Paimon

Igneous Flow Minerals & Ores These rocks can be found where Blacksand Annex meets the domain of the Tidelord. 80 Quote Here Raw Jade Minerals & Ores Though ornaments made from jade are expensive in Sornieth's economy, the raw form of this particular stone is in heavy abundance in the rivers that run through the Windswept Plateau. 100 Quote Here Of Thorns & Roses Lineage and Lore Book

Beowulf was used to doing things alone. The Scarred Wasteland had ensured that - taking the Imperial’s family from her and pitting her against the harshest of survival training. She was a huntress by trade and she’d seen a great many disturbing and gruesome things in her life, but nothing could have prepared her for the curse. She’d contracted it through a bite. The teeth of a monstrous dog had pierced her flesh, but she’d thought little of it at the time. Littered in scars from her battles, Beowulf chalked the bite up to nothing more than another wound marred upon her hide. Something that would heal in time into nothing more than a thin grey scar. But she was wrong. It was not until the light of the full moon struck her that the Imperial realized her mistake. She felt bones shift beneath her skin, tattered grey fur erupting from between her scales as teeth and claws elongated into curved scythes. Tonight, she awaited the full moon once more. She was restless as she shifted over a small matted nest that she’d hidden amidst the abandoned ruins of an old church. Two eggs sat within its confines, pulsing and glowing softly under the moonlight as they began to hatch. It was a moment that scared Beowulf more than anything. She rarely questioned her abilities, but worried that her mothering skills would leave something to be desired. In truth, she hadn’t expected the children at all. She enjoyed many affairs, so many that she’d lost track of her lovers and couldn’t pinpoint which of them had sired the hatchlings. Not that it would have mattered much even if she had known. The moonlight illuminated her fully then, and Beowulf lost herself to the form that she took on such nights. Still, the wolf-like beast that remained was gentle, helping its children hatch. Perhaps Beowulf would never know that her firstborne mimicked his father in many ways - the same dark green fur and brilliant yellow eyes. . . the same curse that plagued both of his parents. He called softly to his mother who leaned down to clean him with a careful graze of her tongue. The second child hatched shorty after, fur as black as the night with flecks of green. Beowulf removed the shells from her nest, picking at scraps of her most recent hunt to feed her newborn children. The night was quiet and cold and a light breeze picked up, shuffling through the damaged ruins. A few scraps of discarded paper blew towards the hatchlings. Old tarot cards covered in dust and burnt at the edges. They landed near Beowulf’s nest though the beast paid them little mind. The text was barely legible, but the first card had once clearly depicted a star and the second, the world.

THE WORLD

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As these places went, the bog had not really been here long. Some water from the Tidelord’s inland sea had spilled over into the Shadowbinder’s domain during a particularly fierce storm. Most of it had eventually receded, but enough had been left to turn this part of the Tangled Wood into a bog. Though much of the water had come from the Sea of a Thousand Currents, the bog was indisputably a part of the Tangled Wood: dim, labyrinthine, and treacherous.

It had not been settled by clans, though travelers did pass through. Two of them were struggling across the damp landscape now: a Bogsneak and a Mirror. The Bogsneak slithered across a channel of water agilely, the Mirror less so. She got a hind foot stuck and had to pry herself loose, after which she trudged over to where her companion was waiting.

“This mud is incorrigible! Wouldn’t be surprised if it was trying to eat me. How do you do it, Wilhelm?”

“Spread your weight out a bit.” The Bogsneak wiggled one of his large, flat paws and hunched down to illustrate. “One foot takes too much weight, it’ll sink too deeply—and the rest of you might follow. Hmm. Maybe we’d better take a break, Cinder.”

“Fine.” Cinder slumped wearily under the meager shade of a tree. The air remained humid, though, and mosquitoes soon crowded around the dragons. Their bites couldn’t penetrate the thick scales, but they still itched like mad.

“You sure no one lives out here?” Cinder tried to scan the landscape with all four of her eyes, but it was so hot, it was difficult to separate the living and inanimate sources of heat, like sun-baked rocks or plants. It was all so searing to look at....She winced and closed her lesser eyes.

“Don’t think so. Haven’t heard of anyone, anyway.”

“They’re a lot smarter than we are, then. Let’s just turn back....We’ll get a different assignment. This place is a bust.”

Wilhelm was about to respond, but stopped as his ears picked up something: a gloopy, surging sound. Cinder heard it too. The two scouts clumped together, frills raised, as the nearby channel bubbled—

Up came something: a vast head, thickly coated in mud, trailing weeds and thorny vines. Wilhelm and Cinder were about to scream, but then they saw the antlers.

“An Imperial?” Before they could apologize for trespassing on what was presumably the strange dragon’s home, it spoke to them instead—

“Well, now, what’ve we got here? Don’t get many travelers in this here part of the swamp. Haven’t ever got many, really. It is kind of a new swamp....”

“Um, is this your territory? We’re sorry if we were trespassing. Our intel didn’t mention anything about permanent residents, so our clan sent us to scout—”

The Imperial clucked gently as she dragged herself out of the mud. She stretched out along the ground, and Wilhelm couldn’t help staring in awe at how the earth closed up as she left it. “A+ sneaking skills! Wish I had Earth magic like that.”

“Naw, it ain’t a problem. I don’t live here either, as such. I’m just sort of...stopping over, you might say.” The Imperial paused, cast a faintly annoyed glance to one side. Wilhelm and Cinder followed her gaze and blinked when they saw another Imperial approaching. He moved easily, striding over the beds of reeds on unusually long legs, his red skin gleaming in the sun.

“Ooh, sneaky. Didn’t hear or see him either,” the Bogsneak whispered. Cinder’s frills were flat with suspicion. “Yeah...that’s what worries me.”

“Pfft, if they’d wanted to kill us, we’d be dead by now. They crept right up to us, after all.”

“Still tagging along, huh, Bloody?” the dark Imperial asked the red one. She seemed exasperated.

“Got nothing better to do. Who’re these?”

Cinder spoke up next: “We’re scouts of the Treadwater Clan. Our clan’s looking for new gathering grounds, and we’d heard this place was unoccupied, so we were sent to map it. We’re supposed to mark trails, landmarks, that sort of thing, for our gatherers to refer to.”

“Sounds tedious.” Bloody yawned hugely, showing white fangs. The dark Imperial seemed more impressed. “You don’t say. This whole bog?”

“Yeah. That was the plan. We’re just about ready to give up; this place is tough to get through.”

“Now, don’t look so downcast!” The Imperial’s grin shone, bright against her dark face. “Bloody and I’ve been here for a while now; we can help you out. Right, Bloody?”

“Whatever.”

“Don’t be a sourpuss. They’re close to the other end of the valley; it won’t take long!” The Imperial grinned back at the scouts. “Name’s Paimon, by the way.”

She slithered off. Cinder, in spite of this stroke of luck, muttered, “Is this wise?”

“We are pretty close to the end,” Wilhelm answered quietly. “And if anything goes wrong, well...our clan knows where we are. If these folks mean us harm, it’d be worse if we went back the long way. But if we get closer to drier ground, we’ll have a better chance of escape if things go south.”

Cinder grunted assent. She and Wilhelm began trudging after Paimon. The dark Imperial was still grinning, and she commented, “You picked a bad time to slog through. Heat like this just saps the strength from your bones.”

“We’re used to it.” Cinder was a Fire dragon, and Wilhelm had been born and raised in the Tangled Wood. But the heat was sapping them. The canopy blocked out the sunlight, certainly, but it kept the heat in. And down here, closer to the ground, the humidity was nearly suffocating....

“Better to wait it out, y’know? Not nighttime, that’s no fun. But early morning or late afternoon, when it’s not quite baking and the mosquitoes ain’t awake yet...Travel’s much easier.”

“Have you lived here long, um, Paimon?”

“I pass through from time to time,” the Imperial said with a wink.

It was nearly noon, and soon the sun was directly overhead and the heat was stifling. Paimon stretched out along the muddy bank of an island, and Cinder and Wilhelm slumped down nearby. They looked around for Bloody, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Noontime is naptime,” Paimon said by way of explanation, and she closed her eyes.

Cinder was glad to oblige, but Wilhelm still had more energy left. He began scuttling away.

“Wilhelm! Where’re you going?”

“Just gonna look around. This could be a good rest stop. I’ll be back in a jiffy.”

Compared to other mounds of earth in the bog, this particular island was high and wide—and stable enough to support more trees and rocks. They formed little labyrinths that would have exasperated many travelers, but Wilhelm was a Shadow Bogsneak, and navigating these twists and turns came naturally to him.

He soon found himself paddling along a shallow channel, trying to ascertain where it led. In the dry season, this could be a serviceable trail; swimmers could find it useful during the rainy season too. He intended to reach the end and then plant a flag there for future reference...and that was when he saw the cave. Just a shadow, really, half-curtained by hanging weeds.

“Shelter? Could be useful, too.” He paddled towards it....

When Cinder opened her eyes again later, the sun was somewhat lower in the sky. It was still terribly hot— “But I was careless. Shouldn’t have fallen asleep like that.” She looked around, and relief surged over her when she saw Paimon still sprawled nearby and Bloody crouched beneath the trees.

And Wilhelm? “Hey...Will?” she croaked, getting to her feet. The sound roused the Imperials, and they turned towards her. They blinked, and though it was a small and lazy motion, Cinder was suddenly uncomfortable. She was reminded of the toridaes of the Mire....

In a burst of movement and foliage, Wilhelm reappeared. His scales were damp, and water weeds still clung to his hind legs; he looked a little wild-eyed.

“Where’ve you been, pal?” Paimon asked with an idle yawn. Cinder was more perceptive: “What’s wrong?”

“Mm? I just...I wandered off. How long has it been?”

“An hour,” Bloody growled, his red eyes narrowing. Wilhelm nodded feverishly. “Yes, I got lost. Thought I’d never find you guys again! But, um...”

“The heat won’t be too bad soon. Now that we’re all rested, let’s get going, shall we?” Paimon lumbered off. Cinder looked narrowly at her clanmate; he still seemed a bit jittery. “Later,” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth, carefully avoiding her eyes.

~ ~ ~
The day wore on, and when the sun was low in the sky, they found themselves looking down a wide channel of water. It wound sluggishly west, Paimon said, and eventually rejoined the Tidelord’s sea. From there, the two scouts could purchase passage on a ship and head up the coast to return to their clan.

The channel was deep and slow, and it was shielded from the open sky by a thick canopy, almost a tunnel of branches, moss, and leaves. It was undoubtedly cooler inside, but also darker, and the two scouts hesitated.

“Scared of monsters, are we?” Paimon whispered, bending closer to Cinder’s ear. The Mirror jumped in surprise.

“Um...” She glanced sideways at Wilhelm, who was still jittery. “We just need a break. We can take it from here—”

“Not a problem! Bloody and I can take you along.”

Before the scouts could protest, Bloody picked them both up and placed them upon Paimon’s back. The huge, dark Imperial slid into the water; there was another splash as her scarlet companion followed.

Cinder mumbled an approximation of “thanks”. She looked down at the Imperial’s hide—but she couldn’t see it; it was so thickly festooned in thorns and weeds. They tangled in her talons, and were almost sticky....

The branches closed over their heads. The sun was hidden by the crowns of the trees, so there was little light down here. Cinder squinted ahead with all four of her eyes, but all she could make out in the distance was a faint glow.

To break the awkward silence, she began, “You, um, seem to know a lot about this place. I thought you said you were just passing through?”

In the darkness, Paimon laughed. “I specialize in bogs. One bog’s pretty much like the other. Same sort of environment, same sort of creatures. You get a feel for those kinds of places after a while.”

“So you’re some kind of explorer, then?”

“I like that word. Yes, let’s say I’m an explorer.”

“That’s not an answer,” Cinder thought, but she remained quiet. She shifted uneasily, trying to ignore the grasping feeling around her talons. Beneath her, the matted mess seemed, dimly, to glint with silver and green.

She looked back at Wilhelm, who looked just as uneasy as she was. She tried to tamp down the fear: “We’re just tired and hungry and it’s normal to be uncomfortable when you’re in the company of strangers. But they’ve been nothing but helpful. Thanks to them, we’ve found a fairly good route out of this bog, and in the future we’ll be able to explore more. Really, we were lucky to run into them. We were lucky...”

The channel widened out at last, and the canopy opened up, too. Cinder, without realizing it, gasped in relief. She and Wilhelm scrambled ashore.

“All done,” Paimon said cheerily. “I don’t know this particular neck of the woods too well, but I’m guessing that if you head northwest, you’ll soon hit the coast.”

“And we’ll be able to get to our clan from there—yes, we remember. Thank you,” Wilhelm said gruffly.

“Anytime. And, well, who knows? Maybe we’ll see you back here again.” Paimon winked one golden eye and rolled beneath the surface of the water. Bloody, the scouts belatedly realized, was nowhere to be seen.

“Well, that was nice of—” Cinder broke off when she realized Wilhelm was rapidly scuttling away. She soon caught up to him, pinning him in place with an irritated glare.

“Are they gone? Really gone?” The Bogsneak craned his neck to look. Cinder rolled all four of her eyes. “Yes, they are. What’s with you? You’ve been acting weird since—”

“There’s something down there.” The tight expression dropped off like a mask; Wilhelm’s face broke into a broad, cunning grin. “See, down there, there’s—”

~ ~ ~
“Treasure,” croaked the Serthis, or what was left of it: blackened skin stretched taut over bones, leathery rags fused to it. It sucked in a rattling breath, and then it began repeating the message, looping back to the beginning: “Come closer...friend. Please...someone must help me find...my—”

“Enough,” said Paimon, and the bog mummy sagged into silence.

She withdrew her head from the cave. Beside her, Bloody grumbled, “You think they fell for it?”

“Fell for it? Hell, Bloody, that ’Sneak practically jumped into it! He was gone for an hour, said he’d gotten lost...heh!” She swished her tail. “Definitely not a thief, that one.”

“I take it that’s why you let them go.”

“Mmmgh.” It was a sound that could mean any number of things. Paimon stretched out among the reeds again, eyes comfortably closed. Bloody waited patiently nearby.

“This is a new place,” Paimon said at last, “and a new place is going to have plenty of firsts. First explorers, first travelers...then maybe later, if we’re lucky, first settlers.” Her fangs flashed in a brief smile.

“But it’s also a slow place. So warm, so comfortable...So I put a few friends here and there to speed things up a bit.”

Bloody nodded. He scanned the surrounding channels and islets, wondering where the rest of the bog mummies were buried. Other travelers, who had not been so fortunate in their encounters with Paimon, now making promises of good fortune to anyone who stumbled across them...

“And you think those rumors of treasure will bring them in, eh?”

“Think? Dear Bloody, I know.” Paimon chuckled, and from beneath her matted fur, spectral hands extended, glowing green, grasping hungrily at the empty air.

“But until then, we’ll just wait.” The barghest made herself more comfortable in her bed of reeds. This time, though, she sank perceptibly, becoming one with the ground, until it was impossible to separate her from the tangled vegetation and the sand.

Above her, the sun continued crawling across the sky. It would sink down soon...and rise again. It would bring new days, new opportunities—and Paimon would be ready to catch them.

All she had to do, until then, was wait.

~ written by Disillusionist (254672)
all edits by other users

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furious headdress
dire kelpie mane
obsidian unicorn mane
obsidian unicorn tail
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untamed claws
tarnished steel boots
echo eater tailspine
plasmapool flightshroud
bramble mantle
raven woodmask
haunted flame cloak
black wooly coat
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unearthly onyx ghastcrown
curly coated retriever?