Back today with a another blurb I wrote a while back for my Flight Rising dragons, taking place within the Immortal Era. For anyone that needs a reminder, this lore has to do with my dragons on a petsite game called FlightRising, so credit to canonical events and draconic breeds and things go to them. However, the story detailed here is my own, and builds off of previously established history and lore I posted a long while ago.
I highly recommend reading the rest of the Tempest Order History posts before this one, as it provides a great deal of context. You can find their section in the Free Content Directory as The Tempest Order! However, without any further ado—
"Has anyone told you you're going to get yourself killed someday?"
Eris laughed. "You, probably."
With a nimble leap, the dragon scaled the crumbling wall of a building, using it as a high ground to survey the ruins.
To their left was the way they'd come, the fading light of dusk casting a coat of sundust across the gentle, rolling hills of Sunbeam Ruins. To their right was a darkness ready to swallow them whole, a shade that held the area in its grip. More ruins lay there, sticking out of the earth like skeletons against a starless night. An unnaturally cold wind blew from its direction.
It was home to the Light Flight's boogeyman, and a place that dragons rarely dared to go anyway, but Eris could hardly consider herself a Plague dragon if she turned down a challenge like that. There were ancient tomes here, she was sure. The Hewn City would bend to her will before she ever did to its. "You can relax, comrade. I've been here a thousand times — this place doesn't scare me anymore."
"Three," Shrike huffed, climbing up after her in a less than graceful manner, "you've been here all of three times. Just because you've never seen anything doesn't mean it isn't dangerous."
She rolled her eyes, leaping down and slinking deeper into the ruins. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't. C'mon, pick up the pace. I'm not leaving until we find something."
Shrike and Eris wove their way around broken pillars and across broken marble grounds with plants growing up through the cracks. At one point, they reached a swathe of land that had been torn to pieces, decimated. The air smelled of copper.
Shrike gave her a pointed look as she stepped into the line of destruction. Eris, however, remained unperturbed.
"The beast displaces a lot of ground when it moves. We might be able to find things that were buried — or hidden.” She looked over her shoulder, happy to find him reluctantly following while she examined the scattered items in the scar on the land. "You know, you didn't have to come. I don't need a babysitter."
"You don't. But Vellichor insisted we go in pairs. You know how she worries about us."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." She and Shrike were the only two dragons in the new library's 'acquisition department'. Without them, there wouldn't be a steady stream of new books, no growth, no getting that obscure title someone in the clan was waitlisted for. Truly a recipe for the breakdown of society.
"Oh — I think I've got something." Shrike said suddenly, scraping off a bit of dirt from a metal box. "It looks locked."
"I got it." She pulled the box towards her, taking out a small set of tools and getting to work picking it with careful, dexterous claws. It was a strange and varied set of skills she'd learned for this job, but she definitely got use out of them.
Shrike sat back, keeping a watch out for other dragons or predators. Their voices echoed into the open air, though it constantly felt like the air was closing in on them. It didn't feel right to talk more than was necessary. Really, it felt like treading on holy — or rather, unholy — grounds.
Eris could tell that though it didn't bother her much, it did give him the creeps. Made her wonder if he'd ever seen anything himself, or if he was just scared from all the stories.
Just as she heard the satisfying click of the lock opening, there was another sound. A larger sound. Much larger.
Far too near for comfort, there was a shrill shriek of pain and fear. They both grew silent as mice, watching as a panicked figure shot haphazardly into the sky.
Where they had come from, the head of a massive dragon rose... and another... and another... three in total. Eris's confidence faded as all three heads opened their mouths and roared, snapping towards the unfortunate soul that had awoken them. It was a horrid cacophony that chilled her blood. She'd heard it in the distance before, never so close. Never so loud, louder than thunder across the Shifting Expanse.
Shrike grabbed the unlocked box and they both retreated into the shadow of a broken awning, but they had no intention of sticking around. The Emperor surged from out of its sleeping place, sending a flurry of dust and smoke into the air as ruins crumbled with just the air it displaced. Its wings were tattered and torn, unable to fly, but it still moved with huge, lumbering steps.
The pair fled as fast as they could from the shadowy depths of the Hewn city, thankful for their lives.
Just another day working for the acquisitions department.