Darkness. Comforting Darkness.
There is a being, floating in the dark.
Crack!
A thin sliver of light, a small cry of pain reverberates through the void.
The being struggles. Another crack forms. Another!
Light pours into the void, swallowing the all-consuming darkness.
A tiny draconian hisses softly, eyes unused to the light. The shells of its
egg fall away, its miniscule black scales mixing with the mottled white of
eggshell to form a tableau of eternal struggle and new life. All around it,
its clutch-mates hiss in unison as they break from their own shells, their
shared pain a dim chorus as the susurrus of their molt fills the egg chamber
with life The others breathe as one, but he was first. Eyes that had seen
nothing but darkness adjust quickly to the brightness of the living world;
the bright embers of his eyes cast about with preternatural awareness, a
gift given to the First Hatched. In that briefest of moments, he saw them
as they were and as they were meant to be, weak mewling things with dull
scales and imperfect form.
Kill. Cull.
Words, the first words he would hear and remember carried down from a
gallery above, where the Brood-parents watched dispassionately. He charged
the nearest whelp. Stale air filled his lungs; another gift for the First
Hatched, he thought as he ran his needle-sharp talons through the soft
scales of his clutch-mates.
One.
Another.
So it went.
Description:
This draconic creature stands firmly on its back legs, rearing back in a
dread display of dominance. It is covered in shimmering black scales, which
glimmer slightly in the available light. A crown of horns protrudes from
the scales upon its head, beneath which malevolent eyes of crimson gaze
haughtily out at the world below. Massive wings of black leather extend
from its back, each tipped in a triplicate claw. Lazy roils of smoke rise
from its nostrils, obscuring the contemptuous sneer it wears slightly.
Fierce claws tap errantly against its armor, a staccato beat akin to nails
on a slate.
