Avalanche

Entry Number :


AIRG Number: 0


At first glance, stealing Avalanche was more trouble than it was worth. The Fortress of Ends was a chilly, twisting cavern that only got more horrifying and guarded the deeper you went. Frozen specimens started with prisoners of war and startling physical genetic mutations. Eventually, you got to the Shade-touched. They had lost their natural form and just threw their black energy around their prisons, hoping to finally break out and escape. Guards were a nuisance, but as long as you weren't cocky and revealed yourself at the wrong time, you were fine. Eventually, I reached the most guarded artifacts and found that for once in his life, Nightraider wasn't exaggerating.

The frozen Gaoler was very much thousands of years old, but it's hatchling age was stuck in time. Centuries of being frozen had gradually tinged it's fur in bands of blue and white. Jagged shards of ice has spiked out of it's back and arms. And although there was a pale film of dense hoarfrost that glazed over it's eyes, you could still make out a flash of red, the sign that this dragon was a Plague-born.

Getting the dragon out of the prison was a whole other matter. I figured I could manipulate the ice around the hatchling to grow in size and crack. Unfortunately, the sound of ice breaking alerted the guards and from that point, it was a mad dash for the exit. I don't remember much, apart from the fact that I mostly escaped without injury, except for a shot of ice that left much of my right face frostbitten, and sliced off my right feather crest. It grew back, but it didn't fully recover until around the time I created Nakba.

I fled with the hatchling to the Ashfall Wastes, hoping to speed up his thawing and recovery. Most of the thawing was done with the resulting climate of the surrounding area and my attempts to incubate with warm rocks. Eventually when the hatchling awoke, I coaxed the dragon to fire a bolt at a nearby tree so I could analyze the magic alignment. It was very much of Plague origin, but I saw a shimmer of cyan and purple coating the resulting tree, a sign that the Astral infection was locked in there. I just needed to draw it out.

Naming the hatchling, Avalanche (the trend of naming my creations after major disasters wouldn't really start until I met Catastrophe), I trekked on over to the Windswept Plateau and used the Aergate to launch myself over to the Scarred Wasteland in hopes of finding guidance on how to strengthen the infection inside him.

On my way to Quarantine Zone #128, I met Thomas and left Avalanche in his care for the majority of the time while I worked with Catastrophe. At his insistence, I came over to take blood samples from Avalanche only when needed, and the visits became fewer as I mutated the strain further. Because of this, Avalanche's hatchlinghood was rarely interrupted and as such, Thomas and Avalanche developed a strong parent - child bond. And I'm grateful for this; Catastrophe and I are better suited for raising bacteria, rather than hatchlings. I'm glad that I gave Avalanche the supportive family structure while I had the chance and we are on neutral/ positive terms after Thomas migrated with my creations to Arcane.