Post by landradraconis on Jul 1, 2009 23:23:25 GMT -5
“Eight centuries to the day…,”
Landra spoke to herself in her room atop the fort that was her family home. While barely dressed at the moment, she was staring into a mirror and looked to herself in it. Thousands of thoughts just seemed to be going through her head at once, and none of them were making any sense to her. A lot of them were of old battles, old wars both won and lost, some that she had been in and others that she had to be out of due to injury or to her duty to her family. She had to bury a lot of her family over the course of her life, while she remained and a select few of her family that remained, those were living in caves across the land, hiding.
Landra placed a hand to her forehead, claws tapping at the center of her brow as she thought about all of this, and she sighed because of it. She was an appointed General of the Orkarthel armies, appointed by her now long-dead father, Bahamut rest his soul.
“Pull yourself together, woman. There is a war going on out there … one that has been going on for almost over 800 years…”
She growled lowly to herself, leaning against the common dresser in her room, no longer staring at herself in a mirror but more staring down at a small jewel encrusted box that sat there in the center of the dresser top, that held her families seal on top, and a lock holding it together. Landra swore she would never open it until she was faced with something that she knew she would not be able to overcome.
But would she ever face such a thing? Then again, the one time she could have been tempted to use it, she never had it with her.
--
Lately their numbers had been growing smaller and smaller, as ranges of demons and otherworldly creatures had begun to overrun the continents to the south and east, destroying most of those continents along the way; the continents of Dul’galash and Eri’lo. After the demons had taken over, the continents and the air about them grew dank and stale, and stank of hellfire and brimstone. Landra over and over again sent scouts down to the neighboring continents to see what had happened, but none had ever returned.
Only whispers from refugees that spoke of demons with hideous claws and fangs, that breathed hellfire, and used magic that none of them had ever seen before. Even after that, those dark towers that had been constructed in the center of each continent, dark towers that were nearly as tall as the sky themselves, and as some claimed, breached the heavens and tainted the sky. Dark towers that emanated magical energy … a demonic, chaotic, uncontrolled energy that even a dark elemental dragon such as Landra could not hope to control, even if she were to become as old as an Elder.
Or maybe live long enough to become an Ancient… maybe then, with that knowledge, she would know what brought these demons into their world, or who summoned them.
When Landra heard of this, she had gone to investigate this herself with her brothers … which ended up being a most fatal error on their account. The demons were nothing like what those that had fled said … they were worse. Demons of incomprehensible strength and defense, that not even her stronger brothers could defend and damage against. They fell one after another, standing little to no chance. How did they get caught this unprepared? How did her homeland, her neighboring homelands get caught this off-guard, or as the humans would have said, where they around … ‘caught with their pants down’?
With the deaths of her brothers, or some of them worse than dying, Landra turned and ran; or flew; out of fear for her own life; flew until she collapsed from the very sky that was a second home to her from sheer exhaustion.
Never again would she show that kind of weakness when face to face with death. This she promised herself, and to those that looked up to her.
--
Once more she looked herself in the mirror.
“We end this. Either I die, or they die and return to the hellpits that spawned them,”
Landra growled deeply. Her hand touched the box that was on the dresser in front of her and she would pick it up without opening it, and stuff it into a bag that she had lying on her bed, and tied it shut. She put that over her shoulder and would leave her room the way it was as she woke up that morning. She would be sure that none would come with her, simply because she did not want to deal with more deaths on her conscience because of the choices she had to make.
She was no leader, but those around her put her as their trust, someone that they could look to for guidance in this matter. Was it mostly because of who her father was? What her father was to these people? She groaned to herself mentally.
She hated being compared to her father.
It was tough being his daughter, and at times she believed her Father even knew it, before his death. He did this to torture her, or maybe he did this just to give her something to live for. Either way, she hated it. Her brothers should have been leader, not her.
--
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, and weeks would have turned into months if things continued on as they were currently. Landra was tired, she was cold, she was hungry … and above all she was angry. She was making this trek in hopes of finding the ‘source’ of this demonic plague, but instead had come up against nothing more than meager minions that were child’s-play compared to what her brothers had faced down.
This was mockery.
Give her something that was worth her time and effort of coming all this way! Was that so much for her to ask?
…
…
That was probably something that she did not want answered, but at the same time the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to know. Where they just laughing at her? It fueled her reason and resolve to move on, not wanting to stop … wanting to show these demons that they had her all wrong, and that she would stop them, no matter what it took, however long it took her to do so.
--
How she ended up back at the Fort after all that had gone on was a mystery. Did she find the demons and did she strike them down? Did she prove to them that she was not one to be taken lightly, or was she tossed aside like a left-over bone from an evening kill?
She got up from her bed, taking a hold of her head as it argued with her for moving at all. She growled to herself, only to look out the window and see what she did not want to see. It was still there – all of it was still there, as if she had done nothing at all! It was too strong. There had to be a source … there just had to be … a source that they could march on and kill with all the strength that a dragon had to offer.
And along with it, would be a powerful source indeed.
One does not underestimate a dragon with an affinity for the dark. Especially not when she’s angry.
Landra spoke to herself in her room atop the fort that was her family home. While barely dressed at the moment, she was staring into a mirror and looked to herself in it. Thousands of thoughts just seemed to be going through her head at once, and none of them were making any sense to her. A lot of them were of old battles, old wars both won and lost, some that she had been in and others that she had to be out of due to injury or to her duty to her family. She had to bury a lot of her family over the course of her life, while she remained and a select few of her family that remained, those were living in caves across the land, hiding.
Landra placed a hand to her forehead, claws tapping at the center of her brow as she thought about all of this, and she sighed because of it. She was an appointed General of the Orkarthel armies, appointed by her now long-dead father, Bahamut rest his soul.
“Pull yourself together, woman. There is a war going on out there … one that has been going on for almost over 800 years…”
She growled lowly to herself, leaning against the common dresser in her room, no longer staring at herself in a mirror but more staring down at a small jewel encrusted box that sat there in the center of the dresser top, that held her families seal on top, and a lock holding it together. Landra swore she would never open it until she was faced with something that she knew she would not be able to overcome.
But would she ever face such a thing? Then again, the one time she could have been tempted to use it, she never had it with her.
--
Lately their numbers had been growing smaller and smaller, as ranges of demons and otherworldly creatures had begun to overrun the continents to the south and east, destroying most of those continents along the way; the continents of Dul’galash and Eri’lo. After the demons had taken over, the continents and the air about them grew dank and stale, and stank of hellfire and brimstone. Landra over and over again sent scouts down to the neighboring continents to see what had happened, but none had ever returned.
Only whispers from refugees that spoke of demons with hideous claws and fangs, that breathed hellfire, and used magic that none of them had ever seen before. Even after that, those dark towers that had been constructed in the center of each continent, dark towers that were nearly as tall as the sky themselves, and as some claimed, breached the heavens and tainted the sky. Dark towers that emanated magical energy … a demonic, chaotic, uncontrolled energy that even a dark elemental dragon such as Landra could not hope to control, even if she were to become as old as an Elder.
Or maybe live long enough to become an Ancient… maybe then, with that knowledge, she would know what brought these demons into their world, or who summoned them.
When Landra heard of this, she had gone to investigate this herself with her brothers … which ended up being a most fatal error on their account. The demons were nothing like what those that had fled said … they were worse. Demons of incomprehensible strength and defense, that not even her stronger brothers could defend and damage against. They fell one after another, standing little to no chance. How did they get caught this unprepared? How did her homeland, her neighboring homelands get caught this off-guard, or as the humans would have said, where they around … ‘caught with their pants down’?
With the deaths of her brothers, or some of them worse than dying, Landra turned and ran; or flew; out of fear for her own life; flew until she collapsed from the very sky that was a second home to her from sheer exhaustion.
Never again would she show that kind of weakness when face to face with death. This she promised herself, and to those that looked up to her.
--
Once more she looked herself in the mirror.
“We end this. Either I die, or they die and return to the hellpits that spawned them,”
Landra growled deeply. Her hand touched the box that was on the dresser in front of her and she would pick it up without opening it, and stuff it into a bag that she had lying on her bed, and tied it shut. She put that over her shoulder and would leave her room the way it was as she woke up that morning. She would be sure that none would come with her, simply because she did not want to deal with more deaths on her conscience because of the choices she had to make.
She was no leader, but those around her put her as their trust, someone that they could look to for guidance in this matter. Was it mostly because of who her father was? What her father was to these people? She groaned to herself mentally.
She hated being compared to her father.
It was tough being his daughter, and at times she believed her Father even knew it, before his death. He did this to torture her, or maybe he did this just to give her something to live for. Either way, she hated it. Her brothers should have been leader, not her.
--
Hours turned into days, days turned into weeks, and weeks would have turned into months if things continued on as they were currently. Landra was tired, she was cold, she was hungry … and above all she was angry. She was making this trek in hopes of finding the ‘source’ of this demonic plague, but instead had come up against nothing more than meager minions that were child’s-play compared to what her brothers had faced down.
This was mockery.
Give her something that was worth her time and effort of coming all this way! Was that so much for her to ask?
…
…
That was probably something that she did not want answered, but at the same time the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to know. Where they just laughing at her? It fueled her reason and resolve to move on, not wanting to stop … wanting to show these demons that they had her all wrong, and that she would stop them, no matter what it took, however long it took her to do so.
--
How she ended up back at the Fort after all that had gone on was a mystery. Did she find the demons and did she strike them down? Did she prove to them that she was not one to be taken lightly, or was she tossed aside like a left-over bone from an evening kill?
She got up from her bed, taking a hold of her head as it argued with her for moving at all. She growled to herself, only to look out the window and see what she did not want to see. It was still there – all of it was still there, as if she had done nothing at all! It was too strong. There had to be a source … there just had to be … a source that they could march on and kill with all the strength that a dragon had to offer.
And along with it, would be a powerful source indeed.
One does not underestimate a dragon with an affinity for the dark. Especially not when she’s angry.