Iceberg
1. STORY
campfire
Marnyx, Yor and Tygra sat around the campfire.The three of them came from
the village of Mistise. It was the start of winter and this would be the
last hunting trip in their own territory before they moved to the safety
of the winter villages at the edge of the ocean.
Yor, the eldest had blond hair that hang on his shoulders. He had a short
beard but shaved his moustache. To his right Marnyx, a man 6 years his
junior sat. Marnyx had gone on hunting trips before but he was far from
being experienced. Yet Yor knew he'd go far. Marnyx had the right mindset.
He was serious and smart. He was creative and knew when to act. To Yor's
left Tygra was sitting. She was a woman one year younger than Marnyx and a
total rookie. She'd been on two hunting trips before but on those she'd
been in the care of either her parents of older brothers. She was
good-looking though with brown hair and mysterious green eyes. Yor felt
that she had Marnyx wrapped around her finger. Not that she acted that way.
But this was why Yor didn't like having women on hunting trips.
The three of them talked a little while about their lives, concerns and
the current events. Like how one of their neighbouring villages had been
distroyed just one year ago. they had not made it to the winter villages
then and when the others returned, it's village had been a mere empty
shell. Not a human soul was present and all of the houses had been frozen
useless. Talk about the dragon's shadow had started and the fear of the
dragon was as big among the inhabitants of Iceland as it had been
centuries past.
But the day had been long, the fire and the food had satisfied these three
hunters and soon they drifted off to sleep, each in their own sleeping
bags.
morning
hunt
Tygra woke up and
smelled the air. It would be a cold day, she knew and for a moment she
wanted to huddle deep in her sleeping bag for a few hours more. But she
knew she couldn't. This was her first hunting trip alone and she felt she
had to prove herself. She was an optimistic person so she didn't feel like
she needed to do anything special, just her duty.
Today her duty meant getting the others up and making breakfast. She'd
found some late nuts the day before which she'd use to decorate their
bread and meat. Nuts were also good for keeping up strength. Hopefully
they'd need that because their hunting had not been fruitful yet. They'd
only left a week ago, and with winter approaching it was normal that
they'd have to travel further south. Just as long as they didn't have to
venture away from the ice. With all the strange things happening lately,
south was a feared direction.
Tygra shook her head and the scary houghts left her mind. They weren't
south yet. She prepared the food and woke up the two men. Marnyx praised
her, which was nice, but Yor just sighed and looked like she'd done
something wrong. Tygra really wanted to please Yor, but whatever she did
seemed to come out wrong for him.
Shortly after breakfast and packing their bags, the three of them headed
out. Tygra knew she was a good tracker so she kept her eyes to the ground.
Just an hour after they'd started she noticed a faint animal trail. They
followed it, soon finding more tracks and even excrements. The trail was
considerably fresh.
Then finally they spotted an eland. A large four-legged creature that
would feed them for a few weeks. Of course they wouldn't be the only ones
eating from it, but if more hunters got lucky they'd have food enough to
start the crossing.
Exalted Tygra knew she'd done something good. Even the small disgruntled
nod Yor gave her felt like a big award. But the hardest part would start
only know. They had to catch the eland and make sure no-one got hurt in
the process.
cracks in the ice
Marnys positioned himself away from Yor and Tygra. The'd use a pronged
attack strategy to corner the eland and force it to become tangled in the
forest. Once there it would be easy to kill.
But things didn't go as planned. Marnyx waited for Yor's signal, but just
as yor lifted his arm, a great force shook the ground beneath him. Marnyx
was hit as well and fell over. The eland got spooked and dashed away.
Marnyx cursed and wondered how long it would take for them to find a beast
like that again. They'd return to their village in just three days. Their
only option was to follow the one that had escaped, but it would be weary
of danger now.
A sudden cry caught his attention and Marnyx looked up. He saw Yor laying
on the ground. there was no sign of Tygra even if he had heard her voice
just seconds ago.
Marnyx rushed toward Yor and saw that the olde rman had his arms down a
rift in the ice. Tygra was just barely holding on. Marnyx fell to the
ground and tried to get Tygra up. It took a while and all chances to catch
up with the eland were lost. But Marnyx would have chosen Tygra above
eland any day. When she was finally back on the ground he felt his legs
become weak and he too had to sit, just now realising how close he'd come
to losing the one person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
Even if Tygra had not once shown a sign that she thought more of him than
being a childhood playmate.
After a while Marnyx regained his strength. he got up and looked at yor
who stood frozen looking in one direction. Marnyx followed his gaze and
noticed it too. They were moving away from the mountains. The earthquake
had been severe enough to break the land and now they were drifting away
from the mainland. The speed by which they were seemed to indicate that
they'd never find a way to cross back.
dragons
overhead
Alarmed the three IceLanders tried not to panic. Which was hard since
people of their kind had rarely ventured farther south than they had. None
of them knew where they were headed. But in folklore the south was a
cursed instable land that would support no humans.
But it wasn't in an IceLanders way to give up. The only way off their
floating island was to make a boat. So they'd make a boat. They chopped
would, skinned it and tried to bind it together. Neither of them was an
expert and it was questionable that their boat would even stay afloat long
enough. But grimly they worked on.
So seriously did they work that it was only when Yor rested his arms for a
while, looking up, that he saw the flying beasts overhead.
"Dragons." he called.
But it was too late, the dragons had spotted them and they dove down,
coming to land on the icy clearing they were on. They could only watch as
a blue dragon with the blood still dripping from his beak and paws landed,
followed by a blue and purple dragon that seemed to change colours
depending on the light.
Much greater was the surprise when Yor noticed one of his friends drop
down from the blood-marked beast. Sveryk had lived in IselWegn. None of
it's inhabitants had been found alive and talk of the shadow of the dragon
had broguht fear to the other IceLanders. To see that Sveryk now rode a
dragon was like knowing one of your friends had gone to hell.
"Yor." Sveryk said, his voice sounding normal, "Don't worry. I'm still
me."
"How can I believe you?" Yor asked.
"Have their been any more villages attacked?" the woman with the purple
dragon asked.
"No." Tygra called back.
"They stopped her." she sighed with relief.
"Yor. Trust me." Sveryk said, "We escaped. But we were alone, without food.
No means of escape. All we could do was take the helping hand that was
offered to us by other IceLanders riding dragons. Not all of them are
bad."
In their heads the voices of the three dragons, so smooth and friendly
sounded. They showed worlds and people the three of them did not know off.
they showed them the south and how it had settled after years of
turbulence. And somewhere along the way they opened up their hearts which
held no ounce of malevolence.
"Come with us." Sveryk pleaded, "You are lost to iceLand now. But one day
we will return and bring back the people to the world that belongs to us."
STATS
Marnyx
male, 19
Marnyx has been Tygra's next-door neighbour for his entire life. They've
grown up together and lately Marnyx has been thinking of asking her to
become his wife. He has black hair, a rarity in Iceland and blue eyes.
He's serious in nature and has a fair amount of wits about him.
Yor
male, 25
The more experienced member of the hunting trip, Yor is several years
older than his two companions. He knew them when they were children. He
has blond hair, a beard and blue eyes. As a person Yor is gentle and
easily gives in to others.
Tygra
female, 18
Tygra is the youngest on this hunting trip. It's her first hunting trip
without her parents or brothers. She has long brown hair and dark green
eyes. Personality-wise she likes to joke when walking and keeps the
optimism in the group.
2. WINTER
HATCHING
Snow was falling outside for the first time that year. It
didn't seem like it would stay, but the effect was pretty and so was the
timing. Five candidates had been found for this year's winter clutch,
three IceLanders and two runic warriors.
As the eggs began rocking the first candidates entered. Just about fifteen
minutes later the first egg crackled and a spiderweb of jiggly lines appeared on
it's surface. Soon the lines connected and the egg fell neatly in half, allowing
a white and yellow hatchling do drop out. The hatchling was wingless with a
ridge of very peculiar outcrops over the entirety of her body. Markings riddled
her skin on her head and tail.
Stepping carefully around the eggshards, the female yellow crystal hatchling
looked around the candidates. She finally walked toward
Tygra stating.
"You are definitely mine. My name is Dagmar."
Two more eggs hatched and two males, a blue and red crystal
walked away from the wreckage of eggshell. They seemed to ignore each
other as they each went into a completely different direction.
The red crystal male headed for another IceLander,
Marnyx who was quite unusual with his black hair and lithe built. He
was a serious man on the other hand and the red dragon seemed to like that.
"We are two of a kind." he said,
"My name is Glorun, rider mine."
A crystal purple hatchling impressed next. The two remaining eggs hatched, spilling a violet crystal female and a green
crystal male onto the sands. It was the green who made a move first and he
headed straight for the last candidate, IceLander Yor.
Without much effort he stopped before the tall, bearded man and spoke:
"You are mine! My name is Pygel."
3. ADULTS
text
Yor's Green Crystal Pygel (m)
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Tygra's Yellow Crystal Dagmar (f)
Marnyx' Red Crystal Glorun (m)