Sharatofaal
(#44763387)
Level 1 Tundra
Familiar
Conflagrant Ambassador
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
Energy: 50/50
This dragon’s natural inborn element is Fire.
Female Tundra
This dragon is hibernating.
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Personal Style
Apparel
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
3.8 m
Wingspan
2.71 m
Weight
377.74 kg
Genetics
Bronze
Poison
Poison
Grapefruit
Constellation
Constellation
Ivory
Runes
Runes
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 1 Tundra
EXP: 0 / 245
STR
8
AGI
7
DEF
7
QCK
6
INT
5
VIT
7
MND
5
Biography
NOT FOR SALE, TRADE, OR LENDING
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Sharatofaal
{ SHA - ra - to - FAAL } Nicknames: (none) Fire Spirit (NPC) ♠ project hosted by Aetherseer 
╭━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╮ It Came from the Ashfall Waste! (written by Disillusionist) ╰━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╯ |
"Dan, you should go have some fun. I mean, it's a festival!" Laurant gave him a playful headbutt. Aidan remained somewhat hesitant; he had been a great traveler in his adolescent years, but that had been quite some time ago, and he had so many responsibilities now. To be quite blunt about it, he rather liked having responsibilities. It was nice to have things to focus on, and the prestige that came with being the Disillusionists' Chief of Security wasn't too bad, either.
He reminded Laurant of this, and she just laughed and shook her head. "Oh, really, I don't think anything's going to crop up that the clan can't handle. Come now, Aidan, there's peace between all Flights, and it's a great opportunity to travel. Why don't you tag along with Carrot-head and me? We've heard of something called an Ember Toss—should be a good chance for Faust to practice his fire-throwing skills. He was abysmal in Fortune's Game during the Crystalline Gala."
Aidan looked morosely at "Carrot-head", her Charge. He was a huge Imperial about twice her length, and he gave Aidan an equally doleful look and mouthed the words "Help me!" Despite himself, the red Guardian couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
"I guess it wouldn't hurt. I haven't been to the Ashfall Waste for quite some time; it'll be interesting to see how it's changed since then. Hmm. Where exactly do you want to go?"
In the Ashfall Waste, Aidan was somewhat dismayed to discover that the Ember Toss involved just that: tossing glowing embers. Laurant looked blankly at him when he expressed his unease. "Well, really, it's an Ember Toss. It is what it says on the tin."
"I thought it was...a game. That didn't involve...tossing...embers..." Aidan's voice shrank as he said it. He sounded incredibly stupid even to himself.
He looked to Faustino for support and realized he was lost: the Imperial was already gazing at the furnace with the determination he normally reserved for divesting annoying customers of their money. He started to lumber forward, absently jostling other dragons aside, and rumbled, "Yes, hello, I would like to throw bits of fire at your furnace, please..."
Aidan shook his head and mumbled something about standing on the sidelines for a while. And to his credit, he did stay there. For a while. Faustino and Laurant got into another argument, though, and he realized he'd be standing there for longer than he'd anticipated. He sighed and began looking around for something to eat and drink. He had his own supplies, but festival foods were always special treats, and he figured he ought to enjoy himself while he was away from home.
He noticed a stall with free cookie samples. Tentatively he picked one up and began to munch....It was delicious, and filled his throat and belly with a soothing heat. The label above the trays said "Cind Mints"...and another, larger banner above it advertised a guild called the Trail Blazers. It looked as though they were recruiting members during the festival and needed more help to explore the new island that'd sprung up off the coast.
"Well, why not?" Aidan thought. It might have been the excitement of the festival, or else the Cind Mint was talking to him, but he began to feel the first tingles of excitement, the anticipation one gets when they're about to embark on a journey. His day-to-day routine in the Disillusionists' clan was peaceful enough, but there was a fine line between "peaceful" and "boring", and he didn't want to slip over it. With the festival ongoing, it was a good opportunity to explore that strange new land—he could take care of himself, and if he couldn't, he figured the guild would help him out.
He stepped beneath the banner and went looking for the dragon in charge. A few hours later, he was good to go. One of his tasks involved delivering boxes of cookies.
“Go away!" Aidan repeated. He looked back, and the thing retreated behind a bush. He could hear it crackling and muttering to itself; its glow grew more visible as the sun crept towards the horizon. It had been dark, too, when he'd first encountered it....
To make Aidan's travels easier, the guild had provided him with maps—the ones of the Ashfall Waste had been updated with the new landmass, and Aidan was intrigued by it. He'd already made some cookie deliveries; his next stop was the Windswept Plateau. On his way there, he would have to pass that new island....It wasn’t really out of his way. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to stop over, maybe poke around a bit, if only for curiosity’s sake. "Might even be a useful shortcut," he decided, angling slightly towards the west.
It was early afternoon when Aidan alighted on the shore of the island. But there was so much smoke and heat, he was stuck in perpetual twilight, as if night was approaching. The sky above was a weird, overcast grayish-blue...or orange....It shimmered with so many heatwaves that it was almost impossible to put a single color to it. All around Aidan, plumes of smoke and steam wafted from the ground, which was glassy black, yet seemed to glow with a weird light of its own. Vegetation was scarce, and there was not another animal to be seen.
Aidan turned around uneasily, feeling as if he'd landed in the Underworld. The place looked a lot more intimidating up close, and he began to question why he’d bothered coming over at all. "I should get back to delivering these cookies. But I’m getting hungry....I'll have to eat something first."
The cookies were tempting, but Aidan had been given additional supplies, and he munched on these instead. He made sure to keep an eye on the boxes as he chewed. The ground was uncomfortably warm, and it would be embarrassing for him if they caught fire. He thought he could smell them getting burnt already....
And then he became aware of something else: a dim glow to the north. He squinted, but the distance and distortions were too great; he couldn't guess what it was. "A lava flow? Torches from explorers?" he thought. He swallowed his food and tried to beat the smoke away. It seemed that the light was moving, moving... “Is someone out there?” he called.
The light paused. Aidan expected to hear a shouted reply—and then the light went out. Instantly the Guardian was on high alert, frills raised. He was quite near the sea, and thoughts of wreckers and pirates raced through his mind. Whoever had doused that light was clearly trying to hide from him.
“Time to go.” He scooped up his bags and slung them over one wing. As he did, he noticed the ground was starting to scorch his soles. A cold wave burst along his scales—and this time it had nothing to do with the temperature. Obeying an instinct louder than thought, he jumped backwards, soaring into the air. The smoke closed up below him, but not before he saw the ground suddenly heat to red—and then orange.
With a thundering roar, a plume of fire burst up from the ground. The smoke swirled madly, suddenly choking-hot, and Aidan coughed and turned away. He flew blindly, instinctively heading back to the mainland. He had definitely overstayed his welcome and didn’t want to stick around for what came next.
He did glance back, though. The island was still dimly visible, smoke swirling around its shores again. The flames were nowhere to be seen. “A minor volcanic eruption? Looks like the land’s still unstable. It’s a good thing I got out of there....” And then the ground was below him and he landed, somewhat gingerly, on the shore of the mainland. He squinted at the island a moment longer, waiting to see what would happen next, but nothing moved, and nothing had changed.
Although the ground here was cool, Aidan was still leery. He decided that perhaps it might be better to fly for a while, for safety’s sake. He put the island out of his mind and launched into the air again.
It turned out to be a good idea. He made good time, and by the time the sun touched the western horizon, the Windswept Plateau was in sight. He could camp out in the wilderness near the border, and in the morning he could cross and then start making his deliveries again.
He made camp that night, curled securely around his belongings. His sleep was restful at first—but towards dawn, he woke up, his ear frills tingling. A crackling, whispering noise....He raised his head and prepared to bound upright. As he did, he caught a glimpse of something—a bright spot—darting away behind the trees. Its light faded, but he could still hear it, whispering and muttering, crackling like a dry brush fire.
It kept on following him. He never got a clear look at it; it hovered only at the corners of his vision, darting out of sight no matter how quickly he turned. It was less visible in the day, when sunlight obscured it, but at night Aidan could see its glow, sometimes orange, sometimes red. Like the fires of the Ashfall Waste.
Its voice was omnipresent, too, always crackling and whispering. Sometimes he would be able to get away from it for a while, but it would be back at night, chattering to him even on the edges of his dreams.
Now Aidan was back in the Sunbeam Ruins, and he still hadn’t managed to shake the darned thing off. He had a couple of deliveries to make here, and he needed to pick up some supplies anyway. He was already having misgivings, though, and he slowed down when he saw the lair looming in the distance. The whatever-it-was had followed him from the Ashfall Waste, over the Windswept Plateau, and even island-hopping across the Sea of a Thousand Currents hadn’t convinced it to go away. Other dragons had been able to see and hear it, so Aidan knew he wasn’t crazy at least—but it was beginning to look as though he was cursed.
He stopped at the edge of the trees, where they marked the clan’s territory. He ground his teeth as he thought to himself, “What to do, what to d—”
“Lord Aidan?”
“GAAAAAAHH!” Aidan spun around, almost spraying food packets everywhere. The Tundra who’d spoken hopped nimbly over his lashing tail and then stood there, looking only mildly interested. By the look of things, she had been out gathering; Aidan could see bundles of plants poking out of the slings along her sides.
“Aurelie! What’re you doing out—Wait, no, that’s a stupid question. How long have you been out here?”
Aurelie yawned at him. “Why?” she asked, calmly patting her fur into place. Aidan ignored the question, instead raising his head to look beyond her. It was still light out; he couldn’t tell if the dratblatted thing had followed him all the way here. He’d tried ditching it a half-hour ago by taking a roundabout route past some rivers, but he figured it was only a matter of time till it showed up again.
He motioned Aurelie closer with a swing of his head. “I’m being followed by a thing.”
Her interest was piqued. Her eyes shone visibly, and her ears rose as she gasped, “Wow, really?”
“Sh-sh-shhhh! Aurelie, this is serious! It won’t leave me alone no matter which way I go, and it won’t shut up.” The Chief of Security rubbed the back of his forepaw across his eyes. “It won’t shut up!”
“Yes,” Aurelie answered calmly, “most of them are like that.” She looked dreamily beyond him, into the deeper darkness of the trees. Aidan started to get a slightly sick feeling.
“Can you help me? I don’t want to go into the lair in case it follows me and decides it wants to stay. One creepy phantom is more than enough already, thank you! Could you go get Rahenna? Or that rainmaker—see if they can convince it to leave.”
“There won’t be any need for that.” Aurelie’s voice was slightly muffled. Aidan turned to look at her, and his eyes bulged when he saw that she was rooting in one of his supply bags, already halfway down the hatch. “What are you doing?!”
“Mm, I’m helping you. See?” Aurelie slid back out again with a box of cookies clutched in her paws. Aidan gawped at her. “Wait, no, I’m supposed to deliver those!”
“I’ll pay for it. You want me to help you, right?” Aurelie popped the box open. Aidan recognized the scent of slightly burnt Cind Mints; the aroma wafted heavily into the air.
He recognized something else, too: a familiar chittering crackle. An eye-blink, and there it was, that accursed luminance gliding through the shadows beneath the trees. It flitted from tree trunk to tree trunk, keeping just out of sight. Aidan asked hoarsely, “You can see it, can’t you?”
“Yes, Lord Aidan, I’m not blind. Hey...hello?” Aurelie raised her voice. She raised the box, too, jiggling it so that the cookies inside rustled invitingly.
The grove grew brighter. Aurelie murmured, “Maybe you should step to where you have more room, Lord Aidan.”
The red Guardian growled in reply. But he did as advised, backing away until he was standing out in the open. He looked back quickly; the lair was within sight, and he could roar loud enough to alert his fellows if trouble occurred.
Then he faced forward again and almost choked. In the instant he’d looked away, a bright light had filled the clearing where he’d been standing with Aurelie. The Tundra stayed where she was, waving the box of cookies in the air; but Aidan looked forward just as she flung the box, and it disappeared with a burst of noise into the brightness. There was a whoomph, a puff of hot air, and a burnt smell so pungent Aidan actually closed his eyes and cringed. Then a cool breeze blew, and the scent was gone.
He opened his eyes. “What did...you do?” he asked. There was no sign of the box, the cookies, or the glowing thing, and Aurelie was patiently picking stray twigs and burrs out of her fur again.
She looked up as if she’d only just noticed he was there. “Oh. I fed it.”
“You did WHAT?!” Aidan bellowed. He stared at her in disbelief as she pattered out of the clearing. And then he looked into the trees again, afraid that the thing would rematerialize and come after them.
“I gave it food. Food is very important, you know. We like food.” Aurelie paused to sniff at him as he were a particularly irritating child, and then she went on her way.
It took a moment longer for her words to sink in. Aidan blinked and looked up from where he’d been examining the dirt. “Wait...what do you mean, ‘we’?” he barked; but Aurelie didn’t hear, or was pretending she didn’t hear, and she was too far away from him already. He watched as the bamboo grove closed around her, and then she was gone.
Aidan finished the rest of his deliveries without incident. He explained that one box had been lost in a confrontation with a strange creature, which he didn’t go into too much detail about. He was expecting some more questions, maybe a disbelieving stare or two, but the dragon processing his deliveries only gave him a knowing look before thanking him for his time.
Aidan meant to ask about what he had encountered, but there were other dragons waiting to get their assignments processed, and he had other things to do besides....He decided to leave it for later. He moved on to other tasks, met up with Laurant and the others again....By the time their stay in the Ashfall Waste was over, it was just one more weird event floating in a sea of weird events—some of which were definitely way weirder—that had happened to the Chief of Security, and it didn’t seem to warrant more than a passing comment from him.
Yet the creature that had shadowed him didn’t forget. To it, he was the first dragon it’d ever encountered, and those cookies were the first taste of earthly food it’d ever had. Those encounters were something new, the start of a great adventure for that strange little thing. Other dragons came to its island to study and discover, and that was perfectly fine—the world of Sornieth was open to it now, too, and it had discoveries of its own to make.
It left the Sunbeam Ruins. Perhaps it would be back...but for now, there were other places it wanted to see. The world was a box of cookies, and it was excited to discover what else lay inside.
~ The End
Credits & Notes:
• This story was originally written for and submitted to The Historian's Collection writing contest, where it won first prize ("Experiences of the Island" prompt).
• Coding by me, dividers by PoisonedPaper.
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Exalting Sharatofaal to the service of the Lightweaver will remove them from your lair forever. They will leave behind a small sum of riches that they have accumulated. This action is irreversible.
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