Blood and Bronze: Dragon's Reign - RP version

[Moondust]

Shikahn dipped her head. She suddenly felt shy, and wanted to dissapear. And she did so, she crept off into the forest, while The Sage was talking. Finding a cofortable looking tree, Shikahn scaled the trunk of it, and crled up on a branch. She remembered the one time a dragon had told her a story. It was a long time ago, but the story remained. The one of the Lone Bronze Dragon. Reyx was the closest thing she could call to a father. Shikahn's deep red eyes were closing. Soon Syrah would awake.

[Galanor Rosewind]

"Syrah?" Reyx asked. "Or, whatever your name is. You never told me. Where di you go?"

"Leave her," The Ankylian Sage said. "She is finding peace with herself... or as close to that as she can come, at the moment. I know that I do not have to show you the way to Ninevale. It was your home, once."

Indeed, it did feel like going home. The trees were a little taller than he remembered them, but the air was still as sweet as it ever had been. The ground was soft and loamy beneath his talons. The air was damp with the spray from the great waterfalls of Ninevale.

[Moondust]

Syrah awoke, with the nights past events jumbling in her mind. The area around her was beautiful. Beatiful waterfalls tumbled off the rocks in cascades. Trees towered around her, shading the area. Loamy earth lay meters below her, as she was perched on a branch. She flew up to the canopy and stuck her head out of the thick roof of leaves. And the sights she saw...
She had never been in this part of the world before, but she still was in awe. The tiny town they had passed through was a scar on the landscape. But what capured Syrah's heart the most was the beautiful sunrise. The sun broke free from the horizon, speading it's red rays over the landscape.
Syrah leapt from the canopy and dived through it, down to the floor.
Then she began to sing, in a beautiful, wild voice. The animals were still nervous, from last night, and the music was comforting to them. The birds burst into melody, following Syrah's tune.
Syrah's stomach grumbled with complaint, as her hunger had been forgotten. Luckily Syrah knew which fruits were safe, and she managed to find some she regognised from when they were in town. Eating happily, Syrah felt a little restored. She sung with a calm voice, but one with longing too. One where she belonged. She saw Reyx in front of her.

[Galanor Rosewind]

The sun was beginning to rise, and the unusually cold night was lifting. As the sun rose, Reyx felt better about what had happened earlier. As the trees above grew greener as the morning sun struck them, Reyx really felt like he was going home. The colorful birds had begun to sing. In the distance, far between the trees, Reyx could see a few of the giant Derinthian deer leaping in the early morning sun. The sky between the leaves far above was a blaze of color as the dawn came, and the mist was still thick beneath the trees.

As he watched, Syrah had appeared before him. She seemed to be in a better mood than even he was. He felt like he was coming home after a cenury of rest... which he was. And it was a very good feeling to be coming home at last.

"Good morning, Syrah," he said with a grin. "Welcome to Derinth."

He could hear the waterfalls of Ninevale in the distance, a mighty roar of water. The Sages were still guiding them onward to the great city. Their path took them alongside a deep, clear river - the Lifeblood River, the largest and most important one in Prox. They followed it, the sound of waterfalls growing ever closer.

Soon, they had arrived in Ninevale, in all its splendor. There was no clearing; no scar on the land. The trees were as thick and as tall as anywhere else. But they were different, somehow. If one examined them closely, one would notice that the trees seemed full of hollows. Holes seemed to be molded into the sides. Like....

"Windows," Reyx explained, gesturing to the trees. "The Sages live in harmony with the forest. They live within the trees, and of course the trees are in no way harmed."

They continued on through the tree-houses, following the river, until they broke free from the trees altogether. And there, at a great distance, in full sunlight, stood the largest tree in the forest. Perhaps it was the largest tree in the world. It towered above any of the others, four times at least the height of the tallest trees, and five times as thick, with branches strong enough for dragons to nest in it like birds. Its twisted, gnarled trunk was riddled with windows and doors, and the bark on the outside, in places, had been magically molded into stairs, columns, and walkways. Two of the massive roots had been transformed into an intricate bridge across the flowing water. It was every sense of the word beautiful. And this massive tree was in the absolute center of a huge crater-lake, through which the Lifeblood river flowed. And behind the Great Tree lay the Falls of Flame. They were a huge distance from the Great Tree, yet they dwarfed it still, tall and wide, the pounding of the water spraying the entire forest with its pure mist.

This was where Reyx Greatwind had been born. This was his home. And this was his destiny. He could feel it in his hearts.

[Moondust]

"This is Derinth?" Syrah asked in awe. "It's so beautiful. If I wern't a half life, I would have resided here, if I had known of it."
The place of sheer natural beauty was incredible.

"Reyx, what will the sages say to me? Will they kill me because I am... A Half-life? I've always been terrified that someone would find out.. And now they have. The sages know, and so do you. And I'm scared. I've been kicked out by village after village, and I've had to live wild." Her eyes showed the fear she was in. Imagining running from the creatures that resided here. Being forced out, like a mutt in a house, a person chasing after her with a broom. "And I've killed people before, Reyx. Well in my mind it's not me, but it is. These claws..." She raised her paws from the floor, standing on two legs. "... Have blood on them. I've killed nasty, but innocent people. Ignorant, but not evil people. And that is driving me insane. It's why I give myself two names. I can't cope with the fact that I have and will slaughter for minor reasons!" She fell back on all fours, shivering. "What am I?" She asked. All these fears that she had repressed for years was too much now. She'd coped, but now she couldn't. She couldn't, because she couldn't bear to be half friend, and half foe. She couldn't do it to him. Reyx didn't deserve it. "You know, when I'm older, and more experienced, I could do so much damage. I could take up Nightwings place myself." She muttered, spitefully.

[Galanor Rosewind]

"This is Ninevale," Reyx corrected. "It's the capital city of Derinth, the great forest. nation. It has been my home for most of my life. Indeed... it is good to see it again."

He listened intently to her next words, and couldn't help but chuckle. "Kill you? For simply being what you are? No. The Sages to not judge one on what they are, and they do not carry out punishment for it either."

They stopped walking as Syrah did, her sadness growing. She felt... like a monster. Reyx knew. And he didn't know of any way to help. He put one of his taloned hands to rest on her shoulder - lightly, as he was much larger than the younger dragon.

"Everyone has a darkness inside," Reyx said in a soothing voice. "Everyone has some... some inner night that they keep locked up, that they don't want to let out. It doesn't make you evil. And you most certainly will nt take the place of the cursed one, Nightwing." He smiled. "You'll see. Have patience."

[Moondust]

"Thank you." She said, wiping a solatry tear from her face. "I try to compose myself, but it's been getting harder for me recently."
Syrah looked to the sky. The sun was high in it, marking midday.
"Only half a day left." She sighed. "Do you think the sages may be able to cure what has befallen me?" Syrah asked, hopefully.

[Galanor Rosewind]

"I don't know if they can cure you," he said, "But I'm sure that they will do their best to help you find peace with the way you are if they cannot. It's possible that they will be able to. The Sages, I have learned, are wise indeed. It's even said that they can see the future." The prophecy of Reyx Greatwind seemed to prove that.

Voices rose from the forest, leading away from the Lifeblood river. It seemed that all the races were present in the odd chorus; their voices were easy to distinguish. The low, graelly voices of Dragons; the birdlike whooping of the Xyxx; the stony, grinding bellow of the Ankylians; the hisslike calls of the Dromaeans, and the purring rasp of the iisowy. All of the voices rose, melding into one, citing the prophecy that Reyx had not until now heard.

"Creatures of legend, thou art called.
Eyes that gleam, Flames that scald.
Titans of fire, earth, and air;
Of this message, Be aware...
Both thought slain, though both survive;
A plot of darkness does one contrive.
He gathers again the evil fruit,
To fill his ranks, in dark pursuit.
In this message, the seeds are sewn;
A heart of good, one does own.
A concrete soul, savior pf prox;
Protecting the trees, the waters, the rocks.
Both have risen, both now see,
What a fool they had come to be.
In days gone past, they'd both believed
That their victory had been concieved.
Ye beware, should the Bronze One rise;
It is he who warns of peace's demise.
For when he wakes from his stony sleep,
Over the land, evil shall again to creep.
The tides turn, the weather changes;
New winds blow through mountain ranges.
One shall live, and one shall fail.
It is now they who drive fate's nail."

The voices died, and the forest was quiet. But Reyx had a feeling that they should follow the direction of the voices.

"Syrah," he said. "I think we should follow the voices... they said that prophecy for a reason. I think it was the Council, calling us to a meeting. We have delayed long enough."

[Galanor Rosewind]

(I'm making a seperate account for Nightwing. Just because I can keep them seperate that way.)

[Nightwing the Foul]

Deep in beneath the mountains - the younger mountains in the West, not the other, taller mountains of the East in which Reyx had awakened - a storm was brewing within the earth. In a huge cavern, far beneath the surface of the mountain, Nightwing had been stirring. He had sensed the presence of his old rival. Of the great Bronze Dragon, Reyx Greatwind. The Foul dragon was encased in stone, as though it had hardened around his body years ago, but now he began to break free. He was growing stronger - strong enough to break away from his self-made prison. The time was right. He was anxious to free himself. He had sent his demons out before... weak ones. He'd controlled the mind from afar of a small, weak dragon. It was not one of his creations... merely a tool to delay the Bronze One. But he had only just begun.

"Still alive... and well....." he hissed, with a voice that could crumble stone. He moved, violently, which caused an earthquake to rip its way through the Lesser Knol range. The stone around him crumbled as he tore himself away from it. Steam escaped from the rifts he had made in the earth. The cavern was instantly lit from below with a faint, pulsating red light.

"Greatwind..." he hissed, louder. "I will be the one to rip your throat out, and feed it to the monsters that were once your friends." Another violent twist of his body, and the stone broke free. Cracks raced along the floor, and lava began to pour from them. The black stone that encased him crumbled, and he forced his way out, clawing, biting, until he was swimming in a pool of molten rock. He climbed to the outside of the crater, standing firm on the cave floor. The lava writhed and boiled, flowing over itself. He was coated in it. He opened his wings, flinging molten stone throughout the cavern. He wiped himself clean, and his scales glittered redly in the light of the lava, like angry stars. Indeed, that was why he had given himself that name... His wings glittered like the stars on a clear, moonless night.

His creatures, the many that had survived, were gathering to him. They were all weak, shells, shadows, nothing more than darkness and fire and air. Useless, weak. With Reyx Greatwind revived, they would be useless. Nightwing grew furious, an anger unlike any he had ever felt. It surged, and his creations writhed around him, feeding from it, growing stronger with the magic that had begun to radiate from him.

He opened his gaping maw and bellowed. His throat expanded; something was forcing its way out of him, like a living creature breaking free of its prison. A thick, black fog of evil forced itself from his throat and into the air, slithering to the ground as if alive, a gigantic serpent that had been living inside him, finally free of its imprisonment. it grew and changed, splitting apart and twisting as though in agony, becoming solid. More of the evil matter slid from his mouth, dripping between his teeth, coating his maw, coming in a constant stream from his throat, gushing into the air and falling to the cavern floor, splashing like liquid and hissing as it contacted the stone. Those monsters in its path absorbed it like sponges, erupting into even more demonic forms, becoming more dense and real. instead of animated shadows, they were becoming dense, flesh-and-blood creatures. With sickening crunches and pops, they grew bones and muscles and flesh and hide, terrifyingly solid. Their bones shifted and changed, spines popping and snapping and buckling into new shapes, spikes and horns shooting from some, tails erupting from others, wings from still more. His creations, unlike before, would be living, breathing monsters, not just shapes in the shadows that could rip and tear with insubstantial claws. He gave them new life, new power, something that Prox's forces had never faced. With time, he had grown, and so had his power. The stream of evil still poured forth from Nightwing, giving immense power to the already powerful. This war would not be over until he said it was over......

[Moondust]

Shikahn leapt inside Syrah. "What was it?" Syrah asked, terrified. No thing scared Shikahn. I-I don't know. Shikahn stammered. It was like no thing I have ever felt before. Such Darkness... Shikahn wispered. "Was it like that time, where I had that feeling... That feeling of great good?" Syrah asked.
Yes. Shikahn hissed.
Syrah stood still, still as a petrified rock.
"Reyx, something is terribly wrong..."

[Galanor Rosewind]

Reyx looked down at Syrah, noting the worry in her eyes, in her voice.

"What's wrong?" he asked, concerned. He'd never seen her like this. Something, somewhere, was terribly wrong.

[Moondust]

"Shikahn said.. She said that she felt great evil." Syah muttered. "I know her well, she's almost never scared. Of any thing."
Syrah, let me have control for a while. Shikahn asked.
"Okay..."
Syrah's green eyes hardened, as Shikahn took control. This was not a normal thing for her, daylight.
"It was like no evil I have ever felt before. No thing has ever compared to it. It was so strong..."

[Galanor Rosewind]

"Nightwing," Reyx muttered, watching the half-life take control. Shikahn. "He must have fully awakened."

[Moondust]

"Nightwing?" Shikahn hissed. "I want his blood on the floor. All of it. He killed my fammily."
Shikahn growled, even Syrah felt angry.
"When you get him, you kill him, and make sure he's dead this time. Dead as a skelton. Dead and wiped out like the humans! Dead as a barren planet!"
Calm down Shikahn.Syrah said.