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The Stone Dragon []
The flame of the campfire was out, and there was boisterous, angry retaliation going on. I could see my four adopted children, Cloudmath, Scamp, Cobnut, and Paul, all in a rage against an angry wizard whom I had no idea or background of. The wizard was levitating, and wearing odd clothing that looked of a sinister group of carnation pink, rusty/tarnished-gold, poison raspberry, oak brown, and plain dark violet. His robes were very hiding of his skin, and assuming he was male, I could only see a few strands of slicked-back, dark-green hair through the darkness of his robe. He held a long, messy staff that looked identical to the Puppet Master's except for having a smaller, spherical gem. The wizard looked intoxicated and crazed, with dead, cloudy eyes like he was blinded and a fluorescent marionette controller with strings draping over and onto his cloak. He wasn't a normal wizard - he wasn't even completely human as all wizard are - but a crossbred one with what seemed to be a saplette.
The odd wizard did a forward roll into the air, and sent a cloud of indigo-gray color over the heads of my children. They looked up at the shadowing cloud, and then at the wizard, all in silence, and he thrust the staff back to his chest and thrust out a fist of his staff, with the top dark gem glowing an even more eerie lavender color, then making the cloud release a flood of purple fluid down upon my children. I decided to then throw an egg at the children to get out of the way of the flood and then three at the wizard, in which all had been dodged, allowing my children to evade the flood of what looked like neuro-poison yet the crossbreed wizard got out of the way and charged a small shadow shock at me, which I dodged, as it hit a tree behind me and caused even the ground to shudder in fear. I felt a new, odd sensation that I never did before, allowing me to release an overgrowth spell upon the beastly creature. The largest spouting vine didn't ensnare him as I hoped, but instead withered in his presence. Yes - he was definitely part Saplette. And that only meant one thing - I had to use a fire spell on him.
He attempted to send a shadow shock at the group of dithering, nervous gargoyle children, but they then snapped back and used a combined spell, looking like torrent, back at it and caused both spells to dissipate. With a mighty breath of air into my lungs, I spouted in inferno from my lungs and onto the ground, causing a wildfire spell to incinerate the area around me and catch fire to the sanguine-violet robes of the evil wizard hybrid. It took significant damage for sure, as the largest flame hit his chest and caused him to clutch his stomach and curl up midair. The final fireball lunged toward the hand he gripped his staff with and he recoiled it soon after the flaming furball hit him. Dropping his staff on the ground, it made a sharp clang, enough for me to wince from. Without the power of the staff, the creature couldn't do anything but tried to make an escape! My adopted gargoyle children reached out and swiped the heavy staff off the ground as quick and as fast as they were as strong as I. The levitating creature probably has all sources of his magic in the staff, so I realized that he now was running for his life into the forest paths away from us.
I thought that the creature would reach a successful getaway until I heard a loud exhale from a creature probably larger than me. Turning over to the East entrance to Central Village/Town, there was the flaming boy, the hooded girl, and their Embershed, all loaded with imports on his back with a large saddle attached to the top complete with handholds and two pairs of stirrups for double riders. The flaming boy screeched, "What happened here? Certainly I will challenge the foe who dares to ruin my balanced work and concentration!" The creature trying to evade us stopped before he left the general area a turned slowly, his face stopping and glaring directly at the flaming boy. Not saying a word, he turned back and ran out of sight. The flaming boy sighed furiously and hopped gracefully onto the saddle of his Embershed, landing squarely as though he was a master of jumping and perfect falls. He muttered to the hooded girl, and she nodded. The Embershed took off with the flaming boy on his back and flew vertically, then zoomed away. The hooded girl was left to stay.
I walked over to my adopted children and embraced them tightly. "I'm so sorry I came a bit too late! You four are probably not ready enough for being left alone yet. I was disturbed for a bit and I had to travel all over the place today. It's a long story, but I'm glad that you four are safe!" I cooed. After that, I let go and turned to see that Paul was the one still carrying the stick and gave it to the hooded lady, who seemed to want to see it up close.
"Thank you, Puck. This looks powerful!" the hooded lady said in gratitude, taking off her hood-hat to look at the staff in the dim light of nightfall. She spun it around between her hands, rotating it like a glassworker rotates their glass rods to make swirls in their work. She whispered a few things occasionally like, "...it looks like my old staff I gave away...", "...it has a great damage bonus, I'm sure..." and, "This better have a spell imbued into it, I hope it's Snowflake Strike...".
After a few minutes of us looking at her looking at the staff, she spoke in her accented voice, "Well, it seems like you five know each other. Do you understand human speech?"
I was the only one to nod, the gargoyle children confused. The unhooded girl continued, "So you must the a Luminex that lived in Skywatch or had a tutor, because none of the natural monster islanders here know human speech. That's interesting. So are these gargoyles adopted one you looked after?"
I nod again. The girl replies, "That's nice. I hope you raise good children. By the way, I guess you have no use for this, so can I keep the staff in memory of this? I also better go too, Crios wants me back at Central Village/Town soon. Okay?"
I nod for a third and final time, and waved. She smiled and did the same, walking off to the south where I came from and into the darkness. It was getting late, and I had questions to answer. Cobnut asked, "What was that? You know wizards?"
I reply in monster speech, "Yes, Cobnut. Oh, I've never actually told you anything about the world outside of this small area of the Lost Island. I'm tired, and I still have to hunt. I wasted all of the eggs while trashing the evil wizard. Therefore, let's start out fire and warm up while I go get dinner, hopefully chicken, your favorites."
The gargoyles walk towards the tent, Paul casting a fireball at the remaining twigs inside the fire-pit, and all huddled around. They started to blab about their theories of life beyond the Lost Island, as they haven't traveled after their birth. That was the cue for me to go find some chicken, as I promised. And oh, I've never told you about how I actually get this food. It's simple and fast; now that riding monsters is a new thing for the developing wizards, a few have managed to get large enough pets to use as modes of transport. These training wizards would cast them out of their collection of pets stored inside their wands and summon them. The most common I see are Tarragon, large dragon creatures that are of the fire element and have the ability to walk, swim, and fly, as well as being a very common and natural pet to obtain, allowing them to be very useful in wizard society. From what I've heard, they can occasionally be found in whole hatcheries near the top and very bottom of Bonfire Spire, breeding and growing up. They evolve relatively fast, too. Therefore, I find at least three wizards with Tarragon that already use them as speedboats and dock here, blasting around the coastal areas of Prodigy Island without a care in the world to reach this destination and help with trade to the floatling Swoopy.
Tonight, all I did was wait until the coast was clear; Swoopy was done with his training and fell asleep near a large oak tree, and Crios and the un/hooded girl (I guessed was Mira Shade, I've seen a familiar face in the Lamplight Times quite a few times) have already left with their share of gold and relic coins which I assumed was the reward for the Academy Pages, Titan shards, and Wood the trio collected. A lonely streak of steam suddenly yet silently blasted through the sky above, which came from something that looked organic. It slowed to a stop about near where sunset was coming, and then shot into the water on the starboard side to the East. Making a quiet splash only a few thousand meters in the sea away, I then only heard silence and saw nothing afterwards for a few seconds. Moments later, it surfaced, a Tarragon with a mounted wizard on its back. It came closer and closer, then docking only yards from me! Off came the wizard, which had a seemingly neutral gender in appearance, but wore a full suit of sea sword apparel with strange, red and scaly boots lined with gold, and a wand looking to be an odd fusion of the lunar staff and the sunburst wand...with hints of deriving from the ivory star wand. With a light thump, the wizard landed on his feet and make a flick of his wand to materialize his Tarragon creature into his collection of rescued pets stored in the magical device he so confidently held. He then flicked it again and a crate full of largish, green eggs with scaly tips of rainbow colors. He then summoned a similar crate full of salt-cured chicken, just as expected. He left them by the side of Swoopy, deep in slumber and even snoring a bit, and then walked by to the water's edge even without paying any acknowledgement that I was in his presence. He flicked his wand again and out a lavender purple ray of light, aimed at the shoreline, hit it, and out came a large bubble that floated, without moving, right before him. He then held his breath, pinched his nose, winced, and entered the bubble. It then rolled him into the water and he happily ran into the sea in his breathing bubble. I didn't even have to do anything, hide, run, nothing. He was gone for a few minutes, so a crept over to the crates and further check them out. I first took the entire load of chicken into my paws, pretty light. I then walked over, learning down to see a dozen of the unfamiliar eggs shaking about a bit. I then had a vision, I conjured back up a memory from my past i had long kept in the back of my mind!
<< Nike's Memories >>
I remembered when I was just a Luminite, and I had already dumped both Vifoth and Lukastik, two other Luminite interested in a more-than-friendship with me who had been turned evil and became con artists and brawlers of Skywatch, bounties who I had ratted out the day before this memory. I remember watching from the top of the factory (I was and still is a skilled climber) at a wizard, dressed in strange clothing a lot like a bounty hunter's or the skins of a now-extinct species of monster, a black fang. S/he was able to capture them both easily.
I remember later the day before the memory that I would meet a pair of other male luminites, Doeiar and Nici, but Nici got captured a few hours later for a surprise bounty and a wild Lumiot tragically killed Doeiar for sure - fighting over me. I then defeated the lumiot, whose name was Lamgoth, and then he decided to fall off the edge of the Great Graters area...weird. However, I had an important event in my life a day later - I was told that I had one more spar against a corrupt monster to go before I would become a Lumiot as well, so I went to find an Evolotus, which I deemed to be a worthy and more powerful opponent than the rest. I remember seeing the only pair of them as Prodraxis, way too powerful for me, with a clutch of similar green eggs with rainbow, scaled tips, a whole rookery of them! I instead battled a bounty Snoots who then admitted and let me do a few final blows as he was a bit emotional, so he let me turn him in. I evolved right when I handed him over to a Gloricious who worked with the only other authorities, wizards, as he was a partial pet allowed to roam the island until he was needed. I remember the prideful day I had evolved; a day I had spared a group of hatching baby evolotus and their parents.
<< Back to the present! >>
I decided to head on up, mad at myself for daydreaming when I children were starving! I sprinted silently and swiftly over around the corner to get to camp only to see another foe in the area, a strange, oversized gray gargoyle with five horns, one unicorn horn in the center, two ram-shaped horns, and two dragonlike horns. My children were quivering with fear in the back of the tent. I once again dropped the crate of chicken and stepped over to the large creature. Her head turned and shouted to me in monster, "What are you, some creature? Why would you disturb my search!"
I calmly replied back, "I wish to know why you're in my territory. As you can see, there's a quartet of gargoyle children I'm protecting."
The gargoyle creature spoke back, "So you have children? What species might they be?"
I answer, "Why do you want to know?"
The gargoyle stopped its silent flapping in the air, rustling my fur as it was searching airborne, and stepped down onto the grassy ground on her own two large, meaty feet. She grumbled, "Whatever. I just had some crazy thing I did a month ago, I was a pet, I set myself free from my trainer, and I abandoned four gargoyle eggs. But...yeah. That's all. And now I'm busy with other things, searching for what I need to get."
I reply, "Nice, well, I hope you find your children. And can I possibly help you find something before I go sleep, what you were looking for?"
The creature abruptly answered, "No, thank you. I don't want my children anyway, and I need to get something alone - it's, um...confidential."
"Oh, well, good luck! I just didn't catch your name."
"Avane, Avane Brimstone (Harbinger of the Borderland). I'm a bounty."
I looked down for a second in disbelief. A bounty? Bounties are evil! They are some of the most connected monsters to the Order of Influence, and all bounties have a taste for doing bad things...I have to protect whoever it is from possible harm to itself or others if it's a bounty! I screeched, "What? You're a bounty!"
"You have a...problem...with that?!?!?!" Avane escalated, raising her fists.
"Children, keep back, far away from here. I'll settle this by myself, so stay safe!" I warned, the gargoyle children dashing away to the East section of the clearing.
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