Augite

“I have a delivery for a mute Guardian with gold markings?”

Augite stopped what she was doing, her body tense from the voice that appeared out of nowhere. One of the protectors she was feeding meowed sweetly and approached their visitor, rubbing its body on the brightly colored Tundra’s fur to get some pets out of him. Cielstrom chuckled, putting down his delivery and gently patting the feline’s head. Augite watched him silently, her body only losing a bit of its tension due to the familiar face. Once the protector had its fill, it trotted back to its mates and awaited food, Augite relaxing entirely and filling her charge’s bowls.

“Watching you take care of them is amazing, you have so many yet you never fail to fulfill each of their needs. They must feel like royalty.”

Augite felt her face start to heat up and nodded in thanks at the courier’s kind words, the Tundra letting out an exaggerated sigh. “You really aren’t going to talk to me huh? Not even a ‘thank you’? I bet you have a rather nice voice yet I’ll never know since you won’t speak.”

Augite forced down a laugh by clearing her throat, pointedly looking at the delivery that was resting by Cielstrom’s feet, the courier picking it up. He wordlessly handed the package over, the Guardian ignoring the other dragon’s curious eyes as she opens the package. Inside were building materials such as cement, stone, paint and a couple of bundles of yarn for the augite protectors to play with. Cielstrom whistled at the amount of materials in the box, stretching out his body and giving another protector some pats as it laid right next to him.

“So that’s why the box was super heavy, you thinking about building this place back up?”

Augite nodded quietly and flicked a ball of yarn for the protectors, the felines running after it as she started to unpack the box.

“I heard some others say that this place was once inhabited by dragons who believed Augite Protectors were gifts from the gods and worshipped them as such, building this temple to house and pamper them.” Augite paused what she was doing and gave Cielstrom her undivided attention, the Tundra blinking nervously as she stared at him with intense eyes. Clearing his throat, he continued. “I don’t remember if all the inhabitants were Guardians but I do know they all had markings such as yours and could communicate with the protectors through them. I also heard that a strange illness killed a few which is why this place was abandoned and left in ruins. Whoever was left during the time buried the dead and left so they weren’t affected too. The cats being used to this place never left I guess, you saw them waiting when you arrived right?”

Augite nodded slowly, Cielstrom smiling at her and sitting next to her laying form. The two dragons rested in silence, the only sounds heard where the meows of happy Protectors playing with the yarn. A few of them got tired of the game and climbed on top of Augite to curl around and take a nap. Cielstrom laughed as the Guardian gently removed the cats from her body and stood up to prevent them from doing it again.
“Do any of them have names? Don’t places like these have some kind of registry?”

Augite gave him an incredulous look, she wasn’t aware of anything of the sort existing. Cielstrom blinked twice before letting out another exaggerated sigh, the Guardian narrowing her eyes at him.

“Have you been anywhere other than the main foyer since you’ve been here? You know that this place is about, two, three stories high, right?”

Augite slowly shook her head no, Cielstrom letting out a laugh and gently getting up from where he was sitting to walk in deeper into the temple. Augite quickly scrambled to follow him, nearly crashing into the Tundra as she skidded to stop in front of Cielstrom, trying to get him from walking any further. The Tundra paid her no mind, however, and made way to the crumbling and desecrated stairway.

“Look, this temple is yours to look after now. Your ancestors left you this place to discover and find your purpose. Don’t tell me you’re not interested in knowing more about this place, the secrets that it holds. Come on, if you’re going to restore the temple to its natural beauty, you were bound to come up here one way or another. Might as well take this opportunity.”

Augite rolled her eyes and sighed, reluctantly giving up and following the Tundra up the stairs. Her companion was too giddy at the fact she relented that he nearly fell off one of the broken steps. Augite quickly wrapping her tail around him and pulling him back.

“Be careful.”

Cielstrom’s eyes widened at the quiet voice, the Guardian looking at him confused as he stared. She cleared her throat for a second time and gave him a small push, the Tundra snapping out of his trance and continuing to climb up the steps, much more carefully this time. As soon as the two reached the top of the first set of stairs, a large archway caught their eye, vines covering the opening and floating as stray breeze slipped through the temple’s walls. Cielstrom flicked away a few of the vines and entered into the room, finding a few candles and lighting them with pieces of flint. Light encapsulated the darkened room and revealed bookshelves upon bookshelves of old tomes caked with dust and cobwebs. Augite’s eyes sparkled as she approached a bookshelf and gently took a book out, flipping through the weathered pages.

“Found it!”

She jumped at the sound of Cielstrom’s happy voice, the Tundra holding a large book with the words ‘AUGITE REGISTRY’ on the front. The Guardian put back the book she was holding and approached the Tundra as he flipped through the pages that contained drawings of the Augite Protectors with names ranging from absolute silliness to plan and simple. Once they reached to the end of the registry, Cielstrom handed Augite the tome, the Guardian accepting it with a small smile.

“Thank you.”

Cielstrom blinked. “Hm? For what?”

Augite rolled her eyes yet again and gestured to the room, Cielstrom’s laugh echoing in the space.

“It was no biggy, all you needed was a small push! Besides, I should be thanking you for proving my theory to be correct.”

Augite gave the strange Tundra a confused look, tilting her head to the side in question.

“You do have a really nice voice.”

Lore by Sacrilegious