Prayer to a Goddess [Dragon Responses]

[In the sky, between Gnosis and Anthropinos.]

The Twilight King, Baldirak Sapiens Draco, was on his way home when he came under attack. He had not brought his Royal Guards, twins Hapax and Hamnet, with him as he usually did, so he was alone. The beast that struck him from below was not one of the monsters Baldirak was used to facing, but instead another dragon. At least, that is what it appeared to be. The great EarthWing snarled as an IceWing came around from his left after having just rammed into his underbelly. Baldirak had fought his own kind before, but in these days, when all dragonkind suffered beneath the heel of a common enemy, he did not expect something such as this. An ambush in the skies; near his own territory... and by an IceWing of all dragons. Perhaps it was merely a rogue. A very territorial one it must be, to attack another dragon in the sky. So then, was it indeed a tribal IceWing carrying out orders? Was the Twilight Spire under siege by the Gifted Crystals? Were they in fact more numerous than the Imperium and Starlights had assumed? Or was Baldirak the sole target, this merely an assassination, a ploy to crack the foundations of the largest alliance? But these were questions to ponder later.

The EarthWing King tracked the smaller dragon with ease, for the moon was high and full tonight. The IceWing hovered in front of him now, teeth bared. Baldirak bared his as well. Both dragons sized each other up, eyes darting about. There was nothing particularly extraordinary about the IceWing, save its extraordinarily jagged claws. The claws almost seemed to be made of individual shards of ice and looked sharper than steel. The smaller dragoness--Baldirak could see now that it was female--snorted a great cloud of frosted breath from her nostrils. She snapped her jaws open and shut with a snarl, then let loose a torrent of powdered ice from her maw in an arch above her head. Baldirak's eyes narrowed. "You dare challenge me, Dragon?" He bared his teeth again and raised his right foreleg into a ray of moonlight, to better display his scars. "I am a survivor of the Human Invasion of Gnosis, a bastion against the Monster Scourge, the Twilight King of Earth and Fire, the Demigod of Time, the Prophet of the Moon and Stars! I am Baldirak Sapiens Draco! What chance do you think you stand against the likes of me?!" The Twilight King's pale blue eyes turned orange as he twisted his head and neck, opened his maw, then let loose a stream of fire into the night sky in a wide arch above his head. Almost before he concluded, the IceWing dragoness flew at him.

Earth and Ice collided. Claws scrapped; maws snapped; tails whipped at the open air. On the ground, Baldirak's great size--143ft--would have worked better in his favor. He could even have summoned great pillars of stone for cover. But in the sky, the 75ft IceWing had the advantage. She could fly beneath the behemoth and rake her terrifying claws along his soft underbelly. As agile as Baldirak was, even he could not avoid the devastating cold of a purebred's breath, which creeped along the span of his wing until he could no longer feel the appendage. But the Twilight King had landed some mighty blows, himself. His powerful acid seeped into the crags of the IceWing's hide, his own claws had ripped the membrane of one wing. Currently, the two dragons were falling to ground, Earth unable to fly and Ice ensuring that when he landed, he would not get up again.

Baldirak's left wing was frozen at the joint. He may have been a demigod, the only known prophet of the strongest of dragonkind's pantheon of gods, but Baldirak Sapiens Draco was no FireWing. His fire spell, Kenina's King--named for his mate--would not be strong enough to save his wing, and certainly not before he reached the end of his plummet. He twisted his head around to look at his pursuer; at least he could still deal with her. He decided to wait until he landed to attack. There was no point twisting around, exposing his already raked belly to more onslaught. However, he would not fall idly. Tucking his working wing close to his body, Baldirak tried to get himself into a spiral... It wasn't as tight as he wanted, nor fast, but it would do. Then, he opened his maw and loosed his acid breath. A maneuver the EarthWing had done before, it would make flying directly behind him difficult for the IceWing--unless she didn't mind a face full of acid--and deter her from physical flanking.

He didn't remember hitting the ground. Naturally, he didn't feel the onslaught that befell him immediately after, either. Baldirak would later, however, recall very vividly a vision of his mate. The FireWing Queen, Kenina. Her warm, shining scales; her glorious mane of flames; her battle prowess and the softer side he at first didn't know she had. He thought, for a moment, he heard her voice before his eyes snapped opened. The Twilight King was just barely standing, his claws dug firmly into the earth. His normally pale blue eyes had darkened several shades, seeming more like the deep ocean than a cloudless afternoon sky. The darkening of his eyes was because Pyrria's energy was flowing through him now, from his claws. His gift of time, bestowed to him upon becoming a demigod, had been activated... And it showed him the dragon that he'd most wanted to see in that moment. His Queen. It was strange, he would think later, because--since becoming a demigod--this ability of his no longer activated unwilfully. So why now?

A few moments after his eyes snapped open, the EarthWing became aware again of his surroundings. He became aware of the terrible cold boring into his back, between his wings. He became aware of the scent of blood beneath him, his own, falling from his shredded belly. The cold on his back was giving way to burning--the IceWing was raking her extraordinarily jagged claws through the membranes of his wings, across the smoother scales near the base of his neck. As these pains and those from the fall grew in intensity, and the blinding sun that was the vision of his mate paled into moonlight, Baldirak's eyes changed from deep ocean blue to fire orange. His maw opened slightly, thin wisps of smoke winding between his teeth. His voice rumbled deep in his throat as he began to speak, "In absence of the sun, she shines the brightest. Pillar of Earth, Lake of Fire, I borrow your flame in protection of my Queen." His tail had gone unnoticed by the IceWing and coiled around her belly, suddenly whipping her up and around to his agape maw, from which smoke now thickly billowed. He clamped his jaws around her midsection and his own tail, his teeth digging into them both. "...Kenina's King!" Fire spewed from the Twilight King's maw, directly onto his own tail, directly and indirectly onto the IceWing who couldn't get away. He spewed his flames until he felt his magical energy near its limit, then tossed the IceWing as far away as he could manage.

The Twilight King collapsed but was still conscious. Quite the stubborn dragon, he was content to fight lying down. Nothing short of dying was going to make him give up while his enemy still had fight in them. As Baldirak lifted his head to look for said enemy, he realized his stubbornness might just end up in death this time. The IceWing he'd been fighting was gone. Rather, it had never been an IceWing to begin with. It was a monster of the highest class; one the Twilight King should have fled from inside of fighting alone. A Shyi. It was in its normal form now, a white, ghostly looking dragon with a long, slender body and the mane of a horse. Baldirak bared his teeth at the creature, snarled in defiance, prepared to use the last of his strength to fire one more stream of acid, whatever good that would do. The Shyi charged, but then.... it vanished suddenly, as if it had been naught but a NightWing's illusion. If only the injuries Baldirak had sustained been illusions...

The EarthWing laid his head upon the ground, about to close his eyes, when suddenly, he heard a familiar voice in his head.

["To all the sentient creatures of the world! This is Astral the goddess of the moon and stars. Of knowledge and magic. The goddess of gods." Astral telepathically announced to everyone of the world. "I have rid the world of the monsters I promise I will never let something like this again and as a symbol of my promise." Astral then created a second moon one with a darker surface a memorial of sorts to all those who had lost their lives. Then to the dragons she said. "I will restore the semi gods to the tribes so they may protect themselves in the absence of the gods." And then to the humans she said "I will grant you a human semi god to be a champion to your race.so you never have to fear a return of the monsters."]

"...My Goddess..." He saw the second moon appear in the sky. It was darker, yet just as brilliant as the one that already graced the sky. A draconic smile touched the Twilight King's maw--he couldn't wait for a piece of this new moon to fall, that he might find it and create a new talisman to add to the others already hanging from his neck. With a pained and weary groan, the EarthWing called upon his stubbornness for a new purpose. Slowly, he raised to his paws, claws digging in again to hold him upright. His wings were still painfully frozen open, but that would help for what he was about to do. Baldirak had prepared for the day the monsters would be vanquished. Along with his talismans, he wore another stone about his neck. This one was imbued with magic. With his tail, he removed the stone and placed it on the ground, then opened his maw. A great roar split the earth and pierced the silence of the night. Baldirak roared as loud as he could, given his weariness, and tore the ground asunder. The stone fell betwixt the fissures and the magic it held was released. Like a blooming plant, a small mountain erupted from ground beneath the EarthWing's paws. Once it stopped growing--and when viewed from far enough away--one would be able to see that the mountain was in fact a statue. The statue depicted Astral, the Goddess of the Moon and Stars, her wings outstretched over the world, protecting it. Beneath her wings, the tribe leaders.

Baldirak let himself collapse again once the statue had reached completed. Though he hadn't intended to be atop it, he was glad it was big enough to hold him. But then again, it was the size of a small mountain. He closed his eyes at last, allowing himself to rest. "I owe you my life, my Goddess. But what took you so long?" Vilkas, the King's nephew a short time later with Hapax and Hamnet. The three of them transported the King back to Twilight Spire.

Kenina was in an unusually good mood today. So unusual in fact she had gone outside to enjoy the beatify of nature. Landing gracefully in a picturesque field of flowers Kenina dimmed her flames so as not to burn any of them. Drooping her neck she took in the scent of the flowers. Curiously the did not all smell as good as they looked, but plenty did. The sun shown beautifully in the sky and the Twilight Queen couldn't help but marvel at it all. She was pregnant and she couldn't wait to tell her mate Baldirak. The goddess she had worshiped so diligently, then hated, and now was back on good terms with had healed her infertility As proof of that she had a clutch growing within her. No magic shenanigans necessary.

One moment she was enjoying the sights and the next she was skidding along the flower field her breath knocked out of her. Something had impacted her side hard. A few cracks rang out and pain burst in her ribs. She gasped for breath which made her wince with more pain. Jaws full of deadly teeth went to clamp down on her neck to finish the job. Kenina released a plum of fire from her own jaws at her attacker, flame hot enough to melt stone. The offending dragon screeched and jumped back. With incredible speed Kenina weaved magic and healed her wounds while standing back on all fours and getting a better look at her attacker. It was a Nightwing! Tenebris had sent an assassin after her! "That sleezy traitor!' Kenina growled. But why now? Had he figured out she was pregnant? Ohh, Kenina's eyes narrowed as she realized why. He wanted Zylah to take over the throne. She knew of course that had always been a threat but she'd been so wrapped up with her mate she'd forgotten to be paraniod. Well that assassin wasn't good enough. That fire blast should have killed it. The things face looked like it was melting off but seemed fairly un bothered. Did Tenebris put a pain ignoring spell on them or something? The Nightwing began circling her and so Kenina did the same. No doubt traitor would have put all sorts of spells of resistance on it to make using magic difficult. But then why not fire resistance? It must be an illusion! The Nightwing started to expel what Kenina assumed was a sleeping breath but that could be a trick too so just to be safe with unmatched speed Kenina began layering protection and resistance spells. But she was getting drowzy. How did her spell not work! Even as she was quickly getting more and more tired her brain could still process very quickly. She decided to pretend to be falling asleep faster than she would and while acting pretending her legs were giving out she wove a spell to at least slow down how quickly she'd fall asleep. Kenina flopped on her side her back facing the assassin. Kenina listened intently as the assassin lunged at her and the monennt she heard and felt the dragon land right next to her the instant for it went for her neck again her body exploded with fire with the force of a volcanic eruption her natural ability few knew about fueled to an insane level with all her magic poured into it. It was impossible for Tenebris to have given the dragon a fire resistance spell strong enough to resist this not if he wanted to cover all the basses.

The offending dragon was launched away but miraculously was still alive somehow but certainly not unhurt as it was writhing around and oddly as it was rolling around putting out the flames on it's body it's melted scales and skin peeled off revealing and sleek white monster a Shyi. Oh that's why my sleep resistance spell didn't work. Her spell hadn't accounted for demons. Her eyes were drooping closed. She knew how to rework the spell to counter act the sleep but she really had used everything in that enhanced fire blast. Well at least she'd die in her sleep. Too bad she couldn't say goodbye to her mate or warn him that Tenebris would take over now that she was dead.

Surprising there was an afterlife. Must be a perpetual dream state or something as in her unconsciousness she dreamt of Astral making some speech about finally ridding the world of the monster plague. And something about returning semi gods. She was kinda glad she was dead and didn't have to deal with that. To her great surprise though Kenina woke up. Groggerly she stood to her feat and looked at the burnt and scarred earth around her, but no demon in sight. Kenina's eyes widened in shock though as she stared at the night sky and saw a second moon! It wasn't a dream Astral couldn't have been any last minuet. After having a near death experience Kenina took to the skies as quickly as she could to find her mate. She needed to to him they had kids on the way.

Soshi took a breath. She had some big plans. A way to quickly get the idea of what she was to the many humans around the world. She just took a breath, an emerald gem in her hand formed into a manticore's form. It wasn't a normal gemstone, but it was part of her plans. She heard about the a temple and college seeming to appear from nowhere, but she had her own plans. Of course something more rooted in elements, but maybe borrow the appearing part. Just not with the same flash and flair.

Then, she heard something. A voice.... One of the other gods! She looked around, flame in her hair as she looked around. Semi-gods? Interesting indeed, but the next part intrigued her more.

"I will grant you a human semi god to be a champion to your race.so you never have to fear a return of the monsters."

Humans would receive a semi-god? A champion? Now this was going to be interesting. She didn't think a dragon goddess would ever give humans anything, let alone another thing to make them more on par with the dragons themselves. That's when she also looked out and noticed the moon.... What? Gods. Right. If there was going to be a human semi-god though, she'd have to find them for sure. She had to finish her plans first though. Maybe Eris or Solomon would help her with this? Make things a tad easier. She still wasn't certain about doing this without being there, but with someone to find now, a little travelling wouldn't hurt.

Zylah hummed to herself as she went around collecting the type of foods the humans tended to like. The Servants all greeted her warmly and Zylah in turn greeted them with enthusiasm and by name. Carefully the Nightwing Princess brought the hot food all the way over to where the human slaves were well slaving away. At her arrival they all dropped what they were doing and started huddling around her clamoring for the good food. The little hairless creatures really looked forward to her visits cuz their guards would get off their backs when she was around. They weren't aware of her importance and the didn't care. Zylah couldn't understand the little creatures and didn't really care for them either. It was all part of the act. Being kind to even the little despicable slaves elevated her in the her people's mind as one of the kindest dragons of all time.

Then she heard Astral. Supposedly everyone was. Still seemed weird to think the goddess Astral was her older adopted sister. Astral just up and got rid of all the monsters what! "No. Noooo!" Zylah roared startling everyone even the other dragons. This ruined her father's plans. He had no excuse to take control of Astral now. She knew they should have captured that ditzy hybrid when she was within their clutches. Zylah thought that's what Tenebris was going to do. Why did he pass up the perfect opportunity! Recklessly the princess dropped the food to the ground and took off into the air racing to her fathers. Not bothering to check if the doors were locked or not Zylah poofed into a shadowy mist and slid between the cracks and holes reforming on the other side and jumping onto Tenebris. "Daddy daddy, tell me it isn't true! Tell me the spies are reporting lies and your plot to....." Zylah checked the room to make sure nobody was going to overhear something they shouldn't. "You're still going to be emperor of the world right?"