etherfax » Clan | Lair | Nesting Grounds

etherfax's Clan

Very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more.

Mighty Lair

in the

Wispwillow Grove

Clan Info

Dear Mods+Admin!
My gf of 6 years is contagioushazard, and we will share ips as we work together and only have one functional laptop right now. She is also helping me get started. Please don't freeze us ♥

^{There has always been mist in this part of the Tangled Wood; it is a permanent feature of the Shadowbinder's territory, and you would think that the border of the Driftwood Drag and Wispwillow Grove should be no different. Especially given the thin channel of brackish delta water that snakes down the northern side, infiltrating the woods with its murk and tang. But as you make your way through the mist alongside the river, the first thing you notice is the fog lifting from your view until you can see the riverbank sprawled in front of you with relative ease. This part of the bank curves out, and the shores slope downward into the water that drifts by. You don't see a dam nearby, but there are a few logs caught in the mud of the delta that slow the currents just enough to lessen the burble into a soft hush. Above you, the night sky is clear and sparkling with winking stars. It's strange to you how crisp the world seems in this little pocket carved into the shadows of the Tangled Wood.

You move farther onto the open bank. The mud is soft here, and it squelches at your toes as you move and sucks at your heels when you walk. It is not binding, though, and the ground grows firmer as you retreat from the riverside. There is a clearing here-- it was bracketed by the trunks of thin-branched trees, like a cove hidden by the mist that still curls at the edges of the clearing as though barred from entrance by some unseeable force.}

^{To your surprise, you see a light.

It is a campfire; the flames are low and flare amber underneath a massive stone-- perhaps cast iron, you think dismissively-- cauldron that otherwise sits alone in the open space. The clearing is much larger than you originally imagined, and it takes some time to blink at the area around you before you can fathom just how large it truly is. The shadows make it difficult to judge an accurate size, but the longer you stand centered in this empty place, the more you wonder if your eyes are playing tricks on you.

The fire beneath the cauldron simmers and flickers. You can hear the gentle crack and pop of the embers below, and it's a peaceful symphony combined with the rhythmic chirp of crickets and the distant sigh of the river behind you. Nothing else moves or flutters, and for a moment, it feels as though the world has been taken under by quiet, blissful sleep.

"Enjoying yourself, stranger?"

It's a feminine voice, but rich and somehow deeper than you would expect. It floats around you like velvet, but there's a power lurking just beneath the toneless surface that promises mystery. Though you turn in circles to find the source, you're not quite sure which direction it came from until something dark and astonishingly small drops to the damp earth at your feet.}

^{It's a small Fae, and in the faint starlight and glow of the cauldron fire, you can see her dark hide iridesce in muted colors that shift with her movement. She has wide wings, and they're slightly flared as she tilts her head up at you. The fins sprouted from her face twitch ever so slightly, and you only notice because she does it several more times as she watches. Her eyes are dark, the color of Shadow; though obscured slightly by the fringe of her flowing mane, you wonder at the impossible depth contained within them.

You apologize quickly for the intrusion and offer your name. She does not appear irritated with your arrival, though it's always been hard to tell with the Fae.

She crooks a purple claw at you. "Come then," she beckons. Her movement is grace personified; its as though her body moves with the wind and shadow, melting against the earth and leaving no impression of her presence behind. You've always known Fae were a magical kind, but you can't help but think she seems more spirit-- feline, even-- than dragon.

She stops and flits up to the lip of her cauldron. As you saw before, it's huge, the basin spanning at least five feet in diameter. There's water inside; it's clear, and as you peek over the lip, you see the reflection of starshine from the sky above. It's almost the perfect image of galaxy dust and the dotted pattern of constellations, despite that the water ripples softly from your breath.}

^{The reflection of the silver disc of moon undulates mildly over the water's surface too, and you frown. There is no moon tonight.

A strange sound catches your attention, and you look up at the Fae across the cauldron from you. Though you can't read her expression-- her fins are twitching again, you notice-- it takes you only a few moments longer to recognize the laughter of her kind. It's a soft clicking sound, like air popping in the back of her throat.

"Worry not, friend," she says, and now you wonder if you should have had cause to worry from the cryptic way she stares at you. From her perch on the cauldron, she pulls the tome hanging at her side from its latch and lets it fall open in her small, violet claws. Those claws match the color of her throat and belly, you realize, and then it dawns on you that there's a liquid contained beneath the translucent scales there. A bright purple liquid that makes you wary.

Bright purple liquid was generally never a good thing, in your experience.

She chuckles again. Without explanation, the Fae reaches for her chest and rakes her claws into the scales. You wince at the motion, more so when her claws glow brighter from whatever contained in her body spills out onto them. Just enough to coat, and it shimmers much like the rest of her; it's not blood, you don't think, but certainly must be magical.}

^{"I welcome you into the ether, my friend," the Fae says, and as soon as her words filter through your head, a drop falls from her suspended claw and into the water of the cauldron below. The moment it strikes, the water darkens and the stars and moon vanish from sight. Movement in your peripheral forces you to look up, and you watch as the mist around the clearing swells up and crashes inward, swallowing you whole.

You blink. It takes a while to adjust to the fog again, but soon you're able to make out shapes in the mist around you. You're still standing at the cauldron, though the water remains as black as the river somewhere in the distance. The embers still crackle and their glow is dim. Yet somehow, there's enough light to focus on the shapes around you. There are numerous dragons of various sizes, though you notice their hides and scales are nearly as dark-- or darker, you think-- than the Fae that plunged the clearing into shadow and fog.

Speaking of, she appears to still be standing at the cauldron. Her laughter trickles up into the night again. "Now you see, my friend," she says, and there's a ripple of murmured chuckles in response from those gathered in the clearing that you hadn't seen before.}

^{For some reason, you tilt your head back and look to the sky. The mist blurs it somewhat, but you can still make out some of the stronger stars against the jet of night. Oh, and there's the moon, full of luminous silver light.

"This here is my Book of Shadows," the Fae tells you, but when you look to her again, her tome is tucked back onto its leather strap. She is not speaking of her tome, you gather, but of the many dragons scattered through this clearing. "My children are masters of their craft and purveyors of magic and spells. Come, sit with us a while. Tell us your story, and we may gift you with a spell or two for your use." She pauses, then adds with another clicking laugh, "Or curse. Depends on our mood."

In the Tangled Wood, the night stretches long. Yet here, it seems eternal, as though time merely skims past this part of the Shadowbinder's realm. As you spend minutes, hours, and immeasurable lengths of time sharing your words and thoughts and memories, you try not to wonder which part of this experience is the true illusion.}