Post by kittycatArcane on Feb 8, 2023 15:58:03 GMT 10
Tiny feet, stained by grass and dirt, ran swiftly along the winding hillside path, taking the elven child to whom they belonged down to the stream’s edge. What a fine summer day it was - the trees providing a pleasant and cool shade to the bubbling waters, the greenery alive with the breeze and the presence of birds. Heedless to the sounds of civilization surrounding this natural pathway, she let her attention drift to the flowers, the river rocks, the butterflies.
What a fine summer day...
~
Kreznomaar forced her wandering mind to snap back to the task at hand, harshly shutting out the memory as she fluttered down to the rocky ground in Chaulssin. Each time she came here, she found herself secretly enamoured with the drow city, with its own strange beauty - the faerie fire lighting up the slender, razorlike spires, which ascended from the compounds of drow nobility.
Drow nobility that dwindled, she thought. The only reason the dark elves tolerated Krez’s presence so readily was for her trade and her deadly effectiveness in the war against the Scourge.
“Were they stronger in number and in presence, perhaps I might be a true exile after all,” she thought bitterly.
Her mind was absent as she gave a bag of bloodstained Scourge tokens to Alaunthraee. Indeed, growing up in the turbulence of the later Drow Wars and the Scourge war to date, Krez was no stranger to ever-present tension.
Now, though, as the forces of both the Surface and the Underdark had faded and the heroes disappeared in the wake of Edon’s dimensional shift, the wind carried an ominous note indeed. She had watched as darkness crept into the corners of the world, as Scourge claimed more of the wild lands inch by inch, often unresisted.
An oppressive air hung over even Helios - or she imagined it did, at least. Of course, she could not go there to find out, could never again approach the cities of the surface...
~
You brought death, heartbreak and pain
Your mother wept
and welcomed the rain
~
She gazed into the glitters and sparkles - all of it hers, this pile of gold and jewels. She admired the shine of her blade as she polished it, clearing it of the taint of black blood from the dozens of Scourge brutally slaughtered this day. The reflections of light off all the metal surfaces soothed her draconic instincts, fascinated her faerie mind - and yet could not quell the burning thirst for vengeance as she thought of her recent, bitter defeat, clamped within the jaws of the Hell Wyrms’ queen on her last expedition.
She still felt the white-hot teeth piercing through her organs, crushing her bones. She still saw her blade, pierced through the dragon’s eye, but not far enough - she hadn’t killed that great queen in time, and time had already not been on her side.
As if it weren’t enough that no-one else was on her side, save for the elements and Edon's heartbeat.
What a fine summer day...
~
Kreznomaar forced her wandering mind to snap back to the task at hand, harshly shutting out the memory as she fluttered down to the rocky ground in Chaulssin. Each time she came here, she found herself secretly enamoured with the drow city, with its own strange beauty - the faerie fire lighting up the slender, razorlike spires, which ascended from the compounds of drow nobility.
Drow nobility that dwindled, she thought. The only reason the dark elves tolerated Krez’s presence so readily was for her trade and her deadly effectiveness in the war against the Scourge.
“Were they stronger in number and in presence, perhaps I might be a true exile after all,” she thought bitterly.
Her mind was absent as she gave a bag of bloodstained Scourge tokens to Alaunthraee. Indeed, growing up in the turbulence of the later Drow Wars and the Scourge war to date, Krez was no stranger to ever-present tension.
Now, though, as the forces of both the Surface and the Underdark had faded and the heroes disappeared in the wake of Edon’s dimensional shift, the wind carried an ominous note indeed. She had watched as darkness crept into the corners of the world, as Scourge claimed more of the wild lands inch by inch, often unresisted.
An oppressive air hung over even Helios - or she imagined it did, at least. Of course, she could not go there to find out, could never again approach the cities of the surface...
~
You brought death, heartbreak and pain
Your mother wept
and welcomed the rain
~
She gazed into the glitters and sparkles - all of it hers, this pile of gold and jewels. She admired the shine of her blade as she polished it, clearing it of the taint of black blood from the dozens of Scourge brutally slaughtered this day. The reflections of light off all the metal surfaces soothed her draconic instincts, fascinated her faerie mind - and yet could not quell the burning thirst for vengeance as she thought of her recent, bitter defeat, clamped within the jaws of the Hell Wyrms’ queen on her last expedition.
She still felt the white-hot teeth piercing through her organs, crushing her bones. She still saw her blade, pierced through the dragon’s eye, but not far enough - she hadn’t killed that great queen in time, and time had already not been on her side.
As if it weren’t enough that no-one else was on her side, save for the elements and Edon's heartbeat.
Kreznomaar stared into the light of her crystal lantern that illuminated her small underdark den - she sat huddled and undressed, wrapped in her deep red wings like a blanket. She stared - and her eyes smouldered with a light all their own, reflected in the sword she held as it, too, burned with dragon’s flame, bloodthirst, and hellfire.
