They went from village to village gathering children no one wanted. No matter what the species were. Where they went after? To a special village just for them, where they grew up knowing nothing but love and kindness. -- Anon Guest
Everyone knows that Dragons have hoards. What's not as well known is the fact that some hoards are... non-standard.
Tambaga the Gleaming gathered hir hoards in the night, when people were prone to getting rid of them. Some were left in baskets on doorsteps with a blanket. Some of those even had a note. Most were left where few would look, like middens. Tambaga took them all. Kept them warm and safe.
Tambaga hoarded abandoned children. Ze took them in and cared for them and raised them in love. Ze gave them a home and an education, setting them up to live as they wished once they grew to adulthood. With time and patience, hir hoard had become a prosperous little village that bordered on becoming a town.
Welcome to Gleaminvale. Its a picturesque place of a truly diverse population. Most of them are halfbred. Half-Elves, half-Orcs, and so on. And more Hellkin than you might expect to see outside of the Kingdom of Whitekeep.
Every night, more babies come in. Some find homes in Gleaminvale. Some remain with Tambaga.
All had better prospects than they might have to start with.
Wraithvine helped hir one evening, passing from one place and another and temporarily between groups of associates. Ze carried two toddlers on hir back and a baby in each arm.
"You can't possibly save them all," said Wraithvine. "I can't save them all either. Try though I might."
"I am well aware," sighed Tambaga, loading another tiny sleeping body into a basket on her flank. "I can still make a difference to these ones. And that, I believe, is the point."
Two kind hands, even those of a Dragon, can change the world. One life at a time.
[Photo by Unervi González on Unsplash]
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