Ascent of a Dragon

The tunnel closes behind the trio, leaving them in complete darkness as Aleph digs her claws into the walls, bringing herself to a stop. Without an escape route the winds die down, quieting the tunnel save for the low rumble resounding beneath them. Aura from the titan still permeates the air, though any without intent it only produces a vague sense of pressure, urging them on.

"Hooh!" Goldy hoots reverently from her back, clasping his hands in some arbitrary gesture of respect. "Why does he seem impressed? I just talked to a big rock lizard and found a way down." "Seriously? You spoke a mystery Aura language to a literal mountain of a beast and negotiated not only to have it spare us, but also help us! Even I'm fucking impressed! Can we get an explanation?" "Hoo!" "Okay, can I get an explanation?" Aleph climbs along the tunnel wall, settling in an almost dragon-sized nook where Lyla proceeds to hop off and meet her gaze. Goldy slides off too, promptly beginning to perform some weird dancing ritual behind her, which everyone just ignores.

"So how much do you know about souls?" "Well that's one way to start... Not much. Nobody does. You can't live without one I guess?" "Eh, mostly. Do you know what an awakened soul is?" "I swear I have to be the only divine beast who doesn't at this point... Why does everyone else seem to know?" "Divine beast?" "Stay on topic." "Right. Well an awakened soul essentially means a being can be sentient and, um... I forgot the rest, there's a few more things, some of which I feel are especially important to me. All I know is that it was an important factor in me choosing a vessel." "I'm going to ignore that questionable bombshell of having chosen your body in favour of sticking to the point."

Behind her, Goldy has taken a parchment from his pouch and began carefully spreading ink across it with his fingers, depicting some form of image. "The big rock lizard-" "Call it the mountain lizard. It'll confuse things if everything has the same name." "So... The mountain lizard had an awakened soul." "Why does that matter?" "Because no other rock lizard has an awakened soul. It's something determined by species, by biology, you can't just have a mid-life awakening. I had to see it for myself." "You were curious? That's it? You realise we've eaten rock lizards before right? What if it held a grudge?" "Would you kill someone for killing your pet spider? That's the difference between having an awakened soul and not." "... I hate how much sense that makes. I want a pet spider now..." "Ooh, can I name it?" "No way! My pet, my name! Hm?"

Their conversation is briefly interrupted by Goldy approaching to form various shapes around Lyly with his hands, then proceeding to do the same to Aleph, comparing their sizes before going back to his scribbling. "Did he just call me short?" "You are short." "I'll have you know that by human standards I am considered terrifyingly huge!" "Goldy doesn't look terrified." "He's a monkey, not a human!" "Oh, right. What's the difference?" "The fur! The face! The feet! So many things!" "I'm sure I've seen humans that look just like that though." "The fuck kinda humans are you hanging out with? Wait... What were we talking about?" "I forgot." "You do that a lot..." "To be fair, some of it I think is intentional, and some of it is by virtue of having a shattered-ish soul. This one I just forgot normally though." "How do I always end up with more questions every time we speak?"

Aleph peers down the tunnel, listening to the growling air beneath. At the apex of the tunnel a dim blue light pulsates, filling the cave with an eerie atmosphere. "So what's on this floor?" "Wind. So much wind. And based on the sound, we're right above a storm core." "Storm core?" "I call the orb things scattered around this place cores. Because it sounds cool. These ones generate full on storms." Aleph looks over to Goldy, who is currently holding up his parchment, switching his gaze back and forth between the page and the pair before folding it with a satisfied grin and storing it away in a pouch.

"Guess we should go now." "Yea, there's no food on this floor so we should be quick. Don't know about you or the monkey but I can only go a couple days before I start getting weak." Aleph nudges Goldy with her tail, pushing him onto her back while Lyly hops atop her perch. Whelp, away we g- "If you jump I will bite you." With a pout, Aleph steps away from the edge she was totally not just about to leap from and proceeds to climb down steadily like a normal person. Her claws sink into the stone, gripping tightly as her wings flare and tail extends, granting her improved balance.

The rumbling grows louder as they descend, some wind leaking into the tunnel and brushing against fur and scales. The rushing of wind turns from loud to deafening nearer to the mouth of the tunnel. "Lyly, wrap a harness for yourself and Goldy! It's looking like a sheer drop!" Aleph yells over the growing sound. "I have a new nickname now... That's so cool!" "What?" "Nothing!" With deft agility, Lyly wraps threads around the dragon's body, adjusting the stickiness for Goldy to grasp without getting stuck. "Done!" Lyly settles into her spot, now wrapped in a cozy bundle of threads while Goldy hangs on tight to rings of thread wrapped loosely around Aleph, which would seem precarious if not for the one thin thread subtly stuck to his back, preventing him from falling too far.

They continue the descent, reaching the mouth of the tunnel where the storm below rages furiously. Dust and debris stream past like the rapids of a river, subtly lit by a blue glow emanating from below. Carefully, Aleph pokes her tail under the surface of the rushing winds, the force instantly yanking the tip and pulling it against the stone. This looks pretty rough... Maybe we should ask the mountain for another way down? Before she can pull herself up to consider her options, the wall cracks. The brittle stone fails to hold up the combined weight of the trio after having claws dug into it and continued buffeting from the winds below, shattering and crumbling beneath her feet. Ah... Well then. I suppose it's as they sa- Ack!

The storm consumes them, launching them haphazardly as they are buffeted by endless torrents of wind and all direction ceases to exist. The idea of flaring wings or redirecting a tail to gain control becomes but a dream as they are tossed and rolled by the cyclone like a child with a ball. Blue light strobes around, adding to the disorienting cacophony assaulting them while harsh winds slam into their ears, denying any chance at communication.

Goldy desperately grasps the threads, shifting the best he can to grab them with his feet. With free hands he grips the air, twisting and pulling it to reject its flow. The winds die down around them, Aleph steadying her spin as she swiftly reacts and flares her wings. Quickly she realises that gravity is in fact to her left, causing her to plummet back into the tempest. Grasping the air anew, Goldy stills the air once more, and again, repeating as they steadily regain balance and manage to claim a steady glide within the storm.

Waving his hands, Goldy pulls away layers of the storm ahead of them as they glide away from the source of blue light. Bright does mean centre right? The wavering of their bubble of stillness and the frustrated howl from her back indicates otherwise as the intensity around them picks up. Oops... Turning the opposite way, Aleph glides in a steady downward slope, the storm around them gradually calming as they approach the ground. Or a wall. Whichever comes first.

Incidentally, it happens to be both as Aleph glides head-first into a stalagmite. With Goldy's concentration disturbed by the crash, the winds return, pressing them against the stone. Aleph crawls down the stalagmite, reaching the ground where Goldy jumps off, plunging his hands into the ground and raising a dome around the trio. Aleph slumps to the ground, spent and sore while Goldy falls to his back with laboured breaths. "Lyly?" Aleph asks, poking the spider atop her head with her tail. "Iiiiiìiiii..." No response is heard from the unmoving arachnid aside from a continued high pitch squeak. Well she's not dead. She'll be fine...

Aleph unwraps the threads bound to her, cutting off the thread Lyly had sneakily attached to Goldy's back as an emergency harness. Hmm... I guess I can give Goldy a language lesson while we wait for Lyly to wake up.

Desertum Silentii

To the far south of Magnus Mundus lies a vast, continent spanning desert known by the name Matra'suul in Aoan. A literal translation of this name would be 'Matra's Desert', leaving much speculation among scholars as to what, or who Matra could be. Many theories exist, most of which crediting them with either being the source of the desert and reason for its inhospitality, or being the one who contains its spread. Some theories claim Matra to simply be an adjective in old Aoan which describes the desert, though none of these theories have been confirmed by an ancient.

The desert encompasses nearly the entire southern continent, even hugging the walls of Avilar's dome in some places. Some hypothesise this is where the serpent's head lies, though records of conversation with the ancients indicate otherwise, with all implying Avilar's head to be either to the east or the west.

There are no records beyond the fourth great war which indicate the presence of any civilisation within the desert itself, though the coasts have always been home to bustling cities and trade hubs, which make masterful use of the Mana rich glass formed from the desert sands. Most well known is Invisa Civitas, the city of glass made almost entirely of stained glass buildings and roads.

- Excerpt from Anya Chiff's 'Shape of the World'