Sage
6:00 PM Nexus Time
A chilling plea cut through her dreams.
The air burned - screaming as an unholy force seared a path from above. The trees groaned in pain - their clonal extrusions torn violently from the earth by an unnatural power. The birds sang in despair - intruders who destroyed their homes, disrupted their cycle of life as they prepared for the brutal winters to come. Then it was gone, the damage done. A blip in the vastness of the Northern Forest, a fleeting interruption of its towering pillars of oak and pine.
They still haunted her dream.
A thick exhalation of acidic comfort flowed forth from the mouth of cave deep within the forest interior. The birds stilled, their heads turned as if to listen to a far off call. The great boughs of the trees ceased their rattling, and their inhabitants let loose a collective sigh of relief as the threat of falling ceased. The promise of growth and renewal trembled through the roots of the world and brought them peace.
But now, she could not sleep.
A cavernous mouth yawned widely as the leviathan woke from its deep slumber. Great blue eyes narrowed and took count of the spawn who gathered around it for warmth, attached to the safety of a once-torpid monster. It nudged them with its narrow snout, roused them from their rest. Mother calls you. Thus, you wake.
Indeed, they did. She could trust them to watch - trust in their fangs and claws, in the fear of the tribes, to keep safe their home.
About I shall go, dear children. The forest calls for a duty kept still too long. The beast's tattered wings ceased to protect them, spreading out in the vastness of their lair and brushing smooth limestone like a lover's caress. The wind whistled against rock in welcome. And now your duty, too.
With a flick of its tail the monster selected from the comfortable pile of treasures which served as its bedding that which was desirable - or rather, what was desired by others.
So that they would desire her.
The vanity entertained its spawn, sending them rolling into wakefulness atop mounds of silver and gold. Ponderously they prepared for their own vigil to begin.
Should my return never come, may it stay so - my greatest treasures live and breathe.
When her vigilant examination of her offspring ended she left to seek and feed, slithering from her hole and taking wing into the night with a deafening roar - a challenge that shook the skies.
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11:20 PM Nexus Time
Blood stained the snout of Tiamat's child as one of the great beasts of the North melted in its mouth. The woods had not revealed its passing, its victim caught unaware until the final moment. It drank down the slurry of flesh and blood and bone, its head raised to the sky in honor of its prey. Its great hunger abated for a time, and thirst soon followed. It followed the whispers of the trees who knew from when their water came. The trees here were younger than those close to home, comparatively talkative and helpful in its search.
Soon the sky serpent came upon the body of refreshing fluids it sought, but spied from the shadows another already submerged. Such a slight creature, with long hair soaked by still waters. Only its motherly curves prevented the beast from mistaking this one from a juvenile. After a seeming eternity of absolute stillness it retreated away from the bathing lady's refuge, asking the trees and birds and worse for their silence. Only then did it make its move.
A mountain of scales smoothed into flesh, bones cracking to the echos of creaking branches. The monster in emerald terror became the maiden in verdant splendor, flicking long silken hair over barren rolling shoulders. The unfamiliar motion of lips twisting up in mirth to hint at the curtain of ivory behind them. Soil and leaves gathered about her, and the silk of the spiders nearby fell to bind them. They formed cloth and veils the maiden wrapped about herself like a windstorm. The treasures of her trove fell into place upon her body, accentuating its elvish beauty.
Thus camouflaged, she made her way back to the great pool so that she might partake.
