whalesbone » Clan | Lair | Nesting Grounds

whalesbone's Clan

what is a bird? a delightful little pile of secrets

Ancient Lair

hidden in the

Foxfire Bramble

Clan Info

Secondary succession happens when a climax community
or intermediate community is impacted by a disturbance. This restarts the cycle of succession, but not back
to the beginning—soil and nutrients are still present. (x)

The brambles here are young and creep close to the ground; the trees are even younger, a hundred years away from fully obscuring the sky.

At a glance, there is nothing here.

Upon closer inspection, in fact, there is
nothing here at all.

There are no dragons, to be certain, though there are trace fossils that suggest a not-so-distant inhabitance: the clean-cut ends of felled trees scattered among the saplings; troughs in the soil demarcating once-neat squares of irrigated land; a pock-marked landscape of valleys and holes where some underground structure has begun to collapse. These traces alone could be taken simply as an abandoned lair, but it is not the absence of dragons that makes this area peculiar.

It is not dead. There is soil under short shrubs and woody shoots, but even the sweetest grasses grow free of predators, supporting little beyond dewdrops. There is no deafening insect song like that which permeates the old-growth bramble, only occasional chirps and the congregation of some hardier species along shallow pools of water. With no canopy, the open sky reveals birds overhead, but they do not stop to forage, for the paltry offering of moss and mosquitoes does little to entice them. It is not dead, no, but neither does it feel alive.

Were there blackened boughs and pinecones cracked open by heat, the evidence of a forest fire would be drawn in charcoal. Fresh ravines cracking the earth, a layer of water filling the burrows running below, even signs of battle are easy to interpret. Yet there are no such examples of environmental storytelling. There are no bones. Perhaps the dragons that were once here are as gone as the overarching thickets, the owls within them and the rodents scurrying below them, all consumed by the same unknown force of nature. Perhaps this landscape is dracogenic, drained of all its resources and abandoned for a fresh start, the straggling fauna long forgotten.

It doesn’t matter. To an observer, it's a mystery, a riddle, something that needs solving- something that has an answer, no matter how obscure. To the trees, it's what it always has been: a struggle for survival, sometimes won, sometimes lost. The thorns will regrow and the wildlife will return when the moonlight fades. Perhaps the rehabilitated landscape will bring the dragons back, too. Perhaps not. It doesn't matter.

The cycle will continue, same as it always has, same as it always will.

.........

ぼやけるな
孤立と孤独
不死である
天の川での
兆個の同士

boyakeruna
koritsu to kodoku
fushi de aru
ama no gawa de no
chouko no doushi

do not misconstrue
"isolated" as "alone,"
in the stars above
are a trillion and more
eternal companions

adapted from @/Youcal <3

hikaru [光]• 22 • he/him • english/日本語 • fr +3

not dead just a doctoral student

my two interests are avian ecology and late 90's-early 00's high fantasy rpgs. i am happy to talk to anyone about anything but i cannot say that there is anything else in my brain but these two topics

steam friends :3?

art shop (quasi-retired)

Recent Comments

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VairaSmythe said

April 22, 2019 12:39:03

Thank you so much for the lovely art <3

Necronaut said

April 09, 2019 12:06:45

Grandpas cheese barn

Ceolet said

March 16, 2019 18:43:12

i;m lov you

almightyjanitor said

March 06, 2019 17:08:40

omg excellent iorveth dragon, top tier lad

cornsnake said

February 11, 2019 17:25:56

Nice username lol, I've been replaying dh2 and is caught my eye!

Colourful said

February 10, 2019 06:29:08

Also Iorveth is boss (and the reason i didn't like witcher 3 so much. i missed the moody sod.)

Colourful said

February 10, 2019 06:28:16

Just dropping in to say how adorable your signature is. Have a good day! ;o;

Sunken said

December 16, 2018 16:13:01

hi i just wanna say that im drooling over your art and im desperate to know if you take commissions?? because im going to sell you my soul

FANTASIIIA said

December 15, 2018 16:37:53

I love your Zvaere and I feel like he would go well with my Savion , ahah.
Also I saw your art, you are really talented and the 'caw caw I can draw' is the best thing I have heard today.

Everburn said

November 21, 2018 18:30:13

Hi! I found you through a signature art you did and that is some amazing art what are your secrets?

You don't have to share them, but someday I will commission you. Someday soon.
*Evil laughter*
Then, somehow, I take over the world.