to Pao they just seemed like the right way to describe the weird green-glowing area. Maybe regular people couldn't see that glow. He knew there were people who claimed they could see Fey taint, the hunters that would sometimes almost shoot him full of arrows until they realized he was 'just' a man for instance... But this was definitely striking Pao as 'what they actually saw'.

They carefully landed near an opening that looked like a ruined castle, old, overgrown, but with signs that there were still things living in it.

'Things' being the important word. Tracks of beasts, dragons probably? Dragons of a similar overall build to Dewkith for sure. And probably other people, but whether they were shapeshifters, bipeds, snakes, or other dragons themselves, Pao wasn't even going to guess.

It was their presence near this place that triggered some locals to call out, a strange tongue, hissing and clicking and warbling. Shortcut spoke back, loudly, in that same speech. Then, they entered - well, Pao was told to enter. Dewkith didn't look too thrilled to be there, picking up her clawed feet one at a time as if stepping through a muddy stream. Shortcut assured him that he would be welcomed. And that he would 'wait to see what happened' before bringing them home.

**

What happened was all still a little baffling to Pao's modest mind. Sure, sure, his fur was literally standing on edge the entire time he spoke with a massive 'queen'. She was definitely not the one responsible for the hatchlings that wobbled around, she didn't look a thing like them. He got the impression that she was 'in charge' of their distribution among the stars.

Pao didn't see anyone else, but that didn't mean he was either early, late, or they were invisible. Maybe it was that Deception Balechild was interviewing them before allowing them all to leave separately. What he did see were numerous more colorful creatures that sniffed and snuffed around the eggshells and hatchlings. Some curled around them, others snarled at each other, while yet more stared with more eyes than necessary at him while he looked wide-eyed right back. They were at least as big as the eggs that were still unhatched, but they seemed more active and capable than those hatchling dragons that already walked around.

Their overseer though, she was vastly different. More insect-like. Her voice was smooth, careful, but also felt like curdled milk if he listened too closely. She told Pao to wait, that since he 'passed' he would certainly want to watch for his new companions.

He did register 'multiple' in that implication. Oh, he realized when others finally came into view, the big hounds protected the littler hatchlings? Well! That was nice, something like family. That pang of memory, knowledge that he'd been abandoned... No, now was not the time. This wasn't what Shortcut had described with him and his green dragoness. This was a choice made by the black and glowing-green dragonet waddling up to him.

Oxidation was his name, though how Pao knew that was beyond his limited understanding. It wasn't how the local Dragondeep dragons behaved, but he'd learn later. Pao had a singular gift in simply accepting what there was to a situation like this. Sure, he'd been captured in a magic bottle, poured into a magical mirror, uncorked by a tabaxi whatever that was, that could turn into a displacerbeast whatever that was, and brought to a wizard or sorcerer or psionic mage Shifter that could scry into the dimensions... whatever those were.

That wasn't fair to Pao, he did know that the Portals on Dragondeep led from and sometimes also to other worlds that were not Dragondeep. So it was that he was brought to this other place. With stars that, when he did go back outside the Bale Lair to look, did not resemble any of the visible constellations or clusters that he could see from the top of trees in Echo Valley. He knew that they were not on that world. But he didn't really know what a 'planet' was, nor did it matter.

Because now, he had a friend in the form of a cast-iron black Balefire-burning chaos dragon, and that dragon's attendant rust-and-ash Blighthound to keep his mind and body occupied. Eventually they slid out of the castle and up to Dewkith and her rider. Assessed by both, Dewkith in particular gave a glaring red-whirled glance at her companion and Shortcut rolled his head in frustration. Whatever she told him led to the tabaxi-displacer taking Pao aside and asking, actually getting permission, whether he'd tolerate being "put into cold storage again" to take them home more easily.

While the Blighthound, who was rapidly named Rusty, snarled and shrieked at the mere idea that something outside its experience was happening, it couldn't really resist or do anything about the spell cast. Together, Rusty, Pao, and Oxidation were 'paused', placed into that sloshing strange bottle and tucked into a safe compartment on Shortcut's vest. They weren't as asleep as Pao had been before, this wasn't the mirror he was in during Shortcut's discussion with Ravenheart. They sloshed when the dragon took flight, swung around and spun a little in mid air to orient herself.

But they all felt the difference between realms when they went between with her.

**

Pao had a clear memory of worrying that the bottle they were in was going to freeze solid. Under any other circumstance, the dragon's rider might even have warned his passengers to 'hold your breath'. But he had not, not even as an afterthought, considered that the conscious creatures in that magic bottle would also experience the strange, dark, foreign chill of between.

But they came out, the light changed to what was obviously daytime wherever Ravenheart's place was. They were carefully uncorked, and since Pao and his attendant pair were already sort of holding on to each other for dear life, they didn't take up all that much room on the ledge overlooking...

"Where... is this?" Pao asked, finally able to stop feeling like he was sloshing. Even the pair with him shook their heads free of it, and gazed over the area with him. It was day, but obviously later than noon by the shadows over the distant port below. Huge trees, brilliant flower fields, and what looked like a very, very large strip of bustling coastal cities spread out below. It was a sight that Pao couldn't have imagined even though he'd seen pictures and books with such places in them.

"Nganadanan," Lane commented casually.

"Did you need a hankie for that sneeze?" His doppelganger chuckled.

"A port city in the Barony, my boy," Lane ignored that silly comment but he definitely tucked the wording away for future use himself. "It's where I come to see if anyone needs my... services. Where some of my family roost," he indicated the pair of black ravens - Kind ravens, in fact - that watched all of this with their stunningly bright green eyes.

It took Pao a moment or two to settle that information in his mind. "I don't think we are ready to fly all that way home," he muttered. "Isn't that... halfway around the world?"

"It is literally, yes," Lane gave a little smirk to himself before Pao could see it.

"I can bring you to the Grotto," Shortcut commented, "but I think you'll probably want to actually go home instead."

Lane didn't bother removing the memory of that little quip from Pao's mind, instead settling on adding his own information. "The Grotto is a safe place for dragons that are not from here," he waved his hand indicating the two local dragons that were currently assisting with carrying a large travel container up the hill from the port far below. Dewkith looked distinctly uncomfortable with those two out there. "But yours... is special, isn't he."

"During the interview she - Deception - said so yes." Pao knew that he was talking about that very strong but oddly translucent green fire upon the back of Oxidation, also appearing in stronger, brighter white-green shades on the Blighthound. "She seemed to think we would be just fine where I live, I told her of its magic."

"Make the place a little more interesting, eh?" Lane seemed to think that was perfectly good. "A little chaos never really hurt anyone, did it?"

"A lot, it hurts a lot sometimes," Pao muttered, but he knew the statement was ironic. Or was it sarcasm? He was never quite certain how to distinguish those. He was always more sarcastic....

"Don't let them hunt you for it," Lane warned. He also looked straight at Shortcut directly after. "Fey hunters and dragons alike will be much more interested in you if they get talking to one another so do not let them talk."

Pao thought for a moment. "I have encountered Fey hunters before. Some of them were okay," he shrugged. "Sometimes they even ask for directions."

He looked at the iron-dark dragon now staring intently at those transport locals.

"I think we can give them some interesting directions out of Echo Valley..."

Dragon:

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(not to scale oh goodness no)

Dragon Lineage:

Mates and Descendants: