Camrynn

Lightning streaked across the darkened sky in an unearthly crimson red.

Below the deep violet clouds, a mountain range stretched across the land, its sides littered with dark pine trees and ferns that concealed a series of winding caves. Out of one such cave emerged a green dragon with faintly glowing spots. She looked up at the strange weather, observing it curiously with oddly colored eyes, one gold, the other silver. Thick purple horns curled behind her small ears, which pricked forward towards the sky.

The crimson lightning streaked through the cloudy sky, slowly concentrating around a particularly dark patch of clouds that appeared to be rotating in a clockwise fashion around a point somewhere near the center of the storm. After a few moments, the dark clouds began to part, revealing a black hole in the sky, the crimson lightning flashing around the opening.

On the ground below, the green dragon, whose name was Camrynn, recognized what she was seeing immediately. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen a portal like this; in fact, it was a portal much like this one that had taken her to the world in which she was currently residing: a backwards world, where the clear sky was green and the plants were adorned with black foliage. Right now, the landscape looked like an eerie silhouette against the flickering red in the turbulent sky above.

The only life in this land were giant, ghostly caribou with glowing white eyes, if you could call them that. Camrynn would see them in the distance, passing slowly between the trees before vanishing into the shadows. Occasionally she’d see their glowing white eyes peering out from the darkness, but whenever she tried to approach them, they would seemingly vanish into thin air.

It was a quiet place, where she’d spent the last few years in solitude.

It must be time to go, Camrynn thought as she eyed the portal. It wouldn’t be long before it closed here, opening again in another world for a brief moment before continuing on its wandering path. She spread her blue wings, stretching for a moment before taking flight, heading up into the sky and straight into the portal.

As she passed though the opening, the crimson lightning grew brighter around the perimeter, growing into a static that clung to her hide. The sound of thunder tore through the silence as the clouds rushed into the portal behind her, and in an instant, the portal was gone.

The land below was returned to silence. On the ground, countless pairs of glowing white eyes appeared from between the trees, looking up as the clouds began to dissipate, and the sky returned to a glowing green.



Summer and Forest awoke to the sound of thunder. The two dragons raised their heads, peering towards the strange red glow that faintly illuminated the entrance to their small cave.

Forest made her way over quickly, cautiously peering out to search for the source of the light.

In the sky above, the thick clouds that kept the land shrouded in darkness had parted around a dark portal encompassed by red flickering light.

“Summer, wake Ness!” Forest cried. “Something is happening!”

The three dragons and the horned frog, nicknamed Omen, quickly made their way out of the cave and down to the marshy lowland that the portal had formed over. Oboro rose from the water nearby and met them just as a flash of red light burst from the portal, along with the shape of a dragon.

The thunder roared as the shape, along with a gust of clouds, came tumbling from the sky, thrown violently from the strange portal and into the nearby river with a loud splash.

The gang bolted to the river, their hearts pounding in both fear and excitement. They slowed as they reached the riverbank.

At first there was nothing; the disturbed water lapped against the mud, still rough and very cloudy from the sudden impact. The four dragons approached cautiously, peering into the murky water…

They leapt back in unison as the water suddenly exploded upwards, the head of a dragon bursting through the surface with a loud gasp, followed by some choking. The green dragon paddled towards the bank, scrabbled up through the mud, and steadied herself on the damp grass.

She looked nothing like the dragons of Sornieth.

The strange dragon that now stood before them was definitely recognizable as a dragon; she had the classic four legs and two wings, but that was just about where the similarities ended. Her paws were heavy, the toes tipped in thick white claws. Her body was short and almost dog-like, with a broad chest covered in purple plates that ran the length of her underside to the tip of her tail, which ended in a twisted purple arrowhead. Her horns were the same color, curling behind her large head and around the ears to frame her short-muzzled face, upon which an exhausted expression had settled.

The strange dragon folded her shiny blue wings at her sides as she sighed, and then looked up at the group of dragons that stood before her, all of which were staring at her, dumbfounded.

“Dragons,” she said weakly, raising a paw to brush the floppy first spine of her blue head crest away from in front of her face.

“Yes,” Forest responded timidly. “My name’s Forest. These are my friends Summer and Ness,” she gestured to the two Skydancers before turning to her other side and said, “and this is Oboro.”

“I’m Camrynn,” said the strange green dragon, her glowing spots dimming slightly. “What is this place?”

“We call it Sornieth,” said Summer. “You’re in the Tangled Wood.”

“Sornieth,” Camrynn repeated thoughtfully. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.”

“Yes… You don’t seem to be from around here,” Ness said slowly. “Not to be rude but… what kind of dragon are you?”

“Hm... yeah, about that," said Camrynn. “Some call me a charmed dragon, others call me a shapeshifter… the title varies. I just like to call myself a Traveler.” She looked up at the group of confused dragons as another rumble of thunder filled the air.

“You don’t get boltholes here often, do you,” she said after a moment.

“Bolt-whats?” Summer asked.

“Boltholes… unstable, sometimes traveling portals that connect other world briefly,” Camryn explained. “They’re usually generated when a great amount of magic has disturbed The Realm.”

“What’s The Realm?” asked Ness.

“It’s what we call the magical fabric that connects all the worlds,” said Camrynn. “Again, terminology differs depending on the location.” She took a moment to eye the dragons that stood before her, and then glanced down at herself.

“You said sometimes traveling,” Forest said slowly. “About the boltholes... what did you mean by that?”

“Well… a regular bolthole is a small, temporary portal that connects otherwise unconnected worlds for a brief period of time, and then goes away as the energy stabilizes again. Sometimes, if there was enough of a disturbance in the energy, you’ll get one that’s able to connect to different worlds, though one end of the portal is almost always rooted in one world. The other end travels, allowing passage from other places until it eventually runs out of energy.” She looked up where the dark portal still hung in the sky, the faint red glow and flickers of lightning still lingering around the outside.

“If I had to guess, I’d say the energy disturbance happened here in your world,” continued Camrynn. “That’s the stable end of the portal.”

“So then… you’re from another world?” asked Summer.

“Yes,” Camrynn confirmed. “I’ve actually been trapped in a rather barren world after traveling through a previous portal… it’s been a while since I’ve seen dragons. I’ll admit, it’s quite a welcome sight.”

“So you’ve visited other worlds?”

“Like I said, I’m a traveler,” Camrynn repeated. “I use boltholes to get around to new places. I like to do some sight-seeing, I guess.”
She looked up at the portal above them again and added, “That’s a pretty big one you’ve got here though… I wouldn’t be surprised if you get a couple more visitors from some other places soon. You must’ve had quite a disturbance to generate a monster like that.”

“Yeah… about that.” Summer and Forest looked at each other uncomfortably. “Why don’t you come with us, you look tired. We can get you caught up on what we know has happened here, and maybe you can help us.”

“Thank you, and I’d be glad to help,” Camrynn said. “But first… let me just try to blend in a bit better.”

The other dragons watched as the green spots dimmed again until they stopped glowing completely. Camrynn’s body stretched until it took on a longer, more lizard-like shape, and her wings lengthened and grew feathers. After only a few moments, she’d taken on the form of a Skydancer.

“Whoa,” whispered Summer. “Normally we need a magic scroll to change our appearance like that…”

“Lucky me, I guess,” said Camrynn. “Alright, let’s go back to the place you call home here, I’d definitely like to hear about what’s been going on. It’s been years since I’ve seen a bolthole like that.”