His name has secret significance: I got the name Shynael from a dream. I never remembered anything else about the dream, only that spelling with that pronunciation. I knew I had to save it for something extra-special, and then a few years later I decided to write a dragon rider story, and knew that would be the perfect name for the dragon. All the other dragon names I came up with afterwards were modeled after Shynael.
I am so sorry, my child: I'm so mean to this poor guy T^T The first thing that happens in the plot is him being orphaned as soon as he's hatched, and then he has to immediately turn around and flee for his life with Shard, who he just met, because he's a dragon in a human village that his mother just crashed into. And then, not only does he have to start growing up on the run, he also runs into dragon hunters, knights, and various other battles where he and his best friend risk their lives...all before he's even a year old.
I would love fanart of him: I mean, who wouldn't?! But I would be annoyingly particular about the way he looks, because my insistence that "no one does dragons right" extends to the way they look too ^^'
I would want to be his friend irl: Oh my gosh, SO VERY MUCH TT_____TT He's adorable, he's fun, he likes to laugh and play, he's very loving and likes to cuddle, and he would want to be your friend too the second he found out you were Shard's friend. Plus...I mean...he's a dragon. How cool is that?!
Made specifically for a relationship: Again, this is a dragon rider story, and you can't do that without a human and a dragon bonding. Shynael kind of came first in this duo, but he was always meant to be the little brother.
Vital to the plot: Shynael's appearance is literally the inciting incident of this story :P
Fan-favorite: I'd like to think he would be! I've had nothing but positive reactions to him from anyone I've shown the first draft to. He's adorable and fun, and my hope is that most people will instantly fall in love with him and want to protect him at all costs.
Could be the protagonist of his own story: The few vague thoughts I've had about a possible sequel would be at least a short story with Shynael as the POV character, where he tries to find out who his father is. It would be first-person, and would make people laugh a lot more than The Ambassadors, though because it's me, it would probably still dip into angst a lot as well. But I never actually came up with more than a vague idea of what it would be about. First things first, you know. Gotta write the first story before bothering about sequels.
I love him, Your Honor: I can't put into words how much I love this kid <3 I don't have a little brother, but...if I did, I'd want him to be like this :') He's also quite possibly the best character I've ever created. I just want him to grow and thrive and have only the best things in life, especially after everything I put him through. (Shynael: "That's okay. You gave me my Shard, and that's all I need! :D")
Practically writes himself: As evidenced in the previous question, whenever I write him - or even about him, apparently! - it's like he comes back to life and starts talking to me. The whole time I was writing the first draft, it was like I had a tiny version of him curled up in my brain, and throughout the day he'd give his commentary on various things - especially if they had to do with dragons in any way. I always like to say that Shynael is my "Harry Potter" - he fell, fully formed, into my lap as soon as I started writing him. I barely feel like I created him at all. He already existed somewhere, and I just wrote the story that opened the portal he could come through. Objectively, I can look at his first couple of scenes and realize that I fine-tuned his voice over time, and I also know that the whole reason I started writing the story was because I was tired of dragons who were only ever austere and wise or basically just animals. Shynael is exactly the sort of dragon I would write, because he's specifically pushing back against almost every dragon I've ever read about...but at the same time, Shynael is just himself. Put him in any situation, and I know what he would do or say, because it's barely even me writing him. He writes himself.
Very good-looking: Okay, Shynael, you can stop preening like a peacock XD But it's true! Another thing I decided right away was that my main dragon was going to be black. I was sick and tired of the way black dragons always seemed to be evil in the stories I read. Besides, have you ever run your finger over a bit of obsidian? That's what Shynael's scales look and feel like.
*holds gently*: He is baby. I am constantly torn between the authorial need to Put Him In Situations, and the maternal instinct of "If anyone hurts him, I will kill everyone in this room and then myself."
He gets so much page-time: Originally, he was literally there on page one. I think I need to back up a bit and give more of an introduction to Shard in my next draft before bringing him in, and there are a few scenes where Shard is alone, but for the most part, Shynael is there the whole time. My working title of the story, before I decided on The Ambassadors, was The Black Dragon, after all.
Free space: His catchphrase is "My mother told me..." In this world, dragon eggs only hatch when the circumstances are just right (and it can be hard to know what those circumstances are), and the baby dragon is able to hear and understand while they're inside the egg. It was a long time before Shynael hatched, so he has a lot of memories of things his mother talked to him about while she carried his egg around everywhere. So he has a jump-start on knowledge about the world, and he wants to experience everything his mother told him about first-hand.
