Sharktooth Mountain, Ascended
Maolin, Carmeline
Where did she even come from?
As if she were in the center of a hurricane, Maolin watches as Carmeline rises into the sky with no effort at all, a huge surge of wind magic sending her straight upward. She’s quite surprised at the pearlcatcher’s sudden appearance, but pays them no mind. Base camp is in sight, and she’s quickly closing in. She estimates she has 15 minutes to base camp via flight; the ground below her passes at a dizzying pace as she dives towards her target. What had taken her a day and a half to climb, she was now flying in 5 minutes.
That didn’t mean the flight was
easier than the walk. The winds from the east were barraging her from the side, causing her already bruised wings to scream in pain. Even as her body burned from the cold and the pain of slamming into the mountain. Through all the exhaustion from all the hike had drained from her, Maolin refused to give in as she tucked her wings in for another short dive, gaining herself extra speed in exchange for a loss of altitude.
She’s quickly gaining on Carmeline, who’s still gaining speed from her initial ascent. But she has the wind to her back, and she’s quickly getting faster. Was she also going for help? How many dragons were dying, dead because of this expedition? It made Maolin’s stomach turn at the thought… especially when she recalled Eirostle.
Carmeline will
not be beat. She may not have been enthused to enter this contest, but with the finish line so close, and only one other competitor to beat, she can feel the drumming of her heart racing in her ears as she flaps her wings, begging them to go faster, go
faster, go FASTER! She thinks of Shiver and her sacrifice, Reverence and his heavy heart and will of fire, and wants to win
for them. She glances over her shoulder, annoyed that Maolin is still gaining ground on her, and quickly. She does a dive herself and flaps her wings, but she’s struggling to outpace her.
She taunts Maolin from over her shoulder as the tundra closes the distance between them. Both dragons falter as a loud--
BOOM
--comes from the mountain, causing both girls to falter for a moment. They look around, but neither can pinpoint the source of the noise. Maolin keeps pushing herself harder, trying to go faster, and Carmeline is struggling right along with her. If only she’d been a wind dragon instead of a fire dragon…
Carmeline moves to kick to kick Maolin in the face, but all of her bravado melts away to horror and mortification as she finally realizes that there’s a
dragon slung over Maolin’s neck, badly wounded and barely breathing. That’s… that’s the dragon that gave her the photo from the top of the mountain, isn’t it?
Maolin’s face changes with Carmeline’s as it falls, starting with disgust, to second-hand shame, to pity, as Carmeline’s heart sinks with shame. She—she didn’t know! How could she?
BOOM
Sharktooth Mountain shakes again, a loud rumbling faint in the distance as another avalanche triggers far to the west of their location. Both girls look at the mountain, then the avalanche, then each other, Maolin yelling over the wind—
“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”
As if summoned, a third—
BOOM
--sounds off, followed by a huge pillar of black smoke shooting out of a cave entrance in the side of the mountain, a thin black object hurtling towards both the dragons.
Carmeline and Maolin both barrel roll out of the way as
something is flung past them, the sound of screaming heard as it whizzes by.
“
aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa”
Carmeline and Maolin both give each other an incredulous look, Maolin sniffing the trail of smoke left behind by, well,
whatever that was, before her eyes open wide in realization.
“Was that… Sirocco?”
Sure enough, it
was Sirocco, spinning through the air from the force of the explosion that had pushed him out of the other end of the mine, back into the mountain air. Screaming at the top of his lungs, he desperately flapped his 4 wings, twisting in the air to try to gain control of his fall before he went
splat on the ground below. Covered from head to toe in ash and coal dust, Sirocco almost looks like a demon, with his jet-black body and tangled, knotted hair.
After multiple failed attempts, he manages to right himself enough to start getting control of his fall, just in time to try to slow his speed as much as possible as he dive-bombs the base camp site.
“
aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH”
Sirocco crashes into a half-buried tent on the edge of camp, snow catapulting into the sky as Sirocco goes limp.
The medical team and still-remaining expedition members all jump, a few even screaming, at the impact, a banescale medic flying over to pick up the poor limp noodle from the snow. Sirocco’s head is swimming, but he still manages to give a little thumbs up as he’s elevated into the air, earning laughter and cheers from everyone present, most of all Uncia, who grabs the little spiral in a giant bear hug as the banescale lowers him into her outstretched arms, Sirocco squeaking like a dog toy at the pressure.
“
Uncia,” he wheezes as she loosens her grip on him, beaming as he speaks, “do
I got
a story for y
ou!”
As Sirocco dizzily tries to tell Uncia what happened on his trip, not really cooperating with the medic trying to look him over, Lylas and Lionheart watch nervously at the other two dragons flying in at dangerous speeds, ready to do damage control if needed. With the powerful beating of her wings, Maolin touches down just seconds before Carmeline.
Lylas and Lionheart quickly approach the two dragons that just landed, Maolin yelling loud enough for everyone to hear, “He needs medical attention! He needs help
right now!” She used her claws to cut the rope securing Firefly, too impatient to untie them properly. “
Please,” she pleads, gently setting him down as Lylas rushes over, closing the distance, looking over Firefly’s injuries.
Lylas calls over specific medics, shouting how he needs x medicine and y supply, as the rest of the medical team start heading out to head up the mountain, answering its many calls. Lionheart motions the two girls to follow him, heading over to Sirocco and Uncia.
“Well, as sure as I am that it’s the last thing on your mind, I think it’s best we get the formalities out of the way,” Lionheart says, giving Maolin, who looks almost as much a mess as Sirocco, a sympathetic look. “You.” He points at Sirocco, who looks at him cross-eyed. “You’re the first to return. Congrats!” Lionheart claps his hands as Sirocco starts to holler, interrupting whatever he was about to say. “Your
flower, please.”
“Hah
ahahaaaa yo
uuuuuuuu got it,
man,” he slurs, unstrapping his backpack and dropping it on the ground, pointing at it.
Lionheart cringes, gingerly opening the blackened pack so as to get as little of its grime as possible on his hands, and pulls out an equally blackened pod. With a scowl, Lionheart gingerly opens the capsule, the flower inside blackened, charred, and very,
very dead.
Lionheart wrinkles his nose before dumping the dead orchid on the ground. “Disqualified.” Sirocco looks heartbroken as Lionheart turns his back to Sirocco, looking at Maolin and Carmeline. “Do
you have your flowers?”
Maolin and Carmeline both pull out their cannisters, their cannisters a little banged up from all the excitement, but intact, with the flowers still mostly whole inside. Lionheart doesn’t look impressed, but considering the day’s events, he probably can’t complain. He sighs. “Alright, you two win. I’ll get you your winnings shortly.”
Maolin and Carmeline share a look as Lionheart floats off, underwhelmed by the whole situation. It really feels like this moment should have been more… exciting? Celebrative? Than it was, but in the end, they were probably just lucky enough to be alive.
Maolin doesn’t care much to wait to receive her money. Instead, she asks Uncia where the injured are being kept, who’s happy to point her to the tent in question. Maolin opens the flap and looks around, her eyes scanning the room, before they settle on Eirostle.
To his credit, the boy has the sense to look embarrassed as Maolin approaches him, but she’s not upset. She says hello, asks how he’s doing, all the pleasantries, as she reaches into her bag and produces a flower pod, with an intact snowfall orchid inside. Eirostle looks curiously at it, then congratulates her, saying how happy he is for her that she was able to take one home. Maolin shakes her head and places the pod softly on his lap. She explains it’s his pod, and that she took it from his bag before the medics took him away, which means it’s his flower. She then takes out her notebook and carefully tears off the drawing of Eirostle flying over the valley, and gives that to him as well.
Sirocco is slung over Uncia’s arms like a wet towel as he bemoans his bad luck. Uncia does her best to give him a reassuring pat on the back, feeling bad for the little guy. Really, it
was just bad luck the flower got destroyed in… well, whatever happened down in the mines.
Trying to cheer him up, she smiles, jostling her arms a bit, like he’s a toddler in need of reassurance. “Well, you know, you didn’t finish telling me that stoooory of yours,” she smiles, hoping he’ll take the bait.
He sits back up and sighs, continuing where he left off, getting more animated as he gets more and more into the storytelling mood again. As Uncia relaxes, she catches a glimpse of Dawn and looks up, to see her giving Uncia a
look.
Uncia looks mortified, shaking her head before making a neck chopping motion. Sirocco’s still draped over her arm, making some exaggerated motions with his arms, while Uncia mouths an exaggerated
NO at Dawn.
Dawn just smiles mischievously back.
NO she mouths again, giving Dawn the ‘I’m watching you’ hand gesture. Dawn just wiggles her eyebrows in return, mouthing
get a room in return before walking away, leaving Uncia to groan at Dawn’s antics.
“I kn
ooooooooooooooow, right?” Sirocco responds to Uncia’s groan. Uncia turns back to him panicked, giving him a nervous smile as he continues his story.
“How much deeper can this gooooooooooooooooooooooo?” Ranita moans, throwing her hands up in defeat. They’d been digging through the compacted snow for over an hour; both their hands shaking from the pain of digging.
Taibre gives Ranita a side eye. She has a phrase on the tip of her tongue, and she’s debating whether to say it.
Ranita huffs, then looks over at Taibre. After they stare for a second, Ranita hisses, “Don’t you
dare say ‘that’s what she said’.”
Taibre squints, suppressing a smile. “Hey, I didn’t say it.”
Ranita balls up her fists, mad, but they both stop talking when they can hear muffled voices on the other side of the snow wall. Ranita looks at Taibre, and Taibre looks at Ranita, and they both start screaming at the top of their lungs that help! I’m here! We’re over here! Come dig us out!
The voices come closer, and after a minute of screaming, the muffled voices are
almost distinguishable. They can hear they’re close, but they can’t tell what’s being said, but it’s clear they’re repeating something.
As Ranita and Taibre strain their ears to hear what’s being said, they hear ice crunching
very fast as a narrow, dull-ended spear gets pushed through the ice, inches from Taibre’s face. The probe retracts, and the girls jump back from the wall. Hardly a second later the tip of the probe reappears a foot to the left, and then again a foot above that.
Taibre, realizing what’s happening, grabs the probe and pulls on it, pulling it through the layer of snow. The whole thing ends up on their side, and the handle punches a hole wide enough for them to peek through the other side.
They realize it’s
Johanna on the other side! So happy to be reunited, they all chatter excitedly over each other for a moment, before Johanna is able to quiet the other two long enough to explain they’re gonna dig them out, just, can she have her probe back, please?
Taibre is happy to return the probe, but she puts it back in point first, and it keeps catching on the snow as she tries to force it through. “Ugh, just go in already.”
Ranita snorts loudly, and Taibre turns to look on her, her expression dropping to a scowl. “Don’t you
dare.”
“What’s what
she said,” Ranita giggles.
“Oh my god, you ABSOLUTE CHILD—”
What is he supposed to do?
A sea of vast white mocks him as he looks down the mountainside. He’s been digging for
hours. It’s torture. He lost his gloves, so he has to dig with his bare hands. He lost feeling in his fingertips hours ago. The sun is setting, and soon he’ll only have moonlight to work with. Does he have any chance of finding this crown?
As he’s seething over his situation, he sees out of the corner of his eye a familiar dragon—the little pearlcatcher, Carmeline, a white gaoler with gnarlhorns, and a few more dragons come up the mountain towards him.
He narrows his eyes, speaking to Carmeline, and only Carmeline. “I’m not going back down. Don’t waste your breath.”
“You’re looking for your crown, right?”
“I—” Reverence stutters, unaware that she had known what was inside his belongings. He wants to chew her out for going through her pack, but before he can, she continues.
“I figured it was the only thing that could make you give up the race. I uh, brought some friends,” she smiles at Shiver as she says that, “and some probing sticks. And that girl over there—” she points at a steel and coral nocturne wrapped in warm furs “—apparently knows magic for metal detecting. So I think, if we work together, we can find it in no time.” She looks at his frostbitten fingers. “Why don’t you let us take it from here? It’s the least I can do for you, since you saved my life.”
Reverence isn’t sure how to feel—on one hand, he feels humiliated, that a former king like himself is being
looked down on like this, but part of him is touched. No one has looked out for him like this since the fall of his kingdom.
Carmeline turns to the other dragons she’s brought along, and everyone gets started searching in the dying sunlight for Reverence’s lost crown, and for just a moment, Reverence thinks this just might be better than having his kingdom again.
“Of COURSE there was a mine in the mountains, we briefed you ALL on the dangers there!”
“Well,
I don’t remember that in the debriefing,” Bone Collector sulks, Sirocco nodding in agreement.
“That’s because you idiots FELL ASLEEP DURING THE CONFERENCE,” Lylas screamed, Bone Collector and Sirocco both cringing as Lylas continues to berate them for their carelessness. Several of the other dragons who had gone on the expedition—especially the ones that were caught in the avalanche
they caused—are drinking hot cocoa and coffee in the back of the conference tent, enjoying the show.
And with that… our event draws to a close.
Allow me to proudly announce the winners of our competition!
And in “better luck next time” place is @ghostingskies’s Sirocco!
Everyone, give a round of applause to our lucky winners! Both these tough-as-nails ladies definitely deserved their in-game reward.
@
Elfydragon, please respond to the thread with which of the two
prize packs you would prefer, and I will send you both your prizes post haste!
Thank you so, so much once again for joining me on this wild ride, from beginning to end! I’ve had an absolute blast writing this, and I’m so glad so many of you enjoyed the story I had to tell.
Don’t forget, there will be another LDS in March for the NvP! If you haven’t yet, and you enjoyed this event, why not sign up for the pinglist for the next event? If you requested to be added in the last couple days, please
check the pinglist to make sure I added you. I
think I got everyone but I’m worried I missed one or two people, haha.
As a special surprise to EVERYONE reading this, we have one more badge for you to claim!
Quote:
If you are reading this post, then you are qualified to earn this badge, the final badge made for our event by the lovely
clay!
To round this post off, how about some statistics?
Most Aids received in one round: Maolin, round 10, with 7 aids
Most Sabotages received in one round: The Mad Lord, round 2, with 4 sabotages
Most Aids in general: Maolin, with 37 aids across all 10 rounds. 16 of those were just from the last 3 rounds! She got really popular at the end.
Most Sabotages in general: Bone Collector, with 14 sabotages
Total number of Aids: 120
Total number of sabotages: 65
Here’s some more out-there awards and fun facts:
Most divisive dragon: Bone Collector, with 16 aids and 14 sabotages. Bone Collector was also the dragon with the second-highest number of aids, with 19 less aids than Maolin…
They rose above the odds: Bone Collector, Reverence, and Maolin were the top 3 dragons with the most sabotages, sitting at 14, 11, and 10 respectively. Funny how they all made it into the top 4… I may need to re-balance sabotages for the next game, considering this and there only being half as many sabotages as aids total.
The “No Love” award: Maddox, with 0 aids and 0 sabotages. He was simply unlucky in getting the first elimination!
The “Double Tap” award: Taibre was the only dragon whose lottery number got pulled
twice when determining the winners in
any round!
It’s The Final Word Count: From the very first post to this final update, I’ve written
OVER 17,000 words over the course of this event! Holy cow!
Well, that’s all I have left to say! I hope you all have a lovely day, and see you all in March!
(BTW, if I made some memes about the event after work, anyone want me to ping them when I post them?)
@posibee @ChaosSyst @Lucanidae @LouckyKoneko @Nihilis @COparade @Venusian @Mandragorum @Deladria @Bxy26 @lusbiana @EtherealEggs @TwelveBrackets @MUZAN @TinkaDreamChaser @Borkbean @cartographic @LynxSideris @MidnightMonarch @Cocolatia @SilentWanderer @Takadimi @Elfydragon @Doodlepede @Crimsonpixie @LynxSideris @Venusian @aredshroom @TwelveBrackets @ghostingskies @FelineThing @Ketchalin
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