Always a Bigger Dragon...

[Tearen Wover]

A day had passed since Nealaphh had been dropped into this rocky crag, and still the god-mind had not found an adequate way out of the elongated pit. The shadow had hoped that the creature which had initially deposited it here would have returned since, but it did not seem as if that was going to happen any time soon. This behavior was slightly confusing, since it did not fit standard patterns of animal predation. Then again, the gutters and pool that had been gouged into the rock denoted a measure of intelligence, so perhaps there was more at work here than an attempt to use the shadow for its caloric value. As such, Nealaphh had contented itself with studying the physical properties of the area.

The ravine was precisely one-hundred twenty-six meters long, and at its highest point was eighty-two meters high. There were precisely seven laval flows dripping into the gutters, and the pool at the ends of the crevasse appeared to have a radius of thirty meters. The ambient temperature measured to be approximately one-hundred forty degrees centigrade. This heat was really quite pleasing to Nealaphh, and it felt much more vigorous than it had in the completely neutral wastes of The Nexus.Through it had deduced that this body operated on the absorption of any available energy. There was likely an upper limit to what its body could absorb, so direct application of fire or...say...lava would still most likely injure its body. The other end of the ravine was mostly uninteresting; simply a large cave that ended in a smooth, weathered back. There seemed to be a tunnel into a dormant lava tube within, but Nealaphh was not entirely sure that it wanted to gamble on any geological stability within this verse.

So, Nealaphh had contented itself with standing completely still for the past seven hours. Now, however, it heard a new sound within the ravine. From the direction of the pool of lava there came a sharp cracking sound. Nealaphh turned slowly to look at the source of this noise, only to see long, spidering cracks forming in the rounded boulders it had tried to telekinetically lift many hours ago. There was no need to hypothesize; it was clear at this point that the boulders were in fact eggs. Nealaphh watched with great interest as a long, serpentine creature smashed its way out of the stony enclosure. It glowed with internal heat, and appeared to be a larval form of the creature that had deposited it here. Though its wings were not developed, the creature still walked quite proficiently on its two legs, and used the elbows of its wings to crawl towards the shadow after swimming through the lava with long, snaking motions. Soon, another one of these larval creatures emerged, and another after that. By the time the hatching had ceased, there were six of these creatures circling Nealaphh slowly. Each one was about four feet long, and had a mouth full of sharp fangs.

A slow hiss began to emanate from the creature directly in front of Nealaphh, and its siblings followed suit. Suddenly, faster than the god-mind could react, the creatures all pounced on Nealaphh, attempting to bite and claw through its hide. Though Nealaphh's body was indeed resilient to most basic forms of trauma, the sharp, rock-hard talons of the larvae did manage to cut deep gouges in Nealaphh skin. There was no sound that the shadow could make as it tried vainly to wrestle its way out from under the writhing pile of steaming hot scales and teeth. The air began to shudder slightly, and with a loud, resonating boom, the creatures were all blasted away from Nealaphh in an expanding sphere of force. The god-minds eyes had taken on a violent glow, as it began to savagely hurl the larvae forcefully against the walls of the canyon as they jumped at Nealaphh one by one. The creatures were, however, nearly mindless, unlike their parent, so Nealaphh could gain no control over their frantic and savage minds. The cries of the larvae were shrill and enraged, as they clearly hadn't anticipated their first meal to be so difficult to obtain. This went on for several more minutes before Nealaphh heard a loud rumble from overhead.

Looking up, the god-mind saw the larvae's parent, staring down at Nealaphh with vicious cruelty. Nealaphh paused for a moment before beginning to retreat towards the back of the crag, still tossing the verminous serpents as they came. With precise, sinuous movements, the parent, which Nealaphh now named the Fire Brood, climbed down the crumbling black precipice to the canyon floor. The Fire Brood began to advance on the god-mind with malicious intent, a bright light beginning to emanate from its mouth. The shadow was curious as to what would happen next, and paused for a moment, only to be rewarded with a scouring, full frontal blast of fire. The force of the violent exhalation sent the god-mind flying back against the rough, sharp wall of the crag, where Nealaphh slumped to the ground, its robe almost entirely shredded and burnt away. Nealaphh looked up with bleary vision to see all seven of its opponents advancing towards it slowly. With frantic, uncoordinated movements that were quite unbecoming of an ex-god such as itself, Nealaphh crawled forward before pitching head first into the tunnel below.

It fell for a much longer time than it had anticipated. When Nealaphh finally impacted the cave floor, it's vision immediately went dark, and the shadow fell into unconsciousness...