Yuletide: Night Nine
Night had long since fallen but it seemed to lay across the
land with more weight than the other nights, as if Nox herself was leaning in,
listening. The black dragon gently tore
a log in half, filling the room with the scent of pitch, and softly tossed the
pieces onto the fire. The kitsune looked
up from where he had been busily grooming his two, yes they were both still
there all two of them, tails and sneezed, the scent of fir sap assaulting his
snout. Sitting alert on the arm of the
couch next to the red haired elf woman he wrapped his tails over his paws and
fluffed them. The black dragon licked
his talons clean and began: “The months turned and the two beings, one of fire,
the other of ice, traveled from Plane to Plane.
They explored new worlds, exclaimed over mineral formations, expounded
on their observations, sharing their joy and wonder, no longer alone. All the while a pall hung over them. Every time the phoenix turned to share
something with her friend she paused, or he looked away focusing fiercely on
his carefully dulled talons always scuffing them in mud or ashes or weird goo. His curse was a tangible thing between them
dimming moments and nourishing fear. Lyra
adored having a friend to share life with, but she feared the day they slipped
in their careful dance and it all came to an end. While it was true she had no desire to
freeze, forevermore a statue, perhaps dead for all they knew, it wasn’t what
truly worried her. Sooth she wanted to
live now with a friend by her side and joy in their hearts: there was so much
to see; so much to experience. However, her
true fear was for the Ice Basilisk. If
he froze her, she would likely know no more, but he would live on in agony,
alone, for the rest of his torturous existence knowing that he was the reason
her flames had died. And as each moon
turned and they grew closer and the phoenix seared her name into the Ice
Basilisk’s heart brighter and brighter, he battled two fears. The agonizing one she considered, that he
would freeze her, that she would be forever gone from the world. That she would be frozen, still and cold as
she never could be in life, and that it would be his doing. But also, that he would freeze some other
hapless creature and that she would leave, and perhaps she should, he thought
morosely, perhaps she would be safer far away from me. In Nox’s Forest Plane his fear took form, an
innocent form which made it all the worse.”
Nox’s Forest Plane
The goddess of Night reigns
Across Realms and Planes
Oft she is found to roam
In her dark sylvan home.
The Plane of Night and Forest
Nox’s Forest Plane
Whatever you may call it
Its nature is the same,
A forest ancient and proud
Hung with tapestries of time
Cloaked in darkness
Of eternal night,
Towering trees form cathedrals
Their deaths leave windows to the sky
To let in the source of their life
The strongest of silver moonlight,
Dark leaves grow sinister
Designed to snatch every last ray
On twisted vines and stalwart trunks
On stems of flowers bold,
It was here in sylvan shadows
Caught by forces beyond his control
The Ice Basilisk’s heart
Grew more fractured and deathly cold,
As the phoenix and the Ice Basilisk
Explored the depths of the forest
A mighty forest matriarch fell
One terrible windy night,
With a crash she succumbed
To a scar deep and old
From a battle with lightning
Long ago,
She split in twain with a splintered crack!
And fell to the forest floor
Revealing in her hollowed heart
A shining, transparent, crystal,
Moon beams fell through the new born window
Gobbled greedily by leaves
But not before a single ray
Created a catastrophe,
Off guard in the dark depths
Of the Forest of Night
The Ice Basilisk gazed
On the matriarch’s demise,
He gazed on a crystal
That had caught light
With the same ease
That it caught his eyes,
With the same ease
That it caught the interest
Of curious creatures
Peering round a boulder,
Innocent of the role it played
The crystal caught the Ice Basilisk’s gaze
And bent it towards a craggy boulder
Where three curious wolf pups, froze.
A wolf’s mournful howl split the air
The Ice Basilisk desperate
Yanked his gaze to the black, black, forest floor
Too late,
Too late to prevent another petrification
Too late to unsee in perfect clarity
Three sets of oversized paws on too short legs
Glinting in the moonlight, madly, innocently.
Closing his eyes and running blind
The Ice Basilisk took off into the night
Heart pounding Lyra watched, feathers flickering
As her only friend fled the light.
A tear ran down the black dragon’s scales, closely followed
by another. A drop of water struck the
kitsune’s ear and he looked up startled.
The elf woman whose lap he had preempted was gazing at the storyteller
her eyes shimmering with tears. Or, the kitsune thought watching the
firelight catch in her hair, is she
seeing the black dragon or, something else.
Quietly he licked her hand and she smiled down on him stroking his
spine. The black dragon continued his
voice perceptibly roughened. “Torn by
fear the phoenix and the Ice Basilisk were separated in Nox’s Forest Plane. The Ice Basilisk feared his curse and the
loss of his friend through whatever means and so he set out to lose her himself
before he could hurt anymore. Lyra the
phoenix feared that her presence would only make the curse worse because she
was a being of both fire and light.
Perhaps she also still feared her demise. Regardless the Ice Basilisk vanished into the
night and left the Plane without a trace.
Or so he thought. The phoenix,
unbeknownst to him, decided that he needed a friend more than obscurity. Perhaps, she thought, if she had been paying
attention she would have known the wolves were there and could have warned
him. So Lyra called upon the goddess of
the Plane, and Nox in her wisdom and benevolence told the phoenix whereto her
frosty lizard had fled.” The kitsune
found himself on the couch alone without quite knowing how it had
happened. The elf was leaning her head
against the dragon’s and if their tears mingled there was no way to see beyond
her hair. Almost, it seemed her hair
glinted with triumph. The kitsune cocked
his head as whimsy took flight within it.
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