But times changed, and the Seawrights had to change with them.

The ancient port is gone from all but legend but the Seawrights remain traders still, and the youngest of them still sails the Sea of Glass - on a dogsled rather than a two-masted clipper, running the summer circuit of the Sea and Tundra to deliver messages and small goods to the remnants of the tribes still scattered throughout the waste and bringing back rare furs and scrimshaw to Snowcloak to spend the winters, where he runs courier duties and assists with deliveries from Seawright’s Sundries - the family general store.

With three older sisters who alternately dote on and tease him mercilessly, Talyson spends as much time away from the family home as he can. His father was a member of the Citadel Guard who was killed in the cannibal attack in Deepfrost 310; his mother passed away less than a year later, either of a broken heart or a liver that couldn’t keep up with her coping mechanism. The siblings have remained tightly knit in their absence, with the eldest, Deirdre, taking up the running of the store and second daughter Mallory covering the books and family finances. The youngest daughter, Alexia, is also the sister Talyson is closest with, being only a year apart in age and both sharing a love of the family’s secondary vocation of dogs. Alexia breeds the family’s prized line of sled dogs in the kennels at the outskirts of Snowcloak. During Deepfrost, Tal works with the new litters to train them up and then takes a few of the most promising out on his Longheat runs with his established team to put the polish on the new pups. The best are kept for his own, while many of the rest are sold out to hunters who also brave the wilds of Halo.

Apprenticed to his aunt, Tal learned the route his family had traveled for generations, as the world grew slowly but inexorably colder. An ursur attack that left scars on his side and took his aunt’s legs forced her into early retirement, and Tal into making the next year’s run solo - sooner than he should have, but duty and youthful confidence led him to insist that he could do it. He went off course in a storm and took shelter at the base of a large rock outcrop on the Sea of Glass where he found an abandoned nest. Three of the eggs were cold - frozen solid - but the fourth was still warm. He took it with him, and the egg grew warmer the more he carried it until it hatched into a chubby dragon with scales the same pale greens and blues as the sea ice he found it on. He named the dragon Boreal, and she grew up with his sled dogs for family and friends, bonding with the team her companion loved. She often flies a little ways ahead of the team, seeking out the clearest path or hidden dangers around the bends of the trail and working in tandem with Tal’s lead dog, Bellatrix.

Other