Teritas

She who sees the future shatters in its vision.

Teritas slept within her shell. Slumber she did, like a bear during its cold hibernation. As a Nocturne, her egg would only hatch naturally during a darkness where no light reaches the earth of Sornieth. Yet, before even her birth, she saw the cycles of light and dark, day and night.

Before even her birth, she knew what caused the light and the dark.

Yes, it was the rising of the Sun and the coming of the Moon. She read the passing of time using the rays that passed through her translucent cover. After all, it was the only thing she could see in her hollow space. Without the bright and shadow, her space would be timeless. Boring, mundane, suffocating. No wonder all the other Nocturnes were so eager to break free of their shells during the Nocturnenacht, where the wintry nights lasted the longest. For her, she found joy in the warmth of the Sun and calm in the solitude of the Moon. She did not want to change.

However, fate had other plans for her.

As the year approached its end, a silhouette appeared before her egg. Standing against the vibrant rays, his encroaching shadow was clear within Teritas' egg. Before she knew it, she sensed the greatest illumination flash before her eyes; a burst of light so vibrant, it blinded Teritas for a moment. After recovering, she opened her eyes and realised the light has disappeared, replaced by the natural light once more. The silhouette was gone.

Teritas was shaken. As a dragon who has not even hatched, she felt fear for the first time. All she knew about light was that of Day. What caused that unnatural spark? Spooked by the peculiarity of the situation, Teritas returned to her state of rest, only planning to wake up at Night when she would not have to see the light anymore. But when she woke, she was greeted by yet another surprise.

The Light of Day was still there.

How? Enough time had passed that the Sun should have set. Teritas could not comprehend what was going on. Frustrated and confused, she rocked her egg hard enough to create a momentum and escape from the light. The motion backfired on Teritas as the shell begun cracking both under the sudden movements within itself as well as being exposed to light for so long. From Teritas' perspective, webs of gold and white sliced into her home, reconstructing everything that she thought the light would look like. The cuts grew wider and whiter, finally overpowering the pieces of shell and breaking the now-hatchling out into the world.

Time still frozen as the hatchling tumbled out of her broken case, the lasting light touched the hatchling's soft scales and grew so bright it seared a memory into Teritas. Her untrained eyes were blinded forever in exchange for a single moment of visual consciousness: the face of the dragon who sealed her egg in a timeless abyss; his magic that rippled across the natural river of time. It was almost as though the light of time wanted to let know who it was that created this unnatural limbo.

And then everything returned to normal.

As the haziness in Teritas' mind subsided, she found herself cold against the hard earth. The world was foreign and she was alone, lying on cold grass bitten by the Moon's unfeeling glow.

Comforting heat eventually came, but Teritas realised she no longer sees the light. Tears welled up in her eyes as she realised what had happened to her when she hatched. The price she had to pay for growing accustomed to the light is the complete destruction of her ability to perceive it. All that remains in her memory is the cursed remembrance of the wyrm that started it all.

Cursed wyrm he was, for Teritas decided then and there on the dawn of the final day of the year that she would hunt him down for experimenting on her, and for the timeless scar he left on the greatest joy in her life.