A thin, yet steady hand dipped the quill in its inkwell and began penning several arcane phrases. Gordoran, a Red wizard, penned the words with confidence. The wizard looked the part of a stereotypical wizard where his clothing was concerned; wearing a long, deep red robe that was dotted with stars. His short hair was neatly combed, his goatee fine trimmed and well kempt. The words came to him with such ease that they seemed to form themselves on the parchment of their own accord. Such an activity was dangerous. Should he fail in the penning, the magical backlash would likely be powerful enough to blow his room from the side of the tower he resided in. the wizard knew this, yet his hands did not falter as he scribed the spell. He finished shortly after and nodded in satisfaction. He gently blew on the still fresh ink to aid in the drying process. A light rap on the door drew Gordoran's attention from his work.
The wizard sighed and rubbed his face before flicking a finger from the door's direction back to himself. The door lightly swung open and, with a bit too much excitement in Gordoran's opinion, his apprentice, a young woman by the name of Aria, rushed into the room holding a relatively large tome.
"Master, I have discovered what we have sought!" she exclaimed as she rushed over to her master's side. Gordoran cocked an eyebrow at her mention of "we" but chose to let it go. Aria opened the large book, it was bound in some rare leather produced from the skin of a northern fire lizard, and its pages were of the finest parchment. She leafed through the pages until at last she landed on a page showing a drawing of a powerful relic. Gordoran's eyes widened a bit as he looked over the text and the drawing. The pendant was shaped into the form of a dragon that curled around a small emerald. Though the emerald was small, both wizards knew its power.
"Have you discovered its location?" he asked, his voice wavering in anticipation. Aria nodded and brought forth a small map depicting a faraway mountain range. She pointed to a spot circled on the map, "Here is where it resides." she said. Gordoran studied the map for several moments. Yes, he knew these mountains, it would not be hard to reach them, especially considering that he was a mage of no small power. He stood from the table, grabbed one of his talismans, and placed it about his neck. He began waving his arms in intricate patterns and mumbling a soft chant. Soon enough, a black, simmering portal appeared in front of him.
"Let us leave," he started, "we should be back by nightfall if we hurry."
He stepped into the magical portal and was then standing inside a large cavern. He wasted no time in bringing forth a wand made of some hard wood and tipped in gold. He pointed the wand toward the back of the cave. The wand would allow him to find the magical item he desired, and when he spoke the trigger word, a thin beam of light shot from the tip and turned sharply right farther down the tunnel. He hardly noticed as Aria came through the portal behind him and closed it off, for he was already following the beam of light. For many minutes, perhaps hours, they followed the beam. At one point Gordoran nearly tripped on a jagged stone but managed to make it look like a small leap to protect his dignity. Finally, after at least another hour of walking through the dark tunnels, Gordoran slipped through a small crack in the wall and emerged into a large cavern. His eyes widened in awe despite himself as he looked around.
A multitude of colors moved around the room in a slow pattern, as if all the colors were reflected off of water. Hundreds of different fungi were scattered about the room, some of them glowing with bright blues, others with reds and golds. The beam of light continued farther along in the room, and the pair followed it urgently, feeling they were getting close. Sure enough, after reaching the far end of the room, now surrounded by the glowing fungi, the wand began to vibrate, signifying the closeness of the object they desired. Gordoran put the item-seeking wand away and pulled forth another wand, this one made of iron, and aimed it at another wall. Speaking the trigger phrase, a bolt of lightning thundered against the wall, sending chunks of rocks flying every direction. Gordoran was unharmed by the debris, protected as he was by his wards, but his apprentice cried out in alarm as a few rocks bounced dangerously close to her person.
Gordoran rolled his eyes and stepped into the fresh hole he made in the wall, setting his eyes upon the object. The pendant was no larger than the palm of his hand, but he could feel the power radiating from it. His own blue eyes reflecting the glowing green of the pendant's emerald. Bending forward, his fingers closed around the object.
The cavern was filled with a deep rumbling that grew louder with each passing moment. Along with the rumbling, the cavern shook -violently so- and reminded the red wizard of exactly how much rock was above his head. The rumbling grew so harsh as to force the wizard to levitate upward off of the cavern floor, Aria following after. The wall where the pendant was located burst outward in a violent explosion, sending bothe wizards flying back to crash into the opposite side of the massive room. Gordoran was once again protected by his wards, only feeling a minor ache where he had hit a stalagmite. His apprentice was less fortunate, having been slammed against the stone hard enough to crack her skull open.
From the explosion rose a massive, two headed beast. The only way to tell what it was in the dark of the cavern was by the fire that plumed from the nostrils of both heads. Eyes glittering like rubies, the dragon whipped its head around the heads located the wizard.
"Fool, return what belongs to us!" breathed one. Even spoken at such a low tone, the wizard had to cover his ears at the sheer volume. It sounded like slate grating together. He backed up until he was against the wall, slapped his hand against the stone, and turned it to mud, falling through it easily.
"Damned wizard! I will feast upon your bones!" roared the other head, this one sounding like an avalanche. The heads snaked forward hungrily. Gordoran stood quickly, wiped what mud he could off of his person, and began gesturing wildly in the air before him. A glowing gateway appeared and the wizard leapt through. He now kneeled upon a mountain not too far ff from where the cavern was. Again he heard that low rumbling, and again the earth shook. The mountain he looked upon suddenly exploded upward, boulders the size of houses coming to crash to the earth. From this violent upheaval came the two headed creature, nostrils vomiting flame. The creature looked very dragonlike. Its scales were of a deep purple, reflecting oddly green in the sunlight, and it seemed to be hundreds of feet in length. The tail was forked and each end whipped about, harpoonlike edges glittering in the sun.
The heads were horned in every possible way, and the long jaws gleamed with rows upon rows of teeth. Such a creature was never even seen before that day, and Gordoran would have nightmares of it for the rest of his days. The shrieking beast could be heard from miles around, as well as its explosive exit from the mountain, the debris from which still rose into the air.
"By the gods!" Gordoran cried, clutching the dragon pendant in his fist.
Vex knelt silently beside his newest victim who lay gasping on the wet cobblestone street of some faraway city. The knight was clad in full steel armor and it grated irritatingly as he shivered in the rain. But shiver was all he could do. Vex had hit him with a rather potent paralysis dart, which even now protruded from the smallest of holes in the knight's armor. The night air was warm.
"You all believe you are righteous, all believe you are above the common folk because you are labeled a knight." Vex smirked and withdrew a dagger from its sheath across his back. He was not worried of another guard coming and finding the scene. Even with the knight's shivering, it was minimal due to the paralysis. That, and the rain muffled much of the sound. He removed a gauntlet from the knight and, in a very businesslike manner, set the knife against where the thumb connected with the hand.
He pressed down on the other end hard enough so that the knife went through the bone and flesh with ease. The knight could not even scream as the assassin gently wrapped the digit in a piece of cloth, tucking it in a pocket of his cloak. He chose this finger specifically. Every knight was branded on their thumb with the knights' insignia, a griffon grasping a sword in its talons.
This finger would show proof that he had completed his contract.
He brought the blade across the knight's throat, then proceeded to drag the body -as quietly as possible- to a nearby grate. The rain would wash away the blood from the street, and no one ever checked the sewers. Vex could vouch for this. He had three more bodies in this very same sewer hole, the freshest being three weeks.
"In you go, friend." said the assassin. The knight was choking on his own blood, and so his only response was a low gurgle. Water flowed fast through the sewers, particularly in a storm such as this, and when Vex dropped the unfortunate knight into the hole, his fall was somewhat muffled by the rushing water.
Nodding to himself, Vex placed the grate cover back over its respective hole and slinked off deeper into the shadows of the alley. Thunder rolled across the area, gently shaking the stones as Vex crawled his way up one of the many houses, looking much like a dark spider. One rumble, however, gave him pause. It was deeper than the normal rolls of thunder, and it was not so much in hearing as it was in feeling. The ground vibrated violently. Not so much as to cause panic, but it was definitely not thunder.
Shrugging, the assassin continued along the rooftops until another mighty vibration rocked the city, nearly knocking him off his feet.
"What in the hells!" he breathed as he crawled to his feet. A loud roar in the distance to the north had the man spinning in that direction. He could see the glow of the massive wyrm, could still feel its explosive exit from the mountain. The explosion could not have been less than a hundred miles away, and yet the rumbling still shook the ground. Now people did exit their houses, running out in the rain to see what happened.
The clouds parted a bit, revealing not blue sky, as they had expected, but to reveal the outward explosion of a far off mountain. Great plumes of black smoke rose up from its insides, billowing into the air. The source of the roar was nowhere to be seen.
Then the debris began raining down.
"Think that's all of em?" asked Niggit, chopping yet another offending creature in half with his double bearded axe. The creatures were odd tree-type things that grew from the ground and attacked by extending their branches toward their prey.
"I doubt it." said Garrett, spinning his greatsword around to fell the last of them. He grinned at his dwarven friend as he sheathed his sword. The pair continued the hike up the mountain side. Their hike took more than an hour and a half, but they didnt mind. They had been cooped up in dwarven mines for more than a week. Garrett, Niggit's elven companion, was ecstatic. The elf leapt from rock to rock, always on the balls of his feet, letting the wind whip his flowing black hair. Niggit, on the other hand, was grumbling the entire way. His long, bushy black beard was tucked into his belt.
He trudged along with his cloak whipping back behind him, his brows furrowed as his eyes narrowed against the snow that fell. Garrett was standing upon a high rock that overlooked the large valley beyond. Rivers ran across from end to end, some coming down from the mountains. The sun highlighted the clouds in a myriad of colors. His long, pointed ears, which reached past the top of his head, twitched in excitement.
"Sure beats the orange walls of the underground, eh?" asked the elf. Niggit grunted non-committedly as he too stared out over the land. On the inside, though, he found it to be a spectacle. Garrett knew the dwarf enjoyed the outside more than in cramped tunnels of a mine, but the proud dwarf would never admit it.
"We're almost at the top." said the dwarf, turning and clambering over the next rock formation. The elf nodded and used his catlike grace and balance to quickly outdistance his friend up the mountain. They climbed on for the better part of an hour before Niggit finally stopped cold. When Garrett began asking what was wrong, Niggit hushsed him with a stern wave of his large hand.
"The ground." was all he said. Garrett, instantly alert, rose one hand behind his head and gripped Sliver's hilt. Niggit went down on all fours, placing his ear against a flat stone. He heard a low rumbling, -almost unnoticeable- but there. His eyes scrunched up in confusion. He heard...speaking? It was a deep voice, also barely audible. He then heard a terrible shrieking. This was definitely audible, and even Garrett cried out and clapped his hands over his ears.
"Something's coming, elf! Git ye down!" before he even finished the sentence, the cap of the mountain exploded outward, sending both companions far out into the air, thousands of feet, and even higher than that out over the land below. Garrett was nearly knocked unconscious by the initial shockwave, but he retained it, even gathering enough of his wits to grasp the silver brooch that he used to hold his cloak together. A portal came into existence behind him and his momentum carried him through easily. Niggit flew right behind, the dwarf clearly out of it. Both companions landed hard on another portion of a smaller mountain beside the exploding one, Garrett's breath was knocked from him.
Struggling to breathe, fighting off panic, he rose to his feet, slowly regaining oxygen, Sliver fluidly coming to his hands. The cause of the mountain's explosion was evident the moment he looked up. A massive purple dragon-like creature, larger than anything he had seen before, flew higher and higher into the air, its scales shining an odd green in the sun. both heads spewed fire in every direction. A little ways off to his right, Garrett spied a red wizard stumble to his knees, gripping something tightly in his hands. Garrett hated wizards, and an immediate suspicion crept into his mind. A mountain exploding, a massive beast rising from that explosion, and a scared-out-of-his-mind wizard clutching something in his fist, which even now shone a bright green. Obviously it was the wizard.
"Wizard!" shouted Garrett, returning his gaze to the horrid creature flying off to the north, "what have you done?"
Iridiel S'shorl made her way happily through damp grass. Her father, Gmish Stonejaw, a dwarf, trudged along beside her, his woodcutting axe slung over his shoulder. Anyone who saw the pair would have thought them anything but related. Gmish was broad shouldered, powerful, and had a fiery beard nearly as long as he was tall.
Iridiel, on the other hand, was quite something else. Two long horns grew out from the sides of her head and gently bent back about a foot. Her face was flawless, pale, smooth, and her eyes shone an amethyst color. Her body, though taller than her father's, was thin, though shapely, and she seemed delicate in her flowing blue dress. A tail peeked through a slit in the dress' back, allowing free movement. The tail was about four feet in length, twitching happily back and forth. Her hair was long, down to the small of her back, and so black as to almost appear purple in the light. She was beautiful by human and even Elven standards, and even had elven ears -a product of her elven side.
She was an oddity, to say the least. A product of an elf with a certain species of dragon. She had no memory of her parents, and Gmish was thankful for that. He had found her, a newborn babe, out in the cold of the Northern Wastes during an expedition with a large group of dwarves. He took her as his own daughter, and urged the other dwarves to accept her. They, of course, did so with a certain amount of reluctance. Many were afraid of these creatures, for they were rare and often quite destructive.
Some tales told of how these creatures, even as children, leveled towns and there were even a few accounts of cities being destroyed. They were often expected to be evil, and so were treated as such. Over time, the number dwindled almost to extinction from either being hunted or simply dying off. Iridiel would be raised differently. She was seventeen in two moons, and she enjoyed each day of life s though it may be her last. Already she seemed different from her evil counterparts.
"Da, what is up on the highest part o' th' mountain?" asked Iridiel in her dwarven brogue.
"I ain't quite sure. Ain't e'er been up there meself. I come close though. Aye, i come close." he then launched into one of his many war tales. Telling her of how he had fought off several lizard men with nearly no armor. Iridiel grinned, knowing how much her father enjoyed going into dramatic tellings. Iridiel listened with her usual interest, but her purple-eyed gaze went to the top of the mountain. One day she would get up there.
For now, though, she held the book she had been reading tightly to her chest. They turned to head back to their mines after the day's work. Clouds rolled closer in the distance, clouds that threatened rain. Iridiel smiled at that. She had always enjoyed the rain, and made an effort to be in it whenever she could. Something felt off, however, when she heard the first roll of thunder.
No, not thunder, she realized, turning back towards the mountain that loomed up behind them.
"Girl?" Gmish asked when he realized she wasnt behind him. He turned to see Iridiel moving slowly up the mountain. Gmish ran to catch up, noticing her book was discarded on the ground far away from where she was. The dwarf scooped up the thing, worried. His daughter never would have simply left it there, and the way she walked now…
She seemed wooden. Her movements were stiff and awkward and not the usual grace she displayed.
"Girl!" he shouted. She didnt respond. The dwarf huffed as he trudged up the mountain. If this be another of yer games, oh, ye'll get it this time, he thought, pushing the branches of a small tree out of his way. When he caught up to her, he realized she was not herself. Not at all. He face was expressionless, mouth slightly agape. Her eyes gleamed, almost as if they were glowing. He grabbed her arm to turn her but, to his great astonishment, she simply walked on as if he were not even there.
"The mountain." she whispered. It was so low that the dwarf almost didnt hear her, but he didnt have to. The mountain lurched violently, as if an ocean wave rippled underneath. Gmish was thrown from his feet, but Iridiel didnt even tip over. She still stood watching the top of the mountain. A heartbeat later, the cap of the cloudbreaker exploded with an inexplicably deafening noise.
"Girl!" the dwarf shouted once more. His voice was drowned out entirely by the roar of the mountain. No, not the mountain, but the demonic creature rising from it! Two headed, the creature blew out two pillars of flame. Its body seemed to radiate. Gmish's eyes went wide. He had never seen anything of the like in his five-hundred years of life. Behind the creature, many, many smaller forms flew from the smoking mountain top. Dragons! By the gods, there were so many! A hundred, two hundred, a thousand. They streamed from the gaping hole like water from a fountain.
Iridiel finally gave a response. She felt to her knees, screaming as if in terrible agony, her hands clapping over her ears. Her father ran to her side, a look of grief and confusion on his face. Her form began to swell. Her tail grew in length, becoming the length of a small tree. Her body grew and became thicker, tougher, and scales began to show along her once smooth skin. Gmish recoiled in horror. The purple scales hardened to something harder than steel. Her neck extended to a painfully long length, as did her face, becoming more an animal's. Massive wings sprouted from her back, sending a small rush of air over the ground. Her limbs became that of a dragon's; thick, muscled, viciously clawed.
One paw was now the size of Gmish himself, and the girl-turned-beast raised her muzzle let out a wicked screech from the pit of her stomach. Gmish had to cup his hands over his ears to avoid going deaf, and he made for the dragon.
Iridiel tensed her shoulders, her tail sweeping around to knock the dwarf away, sending him into one of the many rocks nearby. From her spine grew several horn-like growths, and the horns she once had on her head had grown nearly five feet in length, making her appear as if she had a macabre crown. The dragon spread her wings and launched herself into the air creating a harsh gust of wind.
Gmish, who had been winded when he hit the rock, recovered himself and stood once more, watching as his daughter flew off to join the stream of dragons that even now were spreading across the open sky, heading in all different directions. The two headed...creature, for it could not even be called a dragon, let out its own roar that sounded much more akin to a screaming woman, and flew off to the south. The dwarf fought down his initial surge of panic -an admirable thing, seeing as how he just watched his daughter mutate and fly away!- and began running as fast as his little legs could carry him. He had to get back to the mines, had to fortify him and his.
His daughter, though a large priority, could wait. He had to make sure these dwarves would survive the night.