Melissa was originally a background character that I added in for a bit of flavour to the story, but she quickly evolved to a more important role when I made her the Broodmistress of the Den. She's not just a bit of tot dawdling about, she's far more valuable as a main extra, much like one of the other characters, Markas, is.

Melissa's personality is like a dirt road, rough and really painful to slide down. She's extremely bossy and pushy, making her perfect for her job as the Head Broodmaiden. Most of the Broodmistresses would call her firm but fair, and most of the adopting parties would call her blunt, bitchy and very self-centered. While it's true that she runs the Den with an iron grip so firm she may as well be welded to the walls, it is for the Maiden's own good. Young Drakes are dangerous, unable to control their fire or ice breathing capabilities, and drakes with poisonous fangs (called Greens) are prone to bite anything and everything. Her very sharp personality goes as blunt as a tennis ball in the presence of her sister, Shan'any, the Den's Broodmother. Shan'any lays at a frequent pace, almost two eggs a day, and this makes Melissa's job extremely hectic, especially when eggs hatch twins. (Which is why she was even giving orders while taking this photo...) This isn't to say, of course, that all Melissa does is boss others about and be generally the Den's biggest mouth, she's also the trainer of new Maidens and Handlers, she mixes one in every three batches of hatchling feed and she is the most knowledgeable of anyone in Drake anatomy, and as such she does much of the surgery on injured Drakes.
For five years she was married to another Dragon Undergrounder, Richard Wingspan (adopted her surname) rather happily, and she owned a Drake called Blaze. Sadly, both of them died when a rack of twenty egg incubators fell on them during an earthquake, destroying seventeen of the twenty eggs. The shock from this loss also lost her child she was carrying at the time, three months into her pregnancy. Since then, she has become married to her job, every day a painful reminder of the tragic accident.