Creative Corner

Hey all! This thread is a collaboration of all the Egg Rot stories that myself and others have done so far. The concept is pretty simple, but all of the stories are gut wrenching and morose. If you would like to contribute a story please PM me and I will put it up as soon as I can. Feel free to take inspiration from this thread to improve your own lore.

The original thread can be found here http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/frd/1929961/1

All concepts and ideas belong to their original Authors.

@Ikevenon - Arcane
@septarianflare - Earth
@catmeow1 - Fire
@FrostiiWolf - Ice
@PoIarized - Light
@EchoDance - Lightning
@CaliCa1 - Nature
@wyvernaura888 - Nature
+++++++++++ - Plague
@Jayflying - Shadow
@DarkMatterDragon - Water
@Bungalow - Wind

[center][b]Arcane[/b][/center] ----------------------- Written By @Ikevenon You gaze proudly upon your beautiful eggs as they bob up and down above their nest, they vibrate with magical energy in a way that screams [i]healthy[/i]. Clanmates have come throughout the day congratulating you on your clutch. You and your mate are incredibly excited, after all, this is your first nest together. You can't wait for them to hatch. ~~~ In the first few days all was well, but as the week came to an end, the first signs of disaster appeared. Two of your eggs had begun slowly drifting down, down, down. Worried, you gently nudge them back up where their other siblings float. They do not stay. Now you're frantic, doing anything and everything to get them back afloat because you know that if they touch the ground they likely will not hatch. You haven't left the nest in days and sleep has been short and sporadic, every waking hour is spent watching the eggs. Your mate has gone out to neighboring clans in search of help and guidance. Coming from a clan made primarily of magical scholars who have never reared young has left you without much support. All they could do was offer their well-wishes. Two more eggs begin to fall. ~~~ You were sleeping when you heard it. That sickening crack. That sound you wish you could forget. One of your eggs had perished. The sorrow you feel is overwhelming and you spend long minutes frozen, staring at the lifeless, gray shell of what was once a healthy egg. You vowed then and there to not let any of the others die. ~~~ One by one they fell despite your best efforts. Your mate returned to three fallen eggs with another dying one in your shaking claws. Both of you watched helpless as its glow quickly faded away. The shell cracked and crumbled like old paper when you set it down. Any help your mate managed to find was useless, now. ~~~ Through it all, one egg remained, its energy never wavering. You clung to this last hope, the only survivor. As that hatchling took it's first breath, your tears flowed around your smile even as your heart ached. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/9/1healthy_4dead.png[/center]

[center][b]Earth[/b][/center] ------------------ Written By @septarianflare It's been a while since they have had such a wonderful clutch, such a good set of eggs. It's been a while, at least in the eldest Snapper's memory. They always remember the clutches. It's been a while since a clutch has been like this. Did they do something to insult the Earthshaker? Did they not tend to their children well enough? The nest was surrounded by granite, a sign that the nest should have been protected. It should have been safe. What could have happened? Touching the crumbled remains, the Snapper cradled the remaining child as best as they could as it crumbled right before their very eyes, in their clutches. The eldest Snapper [i]never[/i] forgets a clutch. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/1/1healthy_4dead.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Fire[/b][/center] ----------------------- Written By @catmeow1 [center]I remember what my mother told me[/center] As she watched me hatch. She told me about my siblings, and how healthy and strong and warm they all were. [center]I remember what my mother told me [/center]As she picked me up. She told me about my father, who had left to serve the flamecaller before I was even hatched. She told me about how she would never take another mate. [center]I remember what my mother told me [/center]As she began walking. She told me about her rage and pain and grief. She told me about her sorrow as the days before my hatching drew on. About how my siblings slowly had the warmth drain out of them. About how their life became a part of the lava pool where my egg had lain until I hatched. About how I was the last one left. About how the clan shunned her for her failure towards my siblings. About how I was the worst reminder. [center]I remember what my mother told me As she threw me over the cliff.[/center] [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/11/1healthy_4dead.png[/img] [/center]

[center][b]Ice[/b][/center] ------------------ Written By @FrostiiWolf As the howling winds blow, you struggle with holding your eggs. You cuddle close to your eggs, struggling to keep awake. You see something in the distance. At the same time you see it, the blizzard stops, and you trod up to the thing. It's a nest. You are ecstatic, finally, you and your eggs are safe! Or so you thought. As you fall asleep, you were unaware of the unnatural coldness throughout the night. You wake up freezing, and the first thing you do is to check on your eggs. As you look at the broken remains of your eggs, your heart breaks into cold shards, just like your eggs. [i]You can endure it.[/i] You say to yourself. [i]Just like how you endured the cold. [/i]But you know you can't. The cold consumes everything. [b][i]The ice... ...it's so cold...[/i][/b] [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/6/0healthy_5dead.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Light[/b][/center] -------------------------- Written By @PoIarized [center][b]You are a proud mother dragon.[/b] Your mate is a handsome wildclaw who has already been exalted to the lightweaver, but not before you both had three beautiful shining eggs. They were perfect, each one a shining orb that would end up as a curious hatchling. One day your leader calls for you to go on a trip to gather materials and feed the clan. You agree, hoping your eggs would be safe. You set off the next day. Days pass by. You begin to worry about your eggs but dismiss the thought. They will be okay. A week and a half later you return to the Clan. They are happy about your arrival, but are clearly hiding something. You get rid of every thought about what could have happened and walk to the nesting grounds to check on your eggs. You gasp in fear. Two of the three perfect orbs had exploded, their fragile shells blackened. You touch your hand to the egg. Still warm. Still smoking. Had you not embraced the praise of your clan the eggs would still be okay. You are angry and ashamed. You grab the last egg and take it where nodragon can see you. You take deep breaths, raising the egg above your head. Seconds later you fling it on the ground, cracking the shell. You will make sure nobody tells. You will make sure nobody knows that you failed. Nobody. [b]After all; you are a proud dragon.[/b] [img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/8/1healthy_2dead.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Lightning[/b][/center] ---------------------- Written By @EchoDance It had been a normal day, your clanmates giving you and your mate time to spend with your new nest, 3 beautiful and healthy sparky eggs. Your mate had been particularly excited to welcome children of her own into the world, you’d been together for years but only now found both the suitable male and the right time. You’d never thought that anything bad could happen to your eggs, but even you could be wrong. It started about 3 days into incubation, one of your eggs glowing less than their siblings, you didn’t think anything of it. You’d come to regret that. Your mate’s shriek of distress drawing you out of a novel you’d been reading. The egg had fractured suddenly leaving nothing but a blackened and empty shell, you both mourned that night, wondering what you could have done differently, if you could have saved your child. It had happened so quickly that no one could have been called to help even if you realized what was going to happen. The next egg started to dim the next day, you called for your clanmates, but no one knew what to do, and you watched helplessly as your child died in both of your claws. You only had one egg left and you desperately hoped that they would survive. You contemplated your situation, wondering why this had happened. The Skydancer had seemed nice enough, he had offered to sire your hatchlings after all, but there had been something odd about how he had vanished almost immediately after the eggs had been lain. And you had never gotten a look at his eyes. Your contemplations stopped abruptly when you heard the sound of cracking, panic overtook you as you rushed to your mates’ side, but relief soon came as you saw that you had only forgotten the days, small claws breaking through the shell. You would never forget her siblings that didn’t make it, but for now it was time to meet your new daughter. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/5/1healthy_2dead.png[/img][/center]

[center][b]Nature[/b][/center] --------------------- Written By @CaliCa1 [b]New parents being so excited about bringing new life and growth into the world, you and your mate go back to your nest surrounded with green plants and bright flowers.[/b] And your eggs. Your beautiful hatchlings. They just... died. They're dead. Dead. Eggshells fragile and soft. You touch one to check on them, and your claws push through. It feels like mush. Did you fail? Did you not take good care of them? They look so [b][i]wrong..[/i][/b] The rest of the clan pities you. To not be able to cultivate life? Here? Something must be wrong with you. [b]And it happens again. And again.[/b] [b]Mate after mate leaves you.[/b] It's your fault. It's all your fault. Why can't you take care of your hatchlings? Your mother is disgusted. The other dragons in your clan fear you now. New mothers shrink away when you pass, and their mates growl at you as you walk by. What did you do wrong? Dragons shun you now. You haven't taken a mate in many seasons. You can't. No one ever comes near you, hatchlings snatched away by their mothers when they come to say hello. [b]You leave the Grove.[/b] You have no choice. Losing track of where you travel. Finding yourself surrounded by rot and disease. Nothing less than you deserve. [b]Waking up to see a struggling mother, scales covered in rot, carrying eggs past your snout.[/b] You blink in surprise. It's been so long since you have been close to eggs. She looks at you gratefully when you help her bring them back to her clan. They look at you funny. But they come around. You grow used to the bones scattered around, and gather the dead to incubate the eggs. The mother lets you help. She lets you help take care of them, you nearly cry the first time she asks you to watch them. [b]The eggs hatch.[/b] They Hatch. And they climb all over you, still slimy, and you've never been happier. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/10/0healthy_5dead.png[/img][/center] [b]------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------[/b] Written By @wyvernaura888 You were always an energetic dragon, and ever so eager to raise a clutch of five healthy, lively babies with your mate. She had been a beautiful, equally energetic Spiral dragon with a personality to match that. Well... you [i]were[/i] excited. That all changed when suddenly, she was exalted to the Gladekeeper. The others of your clan looked on with joy, saying that it was an honor to be sentenced to such a grim fate. Whose decision was it, anyway, to exalt a mother of five unborn children? Then it happened. It occurred a few nights after your treasured mate's unexpected exaltation. When returning from your daily gathering session, preparing yourself to provide for five hatchlings alone, you returned to your clan and saw only woeful faces. No one would talk to you, and were even less willing to look at you. Wondering what you had done, you tried to consult your clan's patriarch to look for answers. Even that brought no results. With a bad feeling in your chest, you went to check on your eggs. You were hurrying now, taking it all in. What could have possibly happened to make your clan basically shun you? And then you saw it. Sitting there, in your nest, lay five rotten eggs, their leaves wilted and their colour drained. You dropped whatever you had gathered earlier and fell to your knees, broken. You were certain they had been very much alive that morning when you left. It seemed that the last tangible thing your mate left you was gone now, and you had not even been informed. Full of utter despair, you curled yourself around the lifeless eggs, trying so hard to bring them back to life. Minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and days into weeks and then months. Sympathetic dragons had brought you food after your hoard's stores ran out, but by then you had no will to eat, much less live. Soon, the clan forced themselves to let you be, certain that you would snap out of it sooner or later and become your perky self again. Oh, how wrong they were. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/10/0healthy_5dead.png[/img][/center]

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[center][b]Shadow[/b][/center] --------------------- Written By @Jayflying [size=4]You were anticipating happiness.[/size] It was your first clutch, you and your beautiful mate, and you were so proud. Five perfect little eggs, pulsing with light, casting the shadows of their siblings in a never-ending dance of light and dark. They thrummed with a kind of barely audible life. Sleeping next to them, you could almost hear the pulses of the little lives held within... It was supposed to be perfect. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/7/4healthy_1dead.png[/img] [/center] [size=4]It was supposed to be perfect.[/size] You sensed the change immediately; a little of the warmth fading from the air, a little sound quieting, a little light going dark. A little life lost. What did you do wrong? The egg wasn't sickly. Or was it? Oh, gods, what if this was your fault? What if you had missed something, if you could have stopped this? You and your mate both mourn over the withered husk of the egg, crying for the child you would never see. You vowed to never let this happen again. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/7/3healthy_2dead.png[/img][/center] [size=4]You had vowed to never let this happen again.[/size] It was a pain like you had never felt before. Another life lost. You had failed. Failed as a parent-- and as a mate. You should have never agreed to watch the eggs again after what happened under your protection. "Protection", what a joke. You couldn't protect anything, could you? Suddenly the shadows around you, once your home, just became reminders of the blackness of your grief. Was fate taunting you? [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/7/2healthy_3dead.png[/img][/center] [size=4]Was fate taunting you?[/size] The pain of another egg lost barely registered through the numbness of your grief. You had stayed up almost all night watching the eggs, and yet you had succumbed to your tiredness. And another egg had succumbed to whatever was tearing your unborn children away from you. This [i]couldn't[/i] be your own fault, could it? There had to be [i]something[/i] else responsible for this. Couldn't you even save one? Were you cursed? Doomed to watch your little family stolen from you one by one? Your mate was already beginning to ask if they could watch the eggs on your behalf, mistrust behind the words. You swore that you would save at least one, no matter the cost. [center][img]http://flightrising.com/images/nests/7/1healthy_4dead.png[/img][/center] [size=4]You swore that you would save at least one, no matter the cost.[/size] Even if that cost was the life of it's only surviving sibling. You knew what you would come back to in the morning, and yet the image of your sleeping mate, blissfully unaware of what would be the [i]fourth[/i] dead egg, tore your heart in two. They seemed even more heartbroken over their own failure than they had been about yours, and you understood why. They couldn't just blame it on you anymore. When night fell again you stood watch over your last surviving egg. You knew that the egg was due to hatch the next morning, and you refused to let it die without ever having lived. You looked around warily, every shadow no longer a place of safety to you but a hiding place for danger. But you refused to let your guard down, refused to sleep or hunt or leave your egg for even a moment. It was a few hours before dawn when you saw it. Something moving in the dark-- or was it the dark that was moving? The shadows you had once considered safety coalesced into claws, fangs, reaching and seeking, [i]hungering[/i]. You had heard stories of this creature throughout your life but had only ever spoken the word "Shade" as a curseword. And a curse it truly was, the curse that had been haunting your nest this whole time, stealing away the things most important to you. No more. It snaked it's way across the ground, poking smoky tendrils over the edge of your nest inquisitively. Though it had no eyes, you could sense it eyeing the last remaining egg, desiring nothing more than to destroy the little life that had formed inside over the last few days. You snapped at it, tearing at the darkness and forcing it to recoil. Grief ignited into rage. This awful thing would not touch your child. Every time it made a move toward the nest, you fought it back, but it was returning your blows. Dark tendrils became claws, tearing at your eyes, your wings, your neck. The fight seemed never-ending. You knew you were stalling, hoping what little dawn light crept into the Tangled Wood would be enough to drive it away. Thankfully, your intuition had been correct. The beast fled at first light, hours after it had first arrived. You were alone, your emotional pain drowned out by the physical pain the creature had caused. You still stood, but it was shaky. You shivered, despite the warm blood flowing down to meet the ground where you stood. Inevitably, your balance gave out, and you hit the ground. Instinct made you curl around the one egg you still had left. One perfect little egg, pulsing with light, casting the shadows of your face in a never-ending dance of light and dark. Light and dark, dancing in your vision. First light, then dark. Then light, then a longer period of dark. The darkness dragged on longer and longer every time it filled your eyes. Lying next to your precious egg, you could still hear the pulse of the little life held within... [size=4]You were anticipating happiness.[/size]