Reighli Figures Final 🐉✨ (Noodity) + Lore

Hey guys! Hope everyone's had a great week! Reighli's roundbrush figures & his redesign are done! WOO! The style is somewhat reminiscent of what it was before, at least in terms of clothing, though I will say that it's more complete now. As for his general appearance, those changes are a bit more noticeable.

As mentioned in the last post, one of the main changes to his appearance is that he has a more typical draconic appearance now, with all of the scales and extra horn around his face and such. After working on Brandr, I really liked that direction, and I felt like I needed to apply that look to the rest of my dragon characters in this universe as to make the style language a bit more homogenous. Also as a side consequence of this redesign, I feel like he looks way more mature as a character and actually fits the role of what he's supposed to be much better.

Now for a bit of Lore on the Blueberry:

“Reighli was born on one of the smaller sky islands, with his Mother being a local goods dealer and trader. Random knick knacks and general things that may peak one’s interest, but nothing quite substantial in terms of importance. However with the island being fairly close to the capital, the island, although not large, was still considered a main port town, and tourist destination for many of the air vessels travelling to and from the Main City. This allowed Reighi and his Mother to live humbly. At least for a short while.

After some time, Reighli’s Mother would become ill, and had become less capable of handling the daily requirements for running the shop. Due to this, funds became low, and meals less common. So, Reighli had taken it upon himself to make nightly escapades into the port town, sneak onto some the sky ships and steal things that they might need. 

This went on for some time, and unbeknownst to the blue dragonling, rumours began to spread of a thief in town. And he would eventually be caught by the captain of one of the ships he’d snuck onto; The Cloudstrider.

The Captain visited his home, and although he was sympathetic to Reighli’s situation, he had still engaged in thievery. So, the captain would make an offer. He would keep this situation a secret, but Reighli would need to need to take a job on his ship. He would receive a bed and meals for doing chores on their travels, and he would be paid for them. Any funds he made for his duties on the ship, would be sent back to his Mother to help with medicine and anything else she might need. 

They would both agree to these terms, and the very next day, Reighli would say goodbye to his Mother at the ship docking area, board the ship, and set sail with the Captain and his crew”

***

“Years would pass on the Cloudstrider, and his life onboard the airship became second nature. The crew had become sort of like a second family. And although he never knew his own, The Captain had become as close to a Father as he could imagine. 

He’d found out early on the ship was actually a transport vessel for some of the higher status individuals that would frequently travel to and from the Capital. So as a result, he’d got to see a lot of the surrounding sky-lands and meet plenty of interesting people. 

Despite all of this, his favourite part actually took place in his free time,. He would receive fencing training from one of the ship’s guards. She was a fairly petite, young woman, but the way she handled herself in the mock battles showed years of experience, and her age was only a testament to how hard she must have trained to gain mastery at such a young age. 

While he was training, he’d also come to discover that he had some previously unknown abilities… of the magical kind. To put it simply, he’d discovered that he was able to manipulate air. It was more of a gimmick, if anything though. Things like being able to create small gusts, or to direct the sound of his voice to different areas of a room. (This came in handy to scare the cook out of the kitchen when he occasionally wanted to sneak a small pastry) For anything substantial though, he’d need practice. 

***

Weeks later, the ship was attacked by Pirates. They hadn’t known it at the time, but this was a particularly nasty group who had ben attacking ships further out from the Capital, but had become more daring as of late, and had moved in closer.

They were quickly overwhelmed and in the process, Reighli was blindsided, and subsequently knocked out. He awoke to most of the crew having been tied up, and many of them severely injured. Surprisingly, besides the cut on his brow, and slight ache in his body though, he felt relatively unharmed. 

He turned his head and his blood ran cold. Captain Cloudstrider was lying motionless on the deck floor, in a pool of his own blood. He was at the feet of who he could only assume was the Captain of the Pirates. Very tall, Imposing man, and Far more well dressed than the rest of his crew.

Reighl, felt like he was going to be sick, but he needed to stay calm and think of a plan, or him and the rest of the crew would be next. 

Reighli then thought of something… a bluff. It involved some information he’d gotten while transporting one of the capital politicians a few months back. He just hoped that these Pirates weren’t well versed in the family lives of government members. 

After realizing that he was not bound up like the others (Perhaps they’d thought the blow to the head had killed him already) Reighli shakily rose to his feet with his hands raised. He asked if he may speak with the Captain, and the man whom he assumed was him, acknowledged him and granted his request. 

Reighli took a breath and began his bluff. He spun a fairly convoluted lie that he was in fact the son of one of Capital politicians, and was also heir to the family fortune. He also said that he would go with them willingly, as long as the rest of the passengers were left unharmed. He tried to be as detailed as he needed to be with his concocted story, but also as vague as possible as to not arise any suspicion.

There was a pause, and the Pirate Captain, gestured over to one of his crew members and had a hushed conversation with him. Reighli tried to remain calm, but could feel the icy cold tendrils of dread seeping into his stomach. The Pirate then waved his cohert away, turned to Reighli and acknowledged his request, but only on one condition. He stated that it was rumoured that the Son of said politician was also a well renown swordsman, trained by some of the best teachers money could offer. The man then said that if Reighli could best him in a duel, his crew would take only him and let the rest of the people onboard live. But if Reighli lost the duel, he’d know that he’d been lying. He would then only keep him alive long enough to make him watch as he slaughtered all of the people on the ship, and then he would kill him last.

Reighli was frozen. Neither of the two options worked to his favour, but at least the were somewhat convinced of his story. And with one option leading to the safety of the crew, he'd have to at least try…

The Pirate threw him a sabre, and remarked that this would be a “sword only” fight. He knew he could fight with a sword, but was he good enough to beat this Man? Reighli looked at the sword, before hesitantly picking it up. They got into their positions, and they began. 

The man was fast and overwhelming, and although his blows seemed a bit clumsy at times and lacked the finesse that his teacher showed in training, they more than made up for it in brute strength. He knew he wouldn’t last long. 

After deflecting several blows, Reighli attempted to strike in retaliation, but their blades only clashed. He was being overpowered, and so he raised his other hand to brace himself further. In that moment, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his side. The man was holding the hilt of his dagger to Reighli’s stomach. 

The weight of the sword diminished, and the man let go of the dagger. Reighli sank to his knees. 

Realizing that his opponent was defeated, the Pirate Captain then made a snarky comment about Reighli having let his guard down and though in shock, he knew the man was right… He was fighting a pirate after all, and he should have expected dirty tactics. 

Reighli was silent and remained still on his knees as the rest of the Captain’s crew erupted in jeers and laughter. He was having trouble breathing, thoughts about what were to come flooded his mind.

The Captain then sheathed his sword and said in an almost gleeful tone, that a deal is a deal. The next words broke Reighli out of his trance. “Kill the rest of them.”

Suddenly, there was loud gruff voice coming from behind the man, exclaiming CAPTAIN, WAIT. The Pirate turned his body to face the person, only get looks of confusion from the rest of the crew that were behind him.

In that moment, the Pirate Captain’s face went blank as a dagger blade erupted from his throat, having been driven through from the back of his neck. Reighli stood behind him, panting, and with red seeping into the fabric of his shirt. He whispered into his ear. “You let your guard down.”

Blood poured from the Pirate’s mouth and he fell forward. Besides the cold thud of his body hitting the floor, there was no sound coming from anyone. A moment passed, and Reighli slowly turned his gaze to the rest of the Pirate crew, eye’s glowing with intense anger and bloodlust. Suddenly, there was and intense gust of wind accompanied with a booming voice 

“LEAVE NOW”

The rest of the crew scrambled to the ropes that they'd initially hooked onto the side of the Cloudstrider, slid back to their own ship and took off.

Reighli, stood there for some time, unmoving. Whether it was from intense overexertion from the fight, exhaustion from magic use, or just the blood loss, he collapsed to his side and lost consciousness.

***

A week later, Reighli would awaken in one of the Capital’s infirmaries, still somewhat sore but very alive. He’d thought back about what had happened, and then thought back to Captain Cloudstrider. He was gone. 

He buried his face in his hands, and cried silently. The only Father he’d ever known was gone, and he had been powerless to stop it. 

Tears eventually running dry, he stayed like that for what he felt was like hours, until something brightly coloured caught his attention from the corner of his vision. On the side table was a bouquet of flower. Below them several get well cards from the remainder of the surviving crew, and a wrapped gift box with a note attached to it. 

He pulled the box to him, and opened the note, and read the scrawled handwriting on the folded piece of card.

“Hey Blueberry,

There’s so much that I want to say, but I’ll save that for when you’re better and we can meet in person. For now, I’ll just leave you with this. He loved you very much, you know, and he was so proud of the man you’ve become. He would have wanted you to have these.

Best Wishes from your mentor and friend,

PS, I left some tea for you with the nurses. Hope you like it!”

Reighli, carefully unwrapped the ribbon and paper from the box, and removed the lid. Tears welled up in his eyes again, and a deep laugh sigh escaped his lip as the cracked a grin. Inside the box was a pair of well worn, rose tinted aviator goggles, with two ochre feathers threaded to the side of the frame. 

A week later, Reighli would be released from the hospital, and be met at the door by his mentor. She smiled at him and waved him over. As he approached she said “Those goggles look good on you Captain”

Reighli smirked, but his Mentor could tell the there was pain behind his eyes. She asked him what the plan was for him now. 

Reighli was silent for a moment, as if lost in thought, then replied that He’d like to find out where his powers came from, and who his Father was.

She paused, and then nodded. 

“You’re gonna need a crew for that.”

Reighli turned and gazed out over the islands edge and into the vast openness in front of them.

“Yeah”

I know this one was a was a bit long, (and I don't blame you guys if you just noped out of reading 😂) but because he's my longest running developed character, there was also a lot of info on him 😂 I did try to compress certain parts though, (Rewriting several areas a couple of times) and expand on other areas, which is why the writing might feel a bit inconsistent in certain places. (Also I'm not really a writer lol) Regardless, I hope you guys liked the bits of Lore anyways 😂

Like with the others, I've also included the timelapse as an attachement!

Thanks again, and I hope you guys all have a great Weekend!

Enjoy! 😊