Jerold

The magmaborne subspecies

It wasn’t uncommon to see eggs left abandoned in fields of ash and mountains. Most families couldn’t deal with the forever changing laws and regulations about the major businesses being run, especially mining, and due to this, families and clans were becoming poorer and poorer, making food a luxury to the already living. Many of the eggs would simply rot away, never standing a chance against the elements and beasts, but he didn’t, he was saved in a sense.

——-

Yad was on gathering duty today. Her brethren were getting ready for a special meeting with one of the finest manticores in sorith and they needed the finest foods to hopefully please their company. Her search for food lead her out into the fields in search of the juiciest bugs and small rodents to nibble on. She was sticking her nose underneath rocks, holes, burnt down trees, anywhere where something yummy would hide when she heard a sharp, breaking noise flow through the air. Her head shot up, what was that? There was more smaller, spiked noises ring around her now, peaking her curiosity. She walked slowly towards the sounds that got louder and louder. The noise was coming from the bottom of small cliff, easy enough to slide down. Once she landed back on her feet she looked around the cliff face and saw it. There was a cracking dragon egg! Most of its body was still stuck in the egg but for the horns that were flailing about, trying to crack its way to freedom. Could she eat a dragon? Do dragons taste nice? She was kidding of course but now she was concerned. Where was it parents? This was no place for a dragon. She walked up to the egg and held it in her paws. She poked its horns and it seemed to wobble more. Adorable. She sighed when she realised she was becoming attached to the little dragon. How would she care for it? Would her brethren even allow this? She definitely knew she would have to hide it from her guest. She put the egg with all the things she had collected to eat and headed back home as quickly as possible.

——-

The guest arrived early. Many of her brethren were talking to the green born manticore, chatting away about who knows what. She needed to sneak past, get to her room and hide the egg. She stayed low, making slow movements as she walked cautiously around eating and chatting manticores. She was almost there, almost to safety when a loud ‘CRACK’ caught everyone’s attention. This isn’t good. “What did you break this time Yad?” One of the brown manticores said in a sassy tone. “N-nothing!” She tried to reply. She could feel everyone’s gaze upon her, especially the green one. It was walking towards me. “So... Yad. Did you bring back some prey alive?” She looked at her storage bag to see it moving all over the place. “N-no mister.” Her green one stared at her before smirking. “Well then. Open the bag.” She was so dead. She pulled off the bag and hung it upside down, shaking loose all of her catches and with a thump, a baby imperial dragon. The green manticore looked back at the other manticores and shouted “WHY DOES SHE HAVE A DRAGON?” Someone shouted back “She was suppose to get food!” Another shouted “She’s cursed us!” Shouts of boos and insults came her way as he ducked her head away from their eyes. The green manticore went back to staring at her, thinking. It felt like forever for her as she moved her eyes to watching the innocent child try to fighter out to stand. The green manticore suddenly shouted “SLIENCE” and everything went still. “Look at me now, betrayer.” She slowly turned her head towards him and tried looking into his eyes. “While you may have done something treturous, I think I have a plan for this.... pet.” She wouldn’t understand the chaos she accidentally would let upon the world until later on in her life.

——

Over the years the imperial grew, and grew, and grew. They had all seen dragons before but he... he was the biggest. He took a lot to handle, a lot to train but he was almost ready, almost ready to cause a lot to destruction. The chains sound his neck stopped him from lunging at his test kills, stopped him from eating extra foods. He was a pet to them, a pet made for destruction. Yad tried spending time with him while he was younger, tried teaching a common language but it couldn’t be done, they had a already conquered his mind. So Yad did her best at imprinting onto him that she was friendly, sneaking into his giant underground pen and feeding him and patting him. She heard what was going to happen with him, a weapon to burn down the trees. It was the push her kind needed, but was it right? She had to get away before that day. She needed to be there to stop him when the time came. She was put under strict ruling after bringing him back. She wasn’t allowed to go back outside, wasn’t allowed to go to the parties, wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone other than for work purposes. She was trapped but she was going to get herself free. She waited until nightfall for her escape. The guards were probably the easiest thing to get around considering they knew nothing ever happens and were quite slack. She moved around boxes of food and weapons, dodged the guards, opened and closed many doors as quietly as she could . She could finally see the moon. She ran in a random direction, not caring where she was at the moment. Once she got far enough away she looked at the sky and tried figuring out where she was compared to the stars. She was a lot west on the ashfall than she thought. She had to keep moving, had to find a clan to warn! So with a star set to follow, she ran to the east.

——

There was light. Off in the distance there was a well lit area that had a couple of building and a sign. She ran towards it at full speed. When she finally arrived she didn’t even bother waiting to catch her breath, she ran up to the nearest guard patrolling and asked for help. She probably should’ve thought about how suspicious she actually was as she was immediately arrested and put into a cell. By next morning a Black guardian walked down to her cell and spoke “What is it you need manticore?” “They’ve made a monster! You need to warn the tree people!” “Tree people? Who are you talking about?” “The ones at the tree! The first surrounds it, it will burn!” “Okay. So the manticores are going to attack Nature.” “No. Imperial attack nature. Trained child imperial.” There was silence before the cell door opened. “Follow me. If I get what your saying we need to prepare. Now.”

——-

The day came. A nature scout landed on the soil and started screaming for help. All the residents knew what the meant. Over 20 dragons put on the battle armour and marched out front to the town centre billboard. The orange guardian, Granith and the black guardian, Scivil emerged ready to fight and waited for Yad. She quickly ran up to the guardians and awaited their orders. “Everyone! Today’s the day we were warned about! We are not here to kill the imperial, if we can capture it then we will but if you must kill it get ready to set its body aflame. We don’t want any emperors.” They all stood ready. A big, big metal net was being help by at least 10 of the guards.... she hoped it didn’t have to end badly. “You know what to do. Netters be ready to drop it on top of it. Me and Granith will wear it down, hopefully distracting it enough to stop more fires. Once netted Yad will try calming it down for safer transport. EVERYONE READY?” A mass of cheer rang throughout the crowd. “LETS GET MOVING!” Granith gently pocked up her in its big claws and off they flew, off to stop her child.

——-

Everything was on fire. Smoke and ashes filled the sky. The nature dragons were already trying to detour the imperial but it wasn’t working. When the fire dragons arrived to the scene they got straight to work. “You weren’t lying when you said he was big! That’s got to be a record or something!” Granith dropped Yad on the burning floor and watched the event from the ground. There were dragons everywhere, all poking and prodding at him, making him more angry, more confused. Scivil liked to almost land on its nose and boop it, turning all its attention to him. The plan was working they just had to make it start moving away from the fires. With more boops and prodding the imperial started to be lead away from the chaos it started and focus at burning and scratching them out of the sky. To him they must’ve been like annoying bugs, very annoying bugs. Once they lead him away enough the netters were called in and like the plan stated, he fell to the ground.the net covered most of his head and body, leaving majority of its tail out. It was flailing around crazily, trying to stop anything from approaching. This was her time. She got in close to the imperial head and quietly patted it, looking directly into its eyes. She saw is sadness, it’s confusion. “I’m sorry.” She whispered. The imperial wasn’t moving anymore. It’s heavy breathing was the only voice being produced. “Let me help you. Please.” The imperial closed it eyes and made a humm like sound. She turned around and said “Safe to carry.” Granith nodded and all the dragons picked up as many parts of the net before moving out.

——-

Over time the imperial was allowed out of a caged off area to move freely within the clans boarders as long as Yad was nearby. The nature dragons thanked the clan for swiftly dealing with the problem stating “eh most forests need to burn sooner or later.” Many dragons have been teaching the newly named imperial ‘Jerold’ to speak and to fly but it’s still a long way to go. As the biggest dragon, Jerold’s home was made the furthest away to ensure enough room for a manticore and an imperial living conditions. Overall they are both safe and honestly things could’ve started better but time can heal all, even giant imperials!

———

“Scivil, you do understand how close the beastclan was to letting loose an imperial that was on the verge of being an emperor.” “I do. It seems they’re playing dirty now... even if it means they kill themselves.” “... make sure to watch the imperials. Don’t let them go out without a guard.” “Of course. But should there be an accident we need to make sure we... we kill it right.”