Skithiryx

All will be one...

Novosh had been dispatched to kill a dragon. His blade and mace drawn, he climbed over the warm-plated ground to where the dragon last struck, where woman and children were taken. It was night and Novosh felt the chill wind cool his natural body steel, causing the barbarian to shiver for the first time since childhood. The nights in the Oxidda Chain used to be warm, even after the suns set, but recently there had been cooler winds.

It was the chill that distracted him.

Novosh felt panic as he was lifted into the air, the massive dragon’s claw wrapped around his torso making it so he could no longer expand his chest to breathe. He swung wildly at its massive wrist, twice as big as Novosh’s own body. Both sword and mace stuck into decayed flesh, splitting the dragon’s scales like dry mud. The dragon raised the Mirran man to his face, turning its head so Novosh was looking into its massive left eye.

“Do you hear her whispering?”

The voice was quiet, calm. It was as if a human man was speaking, but from the dragon’s throat.

“Do you hear her whispering?”

Novosh couldn’t even reply now, he could barely inhale. He saw the dragon, rotting and decayed. He felt another cold wind and heard the squirming sound of the dragon’s exposed and rotting gut.

“She came to me in whispers. Now I speak for her. Do you hear her?”

The dragon pulled Novosh towards its eye. He shook his head to say no. Novosh saw the dragon begin to cry, dark black tears. It moved him under the oil, and Novosh tried to fight, but the only breath he could take, caused him to inhale and choke on the tears.

Then Novosh heard the whispers.