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No one knows what lies under the Fortress of Ends
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B I O G R A P H Y
______ Tumeric shuffled through a pile of scraps, sorting it into ‘trash’ and ‘potentially-useful’. She snarled irritably as she came to the last item, an old gear, and threw it onto the trash heap.
“There’s nothing good here, Orult,” she called to her mate.
The Mirror only growled in response, not even looking up from where he was rooting through the remains of some Icewarden-knows-how-old pelts.
Tumeric snarled again, and swiped at her pile of trash. Her claws caught on an old scroll case, and tore it open lengthwise, sending a pair of ancient scrolls tumbling out. Tumeric picked them up, peering at them curious.
“Weird,” she hissed. “These scrolls - they’re so old, they’re falling apart in my talons. But the writing on them is fresh! Orult, look!”
Orult growled irritably, and spat out the moldy fur he had been mouthing, before turning back to his heap of ragged furs.
Tumeric shrugged - Orult was never interested in something he couldn’t hunt, eat, or kill, and she was pretty sure he couldn’t read anyway. She turned back to the scrolls, and peered closely at the ornate writing.
“For the Seekers,” she read slowly. “That they may defend what is theirs.” She blinked. “Seekers? Wha-”
Before she could finish her sentence, a brilliant white light began to shine from the scrolls, blinding her vision. She yelped, and tried to drop the scrolls, but she could no longer feel her claws, and she could feel the paralysis creeping up her limbs.
From somewhere behind her, Orult shrieked, a rising scream which rang in her ears and deafened her. Faintly, as if from far away, she heard the scrape of Orult’s claws on stone as she leapt to her side, and his own strangled yelp as he too, was caught in the light. Overwhelmed and helpless, Tumeric closed her eyes, and surrendered to the rising darkness.
______ “...umeric? Tumeric!”
“Um…?” Tumeric mumbled, not wanting to move. Her limbs felt heavy, as if weighed down by a pile of snow. “Go ‘way.”
“Tumeric, wake up!”
A sharp nip stung her shoulders, and Tumeric yelped, shoving the offender away. “Stop that!” She leapt to her feet and growled, baring her teeth at the strange dragon crouched next to her. “Who are you?” she demanded. “What did you do to us? Where is my mate?” Her eyes darted around the cavern, searching for Orult, but the blood-dark Mirror was nowhere to be seen. She growled again at the shaggy creature in front of her. What was he? He looked like an exceptionally furry Bogsneak, or maybe a Tundra/Bogsneak hybrid.
The creature snarled back at her, shoving his head in her face. “I am Orult, you idiot,” he growled.
Orult? Tumeric blinked, taking in the dark red, unpatterned fur on his body. She sniffed the air. He smelled nothing like Orult, but… She sniffed again… Nothing smelt like it should.
“Orult?” she asked, hating the clear confusion in her voice. “What are you? What happened? Since when did you talk?”
“I don’t know,” Orult snapped. “But my head feels clearer now than it has… ever. And you should take a look at yourself.”
What?
Startled, Tumeric glanced down at her paws, then across her back to her wings, her tail…
“What on Sornieth?” she cried. “What are we?!”
“What were those scrolls you were poking around with?” Orult asked. “They started it.”
Tumeric curled her tongue around her mouth, and winced as she discovered her new fangs. Apparently, she was actually designed to eat meat now. She almost laughed at the petulence of Orult’s tone, but only said, “Maybe. I’ll take a look.”
She slowly rose to her paws, still adjusting to her new form, and shuffled over to the scrolls, now lying on the ground not far from where she had awoken. Lifting one up, she blinked at the letters, and realised her eyesight was much clearer now. She reread the inscription.
Seekers… defend what is theirs… What does it mean?
Suddenly, she noticed a second line of script at the bottom of the page, smaller than she had been able to read with her Tundra eyesight.
Seekers: The 5th Order of the Gaolers, it read. Firstborn of the Icewarden. Enemy of the Shade.
Gaolers?
With startling swiftness, Tumeric recalled tales whispered in the night, stories told to her by her father and caretakers, stories told to them by their parents and caretakers, legends spread by those of the Ice ever since the first Tundras emerged from the Icewarden’s fuzzy feet. Gaolers…
“The Shade, huh,” Orult mused after she had read it aloud to him. “I think I could get behind that.” He met her gaze, a grin curled his lips and revealing his long canines, now the same as Tumeric’s own. “I never would pass up a fight.”
Tumeric bared her teeth back at him. “Let’s go find out more about these Gaolers. And defend the clan,” she added, glancing back down at the scrolls.
“And defend the clan,” Orult agreed.
______ Tumeric was born the firstborn daughter of Jimmy Finleyson and Beirgen the Beautiful. Her mother never had much to do with her early childhood, preferring instead to busy herself with the chores of a Healer. Instead, Tumeric’s early years were characterized solely by her father.
Jimmy was the most lovely dragon in the whole clan. Though many had begged to nest with him, he refused, holding off from the pleasure until he caught Beirgen. After much careful plotting, aloof, dignified Beirgen allowed him into her nest.
______ Tumeric hatched, and her first sight as she opened her eyes was her father’s face, gazing down at her with glowing white eyes and an enormous smile. She had no nest-mates, no mother, and no relations to watch other than her father. But the moment she stumbled out of her egg, wings still dripping with yolk, mouth open in a soundless cry, Jimmy scooped her up in his warm fluffy wings and cooed over her and licked her fur clean. Tumeric snuggled into her father’s fur and thought no more on relatives, not until her first birthday, when she ran into Sheyn and his son Rook, and discovered that Sheyn was the son of her half-sister Freyr, oldest daughter of Beirgen. Stunned, and struggling to figure out her family history, she went to her mother’s caves for the first time in her life. When Beirgen saw her daughter’s feelings, she realized that Tumeric needed a female’s hand in her upbringing. So Beirgen took Tumeric under her wings and taught her all she knew about healing, and herbs, and all things concerning life.
______ Tumeric learned swiftly, and soon became nearly as skilled in herb lore as her mother. She had no interest in actual injuries or care of injured, unlike her mother. So instead she became her mother’s herbalist, collecting and drying the plants she needs. As she explored the wastelands of The Fortress of Ends, Tumeric found many lost and curious items. She found marionetes that moved on their own, elaborately forged metal figurines, blankets woven with materials and patterns she had never seen before, and which Jimmy found quite fascinating, and often incorporated into his own designs. Occasionally she would stumble across another clan, and spend a night there before moving on. Tumeric found many darker things in those halls as well; skeletons of dragons, some of breeds she’d never seen before, fragments of letters to long-lost family members, many stained with blood, and even cages containing half-starved, utterly mad dragons of all ages and breeds. Unlike most would have, Tumeric thrived in the wandering labyrinths of the fortress. She knew her way around as well as she knew her own lair. The mysterious objects fascinated her. The ominous bones and blood and madness were her food and drink. She even acquired a taste for blood and meat, as plants were not readily available in the caverns of The Fortress of Ends.
______ After a time, Tumeric received a new job from Queen Ghiaccia. She was to dispose of the dragons and items that Ghiaccia found distasteful. It was through Tumeric that the Shade-touched offspring of Sheyn and and a dark shadow were safely taken away. It was also Tumeric who managed to get rid of the magic scythe and the poisonous flower pot. In a very short time, Tumeric was a trusted member of Queen Ghiaccia’s court. She even found a mate down there, the wild, half-mad Mirror called Orult.
______ One day, Orult and Tumeric were exploring further and deeper within the Fortress of Ends than they had ever gone before. They stumbled across an old scroll, covered with cryptic writing, in a sudden flare of light, they were changed, and became Gaolers of the Seeker branch, heavier, more powerful, and overall quite fascinating to Tumeric.
______ Tumeric loves her new form, and revels in her new strength and power. She seeks out the Shade with ferocious determination, and was quite pleased by the excuse to move more fully into the Fortress of Ends. She was also quite pleased by the change in Orult, he became less feral, and more cunning. Tumeric has a perfect life now, and will not give it up for anything.
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