Dark Aura

A kiss on the cheek on a christmas day.

Silent knight, holy night.

Christmas party at Soba House!

Affi invited me over to Soba House for the christmas tree lighting. Shark joined us just in time as she set it off to glow into the chilly night. A beautiful sight shared with friends becomes a cherished memory.

Exploring homes again. Call it routine inspection.

“You see flowers around me, sweet scents surround me, but I am nightshade on your tongue.”  — Your Dark Aura

The spriggan had followed me home one day. In truth, it had followed me out of a crystal mine, across a field, through a forest, and had started across the desert before I gave up hoping it would find its way back to its brethren and scooped it up to take home. If it was so absurdly determined to follow me that it risked its life in the burning sands, then I would humor the foolish creature. Not once did it show sign of violence. It only repeatedly raised a dark crystal toward me, as if in offering. In our weeks together it proved to make a habit of such behavior toward anything it viewed as powerful. Many times I observed its ritual of offering the dark crystal to the rising sun through my paned glass windows. That seemed to be its favorite spot to bask, as well. Though it spent the rest of its time napping in the dark under my bed, which caused it to collect thick, bothersome matts of dust in its bristly fur I had to brush out frequently against its squirming and alarmed noises. Whatever it thought of me, as peer or power, it quickly grew accustomed to the new lifestyle. I let it live there at home to keep it safe, and in time I grew attached to it as a pet. I named it Froud, after an elderly man from my hometown who had once taught me the true artistic beauty of that which is misunderstood as ugly and wild. I came to find the creature cute in such a way. However, my little Froud did have a grin to make even a friend wary, and I sometimes wondered why it was obsessed with its dark crystal, which it never actually set aside, even while eating, to the point of seeming to be posessed. Out of curiousity I did some research at the Arcanist library, and in an old tome I read, “It is not fully known why spriggans hoard precious rocks and minerals, though scholars would have us believe that it is the rocks and minerals which are hoarding the spriggans, hence the creatures' scientific classification as soulkin.”  — Dec 17, 2021

I cast at your side as long as you choose not to cast me aside. I bare my blade for you as long as you may bear me. I offer you my time as long as we spend that time together. Explore ruins with me but do not ruin me. Fight with me but do not fight me. I would break upon the ancient stones at your feet. My heart is more fragile than you had guessed.  — Dec 15, 2021

“Harm her and you have me to answer to, except the only question will be how you expected that to turn out, and there will be no right answer. If your intentions are impure, I suggest you back away now.”  — Dec 14, 2021

GULLINKAMBI

With forcefully surpressed trepidation I climbed the tower of Anyx Trine. Quickly I lost count of the stairs and instead came to focus on the thrumming which vibrated through the frigid stone walls into my grazing fingertips. I focused on the sensation to drive anxiety from my mind until there was only room for excitement. Almost there! Proven by a fledgling guarding a wide doorway. I turned through the arch and stared. “Here be dragons,” I breathed quietly. My grandest kindred from beyond any stars I knew. The little dragon turned at my whisper, perhaps curious, then suddenly flew forward with a rush of dank wind. I followed and concentrated on not sneezing at the stirred dust and dirt garnered over centuries in the den before me. I stopped when the little one stopped. In front of a divine red giant. Was I supposed to wake a dragon? I tried, “Greetings, great one.”  I waited, but there was no reaction, and I gazed upon the glistening plates of scales. With all fear lost to wonder, I approached and without thought ran my own scaled hand down the rough horns so much larger than my own. As an au’ra, I boasted only four little horns, while these beings wore twelve like gem encrusted crowns. While I was distracted, the dragon stirred at my touch and turned toward me in sleep, knocked me over, and nuzzled into my chest. I ignored the pain from the fall and held my breath as I stared with alarm at the teeth in my lap. There was a surprising lack of weight for the size. The coppery scent of blood and the bittersweet smell of brimstone wafted into my face, but it bothered me less than others. My heart calmed as I noticed how deeply entrenched in dreams my caresser kept. “Sleep well and wake,” I said with a smile and joy in my eyes at this rarest moment. “You are lucky to not sleep forever here after such an intrusion, tiny one,” came a deep voice. The intensity of each of these words rang in aching cacaphony through my head, my bones, my soul, and I felt what prey must feel when death is at its back. High above me out of the darkness rushed a glowering eye like lit flame, but the golden dragon who stared down at me paused and watched me without further movement. “The stench of man, yet somehow different... Ah, a companion to Ysayle,” muttered the dragon with yet painful resonance. With care I pulled away from the sleeping dragon and rose to face the one who judged me without concealment. To my worry, talons larger than me pinned down on either side of my legs to ensure I could not run. I swallowed the urge to cry out that I had held in from the moment the threat vibrated through my body. Then I straightened my shoulders back and returned the stare. “I have come to offer aid to dragon and brood, and hope for mercy in return,” I said. Was it the right choice of words? The dragon whiffed heavily at my scent, and swiftly turned to reveal a trio of eggs. “Heed me, mortal. Should you disturb the peace of our home, we will know... We seek quiet and calm. Those who deny us will be met with fangs and claws,” was the only answer I was given, and it was again a threat, but this time the waves of words were more gentle and only vibrated through the stone at my feet to nearly knock me back down. To ensure I did not fall again, I simply sat beside the eggs in exhaustion, and the golden dragon curled around me on guard. For now, I had passed this test, but there were many trials to come. Today I had come so far and climbed so high. Tomorrow there were skies to search and peace to find.  — Dec 13, 2021

LADY ICEHEART

Out of a crevace between boulders,  Iceheart approached me quickly without showing surprise that it was I who had called her to meet on the rocky tundra. To my embarrassment, I was the one alarmed when she came to stand right in front of me and bent to peer into my eyes face to face. I pushed her away and stumbled back. As usual, she held an elegant poise and a profound confidence that I would not attack her. She stood back up and gazed down at me a moment before saying, “You are Dark, yes?” She took another step closer to me and I had to crane my neck up at her. Oh, of course she knows my name, I thought. With all that she had told me in the past, it was not too much a shock that someone in her vast network had informed her. I wondered how many people I interacted with daily were secretly working for her. “Tis passing strange, is it not, that fate should bring us together thus,” she continued. Another statement, not a question, so I did not respond. Inwardly, I again thought with chagrin, She has the mind of a poet for all the violence of her determined vengeance. Aloud I only told her, “There is no fate. Though our paths have been far apart, they meet when our goals align. We made our disparate choices in adversity, but we may now choose to seek peace together.” Would she accept my offer and bind our wills toward benefit of all dwelling in this icy realm? She nodded and stared out at the snows. “Never did I think to walk alongside the Warrior of Light.”  I wished she would not refer to me as that nonsensical legendary title the masses had thrust upon me in their eagerness to seek refuge in hope and old tales of heroes. I was no true warrior, but a soul thrust into an unwanted duty by necessity and happenstance, and I had no love of the supposedly righteous light. If I were to be called a warrior, would it not be more fitting to be the Warrior of Darkness? I shook my head and bit my lip with frustration. Iceheart- no, Ysayle now- turned and walked back toward the barely visible, narrow mountain trail she had appeared from earlier. The path to Dravania. The path to dragons. The path to peace. Her equally pensive thoughts were thrown back at me by the biting winds, “But history is full of such unexpected alliances...” — Dec 12, 2021

Sometimes you wake up and feel unbeatable, as if it is a good day to stare down death. In other words, I very much wanted to pet it.  — Dec 8, 2021

“You are why I have a height complex,” I told him as I leaned backwards to glare up at his face shield. It was not missed on either of us the awkward parallel between my head and his.  — Dec 7, 2021