Chronicles From the End of an Age

The Blood Dragon - 41Yrs BTA

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WARNING: THIS CHRONICLE CONTAINS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF BLOOD AND GORE, IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS, PROCEED WITH CAUTION

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The foul pungent reek of rotting blood clouded the atmosphere. It was an invisible smog shrouding the damp confines of the marshy jungle, tainting the mossy ground and moist air with its scent. Bodies of dead dragons littered the ground. Most had the swampy green scales of acid dragons, with their highlights of different colours swirling around their legs, but there were several with the deep ocean blue of water dragons, props of colour in an otherwise green world. Each dragon had a similarity, and that was blood. Blood painting their scales red. Blood splashed against the surrounding trees and spewed across the muddy undergrowth. Blood marred by disease and sickness.

"What... what is this?"

Parrella glanced at the acid drake at her side as he looked upon the massacre before him with open horror, "See if you can find any survivors. Maybe they will have an idea of what this is. Careful where you step."

The group of dragons she had with her fanned out amongst the ruined village. When she had first heard about the massacre she hadn't quite believed what she had been told. The water nation was usually a rather peaceful place, with the many different villages of dragons scattered both above and below the surface getting along relatively well. It made her job rather boring mostly, rounding up the petty criminals of the land and giving them their due punishment. But something like this, as horrifying as it was, couldn't help but get a shiver of excitement to run down her spine.

She studied the bodies with careful eyes, looking at the many wooden huts scattered through the trees. This was one of the few villages that she knew bothered to actually build their homes from the wood of the forest. Many dragons preferred to carve out their homes into cliffs and hills, preferring the safety of solid rock over wood. The reasons were quite obvious to her as well, as she spotted the numerous acidic burns and holes poked through the wooden homes.

She stopped by one of the bodies, lowering her head to get a closer look at the blood-covered flank, careful not to get any of it on her. The scent and sickly look of the wounds made her think that maybe this massacre wasn't a massacre at all, but some new horrific disease. It made her stomach curl at the thought. As a dragon of equilibrium, she knew she would be fine, but her fellow investigators would be in trouble if that was the case.

Her thoughts of this being a disease quickly left her mind as she studied the several wounds on the dragon before her. It looked as though holes had been blown into the dragon's side, each unnaturally round and sinister. There were hundreds of these wounds, going all the way up the dragon's neck, each still trickling the last remains of blood from the dragon. Parrella's excitement quickly faded away as she studied the wounds with renewed scrutiny. She had seen these wounds before.

"Parrella!" the call startled her out of her trance, and she spun around to growl her annoyance.

The growl died in her throat as she watched the approach of four dragons. One was one of her investigators leading a rather odd group of dragons toward her. A lightning drake with electric yellow scales and jagged wings, an ice drake with frosty blue scales and a frill of horns, and a mind dragoness, with light sky-blue scales and knowing yellow eyes. The presence of the three instantly put the dragoness on guard as she recognised the aura of power each wielded, one that could only be governed by dragons of equilibrium.

"These three are here looking for you," the investigator said as he got closer, rather uneasy at the presence of three unusual and powerful dragons.