Marha

Mates with: Dakhi

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„Come on Dakhi! It’s not far from here!” Marha exclaimed, nearly dancing in place with excitement. Her mate didn’t seem nearly as enthusiastic, having been interrupted in grooming his mane.

“This better be good… We shouldn’t be wandering off so far from the clan.” he muttered annoyed, catching up to the Bogsneak. The surrounding canyon walls left him feeling like an easy prey, and he didn’t want their clan to leave without them, which seemed quite probable considering how long they were staying already around this place.

“It is, it is! Just a few minutes and we’ll be there! I promise, you won’t be disappointed.” Without another word, Marha pranced away. The Obelisk sighed tiredly, but dutifully followed his beloved. And just as promised, after a few more turns a small entrance to a cavern sprung up before him. He looked at it sceptically, but with an encouraging nod from his mate he started to squeeze inside. His belly rumbled, and for a moment he entertained a thought of eating with the rest of his clan instead of wandering through some forgotten by the living (and dead) places, but the thought of another fishbone broth (each weaker in taste than the last, considering they had to reuse the same bones) quickly settled his stomach. That, and the short feeling of somebody ramming into his backside, and then a faceful of dirt and ash. Dakhi glared accusingly at his unapologetically looking mate.

Marha shrugged, “What? You were taking so long, I thought you got stuck.” She teased him. “Now, get your bum together and come along.” The Bogsneak sprung up and went further down the small cavern into a tunnel, which with every step turned into a steep slope. Inside, she felt bubbly with excitement. What laid ahead of them, it could be what they were searching for so long. Maybe, if she was still living in the Sunbeam Ruins, she would be yelling from excitement, letting her happiness and discovery be known to everybody, but the life in the Wasteland quickly beat those sort of habits out of her. It didn’t stop her from sending excited looks over her shoulder towards her mate.

Dakhi considered complaining again, but the sight of his beloved so happy, with a sparkle in her eyes he saw so rarely these days, stopped him. He just let out an affectionate and exasperated sigh, and followed after her. ‘Who knows,’ he thought, ‘maybe she did find something interesting’.

The wandering pair carefully made their way down the tunnel, Dakhi catching Marha’s tail from time to time when it looked like she would slip. After a while, the tunnel got a bit bigger, finally opening into a spacious cavern with an azure, glowing pond taking up the most of it. Marha quickly ran up to the bank, while the Obelisk stopped in his tracks, looking even more sceptical than before.

“Dear, I thought I told you not to mess with anything even remotely suspicious in the Wastelands, especially mysterious, glowing bodies of water.”

The Bogsneak shook her head. “Don’t worry, I was careful. Now come closer, and look at what’s inside!” With that, she turned her eyes towards the pond, seemingly observing something in it.
Not having been left with much of a choice, Dakhi carefully made his way towards the shore, and stopped with a gasp of wonder when he noticed what got his mate so excited.

“Woah… They are… so…”

“Beautiful? Entrancing? I told you it was worth it!” Marha exclaimed looking extremely proud of herself. Inside the pond, they could see a few dozen big fish swimming, each of them white with black and fiery red markings on their scales. The light which Dakhi first thought was coming from the lake, was actually emanating from them. They both watched them for a while with wonder, with the Obelisk being the first to shake out of it.

“They truly are gorgeous, but knowing you I would dare to think that you wanted to show me something more about them than just their looks?” He looked expectantly at the female next to him.
The Bogsneak in question smirked and took out two bundles of herbs from the small bag she was carrying on her side. “Of course, I’m not that stupid to drag you all the way down here just for a light show.” She gestured towards the herbs, “It’s actually something I’ve been working on for quite some time now. I first found this place a few years back, the last time we passed through these lands, and since have been trying to make these.”

“This something looks suspiciously like Lissomstep’s herbs.” Dakhi eyed them, uncertain. The Tundra may not be the biggest dragon, but there was a reason he was at the top of the clan’s foodchain. “What are we supposed to do, eat them?”

Marha nodded enthusiastically. “Just that. And then jump into this water, and,” she giggled, “swim with the fishes. Thankfully literally. Or was it sleeping? Well, that’s not important. The thing is, when we do it, we should look like them! That’s the big surprise!”

And oh, wasn’t that a tempting thought. It was the thing that connected them, a common goal to achieve a unique and exceptional beauty, so rare to see, and even rarer to remain in the Plaguebringer’s domain. Just one look into Marha’s eyes assured the Obelisk of her determination to go through with this plan, and he wanted it just as much as her. Besides, there were worser ways to go than at the side of the love of your life. And with the words of his elders in mind, Adapt, Evolve, Survive, and one last look into each others eyes, together they swallowed the herbs and jumped into the waters, engaging in an instinctual dance with the mysterious fish, aiding each other when one of them faltered.

When they finally emerged from the pond, their scales coloured in the image of the fish, with their bond stronger than ever, and an unspoken agreement to keep this place a secret for however long they live. Without looking back, they bound up the tunnel they came from, revigorated and eager to join their clan, and new will for life planted within them.