Peeling off the broken breastplate of a stoic knight who only fights and never speaks, just to realize there’s nothing in there. Not metaphorically—the armor is literally empty. It doesn’t appear to affect him. If the armor stays mostly in the shape of a knight, he just gets back up to keep fighting. But with the chest plate off he just sits there, equally impervious to curiosity as I reach up into the cavity where his body might’ve gone. Stubbornly, no answers are found anywhere in there.
So I forge him a new breastplate and on the inside, because I know he has plenty of room, I put a little pocket. Not big enough to hold anything functional of course. Just a little extra piece to see what he’ll do with it.
What a nice writing omg
@chaotic-elemental do u know nothing knight?
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Hmmmm… thank you for asking, tiny one. Indeed I'm not sure! _
One day I was lazing around in front of my cave enjoying the sun on my scales, when I heard the once-in-five-years-inevitable tin din in the near woods...
That could mean nothing but the next knight heading into the direction of my hoard, disturbing the peace of nature with their metallic noise and most likely not in an accountable mood like I already knew too well by involuntary experience!
So as this was gonna be one of those days, I hefted myself up with a heavy sigh that was absolutely meant to be heard with some magical wind and leaves falling down to the rattling racket who approached my cave. I hoped that the rattler will go silent and abscond with a slightly more panical rattle after a second of considering.
Nah, no luck this day. The noise crept closer and so I rolled my eyes and started to refresh my memories about protocol and patience. Calm breathing, no fire, listen to them, answer like being a wise elemental, don't light them up by accident, because apologising is difficult when they are charred. However, I wanted to be prepared like always for my usual trials to solve human knights' aggression issues with an invitation to tea and talk. Not that any of them ever accepted!
Something was odd. There wasn't just the matter of clatter – there were also additional lightweighted human footsteps that I overheard first because the clatter was just louder. And they were running from it!
Hm, I thought myself, yes, I can relate very much to running from such a tin din, when being so tiny and not that easily able to disarm a knight by just… uh… politely and cautiously lifting them up at their weapons into the air until they let go and decide to retreat, so everybody can be happy and calm again.
Then my thoughts got disturbed by a strident yell!
"Help! Can anybody help me? Please!"
I jumped up to my paws and growled! That yell came from the light footed running human and the voice pattern was female, 19 winters old, had sobbed not long ago and had a lot of anxiety but also a neat load of anger in it. A precious composition I liked very much and within moments I arrived to get a better look what was happening.
I preferred not just crashing into the scene. I didn't feel the need to my poor sensing getting sliced into pieces and cause me headache for hours with human shock screeching. So I rumbled with well trained mystic imminence when I stepped into their sight:
"Who comes into my realm to seek for help has nothing to fear… *dramatical pause with warning growl*… but who comes to bring harm… uh… can piss off."
Yes, I know I must work at the ending. To my defence, I wasn't prepared for the tiny human lady not stopping but crashing with full speed into my front leg being a fluff ball of colorful green to teal clothing and wild light brown strands of hair, wrapping their even more tiny arms and legs around me and crying:
"Thank god who sent me an angel to save me from him!"
An angel? I carefully lifted the preciously shimmering but also kind of seeping human into the air into a cup of my paw to get a better look, because I was a bit worried if the eyes got injured, not being able to see some well-scaled truth.
I tried a soothing and purring voice to not startle her: "Beg your pardon, little princess, – the angel you're looking for is possibly impeded, but I'll try to do my best to help you until they arrive, hm?"
"Thank you so much for helping me! This knight claims me, but tell me honestly – would you marry somebody who neither showed their face nor at least talked to you? I don't even know if there is anything under all that armor!"
"Uh… I actually don't expect a walking can to be able to talk, precious… I know some of them have voices, but they rarely use it for other things than screeching around in my experience…"
No further angels arrived and the knight stopped some steps in front of me and the princess. He didn't do the usual knight program like getting themselves into an heroic pose, claiming justice or the princess with a lot of vibrato in their indignant voices, not even pulling out to wave with the sword.
Just standing there and… nothing. Very strange and actually a bit creepy. The brave lady made a long neck to bark at him from her high ground where she obviously felt safe in my paws.
"If you don't show your face and tell me what you want, you will leave me alone right now and stop following me around, knight!"
The metal man said nothing. He raised his hands half-hearted but let them fall down again. Then he turned around and rattled the way back like nothing happened. The princess and me stared in disbelief until the tin bin was away.
"My angel, thank you for protecting me! You can put me down now."
"Oh. I beg your pardon, princess. Because what the he… cough What in heaven's name was that?"
"I'm not sure, my angel. If father really allowed this freak to follow me around, I will have a serious talk with him!"
Now as I dared to take a closer look at the princess standing upright in front of me, the shimmering light brown hair waving in the wind, I saw her beaming directly into my face without any fear with shining silvery hazel eyes like morning sunrays on the first hoarfrost of a late autumn.
Those eyes had seen my nature very well since I showed myself and this tiny human didn't hesitate a second to throw herself into the arms of a tree-tall beast – an opalescent white scaled beast though.
"How may I thank my angelic saviour properly?", she asked with a big smile and her well-ringed snow white hand reached out to touch my face, that was a bit too far away.
I melted at the whole magical situation and lowered my head to allow that tiny human pawing my cheek scales and indulging staring a bit at that new found shining precious.
She would maybe appreciate an invitation to a nice tea talk at my cave more than the other usual rusty rustlers, so I caught her glance with mine to allow myself a little bit additional enchanting and hummed with my most silken voice:
"Hmmm, do you want to come into my cave, fierce little princess?"
I was right with my guess! Why choose a knight, when you can have a dragon? 😏
_ That could have been that "Nothing Knight", tiny one. But I never saw him again to be able to find out if there is a face or a voice beneath the armor.
And no, I didn't snack the princess, pff... such filthy thoughts!
🐉✨
✨🐉 @ghostedwidow @mssfidel @fuzzyenthusiastnelket01 @nocturius8015ficore @feralferrule @still-nix-d-goffic @lonewolflupe @wings-and-beskargam @thecoffeelorian
👀 ooooooo the dragon summoned me.
The nothing night…hmmmmmmmm
Not a golem with a body of its own. Not a dead Templar who has painted Sophia inside his curiass. Something else entirely. A hungry ghost inside a shell? Like a decorator crab but in reverse? And with the help of a human? Like agentic ai- the human is the spark to orbit? No, nothing night can’t possibly be that creepy.
Perhaps he was an unwitting victim of his own passions.
Image: “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” John William Waterhouse 1893
@chaotic-elemental WOW awesome addition, thank you! Nothing-knight is probably used to this sort of thing by now. An unfortunate side effect of being nothing.
@feralferrule I haven't decided how the nothing-knight came to be. All I have is a mental set of rules for his behavior based on two things: he is a knight, and he is nothing, in a very literal, physical sense. His actions tend to create a lot of uncertainty because he's so naturally inscrutable. IMO it makes him charming and a little bit scary.
