The Sleeper's Vigil Ends

It was a dim and stormy day, and small streams of water erratically poured from the cracks in the ceiling of the old Earthwing Tribal Home. The large cavern had fallen into disrepair as all of its inhabitants moved out to live in the new Earthwing Palace in The Hidden Kingdom.

All but one, of course.

Behind a thin wall of collapsed rubble, the sole remaining occupant of the dilapidated cavern slumbered deeply, there was a large basin filled with glowing green acid. Rhythmically, small jets of the viscous green substance would shoot up from its edge, in time with the breathing of the occupant, a large dragon colored like a Nightwing but with the size of an Earthwing, a product of mixed blood.

All this time, Corrode had slept, completely unaware of the changes that had gone on around him, ever since he had gone into hibernation while the Tribes still existed.

Korramyr had been exploring far from his home in the Crystal Sea. Loneliness was a privilege that he could not have often as a King, so, for once in a while, he fled the Palace for some along time. There he was, resting in a little hammock he had summoned, eating away at a muffin he had as well, eyes closed as he bathed in the shade, not wanting to have to deal with sunburn.

(I'm assuming that Korramyr is resting inside the ruins of the Earthwing Tribal Home? If not, feel free to correct me.)

With Korramyr's presence, Corrode stirred slightly from his slumber, but not enough to actually wake him. The shifting of the dragon's weight caused the acid inside the basin to ripple and splash over the edges, which apart from a fairly audible splashing noise, was also accompanied by the hissing sound of acid against unprepared stone.

After that, he was still once more.

(( Well, no. He's just nearby. is Corrode supposed to be underground or something? ))

Korramyr jumped form his seat as he felt the tremors that would also come with Corrode's movement, nearly tangling himself up in the hammock at that. He glanced around curiously, unable to see where the rumbling had came from, aside from what felt like right below him. "Well, I can always get another muffin... A bit more worried about the earthquake though." He jumped down from the hammock, curiously pawing at the ground beneath him.

(No, It's because the old Earthwing Tribal Home is in a cave, so when you said Korramyr was resting away from the sun, I interpreted it as he was resting inside the cave. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but Corrode being under him works as well, since the cave was probably buried anyways.)

Korramyr's pawing knocked some rocks from the ceiling of the cave loose, and these small, fist-sized rocks went tumbling into the acid pool. They made loud splashing and sizzling noises as they rocks hit the water hard and started dissolving.

Under the acid, Corrode's glowing green eyes opened, and moved around in their socjets before he remembered why he was sleeping the entire time.

The ground started to rumble as the acid pool begun to bubble and froth. Suddenly, a massive geiser of deadly green acid would explode from the ground, making a hole large enough for Corrode to weakly climb out of.

He rested his body onto the ground, breathing heavily and dripping with glowing green acid.

"How...long..." He weakly uttered.

Thankfully, Korramyr had just enough time to react to the next set of tremors, running away to a safe distance only a moment before the massive explosion of acid erupted from the ground. He dived behind a tree to avoid being partially melted from the acid. When he heard it was over, he peered out from behind the tree. "Woah," was all he had to say. He carefully tiptoed towards Corrode, making sure not to step on any puddles of acid as he approached Corrode. "Who are you...?"

Corrode's emotionless green eyes looked up and regarded Korramyr, immediately identifying him as a Seawing. He considered his question carefully, knowing that he could be a spy for the Flamewings. As far as Corrode knew, the Flamewings and the Earthwings were still in a heated conflict.

He managed to lift some of his body off of the ground, using his front legs as support. His breathing was heavy and labored. coming out of hibernation is no easy feat for any dragon, and Corrode knew that he was pretty much at this other dragon's mercy right now.

Futilely, he laid back down, expelling corrosive green vapor from his nostrils. "My...name is Corrode. I am...the Earthwing lieutenant, mate to...Queen Shrillix of the Earthwings and father...to Ellet of the Earthwings. Who...are you?"

Gemini had been hunting by the EarthWing Kingdom, when she had spotted Korramyr slipping underground. Weird, she thought. I wonder what's he doing? Swiftly following the SeaWing King, she arrived at a long narrow crack and peered in. The site before her shocked her. "Corrode?" she said in disbelief, staring at the former EarthWing Lieutenant. "You're alive?" Overhearing the mate stuff about being mates with Shrillix, she looked down sadly at the ground. "I'm sorry to deliver this, but Shrillix is gone. She's disappeared from the face of the Earth, but we're not sure if she's dead or alive. Same with Solarflare. Cosmos is the new EarthWing King right now."

"Gemini? You know this one?" As the NightWing appeared, her turned around, giving her a rather curious look as she approached. "How long has Corrode been asleep? I've never heard a word of you, EarthWing." He turned back to Corrode, bowing his head. "As for who I am, I am Korramyr, SeaWing King. I was just trying to get some alone time when you... Woke up, I suppose. A lot has changed since you had disappeared. I suggest you take things slowly until you're back on your feet."

Corrode looked on at Korramyr and Gemini. At first, he didn't register the fact that Gemini was familiar to him, but eventually the recognition (and a bit of friendliness) showed in his eyes. It dropped away, however when Gemini and Korramyr delivered the news. He stared at them, half in shock, the other in disbelief.

"...Gone? What do you mean, GONE?!" He said, his voice carrying a sudden amount of strength and anger. He forced himself up to his feet, blowing more vapors from his nose. "And what of my son, you mean to tell me he's gone as well?!" He continued. The small acid pools that had formed when he made his explosive return to the surface started to boil and bubble.

He aggressively stepped towards Gemini, but he had no intention to harm her, just come snout-to-snout with the slightly smaller Nightwing. The veins on his wings were coursing a bright green as he stretched them.

"Do not lie to me, Gemini. Where are they?!" He asked, desperation entering his voice.

Korramyr stood aside, having underestimated Corrode's true size. He had nothing to say, so he said nothing, letting Gemini talk it through with Corrode.

Gemini shook her head, and glared at the large dragon. "I'm not lying!" she snapped. "Shrillix has disappeared from the face of this planet! Nobody knows whats happened to her! We've sent search parties out all the time, but they either come back empty-handed, injured, and sometimes, they don't even return at all." She sighed. "We were risking too many lives to save them, so we stopped the search parties. And Ellet is fine. Sad that both his parents are gone, but a proud and mighty EarthWing."

Corrode's eyes burned with anger as he stared into Gemini's, searching her expression for any signs of deciet. As she spoke, he smoldered, but his anger seemed to die down again. When Gemini was done, Corrode remained silent for a few seconds, catatonically staring at her. "...Shrillix, oh Gods...Shrillix..." He muttered to himself, a single glowing tear escaping his eye and hitting the soft grass below him with a sizzle and a spark.

He sat back on his haunches, wings tight to his sides and tail resting motionless on the ground. "How long has it been since she disappeared, Gemini?" He asked.

There was a small dragon sleeping inside a hidden hole. VenomTail liked a lot to spend some time in the acid cave. Being a dragon insect with poison abilities, the entire place filled with the smell of acid was very restorative to his body. Venom heard a lot of dragons shouting outside his hole and he woke up bothered. Venom wondered who was disturbing his rest. He walked towards the hole's exit. He looked outside with his two red insect eyes. They were in truth hundreds of very small orbs. Venom recognized three big dragons: two of them were black. The female had a fearsome aspect and Venom was scared by her. The male one had instead a funny aspect and looked to be friendly. The third dragon was purple and it smelt of acid. So the cave was inhabited by an acid dragon. It was strange that Venom hasn't noticed the purple dragon before. Venom curiously peered at the trio from the edge of his hole, listening their conversation. They were having some sort of struggle and the purple one was hot-headed. The insect dragon wondered what was going to happen now. Venom was ready to flee if things would get worse. For now he was very interested to listen their conservation, hopefully the other dragons won't see him. Venom was a dragon of small size: only two meters. The other EarthWings were instead gigantic compared to Venom. They could easily reach twenty meters of height.

(bump)

Corrode looked to be expecting an answer from Gemini, but he suddenly tensed up. He could smell the acid in the small pools around him, but he smelled another source, not acid itself but something that carried the scent.

He looked in Venomwing's direction. Having lived in the acid-fume filled caves that Corrode hibernated in meant that the smell stuck with him, and made him stick out like a sore thumb to those accustomed with the smells of corrosive fluids. "Keep your answer in mind, Gemini. There is another..." He said, looking in Venomtail's direction but not actually spotting the small dragon.

Venomtail noticed the acid dragon looking towards his den. He thought the big EarthWing has spotted him. Venom had no idea about Corrode intentions and he was panicked about an attack. Venom pondered to hide in the hole, but the other dragons would still reach him their snouts. Venom acted by instinct and flew away in the attempt to escape. Now everyone could see a colorful and weird thing flying in the air. The cave's exit was obstructed by the other dragons due to their size. So the insect dragon decided to fly very high to find a safe place. He landed on a rock the others couldn't reach. Once the small dragon felt to be safe, he gave a interested and scared look at the others. He was still curious about them, but on the other side he wanted to avoid an approach.

Gemini gazed up at Venomtail, and narrowed her eyes. "Who are you?" she said. "And what are you doing here?" Taking in the scent, she recognized it faintly as EarthWing scent. "Are you an EarthWing?" She analyzed the tiny dragon, who looked a lot like ... a ... bug? Weird. But Gemini had seen weirder.

Korramyr also glanced up at Venomtail as he moved about, his tail twitching slightly, almost like a cat's would. "It's a... dragon bug?" He looked to Corrode, expecting him to have some answers.

"It would appear so..."Corrode commented, the vestiges of the tear he released only a few moments earlier still visible on his cheek.

"But it looks harmless enough. Don't bother speaking to it, I doubt it carries any intelligence with it. Too small to be a dragon, that's evidence enough." He added, and took his attention away from it.

He returned his gaze to Gemini, attempting to get his emotions back under control. He laid a single clawed foot on Gemini's shoulder.

"Gemini, you need to take me to wherever it is that the Earthwings live, please. I must see my son." He said, gazing into her eyes.

VenomTail startled when Gemini spoke at him. She was big and fearsome. He stepped back a bit scared. He took enough courage to silently nod at Gemini's words. He was indeed the EarthWings spy. He stayed on his position, incessantly looking at the group with his insect eyes. He was very curious about them, tough he was intimated by the size of three dragons. He looked angered at Corrode when the acid dragon nearly insulted him. The small dragon roared in a sort of very loud screech that would break the other dragons eardrums. "I'm a very intelligent and dangerous dragon" He replied with a surprising high voice.

Korramyr cringed at the screech, covering his ears with his paws until it was over. When it was over, he lifted his head towards Venomtail, speaking, "Perhaps some warning next time...?" He glared at him, giving a dismissive flick of the tail as he looked to Gemini. "And, Gemini. Can you please tell me who this is later?"

Corrode didn't cover his ears, he didn't need to. Due to an event in his childhood, he had built a kind of resisitance to noises like that. He showed some kind of discomfort, but didn't scramble to cover his ears like Korramyr.

He turned fully to face Venomtail; and more noxious green vapor jetted from his nostrils. His mouth started to drip acid, a dangerous sign.

"An intelligent dragon wouldn't try to deafen three dragons much larger than itself, but I digress. I've apparently been in hibernation for at least several decades, and according to the lovely Gemini here, my mate has vanished with no trace. It is likely all the dragons I came to know as friends have either all died or disappeared as well, so I believe I reserve the right to not know a race of oversized and intelligent dragonflies have just sprung to existence." He growled.

He looked Venomtail dead in his eyes, not mentioning that at any moment he wished it, he could condense the acid particles that have stuck to venomtail as a gas.

Venomtail jumped in fear when the other dragon started to drip acid from his mouth. The small dragon stepped back to assume a defensive stand. He raised his tail to show a long and dangerous sting, being ready to defend himself from an attack. He realized to don't have many chances to beat the massive acid dragon in a fight. Corrode has probably a good resistance against poison, if not immunity. Venom listened his speech, feeling a bit guilty to have ovearreacted before. He didn't want to deafen the three dragons, but his roar could be very high-pitched. The acid dragon was a old EarthWing that has slept for decades. Corrode's words made Venom sad. There was no new race of giant dragonflies. Venom had that bug form due to a incident in the past. He decided to have a more friendly approach and he lowered down his tail. "I'm sorry. My name is VenomTail. I'm a EarthWing Tracker." He told him shyly, still intimated by Corrode's size.

"It's a pleasure, Venomtail." Corrode said in a sarcastic, aggressive tone. He was in no way intimidated by the stinger Venomtail sported, knowing full well that the acid in his blood would purge any poison it might contain.

The ancient Earthwing turned away from Venomtail dismissively, facing Gemini again.

Avensu had also been wandering the forest, hunting, like a good tracker. He was the average size of an EarthWing, and had taken the degree of tracker honorably. Now he was looking for some mammoths or maybe a few large elephants to take back to the camp. He smirked devilishly when he spotted said prey just sitting in a clearing near what looked like an abandoned cave. He would have pounced on the beast, slamming his jaw into its throat and then picking it up, shaking it back and forth violently until the blood from its neck was gone, and the creature had fallen limp. It also would have taken all his self control to not take a morsel from the creature, had he actually attacked it. Instead, he stopped right as he was about to pounce and raised his head, hearing talking.

Curious, the dragon trotted over to the abandoned place to see some dragons talking. He tilted his head curiously at them and approached. As he crunched through the cave, he was utterly astounded to see that the old lieutenant, Corrode, was standing among them. He had held unwavering loyalty to Corrode, and when the dragon, along with his mate, had disappeared, he had been one of the many to grieve for their lost. In fact, he was so shocked that he almost stepped on VenomTail when he bounded over, "Corrode? Is that really you?" he asked in astonishment, looking over at the purple dragon with a combination of relief and confusion.