Agnar
(#47555640)
Level 25 Guardian
Familiar
Jade Troodo
Click or tap to view this dragon in Predict Morphology.
Energy: 0/50
This dragon’s natural inborn element is Shadow.
Male Guardian
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Personal Style
Apparel
Skin
Scene
Measurements
Length
15.12 m
Wingspan
21.75 m
Weight
10643.57 kg
Genetics
Mist
Python
Python
Sapphire
Shimmer
Shimmer
Smoke
Glimmer
Glimmer
Hatchday
Breed
Eye Type
Level 25 Guardian
Max Level
STR
21
AGI
6
DEF
8
QCK
12
INT
5
VIT
8
MND
6
Biography
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» A G N A R «
Of the First Children
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    ◇ S T R E N G T H ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●▬▬ I N T E L L E C T ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●▬▬ A G I L I T Y ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●▬▬▬ W I L L P O W E R ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●▬ M A G I C ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬●▬▬▬ Notes: Often patrols in and around Shal'anir. Most always in the presence of his brother, Iliad. Wears a permanent scowl and taut lip seen beneath his helm. Has a curt way of speaking, but luckily says very little - the most he'll offer will be growls and rumbles Traits: Aggressive, dogmatically loyal, impulsive
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» Biography
Agnar is perhaps the finest of Phalanx's brood; tall, dark, and handsome, with the primal drive for blood and war. When he was younger, Agnar was always the most aggressive of the hatchlings, and would scramble to ensure he was first in line for everything. He grew quicker, matured quicker, and was the first to successfully hunt within the Tangled Wood. He's the jewel in his mother's eye and reminds her of her youth - even to a fault. While Phalanx is balanced by Eidolon and her innate impulsiveness has diminished in time, Agnar lacks this fine balance and won't even care to ask questions after - if there's a threat, Agnar will charge in to wipe it out no matter how big or small. This means that the Guardian gets injured a lot, sometimes causes more trouble than it's worth, and tends to be gruff and brutish in his approach to everything, but his heart seems to be in the right place. He has a sense of honour that's embellished by the glory of battle and will fight to protect Shal'anir until his last breath is drawn - something that no one dares question. Like his two clutch-brothers, Agnar comes from a cursed brood that the prophet of Shal’anir is unsure as to whether or not it should have hatched. At first glance, Agnar appears to be the one most intrinsically affected by the reality of his being - brutish at the best of times, it would appear that the anger he holds within is twisting and tainting the heart of the guardian. However, this wouldn’t be the case. Agnar is perhaps the least affected by the curse; his actions are his own and the ‘anger’ that drives him is no more than what his mother wields. Instead, this overexertion of energy is something of an attempt to cover up the one true ailment Agnar has. From a young age, he has always had weaker bones. They’re brittle and, quite a few times in his youth, they’d break simply from too hard of a fall. As he grew and forced himself to excel beyond his brothers, Agnar slowly came to withstand this pain and, in time, the bones once prone to breaking at the lightest touch grew strong again. Now, the most the guardian will be plagued with are aches and stiffness in the joints, but this is more than tolerable in comparison to what he used to deal with and he gives no inclination that anything was ever wrong to begin with. Regardless of what lies beneath, his sheer aggression does mean that Agnar rarely falls in favour with Vizier, who considers his brother a brute with little tact for anything other than spilling blood - and even that isn't something he'd really consider a plus. Agnar, in return, believes his brother to be an egotistical bookworm whose sense of superiority will be his downfall, and the two are rarely seen together. Agnar does have some respect for Iliad, his third brother, and the two certainly do have a closer bond now that they're older. Iliad isn't necessarily a balance for his brother's nature, but he does strike a chord within Agnar that no other dragon can - except perhaps the matriarch. |
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Capture «
Agnar and Karuk had been sent to investigate a small commotion that had occurred on the coasts of the Tangled Wood. The area was mostly woodland, with a thick fog brought in from the sea blanketing the ground, and uniquely arcane-saturated flora and fauna despite the surrounding areas all being heavily guarded by shadow. The mushrooms that usually glowed bioluminescent blue were now much softer in their light, almost white, with the deep midnight foliage of the trees now misty hues of blue and purple, and the bark softening to shades of grey with white runes etched into the surface. It was a strange sight, almost as strange as the realisation that there was no sign of a struggle as the scouts had claimed.
The area was almost completely deserted and Agnar and Karuk struggled to find a reason why the scouts had raised the alarm. From what they could tell from their sweeping patrols of the area, there was nothing to be found. The whole area was otherworldly - seemingly untouched by any sign of a battle at all.
“A pointless endeavour,” Agnar eventually stopped to conclude, looking to his brother-in-arms with a small huff of what could only have been disappointment at the lack of a good fight. He gave a sharp sniff of the air but caught scent of nothing. “The scouts must have been wrong. Either there was nothing here to begin with, or it has long since passed.”
Karuk nodded in agreement. He was no brutish warrior like his brother, but he, too, revelled in a good battle to keep his wits sharp and his claws sharper. There hadn’t been a fight for a while now, and, although he wasn’t anxious for one, he could feel his battle-sense dulling, and there were only so many duels a dragon could do before they got old. “Perhaps. Let us sweep the area one more time, in case we have missed something. Fight or no fight, we have a duty to uphold.”
Agnar huffed again, a short burst of air from flared nostrils in irritation, but acceptance all the same. One more look through meant one more chance at finding something worth his time. “Very well, let us go, Brother.”
From the foliage to their left there then came the snapping of twigs. Immediately Agnar’s lips curled in a warning snarl and he swung his body around to face the source of the sound. Beside him, Karuk moved to the side, coming around to his brother’s flank. The sound of something travelling through the underbrush came again, moving closer. To the right, there was more rustling to be heard, and Agnar whipped his head around with a much louder growl than his first - an invitation, this time, not a warning. This was what he’d been waiting for.
From the underbrush suddenly emerged three, four, five- no, at least half a dozen harpies - shrieking their displeasure at dragons in the area and racing towards the two with talons bared and weapons painting the rain silver in their flurry. Karuk barely had time to let out a yell of surprise before they were upon them, a frenzy of feathers and rending blades that went straight for the eyes in an attempt to blind their enemies. Beside him, Agnar let out a challenging roar in answer to the cries of the harpies, no doubt met with a similar sight to his brother, but much more enthused about the concept of a good scrap on his claws. The two brothers fell unto the harpies with as much fervour as they came to the dragons - wings flared, claws outstretched, and teeth snapping at the air to tear them from the skies. It seemed to be some sort of planned attack, as if the harpies had been expecting dragons, but fell apart quickly in the face of two esteemed warriors of Shal’anir.
As Karuk snapped at the furious beastclan, he spared a moment to look to his brother. Agnar had easily fallen into the battle with a natural grace most dragons feared in him. His eyes lit up with each blow and, even when struck himself, Agnar’s fervour only grew.
“Where did they come from?!” Karuk roared over the hallowing cries of the harpies as they fell, catching one between his claws and crushing its skull into the rain-clogged earth below. “Surely we didn’t miss all of these before!”
There was the sound of flesh being torn apart before Agnar answered. “I do not know, nor do I care. This is what I’ve been waiting for, Brother!” Agnar reared up and flared his wings with an almighty roar - earning himself some distance between him and a few of the harpies. He then slammed back down onto the ground, catching a couple of the avian creatures under his weight and completely decimating them, before charging back into the fray and revelling in the blood he spilt.
“Perhaps my senses are growing dull after all, there’s no way we could have possibly-” Karuk’s words were cut off as a harpy dove straight for his eyes. The blade it wielded stung, just enough to be a small distraction, but whatever satisfaction the creature was granted was short-lived. Karuk coiled his neck back, bared his fangs, and then struck out at it with deadly accuracy. The harpy was dead before he could even spit the disgusting pile of feathers from his mouth.
“You’re too slow, Brother!” Agnar reared up again, using his entire body weight to knock harpies from the skies. As he landed, it was with a grunt of satisfaction at seeing the number he’d managed to catch this time - the air wasn’t cleared of their filth yet, but it was certainly getting easier to pinpoint each individual as they moved in a squawking, screeching mass. “I’ve killed at least double the number you have; no doubt you need this fight even more than I!”
Karuk took out yet another harpy with a broad sweep of his wing - the heavily armoured joint connecting with and splintering fragile bones easily. Another snapping of the jaw saw another life end. “I believe you’re right, Brother, Father always said-” Karuk’s words were once again cut off, but not by the stinging of a blade. An ear-splitting screech way beyond what a harpy could produce sounded, lightning arcing overhead as if very heavens above echoed the battle-cry. All of a sudden, the harpies surrounding the pair took to the skies with triumphant sounding calls, and Agnar was quick to give chase to a few of the slower ones who weren’t so sharp on the uptake. Karuk’s head snapped up to look at whatever had heralded the fleeing of the harpies, and what he saw was enough to shake even the steely nerves of the hardened warrior.
“Agnar, the skies!” Karuk roared in warning at what he saw. It moved too quick for him to be certain of what he was looking at, but whatever it was, it was easily around the guardian’s size and moved with a level of agility he had not seen in any other dragon before. From what he knew, harpies had a particularly strong kinship with rocs - giant avians with the strength to crush a guardian’s skull if allowed to get a proper grip. While he’d never had the displeasure of seeing one up close, he knew enough, and he had no doubt that that was what the shape above them was. The happenstance meeting between dragon and beastclan was no longer a coincidence.
Agnar spit another mouthful of feathers out to the side as he looked up. His expression was immediately cast in shadow and he looked to his brother with a rare flicker of uncertainty in his eye. “Is that what I-” An arrow suddenly pierced through the underbrush around them, sinking into one of the few unarmoured areas of the patterned guardian’s neck, and causing Agnar to give a loud bellow of surprise.
Karuk’s eyes immediately narrowed, and he gave a warning growl as he looked to the direction the arrow had come from. “What is-” More arrows were loosed. They all struck true, aimed perfectly to avoid the areas they couldn’t pierce, and both Karuk and Agnar found themselves falling back as more arrows lodged into their scales, with Agnar stumbling as a higher concentration of arrows caught him over his brother.
“They’re cowards!” Agnar growled as he pulled several arrows out with his teeth, spitting them to the ground and crushing them underfoot. “Striking from the shadows where we can’t-” Another arrow came flying towards them. This time, Agnar’s eyes were the target, and it struck as true as the rest of them. The patterned guardian gave a loud roar of pain as he stumbled back, suddenly lost as half his world went black. He tripped over his own feet, the guardian’s sheer size now working against him, and then fell unmoving onto the rain-soaked ground with a resounding boom.
Karuk’s eyes widened in horror at the sudden turn for the worst and he quickly moved to shield his brother from the onslaught unseen. As more arrows embedded themselves into his scales, it was with a bellow of desperation that Karuk now tried to stem the tide. His final stand meant nothing, however. The arrows were saturated in a powerful sedative, something he was hopeless to try and burn through. Like Agnar, Karuk’s world suddenly veered from one side to the next, causing him to stumble as he tried to regain his balance. His vision flickered, his peripherals fading, and he was subconsciously aware of falling to the ground alongside his brother. He stared at the rain-sodden ground for a moment, and, as his vision faded and his whole world turned dark, he saw more than three dozen harpies now move from the underbrush to claim their prize. They’d never stood a chance.
***
The first thing Karuk became aware of was the uncomfortable feeling of harsh rope digging into his limbs and holding him down onto the ground. His wings were uncomfortably bound, cramping with every breath, and when he tried to shift his weight to alleviate some of the discomfort, he heard a series of sharp squawks before the ropes binding his body tightened. Ordinary rope shouldn’t have held a guardian such as himself, but he could feel the sedative he’d been struck with sluggishly moving through his veins, muddling his thoughts and clouding his judgement. His limbs felt like lead and, as he opened his eyes, the light was almost blinding. Even if Karuk hadn’t been tied down, he doubted he’d have had the strength to move at that moment. Shadowbinder curse them all.
After a few minutes of opening and closing his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness he found himself in, Karuk could just about make out his surroundings. He was indeed bound by ropes and secured to large bolts deep in the ground, which confirmed his earlier suspicion that the harpies weren’t relying on said ropes to hold him down - the sedative they’d administered was more than enough.
They appeared to be held in some sort of camp, although Karuk was certain they were on the outskirts. He could make out the sounds of a village just ahead of them, up in some trees, but could also see some smaller settlements situated on the ground beneath the canopy, too. Harpies and talonok alike flitted through the small gathering, with the talonok no doubt called as the warriors and guards of the group. Sharp piercing shrieks, squawks, and even corvid-like caws echoed from the main gathering of the beastclans. A few closer individuals could be seen to be pointing at the two large guardians they’d captured; whether it was in fear or mocking Karuk couldn’t be certain. It didn’t matter. He would kill every last one of them for hurting him and his brother.
Agnar himself appeared to be in much worse shape than Karuk. His sides heaved, although whether it was through the pain of his eye or the sheer anger at the beastclan Karuk couldn’t tell. Agnar noticed his brother watching him with the rare look of concern in his eye and, even with his mouth, for the most part, bound, the patterned guardian managed a rippling sneer. No doubt Agnar had already given their captors a hard time. Good.
“Any ideas how we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess?” Karuk grumbled across the small gap separating the two. He was mindful to use a low tone to not attract the attention of the guards, although one did look his way regardless. “Whatever was on those arrows means neither of us are in any shape to fight a whole flock right now.”
Agnar stared out at the guards opposite, his gaze seething. “I’m going to tear each and every one of them apart, limb from f*cking limb, for what they’ve done.” He strained at his bonds, raising his head a few inches off the ground, before his strength all but left him and his head dropped back down with a resounding thunk. “I don’t want an eye for an eye. I want an eye for a whole god-forsaken f*cking flock!”
The raised tone immediately caught the attention of one of the guards, who said something to his partner and motioned to the two dragons. Karuk watched one of the birdmen then nod and take off back towards the village. No doubt he was about to go and get more sedative to quieten Agnar.
“I know you’re angry, you idiot, but keep your voice down!” Karuk hissed. “If they get more of that sedative, we’re both going to be in even worse trouble. I’m just as angry as you are, Brother, but right now your brutish ways will do us no favours.”
Agnar didn’t give any inclination he had heard, but the loud huff of disapproval was more than enough of an answer. He would quieten down - for now.
Karuk shifted his weight a little, trying to get some blood to flow back to his extremities since they’d gone numb. “Now, what do you know of our captors? There must be a guard change or something that we can take advantage of.”
Agnar grumbled. “I’ve been watching them since I awoke. Every quarter the sun moves in the sky the guards change. There’s a very brief moment where they leave us unattended, for they believe we’re no threat.”
Karuk felt a small smirk of knowing creep onto his face. “Their first mistake.”
Agnar mirrored his brother’s expression, although it gained an even crueller edge at the idea of causing carnage within the unprepared village. “I’ll make sure it’ll be their last.”
Karuk nodded with a grunt. “Good. They’ll pay for what they’ve done, I promise you. We just have to be smart about this. We weren’t named Shal’anir’s chosen just for brute strength.” He paused, before scoffing. “Well, I wasn’t, anyway.”
It was a bad sign when Agnar chose to not hit back with his own snide comment, although he did bare his teeth to show some displeasure. “If we weren’t tied up, I’d hit you for that.”
Karuk blew a sharp breath of air out his nose in amusement. “I know.” He glanced up at the sky. “Now quiet. The sun is almost to the last quarter. We don’t have much time.”
Agnar gave a grunt to show he’d heard but said no more. Instead, his shadowy gaze was fixated on the avian beastclan that held them captive. This last try was their only try before dark, for the skies were already streaked with splashes of pink and orange and casting the world in a soft, warm haze. As soon as night-time hit, no doubt the guards would see more sedative given in order to ensure the shadow dragons wouldn’t break free once their surroundings became a little more like home. The beastclan probably didn’t realise that their captives didn’t grow stronger during the night like some shadow dragons who relied on the perpetual gloom of the Tangled Wood, but the beastclan didn’t need to know that either. If anything, the fact that they falsely believed the light did more than just momentarily blind the two shadow dragons worked in Agnar and Karuk’s favour.
As Agnar had predicted, the moment the sun hit the final quarter in the sky, the two talonok guards that watched over him and his brother briefly chatted between the two of them in their strange, avian tongue of clicks, warbles, and cawing sounds. They looked ready to leave, but when they should have done so, they were instead joined by two more armoured guards. Agnar didn’t have to look to the side to know Karuk was giving him a foul scowl at the incorrect prediction from before. Perhaps the talonok were growing more wary now both dragons were awake, or perhaps they’d realised what the dragons intended to do. Either way, the two weren’t left unattended for even a moment, and as the two from the previous shift left, the two that had joined had already taken their places.
“I thought you said we were going to be left alone,” Karuk hissed, narrowing his eyes at his brother. “This is not alone, Agnar, there are still two guards there!”
Agnar growled in anger. “Obviously they’ve changed their approach, then, haven’t they? They did it before, I don’t understand why they haven’t done it again.” He pulled against his restraints, but still he lacked the strength to break them. The talonok even had the audacity to not appear even remotely fazed by Agnar’s sudden activity - no doubt they completely trusted he was too weak. They’d be right, if for the wrong reason, and it was with a resigned grumble that Agnar laid still again. The sedative was wearing off, and, were he not struggling with the pain of his eye, Karuk had no doubt Agnar would have had continued to push himself until he eventually did break free of his bonds. He was always the stronger one of the two, which, when coupled with the stubborn streak he’d inherited from their mother, meant Agnar didn’t know, or care, to stop.
Here, however, he had no choice. Neither of them did.
“We’ll keep watch still,” Karuk muttered, mostly to himself. “Surely, they’ll lapse once night falls, or perhaps in the morning. They won’t remain hypervigilant forever.” He looked to Agnar again, expression shifting to a wicked scowl. “As soon as their judgement lapses, we’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.”
“Then allow me.”
It came from behind the two brothers, somewhere in the shadows that had begun to form as the sun lowered in the sky. It was unlike Agnar’s or Karuk’s own, but strangely familiar to both of them.
”Occidere.”
Suddenly, two huge forms made of shadow bounded out of the treeline behind the captives, uttering blood-curdling howls as they fell upon the unsuspecting talonok guards and absolutely tore them to shreds in a mess of bloodied feathers and squawks of horror. Karuk immediately recognised the two shapes as umbra wolves, large and imposing predators that revelled in the Tangled Wood as hunters of the night. They were a rare, if not impossible, sight outside of their natural home - unless--
“Freyja?”
“That would be me.” The one in question stepped out from behind the trees, coming around to stand in front of her two brothers. She was a powerful dragoness, built almost as strongly as Agnar and with a confident streak to match. However, unlike either guardian, Freyja lacked scales entirely. Her whole body was covered in a thick coat of fur mottled in light and dark patches of the same purple hue as her siblings, with a rather small, but undoubtedly strong, pair of vestigial wings that ended in hooked claws. With a long muscular tail and a pair of impressive antlers with wicked points at the end, Freyja looked both identical to and nothing like her brothers. Yet, regardless of their differences, it was with a very familiar smirk that the two guardians were met.
“You two have gone and gotten yourselves into a right mess, haven’t you?” Freyja practically cooed as she curled her tail at the end as a feline familiar would be inclined to do when something particularly pleased them. “Mother will love this.” She then glanced over her shoulder as her two umbra wolves toyed with their prey, before quickly moving onto bigger and better things as sounds of alarm went through the beastclan village and more guards came rushing to try and assist.
Karuk glared up at his sister, who looked back down at him with that same confident, self-assured smirk she always wore when making some kind of point. “You can gloat when we’re free,” he growled, tugging at the ropes again for emphasis. He then paused, before nudging his head in the direction of his brother. “Agnar first.”
Freyja didn’t need to be told twice, quickly moving to the patterned guardian’s side and carefully using her antlers to break the ropes securing him. When she got a little too close to Agnar’s eye for comfort, he instinctively flinched back and growled a low warning.
“Don’t take my other eye, you brat,” he snapped, showing his teeth, “watch it!”
Freyja gave her own growl in return. It was an entirely different sound to the one her brother made - almost primordial in nature and frightening to even him. “You watch it, or I will take your other eye.” If Agnar hadn’t been mostly bound, no doubt the two would have begun to fight, snapping and snarling at each other with even more ferocity than they had done so when they were younger. However, Agnar was either silently thankful, or Freyja took pity on her brother, and neither resorted to blows. Instead, Freyja once again returned to cutting the ropes with her antlers. Soon, Agnar was free, and as he slowly stood up with a low groan to ease his aching muscles, the gaoler moved to also begin cutting Karuk loose.
“I hope you two are ready for a fight,” Freyja commented as Karuk, too, was freed and finally able to stretch himself out. She watched as her brother rolled his shoulders and flared out his wings, flapping them a couple times to air them off and bring back much needed circulation. “My wolves can only hold off so many.”
“Then let us join your wolves, Sister,” Karuk said with a smile, jostling his armour and rubbing at his wrists. He then brushed off some dust that had gathered on his pauldrons, before flashing a grin at Freyja. When held down, he could feel the sedative moving through his body. Now he was up, Karuk could already feel it leaving and his strength returning. A good sign before a fight. “We’ve got a debt to repay, haven’t we, Agnar?”
Beside him, the larger guardian gave a low rumble in agreement as a look of determination replaced the almost sullen look he’d worn before. “Oh yes,” he returned, snapping his jaws at the air as more talonok came from the village and moved to bypass the two umbra wolves ahead of them. “An eye for a flock, right, Brother?”
Karuk looked to Agnar with something of a smile; proud to stand beside both him and his sister in a final dispute against the beastclans. This was as much for Shal’anir now as it was for them. The sigil emblazoned on his pauldrons was one he would ensure the survivors, if there were any left, would learn to fear.
“An eye for a whole god-forsaken flock.”
Agnar and Karuk had been sent to investigate a small commotion that had occurred on the coasts of the Tangled Wood. The area was mostly woodland, with a thick fog brought in from the sea blanketing the ground, and uniquely arcane-saturated flora and fauna despite the surrounding areas all being heavily guarded by shadow. The mushrooms that usually glowed bioluminescent blue were now much softer in their light, almost white, with the deep midnight foliage of the trees now misty hues of blue and purple, and the bark softening to shades of grey with white runes etched into the surface. It was a strange sight, almost as strange as the realisation that there was no sign of a struggle as the scouts had claimed.
The area was almost completely deserted and Agnar and Karuk struggled to find a reason why the scouts had raised the alarm. From what they could tell from their sweeping patrols of the area, there was nothing to be found. The whole area was otherworldly - seemingly untouched by any sign of a battle at all.
“A pointless endeavour,” Agnar eventually stopped to conclude, looking to his brother-in-arms with a small huff of what could only have been disappointment at the lack of a good fight. He gave a sharp sniff of the air but caught scent of nothing. “The scouts must have been wrong. Either there was nothing here to begin with, or it has long since passed.”
Karuk nodded in agreement. He was no brutish warrior like his brother, but he, too, revelled in a good battle to keep his wits sharp and his claws sharper. There hadn’t been a fight for a while now, and, although he wasn’t anxious for one, he could feel his battle-sense dulling, and there were only so many duels a dragon could do before they got old. “Perhaps. Let us sweep the area one more time, in case we have missed something. Fight or no fight, we have a duty to uphold.”
Agnar huffed again, a short burst of air from flared nostrils in irritation, but acceptance all the same. One more look through meant one more chance at finding something worth his time. “Very well, let us go, Brother.”
From the foliage to their left there then came the snapping of twigs. Immediately Agnar’s lips curled in a warning snarl and he swung his body around to face the source of the sound. Beside him, Karuk moved to the side, coming around to his brother’s flank. The sound of something travelling through the underbrush came again, moving closer. To the right, there was more rustling to be heard, and Agnar whipped his head around with a much louder growl than his first - an invitation, this time, not a warning. This was what he’d been waiting for.
From the underbrush suddenly emerged three, four, five- no, at least half a dozen harpies - shrieking their displeasure at dragons in the area and racing towards the two with talons bared and weapons painting the rain silver in their flurry. Karuk barely had time to let out a yell of surprise before they were upon them, a frenzy of feathers and rending blades that went straight for the eyes in an attempt to blind their enemies. Beside him, Agnar let out a challenging roar in answer to the cries of the harpies, no doubt met with a similar sight to his brother, but much more enthused about the concept of a good scrap on his claws. The two brothers fell unto the harpies with as much fervour as they came to the dragons - wings flared, claws outstretched, and teeth snapping at the air to tear them from the skies. It seemed to be some sort of planned attack, as if the harpies had been expecting dragons, but fell apart quickly in the face of two esteemed warriors of Shal’anir.
As Karuk snapped at the furious beastclan, he spared a moment to look to his brother. Agnar had easily fallen into the battle with a natural grace most dragons feared in him. His eyes lit up with each blow and, even when struck himself, Agnar’s fervour only grew.
“Where did they come from?!” Karuk roared over the hallowing cries of the harpies as they fell, catching one between his claws and crushing its skull into the rain-clogged earth below. “Surely we didn’t miss all of these before!”
There was the sound of flesh being torn apart before Agnar answered. “I do not know, nor do I care. This is what I’ve been waiting for, Brother!” Agnar reared up and flared his wings with an almighty roar - earning himself some distance between him and a few of the harpies. He then slammed back down onto the ground, catching a couple of the avian creatures under his weight and completely decimating them, before charging back into the fray and revelling in the blood he spilt.
“Perhaps my senses are growing dull after all, there’s no way we could have possibly-” Karuk’s words were cut off as a harpy dove straight for his eyes. The blade it wielded stung, just enough to be a small distraction, but whatever satisfaction the creature was granted was short-lived. Karuk coiled his neck back, bared his fangs, and then struck out at it with deadly accuracy. The harpy was dead before he could even spit the disgusting pile of feathers from his mouth.
“You’re too slow, Brother!” Agnar reared up again, using his entire body weight to knock harpies from the skies. As he landed, it was with a grunt of satisfaction at seeing the number he’d managed to catch this time - the air wasn’t cleared of their filth yet, but it was certainly getting easier to pinpoint each individual as they moved in a squawking, screeching mass. “I’ve killed at least double the number you have; no doubt you need this fight even more than I!”
Karuk took out yet another harpy with a broad sweep of his wing - the heavily armoured joint connecting with and splintering fragile bones easily. Another snapping of the jaw saw another life end. “I believe you’re right, Brother, Father always said-” Karuk’s words were once again cut off, but not by the stinging of a blade. An ear-splitting screech way beyond what a harpy could produce sounded, lightning arcing overhead as if very heavens above echoed the battle-cry. All of a sudden, the harpies surrounding the pair took to the skies with triumphant sounding calls, and Agnar was quick to give chase to a few of the slower ones who weren’t so sharp on the uptake. Karuk’s head snapped up to look at whatever had heralded the fleeing of the harpies, and what he saw was enough to shake even the steely nerves of the hardened warrior.
“Agnar, the skies!” Karuk roared in warning at what he saw. It moved too quick for him to be certain of what he was looking at, but whatever it was, it was easily around the guardian’s size and moved with a level of agility he had not seen in any other dragon before. From what he knew, harpies had a particularly strong kinship with rocs - giant avians with the strength to crush a guardian’s skull if allowed to get a proper grip. While he’d never had the displeasure of seeing one up close, he knew enough, and he had no doubt that that was what the shape above them was. The happenstance meeting between dragon and beastclan was no longer a coincidence.
Agnar spit another mouthful of feathers out to the side as he looked up. His expression was immediately cast in shadow and he looked to his brother with a rare flicker of uncertainty in his eye. “Is that what I-” An arrow suddenly pierced through the underbrush around them, sinking into one of the few unarmoured areas of the patterned guardian’s neck, and causing Agnar to give a loud bellow of surprise.
Karuk’s eyes immediately narrowed, and he gave a warning growl as he looked to the direction the arrow had come from. “What is-” More arrows were loosed. They all struck true, aimed perfectly to avoid the areas they couldn’t pierce, and both Karuk and Agnar found themselves falling back as more arrows lodged into their scales, with Agnar stumbling as a higher concentration of arrows caught him over his brother.
“They’re cowards!” Agnar growled as he pulled several arrows out with his teeth, spitting them to the ground and crushing them underfoot. “Striking from the shadows where we can’t-” Another arrow came flying towards them. This time, Agnar’s eyes were the target, and it struck as true as the rest of them. The patterned guardian gave a loud roar of pain as he stumbled back, suddenly lost as half his world went black. He tripped over his own feet, the guardian’s sheer size now working against him, and then fell unmoving onto the rain-soaked ground with a resounding boom.
Karuk’s eyes widened in horror at the sudden turn for the worst and he quickly moved to shield his brother from the onslaught unseen. As more arrows embedded themselves into his scales, it was with a bellow of desperation that Karuk now tried to stem the tide. His final stand meant nothing, however. The arrows were saturated in a powerful sedative, something he was hopeless to try and burn through. Like Agnar, Karuk’s world suddenly veered from one side to the next, causing him to stumble as he tried to regain his balance. His vision flickered, his peripherals fading, and he was subconsciously aware of falling to the ground alongside his brother. He stared at the rain-sodden ground for a moment, and, as his vision faded and his whole world turned dark, he saw more than three dozen harpies now move from the underbrush to claim their prize. They’d never stood a chance.
***
The first thing Karuk became aware of was the uncomfortable feeling of harsh rope digging into his limbs and holding him down onto the ground. His wings were uncomfortably bound, cramping with every breath, and when he tried to shift his weight to alleviate some of the discomfort, he heard a series of sharp squawks before the ropes binding his body tightened. Ordinary rope shouldn’t have held a guardian such as himself, but he could feel the sedative he’d been struck with sluggishly moving through his veins, muddling his thoughts and clouding his judgement. His limbs felt like lead and, as he opened his eyes, the light was almost blinding. Even if Karuk hadn’t been tied down, he doubted he’d have had the strength to move at that moment. Shadowbinder curse them all.
After a few minutes of opening and closing his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness he found himself in, Karuk could just about make out his surroundings. He was indeed bound by ropes and secured to large bolts deep in the ground, which confirmed his earlier suspicion that the harpies weren’t relying on said ropes to hold him down - the sedative they’d administered was more than enough.
They appeared to be held in some sort of camp, although Karuk was certain they were on the outskirts. He could make out the sounds of a village just ahead of them, up in some trees, but could also see some smaller settlements situated on the ground beneath the canopy, too. Harpies and talonok alike flitted through the small gathering, with the talonok no doubt called as the warriors and guards of the group. Sharp piercing shrieks, squawks, and even corvid-like caws echoed from the main gathering of the beastclans. A few closer individuals could be seen to be pointing at the two large guardians they’d captured; whether it was in fear or mocking Karuk couldn’t be certain. It didn’t matter. He would kill every last one of them for hurting him and his brother.
Agnar himself appeared to be in much worse shape than Karuk. His sides heaved, although whether it was through the pain of his eye or the sheer anger at the beastclan Karuk couldn’t tell. Agnar noticed his brother watching him with the rare look of concern in his eye and, even with his mouth, for the most part, bound, the patterned guardian managed a rippling sneer. No doubt Agnar had already given their captors a hard time. Good.
“Any ideas how we’re going to get ourselves out of this mess?” Karuk grumbled across the small gap separating the two. He was mindful to use a low tone to not attract the attention of the guards, although one did look his way regardless. “Whatever was on those arrows means neither of us are in any shape to fight a whole flock right now.”
Agnar stared out at the guards opposite, his gaze seething. “I’m going to tear each and every one of them apart, limb from f*cking limb, for what they’ve done.” He strained at his bonds, raising his head a few inches off the ground, before his strength all but left him and his head dropped back down with a resounding thunk. “I don’t want an eye for an eye. I want an eye for a whole god-forsaken f*cking flock!”
The raised tone immediately caught the attention of one of the guards, who said something to his partner and motioned to the two dragons. Karuk watched one of the birdmen then nod and take off back towards the village. No doubt he was about to go and get more sedative to quieten Agnar.
“I know you’re angry, you idiot, but keep your voice down!” Karuk hissed. “If they get more of that sedative, we’re both going to be in even worse trouble. I’m just as angry as you are, Brother, but right now your brutish ways will do us no favours.”
Agnar didn’t give any inclination he had heard, but the loud huff of disapproval was more than enough of an answer. He would quieten down - for now.
Karuk shifted his weight a little, trying to get some blood to flow back to his extremities since they’d gone numb. “Now, what do you know of our captors? There must be a guard change or something that we can take advantage of.”
Agnar grumbled. “I’ve been watching them since I awoke. Every quarter the sun moves in the sky the guards change. There’s a very brief moment where they leave us unattended, for they believe we’re no threat.”
Karuk felt a small smirk of knowing creep onto his face. “Their first mistake.”
Agnar mirrored his brother’s expression, although it gained an even crueller edge at the idea of causing carnage within the unprepared village. “I’ll make sure it’ll be their last.”
Karuk nodded with a grunt. “Good. They’ll pay for what they’ve done, I promise you. We just have to be smart about this. We weren’t named Shal’anir’s chosen just for brute strength.” He paused, before scoffing. “Well, I wasn’t, anyway.”
It was a bad sign when Agnar chose to not hit back with his own snide comment, although he did bare his teeth to show some displeasure. “If we weren’t tied up, I’d hit you for that.”
Karuk blew a sharp breath of air out his nose in amusement. “I know.” He glanced up at the sky. “Now quiet. The sun is almost to the last quarter. We don’t have much time.”
Agnar gave a grunt to show he’d heard but said no more. Instead, his shadowy gaze was fixated on the avian beastclan that held them captive. This last try was their only try before dark, for the skies were already streaked with splashes of pink and orange and casting the world in a soft, warm haze. As soon as night-time hit, no doubt the guards would see more sedative given in order to ensure the shadow dragons wouldn’t break free once their surroundings became a little more like home. The beastclan probably didn’t realise that their captives didn’t grow stronger during the night like some shadow dragons who relied on the perpetual gloom of the Tangled Wood, but the beastclan didn’t need to know that either. If anything, the fact that they falsely believed the light did more than just momentarily blind the two shadow dragons worked in Agnar and Karuk’s favour.
As Agnar had predicted, the moment the sun hit the final quarter in the sky, the two talonok guards that watched over him and his brother briefly chatted between the two of them in their strange, avian tongue of clicks, warbles, and cawing sounds. They looked ready to leave, but when they should have done so, they were instead joined by two more armoured guards. Agnar didn’t have to look to the side to know Karuk was giving him a foul scowl at the incorrect prediction from before. Perhaps the talonok were growing more wary now both dragons were awake, or perhaps they’d realised what the dragons intended to do. Either way, the two weren’t left unattended for even a moment, and as the two from the previous shift left, the two that had joined had already taken their places.
“I thought you said we were going to be left alone,” Karuk hissed, narrowing his eyes at his brother. “This is not alone, Agnar, there are still two guards there!”
Agnar growled in anger. “Obviously they’ve changed their approach, then, haven’t they? They did it before, I don’t understand why they haven’t done it again.” He pulled against his restraints, but still he lacked the strength to break them. The talonok even had the audacity to not appear even remotely fazed by Agnar’s sudden activity - no doubt they completely trusted he was too weak. They’d be right, if for the wrong reason, and it was with a resigned grumble that Agnar laid still again. The sedative was wearing off, and, were he not struggling with the pain of his eye, Karuk had no doubt Agnar would have had continued to push himself until he eventually did break free of his bonds. He was always the stronger one of the two, which, when coupled with the stubborn streak he’d inherited from their mother, meant Agnar didn’t know, or care, to stop.
Here, however, he had no choice. Neither of them did.
“We’ll keep watch still,” Karuk muttered, mostly to himself. “Surely, they’ll lapse once night falls, or perhaps in the morning. They won’t remain hypervigilant forever.” He looked to Agnar again, expression shifting to a wicked scowl. “As soon as their judgement lapses, we’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.”
“Then allow me.”
It came from behind the two brothers, somewhere in the shadows that had begun to form as the sun lowered in the sky. It was unlike Agnar’s or Karuk’s own, but strangely familiar to both of them.
”Occidere.”
Suddenly, two huge forms made of shadow bounded out of the treeline behind the captives, uttering blood-curdling howls as they fell upon the unsuspecting talonok guards and absolutely tore them to shreds in a mess of bloodied feathers and squawks of horror. Karuk immediately recognised the two shapes as umbra wolves, large and imposing predators that revelled in the Tangled Wood as hunters of the night. They were a rare, if not impossible, sight outside of their natural home - unless--
“Freyja?”
“That would be me.” The one in question stepped out from behind the trees, coming around to stand in front of her two brothers. She was a powerful dragoness, built almost as strongly as Agnar and with a confident streak to match. However, unlike either guardian, Freyja lacked scales entirely. Her whole body was covered in a thick coat of fur mottled in light and dark patches of the same purple hue as her siblings, with a rather small, but undoubtedly strong, pair of vestigial wings that ended in hooked claws. With a long muscular tail and a pair of impressive antlers with wicked points at the end, Freyja looked both identical to and nothing like her brothers. Yet, regardless of their differences, it was with a very familiar smirk that the two guardians were met.
“You two have gone and gotten yourselves into a right mess, haven’t you?” Freyja practically cooed as she curled her tail at the end as a feline familiar would be inclined to do when something particularly pleased them. “Mother will love this.” She then glanced over her shoulder as her two umbra wolves toyed with their prey, before quickly moving onto bigger and better things as sounds of alarm went through the beastclan village and more guards came rushing to try and assist.
Karuk glared up at his sister, who looked back down at him with that same confident, self-assured smirk she always wore when making some kind of point. “You can gloat when we’re free,” he growled, tugging at the ropes again for emphasis. He then paused, before nudging his head in the direction of his brother. “Agnar first.”
Freyja didn’t need to be told twice, quickly moving to the patterned guardian’s side and carefully using her antlers to break the ropes securing him. When she got a little too close to Agnar’s eye for comfort, he instinctively flinched back and growled a low warning.
“Don’t take my other eye, you brat,” he snapped, showing his teeth, “watch it!”
Freyja gave her own growl in return. It was an entirely different sound to the one her brother made - almost primordial in nature and frightening to even him. “You watch it, or I will take your other eye.” If Agnar hadn’t been mostly bound, no doubt the two would have begun to fight, snapping and snarling at each other with even more ferocity than they had done so when they were younger. However, Agnar was either silently thankful, or Freyja took pity on her brother, and neither resorted to blows. Instead, Freyja once again returned to cutting the ropes with her antlers. Soon, Agnar was free, and as he slowly stood up with a low groan to ease his aching muscles, the gaoler moved to also begin cutting Karuk loose.
“I hope you two are ready for a fight,” Freyja commented as Karuk, too, was freed and finally able to stretch himself out. She watched as her brother rolled his shoulders and flared out his wings, flapping them a couple times to air them off and bring back much needed circulation. “My wolves can only hold off so many.”
“Then let us join your wolves, Sister,” Karuk said with a smile, jostling his armour and rubbing at his wrists. He then brushed off some dust that had gathered on his pauldrons, before flashing a grin at Freyja. When held down, he could feel the sedative moving through his body. Now he was up, Karuk could already feel it leaving and his strength returning. A good sign before a fight. “We’ve got a debt to repay, haven’t we, Agnar?”
Beside him, the larger guardian gave a low rumble in agreement as a look of determination replaced the almost sullen look he’d worn before. “Oh yes,” he returned, snapping his jaws at the air as more talonok came from the village and moved to bypass the two umbra wolves ahead of them. “An eye for a flock, right, Brother?”
Karuk looked to Agnar with something of a smile; proud to stand beside both him and his sister in a final dispute against the beastclans. This was as much for Shal’anir now as it was for them. The sigil emblazoned on his pauldrons was one he would ensure the survivors, if there were any left, would learn to fear.
“An eye for a whole god-forsaken flock.”
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