Creative Corner

This fic is finished! :D

1. Day 0
2. Day 8
3. Day 17
4. Day 25
5. Day 29
6. Day 34
7. Day 38
8. Day 41
9. Day 48
10. Day 56
11. Day 62
12. Day 78
13. Day 85

Tumblr post is here!

Update pinglist:
qwertypi303
Dracknorin
Sonne
Tiirran
Chicanery
IronPen
(karinaisab)

[img]http://i.imgur.com/MSiySeW.png[/img] I’m leaving tomorrow. Whoops, there I go getting ahead of myself again. Let me start from the beginning. Yesterday there was another dragon attack, on Eriana’s herd two days south of here. Last I heard only eleven died, although both the senior Mender and one of her apprentices were killed. Their warcats too. Everyone’s scared and nobody knows what to do. I heard Aira talking about sharpening stone into spears like the Talonok do, but I don’t know how helpful that’ll be against dragons—they’re just so [u]huge[/u]. The dragons have gotten more and more daring lately, and we can’t stop them from flying wherever they want to. Sorry, I’m getting off topic again. Anyway, everyone around here is talking about moving the houses into the cracks in the hillsides, so that the dragons can’t get in. Well, most of them—I’ve heard about dragons only a little bigger than I am, from the glowing forest southeast. Anyway, I asked Ames if I could travel south to the Pillar to see if the Harpies there could help us, and he said yes. I don’t think anyone else thinks it’s a good idea, but the Harpies are aerial fighters—at the very least they could let us know when the dragons are coming. It’ll be a week’s walk there, maybe more, but it’s not like it’s hard to find the Pillar. I figure they’ll probably see me before I see them. They can spare me for a few weeks, and I’ll be back with help before spring starts. Goodness, I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep. I’ve never been that far away from home before, and I’ll probably have to hide from dragons on the way. [img]http://i.imgur.com/LTadQVP.png[/img]

@Mags

May I get a ping whenever you update?

@Mags @Dracknorin

That was enjoyable, and nice graphics too! I look forward to reading more as they come out. Would you do me a favor and ping me when this updates, on the off chance I loose the thread?

@qwertypi303 Sure! I've added a pinglist to the first post. c:

edit: @dracknorin Added you too!

[u]Day 8[/u] Everything is even worse than I thought. When I walked up to the mountains surrounding the Pillar, I expected to run into some sort of harpy scout or outpost, but it was all so quiet. From everything I’d heard, Harpy roosts were loud, social places—not this suffocating stillness. I finally found them when I nearly fell into their cavern. The guards nearly eviscerated me before they realized I wasn’t a dragon. Then they apologized, and explained why they were so twitchy. “We haven’t heard from almost any other flock in the last month,” one guard said, her voice muffled a little under her mask but still sounding tense and sad. “Then just two days ago a dragon clan attacked. We lost over half our number in less than an hour.” “Was it here?” I asked. “Yes. We have scouts looking for another roost, but we haven’t found anywhere yet. And we have wounded to look after. We’re stuck.” After telling me that, the guards returned to their watch, resolute from what I could tell under their masks. I picked my way further into the cave (it was clearly modified with flying harpies in mind), slowly hearing the sounds of clipped Harpy speech. The walls, blackened by dragon-fire, were decorated with intricate murals. Taking up one side of the cave was a huge mural of the Pillar Unsundered. I guess they haven’t had the time or effort to update it—it’s only been twenty years, after all. The other side of the cave was more damaged—there were huge claw-marks, each as far apart as I was tall, gouged in the stone—but from what I could tell it was battle scenes of Harpy warriors of old. (Ew, some of them were plucking Longnecks right off the ground. I thought it had been generations since our species had clashed, but the mural was still bright where it wasn’t burnt.) [img]http://i.imgur.com/cCtVNX7.png[/img] In the inner cavern I could see the results of the dragons’ attack. It looked like the area had been hastily converted from a bustling roost to half-sleeping space, half-Mending room. I tried to stay out of the way and one of the Harpies pointed me towards a pink-tinted harpy directing the movement of supplies near the Mending room. I introduced myself and she did the same. “Talona, wingsecond of Three Feathers, although come morning I may be wingleader.” Her sigh was resigned, but then she seemed to pick herself back up. “I’m afraid we’re in no shape to help you, as much as I’d like to. The dragons have killed so many—not just here, but all over Sornieth. We just don’t have enough warriors to fight them effectively.” “I still need to bring help to my herd,” I said. “Is there no one else who might help?” “There are Dunhoof in the shadowed forests southeast of here,” she said. “I don’t know if they could help, though.” “I’ll ask them, and I’ll ask them to help Three Feathers,” I said. That brought a smile to Talona’s face. “Thank you. I really can’t spare the wingpower, or else I’d send a scout with you. You’re welcome to stay the night—I don’t know if our food will be to your liking—but we do have space, and we fought hard enough that the dragons should not return very soon.” And that is how I’m spending tonight inside a cave filled with Harpies. The wing rustling sounds like grass in the wind, so I’m already halfway asleep, but then a hurt Harpy cries out and I’m wide awake again. Tomorrow, as long as it’s safe, I’ll head off to the dark forest that Talona mentioned. @qwertypi303 @Dracknorin

[u]Day 17[/u] I suppose I should have expected to find Serthis, going into the rot-lands. I was a little wary treading in the Dying Sister’s domain, but even in the wide-open plain I only saw one dragon, and it was flying high above and very far away. I was greeted today, however, by a group of five Serthis, young and well-armed with daggers and what looked like dragon teeth, who slithered out of well-camouflaged holes in the sticky rot. Their scales were all different colors, from brown to dark blue to blood-red. The leader, Sektet (or maybe Sekteth, it was hard to tell through all the teeth) greeted me warmly, sheathing their dagger and ruffling the fur on my head. “You’re far from home, Longneck,” they said. [img]http://i.imgur.com/Pa9dxeF.png[/img] I explained that I was hoping to find help for my herd and for Talona of Three Feathers. “Oh, is that all?” one of the other Serthis, the one with dark blue scales, asked, mocking. “It is a tall order,” Sektet said. “But if we can’t even face the dragons, we’ve given up, and are we going to do that?” “No!” the other four chorused. “They haven’t gone far into our territory yet, so once I take over the congregation I’ll do what I can to help,” Sektet said. The rest of our conversation was cut off by a thrown dagger sticking itself into the crimson-scaled Serthis. I ducked out of the way as the group I was talking to was attacked by a trio of other Serthis. They moved too fast for me to follow, blades and tails flashing, and in what must have been less than a minute two of the attackers were dead and Sektet had their tail wrapped around the last remaining one. “Go,” Sektet said, squeezing the attacking Serthis’ neck a little with their tail. “In a month the Proving will be over.” They gave me some directions to get towards the dark forest as well. I left as they were bandaging each other up and took a quicker pace towards the dark forest. I’ve talked to a few other groups of Serthis since the meeting with Sektet, but none seemed as enthusiastic about it. All I need to do is get to the Dunhoof. They’ll be able to overwhelm the dragons and drive them back, I’m sure of it. @qwertypi303 @Dracknorin

[u]Day 25[/u] I don’t even know what to say. I made it into the dark forest yesterday, after far too long in the rot-lands. It’s very unnerving here—the sky is permanently dark so the only light comes from glowing mushrooms and fungi, and I swear I keep seeing things just at the edge of my vision. Longnecks aren’t made for places like this—we belong in open plans where we can see danger coming. Ugh, I can’t suppress a shudder thinking about what might be hiding in the shadows. The sooner I’m out of here, the better. And that’s not just because of the scenery. [img]http://i.imgur.com/jpfsYal.png[/img] I met the Dunhoof today just fine—I was nearly run over by a herd of them, actually. I started trying to talk about how my herd and Talona’s flock, and they seemed oddly hesitant. I followed them as they trotted back home (they are [u]so fast[/u]) and I saw one of the Dunhoof talking with a dragon—exchanging cloth for ores. The dragon was easily three times as tall as I am, lean and bird-like, and at first I wondered how it could fly, until it took off on huge wings that looked like a combination of both bat’s and bird’s wings. [img]http://i.imgur.com/44oXSgG.png[/img] “We’re getting along fine with the dragons,” one of the Dunhoof said, although she didn’t say it with much conviction. “They’re too large to weave like we can, and they can dig for ore much more effectively than we can, so we trade. They stay out of our territory and we stay out of theirs.” “And how much of [u]their[/u] territory was yours a generation ago?” I said, disgusted. “You’re just going to roll over and trade nicely with them?” One of the Dunhoof sighed and flipped his hands, palms up, in my direction, like he was displaying me to the rest. “The Longneck speaks more sense than most of you do,” he said bitterly. “Dornan, we’ve had this argument before. If you don’t like the way Baytail manages the herd, you’re free to leave.” Dornan folded his arms but didn’t say anything further. I wondered how many had already left the herd, if this was the policy—I didn’t know how large a herd of Dunhoof usually was, and there sure seemed to be a lot of them here. After making that much of a fuss I was pretty clearly not welcome there, though Dornan did slip me some more paper and ink. I don’t really know what to do now. I guess I’ll see if there are any other Dunhoof who are willing to help, somewhere in the dark forest, or whatever lands there are to the south. I’ve just been hanging so much on help from the Dunhoof. I thought once I found them I’d be done, and now I’ve got to keep looking. But I can’t go back empty-hoofed to my herd, and to Talona’s flock—there has to be [u]someone[/u] left who can fight the dragons. @qwertypi303 @Dracknorin

@Mags .

I like where you're going so far, and lovely illustrations as always. Poor lone longneck, I hope he doesn't run into much trouble.

I'm not sure how closely you're sticking to lore, but judging by the artwork of dunhoof centaurs next to the guardian in the lore video, the skydancer would be around the same size as your longneck.

I use this chart for rough size comparison.

@dracknorin Thank you! I have some more adventures planned for my narrator, just you wait and see ;3

You know, I never watch those lore videos, but apparently that means I'm missing some stuff :p

I was working from the assumption that Longnecks were about person-sized or a little shorter and that Skydancers were about 4-5 meters long, which in retrospect puts them at twice rather than three times as tall. Perhaps the Longneck was exaggerating a little, hehe.