Chronicles From the End of an Age

Unexplored - 13Yrs BTA

Vyll woke up slowly, her head pounding as though it had been pummelled into the ground. Her vision was hazy, and her stomach roiled with discomfort. There was a warm body pressed up against her, and an earthy green wing over her flank, accompanied by the disgruntled snoring of a dragon in her hearing gland, every sound making her piercing headache all the worse. A groan left her as flashes of the previous night fell through her mind. Flashes of laughter, pleasure, and drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.

"Oh, why do I do this to myself," muttered the dragoness.

She lay still for a moment as she waited for her wooziness to reduce enough for her to get up. She carefully pushed herself to her feet, the earth drake beside her letting out a disgruntled murmur at her movement, but not waking up. That was good, she didn't really want to talk to him. She staggered, her purple wings flaring slightly for balance as she paced toward the exit of the cave. She took a moment to lean against the cool rock, allowing herself to relax as she looked out into the canyon ahead of her.

It was still dark outside, with the hint of light touching the sides of the canyon. No one else was up yet, besides the several humans rushing along the floor of the canyon toward their master's homes, dodging past the many pieces of broken boulders and fallen rubble. She didn't envy those who were supposed to be the ones to clean up after the previous night. After a celebration like that, there was certainly a lot left to be done.

A smile found its way to Vyll's mouth as more memories of the previous night came back to her. The exhilarating rush of a drunken dive from the top of the canyon to the bottom. Dipping her muzzle into a large bowl of bitter drink and sculling it down like she hadn't drunk anything in years, out drinking a large earth dragon in the process much to the joy and laughter of the others around her. Allowing herself to be wooed by that same earth dragon later into the night and coming back to this very cave. A sigh escaped her. At the very least it would be another decade or so before she could have eggs again, so she wouldn't have to worry about that.

But the more she thought about the previous night, the blander it became. The headache she had right at that moment certainly made it far less desirable than it had been the day before. And while the night before had been fun... all it left her feeling was dull and slightly miserable. Not that she was surprised. Everything she did left her feeling that way. It was like nothing was enough. Having nearly reached her second century, Vyll was rather knowledgeable on the world, having explored it to its fullest. She had experienced excitement, joy, misery. The thrill of the hunt and the fear of death. The fulfillment and pain of rearing hatchlings. Love, and the spiking agony that it brought down when taken away.

No place on earth had been left unexplored for her. She had been in the darkest parts of every nation. Landed at the bottom of the ocean and sparred atop the highest mountain. She had even gone as far as to touch the moon with her paws and feel the searing heat of a star. As one of the most powerful rift dragons on the planet, nothing seemed out of reach for her. Anywhere she could picture, she could go. She had even seen other dimensions, one where time didn't move, another where matter ceased to exist, and more. Each a new and exciting discovery that held her interest for a small while, before becoming as bland and mild as the rest of the planet.

Even the hedonistic pleasures of drink and the flesh had lost their appeal. Sure... they were fun in the moment, but all it left for her was deep despair that she had already experienced everything that was possible within the world. She was yet to even reach the halfway point of her life, and she felt she had done all that was possible. Or at least, everything that seemed of mild interest to her.

Even now, as the sun rose on the horizon, she couldn't help but think that she had seen something very similar before. It was beautiful, glorious, and an enrichment of the true power of nature. While once it would have done something for the dragoness, now it left her with but a sigh. Supposedly every sunrise was different from the last, but she had given up looking for the differences.