Ashes

[Malaquion]

(Istarian years ago.)

She stopped running, and realized she had no idea where she was.
All around her, there was green. Green from great things, also brown, that made her feel even smaller than she already was. Green beneath her claws, being coated with gray at her touch. Green in huge, leafy fronds that got in her face and made her blink. This green, it did not glow. She had never seen such a thing before. The brightly colored flowers also caused her no end of puzzlement -- she hadn't even seen something similar to this. She padded over to the nearest flower, sniffing it curiously. It coated her nose with a material she thought was like herself, but yellow and itchy.

She sneezed, sending bits of herself and the yellow powder everywhere. The hatchling quickly turned away and scurried off before it got in her eyes. That, she knew, would be even itchier.
She paused, seeing something on the path ahead. It looked like her, sort of, but it was very different. Its body gleamed in a way hers didn't, and it wasn't falling apart. That was even stranger than the flowers and the powder and the green things everywhere.

She walked up to it, cautiously. It was giving her an odd look, head tilted to one side. Thinking this must be a greeting, she tilted her head as well.

"Hi," she said.

"I'm sorry," said the not-Me, "Can you talk?" It sounded just like Him. But it couldn't be Him. Him looked very different. And Him was gone. Gone-gone-gone.
She paused to consider the Not-Me-Not-Him's words. This thing, taaaahhhlk, Him had been disappointed she couldn't do it. But she had tried so hard. Would the Not-Me-Not-Him be angry too?

She shook her head, the only way she knew how to say "no" to the taaaahhhlkers. They understood a sideways headshake, though it sometimes made one of her head-spikes break. It was okay. She could make a new one.

"Oh, you poor thing," it said. "Did something happen to you?"

She thought a moment. Things had happened. A lot of things. Like Almost-Me was gone. And Him was gone. And Almost-Almost-Me was gone too. But was that ssssummmfffing? She didn't know. She didn't answer.

"Well," Not-Me-Not-Him said, "Can you at least tell me your name?"

"Yuh-huh," she said. It was a different "Yuh-huh" than the talkers used. It was a loud meep, and made perfect sense to her. She had no idea why it didn't make sense to talkers.

"I'm sorry?"

"Meep."

"So you can't tell me your name?"

She thought a moment.

"L...Lllhhh...Lihh..."

"Go on."

She remembered what Him had always called her. Lifting her stubby head, she spoke in the best voice she could. It was squeaky and whispery.

"Lith-Ee-Ah-Nay." Lithiane. Lithiane. It was hard to taaahhhlk. It hurt.

[pajlizard]

.... *loud happy sounds*

8D

Arugghhl. Mala is such a good writer. And Lith is -adorable-
Gaaraahhhmooreee <33

[Malaquion]

((Yep, I shall post more. As soon as I figure out what else to write about. And Lith does something noteworthy. :P))

[Malaquion]

(Present-day Istaria.)

She shrugged off her scalepack, then opened it up and dumped the contents out all over the floor. Out came about fifteen sandstone shards, a dim garnet grystal, forty or so reaping potions of various kinds that she'd nosed out of a biped's bag, a blighted bone, Urden's head, an ornamental shield and, of course, many, many glowing essence orbs. There were other things in the pile, but they were lost in the shower of junk.

She nosed through the pile, slurping an essence orb or two while she was at it, until she found it. A small thing made of brass, shaped vaguely like an upside-down cup. She loved the ringing sound she made when she shook it. If she remembered correctly, it was called a behhhlllll. Him had always loved the ringy things. His room had been full of them. It was a beautiful sound they made, and different for each ringy thing, but for some reason it made her sad now. She couldn't remember being sad when Him was around. She couldn't remember being happy either.

She sat down on her haunches and began carefully sorting through the contents of her upended scalepack. The journey would be long and full of monsters so many seasons higher than her, and carrying all this would make her too heavy to run away properly. The items that were necessary, like the bell, went into a blue kenaf pouch. All the rest went right back into her scalepack. When she was done, she picked up the pouch in her mouth and slowly made her way down to the vaultkeeper in New Trismus.

She dumped her scalepack out right in front of the vaultkeeper. The gnome looked quite startled, pushed some of the items away from her, and made noises of complaint and protest.

"Oh! Sorry! I didn't mean to dump it all over you!" She meeped, and began pulling the offending things back towards herself. Then she indicated, with some vague gestures, that she was going to deposit all this. The vaultkeeper regained her composure, nodded, and began taking the items. That taken care of, Lithiane put the kenaf pouch back in her scalepack and left the town of New Trismus.

Soon, she found herself in Dralk, and started walking from there. She never knew how long the journey took, only that it took a very long time. While in Dralk, she spent her time gathering as much ash and soot from the surrounding ground and then eating one or two of the essence orbs that she had taken with her. For what would lie ahead, she would need to put extra size on her paws and harden them quickly, since she knew they would lose their ash fast. The first time she'd done it, her feet had ended up shrunken and deformed and she would have had to reshape them.

Eventually, she crossed the blackened border between the volcanic lands and the icy wastes. The tundra was always the hardest part. Here, the driving winds would blow against her and slow her down, whipping flakes of ash from her body. The snow would collect and stick on her, turning to water and helping to dissolve her, especially her claws. As the journey went on, they softened and shrank considerably. There were also more monsters out here. The wolves, they hunted in packs and were hard to outrun, and cunning as if all that wasn't bad enough. The ice beetles were everywhere, too, buzzing about, looking for some young dragon who'd lost their way in the tundra.

However, she knew she wasn't lost. She knew exactly where she was going.

She had no idea how long it had been. Time was lost in the endless blizzard. She only knew that, yes, it had been a very long time. And finally, she was here.
The place filled her with a deep sense of familiarity, one of the strongest feelings she knew. This, she was certain, was home. Or it had been. As always, just like every other time she made the journey, the warm, comforting sense of home would slowly be replaced by a deep sadness as she saw all over again that the building was a blackened ruin. The feeling clawed at the place right about where her guts would be if she was a real dragon. For a moment, she considered just lying down in the snow, against one of the walls, and sleeping. Sleeping for a long time, until the snow seeped over her head and turned the rune she considered her heart into mush.

But no. She knew she couldn't do that. First, she had things to do here.

The ashling reached back and removed the small brass bell from her scalepack. Slowly, awkwardly, she stood up on her hind legs, using her tail as balance. She swung the bell slightly with a front claw, the ringing somehow seeming incredibly loud as compared to the wind and snow whirling around her. Then, in a very clumsy and unbalanced way, she began to walk.
Around the building she went, for infinity and an instant, ringing her bell. She didn't know how many times she circled it. Time stopped having meaning. There was only the wreckage, the howling blizzard, and the bell. The bell. Maybe, maybe, if she rung it enough, Him would come back for her. Maybe, maybe, if he couldn't come back, his spirit would hear it.



For several nights, all the way out in Mahagra and Kirasanct, some swore they heard the faint chime of a bell carried from somewhere on the winds. One rather addled old half-giant began to warn those around him of a beautiful and deadly snow spirit, but nobody listened.




As always, when she would return from one of her mysterious disappearances, people would ask her The Question.

"Where were you, Lithiane? What have you been doing?"

And, as always, she would answer with a quiet meep.

[Silithus Zerr]

An interesting Story Malaquion.

[Ashtalon]

I love this story and its character. Well done!