Time seems to slow as the summit of Sharktooth Mountain comes into view for the dragons left on the expedition. The air towards the top is thin, and the wind still rages at this elevation. But with no snow left for the wind to toss back and forth, the dragons get their first clear view of their surroundings outside of Sharktooth Mountain’s ice and rock in days.
The group is quiet as they make their way up. The air has started to clear of debris, and they are all aware they’re close to the summit, where the snowfall orchid lives. It almost seems funny now—all the drama, the life-threatening danger, the in-fighting… All because someone wanted to bring a few flowers down a mountain.
Firefly finds himself stopping near the top, Maolin and Bunny joining him, as the trio gets their first clear view of the land below.
It’s positively
gorgeous. The snow-covered peaks of the nearby mountains, stretch high into the sky, breaking the sky line in a way that makes every dragon that looks over the edge fel tiny and humble in comparison. Firefly, finally feeling as if this trip was worth
something, if only to see this view, sits down, taking out a rudimentary camera.
Snap. Snap.
As Firefly clicks away, taking deep breaths to accommodate for the thinner oxygen at this level, Maolin joins him at his side, also enjoying the view. She lets out a little gasp after a few minutes, before fishing in her bags for one of her sketchbooks, and starts to toil away at sketching the mountains, the valley below, the rivers and forests, and everything else she can see. For the first time in days, she truly feels at peace.
Other dragons on the expedition come and go, reaching the summit with them. Many stop to enjoy the view, others simply grab their prize and begin their descent.
Entranced in her art, Maolin doesn’t immediately notice the object being waved near her face. Firefly practically has to shove it in her nose for her to realize he’s giving her something. After craning her neck away from the thing being shoved against her snout, she erealizes it’s a polaroid picture—of her, in fact. Her back is to the camera, and she’s busy at work in her sketchbook, the backdrop of the mountains beyond them making even so large a dragon as her pale in comparison.
Firefly gives a small, if not cocky, smile when he notices her awe. “Something to commemorate the occasion,” he jokes. He places the image on her notebook, before walking away to snap more photos. He may not have another chance after all, with the weather having been the way it’s been.
When Maolin and Firefly have gotten their fill of the view, they collect their flowers, carefully storing them in the canisters they were provided at base camp. Both are confused, however, when Bunny shows no signs of joining them on their way down.
Bunny’s face has tears frozen to her, her small lungs gasping for breath as she sits among the field of the beautiful, fragile orchids, her heart achingly full and empty all at once of the sights around her. Maolin and Firefly worry at first she must be hurt, but she only smiles at them and shakes her head.
“Go,” she smiles. “I… I’m not ready to leave. Not yet.”
Her claws are shaking around the photo—no, wait--
photos she’s holding—one of her, carefully lifting a snowfall orchid to her face, and one of a little white cat, with black spots atop her head, and a scar across her nose.
“I want to share this with her,” Bunny says, her voice breaking on the word
her. Her hands twist as she cracks out the word, revealing a small urn cradled in her hand with the photo of the cat.
Maolin seems hesitant to leave, but Firefly places a hand on the tundra’s shoulder, nodding solemnly to Bunny. Bunny smiles, grateful for their understanding, as the two dragons descend once again. It’s time to return to base, with snowfall orchids in tow.
Talibre, Ranita
“It’s
cold up here,” Ranita gasps.
“I—of course it’s
cold,” Talibre gasps in return, slightly exasperated, but mostly amused. “We’re like, 8000 feet up?” She half-laughs as she turns her head to regard Ranita. “I… how much research did you do into mountain climbing before this?”
Ranita snorts as she tells Talibre that she’s used to high altitudes just
fine thank you, but that doesn’t mean the cold gets any more pleasant. The girls share a few chuckles, the banter light between them as they approach the summit. There’s a familiar blue figure ahead, a tundra they rested with at the bottom of the mountain at the beginning of the hike. As the girls giggle amongst themselves, Ranita hears the sound of a
snap, and turns her head to se Firefly, watching his camera slowly eject a black sheet of paper that he starts shaking to and fro.
They pay him no mind as they approach the flower field, a fae sitting in the flower bed with her back to them, as they each collect their own flower.
They stop to enjoy the view as well, impressed. As they admire the mountains around them, Firefly taps Talibre on the shoulder, presenting them with two photos. One of the view from the mountain, one of the girls laughing together.
He looks out into the valley beyond as Talibre tucks the photos away safely. “Almost makes it worth it, don’t you think?” he chuckles.
Talibre furrows her brow at him, then looks around. Something isn’t right. “Where is that small imperial boy?”
Firefly’s smile fades, and Maolin even looks over, the two sharing a knowing look, before Maolin continues her sketches. “He… collapsed this morning,” she responds, almost too quiet to be heard. She spares Ranita a glance, who’s staring hard in return. “He’s with the medical team now, but the climb has been.. hard for him, to say the least.” A short pause. “I did everything I could…”
Talibre stands up, looking equal parts furious and like she’s about toi throw up. She dashes down the mountain, trying to hide her tears as she runs away, her brain being flooded with memories she didn’t want to relive again. Ranita calls out to her, telling her to wait up, as she chases Talibre.
Talibre stops running eventually, but refuses to talk to Ranita about why she ran away.
[
Bone Collector, Sirocco
Despite the slip-up that morning, Bone Colector and Sirocco are in high spirits as they reach the summit, and the flower beds of snowfall orchids that reside on the top. Like all the dragons that made it there before, the two can’t help but stop to oggle the scenery around them, oohing and aahing like a couple of excited tourists. Sirocco notices Firefly pull out his camera to sneak a photo of them. “Oh, are you taking pictures? Here!! Over here!!!” He waves at Firefly, who looks a little surprised, but humors the excitable boy as he grabs Bone Collector and slings his arm as much around the obelisk’s neck as he can manage.
“Say cheeeeeese!” Sirocco practically shouts, Firefly’s snort leaving a cloud of mist in the air as he snaps the shutter. He takes anohter photo of the boys in a silly pose, the mountain view serving as their backdrop, before handing them each a photograph.
Sirocco, satisfied with the commemorative photo, starts to head down the mountain. Bone Collector has to shout at him to wait! “Aren’t you forgetting something?” he asks cheekily, waving his empty orchid canister in the air.
Sirocco and Bone Collector both laugh at the silly mistake before happily collecting their flowers, giving cheery goodbyes to the dragons still up top before heading down again.
Marina
I made it.
Marina’s heart is elated as she crests the peak of Sharktooth Mountain, a beautiful field of snowfall orchids greeting her at the very top of her journey.
“I
MADE it!” she practically yells, jumping for joy at the edge of the field as she takes in the view. “I DID IT! IT WAS ALL ME! HELL YEAH!” She hoots and hollers at her astounding success, having beaten all the odds and made it to the top of one of the most dangerous mountains known to dragon kind.
The other dragons still on the mountain peak turn in astonishment at her outburst. Marina doesn’t pay them any mind—at any other time, she’d have cried in relief from finally seeing another dragon, but right now, her focus was completely on the snowfall orchids.
After taking a moment to catch her breath, Marina wastes no time beginning to examine the flowers—their petal structure, their texture, their roots, everything she can do to study these beautiful plants.
She’s been up on the mountain for over an hour when a skydancer she barely recognizes hands her a few polaroids—one of herself, her face tilted on the ground at a comical angle, observing a snowfall orchid, and another a close up of one of the flowers. She smiles and thanks him for the gift.
“Do you uh, want to join us?” He points to a blue tundra sitting on the edge of the cliff, who is in the process of packing up to leave. “You’re the only one to come up alone. It’s a lot safer to travel together, you know.”
“Oh, no, I’m fine,” she smiles, “but thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Oh, I am. I wasn’t intending on finishing the competition anyways.”
“...You weren’t?” Firefly practically squawked his response.
How could anyone make this climb if they weren’t even going to make an attempt for the prize? he thought.
“I only came to see these flowers,” she laughs in return. “No one’s seen these in a very long time, you know.” She nods. “Yes, as a botanist, of course I had to come see them for myself, and collect my own samples. I’ll return when I’m ready.”
~~~~~
By the time the sun begins to set on the horizon, it’s only Bunny and Marina left on the peak of the mountain. Marina approaches the clearly fragile fae with care, offering to descend together to a safer camping spot. They both spend the next few days on the top of Sharktooth Mountain together; Bunny processing her grief and healing, and Marina engaging in her truest passion, flowers.
Carmeline, Reverence
“W… Wait!”
Reverence, huffing, turns towards Carmeline, who’s panting as she struggles to keep up with him. Between the extreme cold, thin air, and Reverence’s long strides, Carmeline’s having trouble keeping up with the larger dragon.
Reverence looks down at her with something almost like pity as she wheezes beside him, hunched over so low her breath is billowing across the snow-coated ground. He idly thinks back to another time, a time long before now, when he would have most certainly tossed her to the side as the weakling she was. Between her stupid stunt with the wolves and now her inability to finish the climb, he’d be lying if he said the thought to simply leave her behind wasn’t tempting.
But still.
Thoughts of the last few days flashed through his mind as he regarded Carmeline’s shaking shoulders.
The narrow escape from the wolf attack.
The cruel reflection of himself he saw in the Mad King’s vicious laughter.
The relentless anger he’d used to throw the masked obelisk’s belongings in the snow, taunting him all the while.
The nightshade he’s slipped into the soup of a few bowls back at base camp.
...What was he doing it all for?
For glory? For power? For a small taste of his previous dominance he once carried over the masses? What was the point?
He could never go back. He was chasing a long dead dream, a useless memorium to his failures and flaws.
...
What a terrible place to have an identity crisis, he thinks.
Reverence bows his shoulder to Carmeline, offering her a ride on his back again. She looks surprised at first, but gratefully accepts his offer, seating herself atop his shoulders as he makes it to the peak of Sharktooth Mountain.
There’s a few dragons scattered about the summit when they arrive—he’s bitter about not being the first to arrive, but he says nothing out loud—and Carmeline drops back to the ground. She fishes for her own canister to contain her flower, and then holds out her hand expectantly to Reverence. He looks confused, so she clarifies, “Give me yours. I’ll do it for you.”
Reverence tilts his head, but in the end, chuckles. He hands her his own container and lets her scoop up the flower before joining the blue tundra on the edge of the peak, taking in the sight below. He’s reminded of his kingdom, the glory he formerly held, and the taste is bitter in his mouth as it truly starts to sink in that he can never hold that glory anymore.
His bag, and the crown inside, feel much heavier than they have in a very long time.
As he’s deep in contemplation, the little pearlcatcher approaches his side again, this time holding up a small piece of paper for him. On closer inspection, it’s a polaroid photo of himself—his wings splayed out on either side, looking down on the valley below, his mane blowing majestically in the wind. He looks almost as if he’s about to take flight in the image.
In her other hand, he notices she’s holding a picture of herself, her pearl cradled tenderly in her arms, as she hunches over a particularly tall snowfall orchid, her breath creating an eerie mist between her and the flower.
He carefully takes the photo between his talons, careful not to pierce is as he adds it to his bag before offering his shoulder to Carmeline again. She shakes her head, and starts to lead the way down, surprising Reverence.
They walk in silence for a long time, but it’s Carmeline who eventually speaks. “I don’t know what you’re going through,” she says, surprising Reverence once again, “but if you ever need to talk about it… I wouldn’t mind listening.”
Reverence stares at the back of her head for a moment, but says nothing more.
I’m not crying you’re crying
With this, round 6 draws to a close! I wrote this entire part myself, primarily because I turned off discord and forgot to message my lore helper lol.
The sections… The sections just keep getting longer……….. Lord help me, I’ve written 4200 words for this event today alone. Someone slap my hands away from the keyboard with a ruler or smth.
Thank you so, so much to everyone who’s expressed their love and excitement for this event via PM, on this thread, and on discord! It’s been an absolute pleasure hosting this for you, even as I quickly approach writers burnout because I don’t know how to write quick summaries, apparently.
Each new elimination breaks my heart even more. Can we stop eliminating dragons? Can’t they all just win? /jk
Aid and sabotage can now be sent for round 7! Please remember to PM me using the form on the first page to send in aid or sabotage. The deadline for aid/sabotage is 05:00 FR time—any aid/sabotage sent after 05:00 will either be refunded or pushed forward into the next round.
As a reminder, if you send an aid or sabotage before rollover tonight, you qualify to earn this badge:
If you send aid or sabotage any time after rollover tomorrow, you qualify to earn this badge:
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