|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2013 11:29 am
 It was another warm, comfortable day in the swamp of the black dragon. The sun was shining, the flies were buzzing, the sundews lazily wrapped sticky tendrils around unsuspecting bugs just looking for a drop of fresh water to drink. It was a comedy!
Fahargiga sat submerged in the murky waters with nothing but her eyes, fin, and wings protruding from the sphagnum. Her glowing, red eyes were fixed on a particularly large rosette as big as her hoof, which had found a particularly juicy dragonfly. "Hewp me!" she said in a high-pitched voice, white pupils fixed on the hapless insect. "Hewp me! Pwease, wet me goh!"
"No!" she growled. "I'll never let you go, my sweet! Give up, foolish creature, give in to my embrace.
"No! I'ww nevah wet you have me! You cwuel, wicked pwant! Wet me goh!
"Mahahahaha, I shall eat you, my little friend. I shall digest you and sip you up like a fine wine. Won't that be wonderful, just the two of us?" The dragonfly twitched unhappily, squished in the coiled leaf. "Silly little animal," Fahargiga said in her normal voice. "You thought you could escape from a tentacle-rose? Oh, no, they are far more powerful than you, air-lion." Yes, this was going to be a beautiful morning. Everything was going her way. Later today, she might think about pulling herself, squelch, from the mud and finding some way to torment Pretty-Boy, but for now, she was content to watch her show and write a script. It was her solitude, her me-time, in the morning hours, and no one and nothing could be allowed to take it away from her.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 1:09 pm
 It was a balmy, sunny day in the woods, and Magnitte found herself enchanted by all the sunlight. Ooooooo...shiny! The sunlight caught on dust motes that tumbled down from the upper branches, glimmering and catching the light. Very pretty indeed! She could watch them for hours. In fact, she had been watching them for hours--since daybreak several hours ago, she'd been standing in a clearing in the forest just watching the glints of light off of microscopic specks of detritus and natural materials. It wasn't a sight she was normally used to--trees didn't grow underground, and sunlight rarely shown, if at all. It was unnerving at first, but after several days in the sunlit realm, she was beginning to appreciate and even love it. Who wouldn't? Even the Masters would like it, she was sure!
She was also sure that it was unlikely she'd ever see the Masters again. The mines were far behind her, and she'd gotten hopelessly lost in the wilderness. It was a niggling worry at the back of her mind, chewing, gnawing, never ceasing, relentless. She needed the Masters. Not for food (though that would be nice), not for protection (she was certain she could take care of herself), not for shelter (well, okay, shelter, yes, she did need them for shelter), but because she was a hound, and she needed the Masters. And now the Masters were gone. No, Magnitte was gone. Sitting here, watching dust motes, while surely some...thief was crawling around the mines stealing from the Masters, cloaked in secrecy. They needed her nose to sniff them--oh, what was that?
It was a dancing little thing, with brightly-colored, delicate wings. It seemed to bounce on the sunlight, as if gravity was an alien concept to it, a law to be obeyed by things that couldn't dance on motes of dust. She had to investigate! With the same curiosity and wonderment that had gotten her lost in the first place, she followed the delicate thing through the woods, eyes wide with fascination. Did it ever stop moving? How could it fly like that? Why was it so pretty? How did the sunlight glint off of it like it was a jewel or a bauble? She was so preoccupied with this new creature that she didn't notice the smell, or the changing trees (dead and scarred), or the dripping curtains of lichen, until she'd stepped onto what she thought was dry land until it turned out to go squelch beneath her hoof. She was suddenly ankle-deep in black, rotten, sulfurous water. Completely distracted from the sun-dancer, she stared down at the "ground" beneath her feet. Black water. Rotten water. She sniffed it. Oo! Gross! Her tail wagged back and forth, and she breathed in more of that lovely, dead smell.
But that wasn't all she smelled. There was an acrid scent in the air, an indescribable smell of some other creature. It smelled vaguely like a star, but more like a crocodile, a swamp, and something else she couldn't name. Some...thing. Something sharp and unpleasant that she did not like. Against her better judgment, she trotted through the swamp. Well, she tried to trot, but after the fourth or fifth time she'd stepped on land that turned out to be water and nearly broken her ankle, she decided to pick her way more carefully. Poke here, step. Poke here, poke here, step. Taking her time and stopping every so often to take another scent, it took here nearly half an hour to make her way through the swamp towards the thing she had scented.
The thing, as it turned out, was some sort of scaly, bat-winged black creature in a pond of scummy water. It was fixated on a plant in front of it that glinted in the sunlight. Something she'd learned as a foal was screaming at Magnitte to get out of here, but she couldn't remember why that was, so she ignored it. Seemed like a reasonable thing to do at the time. Besides, if she left, she'd never find out what was so special about that plant covered in dew, or how it was even still covered in dew in mid-morning!
"Hello there!" she called out to the black thing in the water. "Whatcha lookin' at? Is it interesting? Is it fun? What does it do?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 3:16 pm
There are some surfaces that are made for acoustics. Like stone. Stone seems specifically designed by the great designer to be hard, loud, and echo-y. Metal is like that, too--it makes a great loud noise, like a boom, or a bang, or a clang. You can't go wrong trying to make noise out of metal, whether it's a sweet silver bell or a lead ball being hurled at some nosy busy-body's head. Wood's kinda the same, in many respects--it can be really loud, but rotting wood is just no good. When trying to make noise with wood, best to pick a hollowed-out tree, or a really hard piece of green wood freshly chopped down. Either of those will do to make noise. If there's a top ten list of things that make noise, metal, stone, and wood are towards the top of the list, along with hot air, moving water, and those bugs you hear all the time in the summer at dusk and never shut up. Moss doesn't even land in the top hundred nosy objects. Top million, maybe, right along with feathers, dust, and someone whose throat's been ripped out and has stopped flailing around on the floor making hoarse noises of indignation and surprise.
That really was the best excuse the black dragon could think up to explain her startled squeal at the sound of another's voice. She whirled around, the black water of the swamp sloshing against her shoulders and waves crashing sluggishly around the disturbed moss. Standing behind her with an altogether too eager expression on her face, was an orange mare with brilliant blue eyes. She looked proud of herself. In fact, Fahargiga hoped she was proud of herself, because she'd just ruined an otherwise perfect morning. The swamp was hers! Fahargiga's alone! No one was allowed here! No one ever came here, and nor should anyone ever come here!
"It's a tentacle rose!" she shouted in (although she would never describe it as such) hysteria. "It eats bugs! Something you'd know if you weren't an ignorant coyote with personal hygiene problems!!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:05 pm
Personal...hygiene problems...? Magnitte lowered her head to sniff at herself. Her usual doggy/starry scents were completely masked by the scent of decaying matter and winged crocodile. The skull-faced stranger was shrieking and shouting--it seemed that the hound had startled her. There really was something about the other mare (if it was a mare, it was hard to tell, but it was definitely a she, judging by scent and timbre, although whether it was a star was the million-piece-hoard question)'s appearance that felt like it should be setting off alarm bells in Maggy's head, but to be honest, she wasn't sure why. Sure, she smelled bad, like meat, and sulfur, and that corrosive smell that she couldn't name that some of the Masters would use in their crafts, but she didn't know why that should be setting her off. She did know that she was a little bit intimidated. Just a bit. Big wings, big horns, a glowering look on its face, glowing red eyes, brilliant green spittle...
...Oh.
...She'd been meditating! She had obviously been thinking deep, philosophical thoughts, gazing raptly at the "tentacle rose," she called it, and then some silly bloodhound had just barged into her thoughts just as she figured out the purpose of the universe or something. Huh. Now that she thought of it like that, her question seemed pointless and petty. "Oh, tentacle rose! Got it! I'll remember that!" She wagged her tail. "How come it eats bugs, though? I thought plants got their food from their roots or the sun or something."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:13 pm
The stupid...dog...thing...just looked down at her with this overly-cheerful expression on its face like it hadn't done anything wrong. That smirky, perky face offended Fahargiga more than anything else. Stupid dog! Why did it have to disturb her, especially to ask stupid questions? And why did it have to disturb her in her home, her sanctum?! The forest might be Pretty-Boy Gildenfire's, but this swamp was her home, her realm, her domain! Here, she reigned supreme, not as "guardian," not as "champion," but as apex predator, empress, high priestess, goddess, in fact! Nothing happened in the swamp if she herself did not will it! That was what it meant to be a black dragon, so far as she was concerned! But now, now, there was an intruder on her realm, some stranger from a strange place that had waltzed into her territory without her permission, and dared to ask pointless, vapid questions about the state of affairs in her swamp!
No. There was no getting over this. Since the dog didn't seem very intimidated by her, she rose up from the murky water, spreading her wings wide and letting the disturbed and shredded moss tumble to the acidic water around her. She was big for a star, and she showed it, letting her wings and thick tail serve to heighten the effect. This would send the cur packing! "It eats bugs because a tentacle rose would not deign to drink sunlight. It feasts on insects and spiders to remind them to not let themselves get complacent, to not assume that because they fly high in armor forged by their ancestors in their eggs that they are the pinnacle of creation. They are a representative of me, and of my power. Now, little puppy. I'll give you one chance to leave before I bite you in half. What is your decision?" Order would be restored momentarily. Well, after she'd bitten it in half. She didn't intend to let its decision have any effect on its fate. Its fate had been sealed as soon as it stepped foot out here. It would soon be paste between her feet and blood dribbling down her chin.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:52 pm
Okay...so...standing up (yikes, she was big!), spreading her wings out (oof, looked like she could fly quite the distance!), lashing the tail (big, heavy, with what looked like a big ol' scythe on the end), generally making herself look big and threatening...oh, okay. Got it. Territorial display. Obviously she'd walked in on the crocodile-solara's territory, and now she was in trouble for getting in her way on her home turf. That...actually made a lot of sense, the more Magnitte thought about it. Okay, so backing up here, she'd made a big mistake to come waltzing into whatever-this-place-was, asking a bunch of questions, and then expecting to get away with it.
Oh, she was going to get bitten in half, wasn't she? Think fast, Magnitte, think fast! There was no way she could run fast enough over the unstable ground to get out of here in time, not with an enemy with those wings! "It seems to me you need someone to guard your swamp," she said quickly and, she hoped, shrewdly. "Okay, sure, I've managed to get in, but I've, uh, got experience in getting into places. Um, but mostly I have experience in guarding things, especially against tricky things, like thieves who are invisible, or ninjas who can turn into centipedes. But I'm between jobs right now, on account of getting lost, so if you need some guarding, then I'm your mare! I don't have any letters of recommendation at the moment, because all my past employers are who-knows-where, but if you need someone to, y'know, prevent what I just did from happening again? I can do it. I'll hunt down anyone who walks in and you can never get disturbed again. I'll do it. I'm good at it." She gave herself a moment to smile proudly before taking a few hesitant steps backwards. Okay, so verbal diarrhea may not have been the best option, but it was the only thing she could think of in that little amount of time!
Besides...to be honest, as much as she liked chasing sun-dancers and watching dust, she really, really wanted a job. She felt like a bad dog, frolicking about with no demands on her skills. She was supposed to be a guard, for pity's sake! If the crocodile-solara needed her work, then she would gladly give it. She didn't even ask for pay, even, just shelter and treats and praise. That wouldn't be too hard...right? She gave the slightest tail wag and opened her eyes as wide as they could go to show her earnestness and desperation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:47 am
There was no other way to describe the dragon other than...well, gob-smacked. Her visions of carnage and terror were suddenly and violently derailed by the impromptu job interview the mutt had pulled from her--nether region. The creature had pluck. The creature had guts. "Pluck" and "guts" were only words she wanted to use when describing a post-feast sing-a-long. She found her old hate for the intruder--as, y'know, an intruder--replaced by a new hate, as in for a very annoying burr that had gotten stuck in a hard-to-reach location. Greaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. There was no getting rid of the thing now, was there? Well, okay, biting it in half was still an option. Probably. Possibly. Oh, no, the eeeeeeeeyes...by Tiamat's toothy orifice, how was anyone supposed to resist those eyes?! Who had designed them?! Whoever they were, they were surely a brand of evil more powerful than she. This creature was laying a spell on her, and it was a spell that Fahargiga did not like one. Bit. She found it impossible, now, to imagine those eyes dangling from her teeth by their nerves--she! Unable to imagine the spectacle! Unbelievable! She did the same thing all the time with rabbits and deer, why should--
No matter. She could always lead the little creature into a trap. For some reason, that didn't bother her that much. Killing the thing herself? Cruel. Getting it in a situation that could get it killed? By someone who wasn't her? Now that, that she didn't have any qualms over.
"No letter of recommendation, hm?" she purred. "And I suppose you didn't bring a resume either. Well, I like your style, ...?" She left the sentence open for the stranger's name.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 9:59 am
The crocodile-solara hesitated, but Magnitte forced herself to not. Move. A muscle. Don't relax, don't relax, don't relax, this doesn't mean anything, keep those eyes wide, keep that tail tucked down and wagging slightly... And it seemed that her use of body language worked! The stranger's eyes had narrowed in a speculative manner, and she hadn't yet lunged forward to bite her. This...this could be a good sign. A very good sign indeed. Not only for her continued survival, but also for her desperation for a purpose, for a job. She was a guard dog. She always had been, she couldn't really see herself being anything else. So she needed something to guard, and this swamp would be as good as anything else. She'd guarded for The Stars That Smell Like Metal, and the tiniest hint of...yes, there was definitely a hint of metal in the area. The crocodile-solara probably had a cache of shinies somewhere nearby. All the more reason for her to get a guard dog!
And it seemed that she had been accepted! Well, okay, she didn't have the job yet, but the other had said that she "liked her style," whatever that meant. It meant something good, Magnitte knew that much, but she didn't know what it foreboded, and considering the way their conversation had been going earlier, she was willing to believe that it could mean anything either way. "Magnitte!" she said. "But 'Maggy' is also acceptable, if you'd prefer my name be a bit shorter. And I answer to 'hey you' or any permutation of the above. I'm not picky."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:01 am
“Your flexibility of appellation is an asset,” Fahargiga muttered. Especially the ‘hey, you’ bit. The pride in her rather liked that. It meant that she didn’t have to remember what the wretched creature’s name was—and that the dog understood that she was the, what was the word? Alpha? Yes, that she was the alpha, and that she was in charge—
What was she saying?! She didn’t want this thing for a servant! She was Fahargiga, queen of the swamp! She didn’t need servants, she had everything she needed! She didn’t need help, not now, not ever! What she needed was for this thing to go away and leave her alone! And for her to find a way to show it that she was not a creature to be messed with. Also, she needed entertainment. She was perfectly content to sit in the swamp all day letting herself soak in all that lovely mud, but if she was going to have to get out of her sphagnum bath, then she was darned well going to enjoy herself for the rest of the day, and go out of her way to do so. And since this dog was the one to disturb her from her well-earned bath, her dog would pay the price by being her entertainment. She shook the rest of the mud from her wings, paying no heed to the grapeshot of fetid material flying all around the forest hitting trees and bushes in all direction. This swamp was hers, and she liked it like this—muddy and rotten. As for the forest around the swamp? Eh, it was the gold wyrm’s, and she liked him hopping mad with rage. Metallic dragons had no sense of fun anyway.
Hm. Maybe she could get this creature wrecked in the forest itself? That would make it even better! Dead dog-star in the middle of the forest, dead at her hands. Oh, Gildenfire would be so pissed! “Come with me,” she purred. “Let us see if you can do a little…task for me.” She’d decide what it was when she saw it. She set out, flicking her tail behind her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:04 am
Magnitte couldn’t stop her tail from wagging if she’d tried. Not only was she not getting eaten, which was always a bonus when dealing with big reptile things that were all hostile and all that, but she might get a job! And she was going for a walk! Three of her favorite things, all at once! This day was getting better and better! She trotted at the crocodile-solara’s side, tongue lolling out in joy, but her throat silent. She knew better than to talk to someone when they were in a mood like this—the crocodile-solara would want to think, and not be distracted, and she might bite Magnitte’s head off if she tried talking. So instead the hound kept at the other mare’s side, keeping side by side with her and continually scenting the air. The air smelled okay, rotting and sulfurous for a while, but eventually they moved back into the woodland, where the smell of pine and deciduous debris filled the air, and the smell of dear, rabbits, and birds punctuated it. The world smelled good, and was full of pretty things like sun-dancers and things that she could chase. Like squirrels. She paused at some point, staring at a squirrel up in the tree, only returning to the potential master’s side when the other star gave an impatient huff. She rushed back to the crocodile-solara’s side and waited for her order.
The two of them were now standing behind a thick bush laced with blackberries. This early in the season the berries themselves had not yet grown in, but it was thorny and knotted enough that Magnitte was careful about getting close to it. Her companion, on the other hand, didn’t seem to mind or even notice the prickles—her hide was thick enough to simply ignore it. She was peering through the bush at a gully beyond where something stood alone in the forest. It was a…a thing. It smelled like metal and thunderstorms and most closely resembled an arcturus. Only it was made entirely out of metal. Weird! It glowed, too, a brilliant blue like lightning. It didn’t seem to notice them, either, instead looking around itself and pawing at the ground.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:06 am
The metal thing had been hanging around the forest for a few days now, though Fahargiga had only gotten a glimpse of it once as it passed by the swamp and again after sunset last night when she’d been flying back home. Never before in her life had she ever seen anything remotely like that thing—it looked like an arcturus, but it was…something else. A weird something else. It would make a fine bit of entertainment by sic’ing the cur on it. “Hey, you, do you see that thing down there?” she murmured into the dog’s ear. “Well, go down there, subdue it, and bring it back to me. If you can do it, then I will take you as a guard.”
To be honest, she didn’t know what she’d do with it if Magnitte did manage to subdue it. It was kind of shiny, and that was nice, but she was fairly certain that it was made of iron or steel, and that its bright color was due to mere plating. Personally, she preferred coins, especially gold ones, but she supposed she might be able to use it. Maybe she could even tame it, then keep it as another guard or use it against the dog. Or she could use the dog against Gildenfire, or use the arcturus thing against Gildenfire. Now that she thought about it, the possibilities were endless. However this ends, this will have been an interesting day, at the very least.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:08 am
 So, this was the wide world away from his creator’s lab? It was a strange place, this. Steelheart surveyed the surrounding forest, taking it all in and analyzing it. He could count fifteen species of tree, forty species of undergrowth, ten types of ferns, no less than seven varieties of moss, and insects somewhere in the several hundred all around him. Long-decayed particulate plant and geological matter was dusted across his titanium-alloy hooves. Dust. But more so. Dirt, then? Steelheart had never been outside before. He was still establishing his baseline for normality. Did all places display this same species richness? Or was it just this patch of woods? He logged the information into his databanks and trudged on, every movement in the forest tracked by his optical sensors.
Such a description of his activities, however, sounded cold and methodical, and indeed, his creator would have purposefully chosen such words when transcribing notes. But in truth, Steelheart’s eyes were wide with wonder, and his progress was slow as he savored his new surroundings. It soothed his troubled soul to see such beauty, to watch as a butterfly alit on his glowing horn, to stop and watch beams of sunlight illuminate falling particles of dust. The workshop had been clean, antiseptic. But here, there was life everywhere, even up in the canopy where sleepy owls slumbered the previous night’s hunt off and salamanders crawled along thickly mossed boughs. The forest was not silent, either—it was thick with sound, from the singing of birds to the buzzing of insects. There was a creek nearby—it gurgled cheerfully in its path. Steelheart paused in the middle of a clearing and shuttered his optics so as to channel all of his processing power towards his audial sensors.
Thus it was that he noted, from the south, that the sound of birds had stopped, as had that of bugs. It wasn’t sudden, but rather in a wave of silence, as if the forest was suddenly holding its breath. And not in a glad way—but rather, in a frightened way. Something was coming this way. He opened his optical sensors again and scanned the forest once again, swinging his head back and forth in arcs. A nervous twitch in his legs caused him to paw at the ground (that was a behavior he’d never been able to figure out; he and his creator had resigned themselves to always be mystified).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:13 am
Subdue some weird metal arcturus thing? Heh, no problem! Well, okay, big problem, ‘cause subduing usually meant kicking or biting or something, and there was no way Magnitte would be dumb enough to kick or bite that thing. She’d never been called clever—except after catching a thief—but she liked to think of herself as being smarter than that, at least a little bit. And now was the perfect time to prove that, too, by showing how clever she could be. So she crept out of the bush, keeping low, and trying as much as possible to stay behind the arcturus. That would be a bit of a challenge, of course—if he—she? It?—had a range of vision anything like regular stars, he/she/it would be able to see her from any angle. And kick her, too. And that horn could be used for stabbing.
Huh. Yep, big problem. Well, Magnitte had come this far, there was no way she was ducking out of this now. She could get killed after all, if she didn’t complete this task. She wouldn’t put it past the crocodile-solara. So she shook out her mane, found a position behind the arcturus thing, and began to sneak up on it, head held low and body held still. She was no cat, but she could still stalk. When I catch up to it, I’ll—oh, it’s got a scythe for a tail. This is going to be harder than I thought. Luckily, she was still near some bushes—juniper this time, from the smell of it. Less prickly, but less camouflage-y. It would take all of her concentration to not mess this up, and to think of a plan. Duck in? Trip it up? Yeah, not a winning move. Attack its behind? Nope, scythe. Attack its front? Haha, no. Not with that horn—it was longer than most arcturus’s, and it looked wicked sharp. Well, flank, then. Already went over that, just not feasible. There was nothing to grab.
Okay, so an attack was out of the question. What could she do, then? Well, there was still one option left to her, and it had the advantage of surprise. She straightened out of her stalking position and trotted up to the strange creature. “Hullo!” she said in a voice full of aggressive good cheer.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:18 am
If Fahargiga was a human, she would have slapped her own face with the palm of her hand. After a promising start flanking the arcturus-thing and stalking it from behind, she’d suddenly perked up and scampered up to the construct calling out a salutation. Either she had no idea what she was doing, or she’d completely forgotten what she’d been sent in to do. Either way, whatever chance the dog had had of employment was entirely gone now. Fahargiga could practically feel the interest rush out of her. She had half a mind to swoop in there and kill the intruding cur herself, but several things stopped her: one, she didn’t want to go near that thing any more than Magnitte did; two, she wanted to see the arcturus’s reaction (it could be useful for future purposes); and three, it would be far more entertaining to see her get gutted. With that in mind, she kept silent in the bushes save for a single growl and a lash of her sharp tail that sliced through a nearby thicket with ease.
Fine, then—I’ll stay to see the thing’s reaction. If it attacks her, I’ll stay and watch. If it lets her go, I’m going back to my bath. If the dog comes back to me, I will bite its head off right then and there. With that tiny sliver of satisfaction back, she settled in to watch, wings held in close to her body (hey, they weren’t protected from thorns by thick scales!).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 10:27 am
Steelheart was not entirely clueless; he could trace the disturbance in the forest to a blackberry bush. Taking care not to look directly at it, he made a few quick observances. He had no sense of smell, so he had no way of testing the air, but he was able to see from the corner of his eyes that there were two pairs of eyes in the bush, both of them glowing. One of them was cornflower blue, the other an ominous scarlet. The scarlet looked quite similar to the creature he’d seen flying overhead the night before, near dusk; the other was quite unfamiliar to him. As he watched, this pair of eyes moved, and he could hear it circling around behind him. Great. His blind spot. Curse a creator who had insisted on giving him the same degree of view of a “living” star! He waited the oncoming attack nervously, tail raised up in a warning. It wasn’t that he was afraid of getting bitten or scratched or bruised—he was made of a tougher metal than that—he was afraid of…
Actually, what was he afraid of? He could be dented, it was true, and a scuff might be annoying, but really, he was better armed and better armored than most stars, to his knowledge. He wasn’t certain if he could win against that big dragon he’d seen flying overhead last night, but he was fairly certain he could be a match for other stars, if they were anything like his creator’s descriptions. He had nothing to fear. He just needed to keep reminding himself.
That he had nothing to fear was soon reinforced by a cheerful greeting from behind him. He whirled around to face a…well, he supposed it was a star. It looked like a cross between a star and a dog, really, with a thick, wagging tail, and a cold, wet nose. What was rather un-starlike and un-doglike was the horns growing out of forehead and jaw. They didn’t look big enough to do any damage, unless it used them rather creatively, but it certainly looked intimidating. That wasn’t the only odd thing about this star, too—it was differently shaped, especially between the hind legs, and its voice was much more highly pitched than he was used to. But it definitely sounded friendly, even if it its eyes were glowing. Then again, glowing eyes are not a sign of unfriendliness—my own eyes glow, and I am not unfriendly. “Salutations, stranger,” he murmured in reply. “I am Steelheart. By what designation are you known?” There was a rustle in the bushes and his head snapped around. The glowing eyes in the blackberry bush were gone and there was a sound of leathery wings flapping. Leathery wings…oh. So it was the dragon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
