maskormenacelogs | If all you told was turned to gold

WHO: Aurican and YOU
WHERE: All imPort cities
WHEN: The entirety of March after Aurican's canon update in March 2 - 3
WHAT: Aurican learns how fly. Prompts in the cut.
WARNINGS: ...nothing? will update if needed.

Cape Canaveral

He has seen his nestmates once again. He, along with Darlantan, traveled through the Darkness Beyond and found Patersmith. Listening to his stories, learning the names of the long dead mother and aunts of Aurican's and the stories of their adventures - it was the beginning of learning a new world. And not long after that, when Aurican learns how to use his wings for the first time, it was the beginning of being part of a new world.

He arrives in the Porter and comes out of the city. But he's not going to take the bus to Heropa. Not today.

It wasn't as easy to lift himself above the ground like it was taking a dive from the mountainside, but he managed. And he flew to Heropa like a flying golden statue, his scales reflecting the Florida sun.

Heropa

Aurican's draconic presence, while uncommon, isn't totally unusual to the residents. He avoids the downtown area - if he was big last time he was here, then now he's larger than usual, as big as one of those larger trucks, and unable to walk on the sidewalks. He has developed short whiskers, just barely reaching his jowls, and more stubs further along, showing he will one day grow even more.

He goes into the local park instead, wings flaring as he lands. There's a nearby man-made pond and he approaches it, looking at his reflection. He looks mostly to same, he finds, but he can tell he's growing.

Maurita Falls

Aurican spent the night in Maurita Falls, looking at the city in a new perspective. A city that Aurican first called home here, but a home that he never felt comfortable. Flying high in the low hanging clouds, he can see for the first time just how large it is, and just how different it is compared to the industrious Nonah or the thriving De Chima or the simple Heropa.

Watching Maurita Falls reminds Aurican of a dead body, with the skin sloughed off and other organisms are traveling all over the body to get more substance from the decaying flsh. Some buildings are abandoned and empty, except for hooligans and the homeless. In the night, Aurican is not as obvious, but his golden scales glint in the street lights, giving off the impression of a scaly, golden moth with a snake like body. He lands at the top of an apartment building, his tail draped loosely over the edge as he looks around. Heroes unfamiliar to him might find him to be an alarming prescience as he peers over the edge, looking at the various pawn shops and payday centers.

Nonah

There's a few cheers and camera flashes when the locals notice Aurican perched on a postal office, near a flag decorated in blue, white, and red colors. The midday after noon was bright, and the March day was warm. Here he decided to actually walk down the downtown area, where he listens in on a group of street musicians, tail slowly swinging to the beat.

But he draws more of a crowd than the musicians themselves.

De Chima

A city proud of its science. Aurican wonders if he should continue his education there. He increased his studies in his school in Heropa, but sooner or later, he knows he will take on the most advanced courses, courses usually available to adult humans.

But the natives do not teach magic, which is Aurican's most fervent desire. Only imPorts have the powers similar to the might Patersmith described Aurora's power. Aurican flew over the imPort housing section, wings rippling as he tries to land in a nearby lawn.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Aurican disappearing for a night is slightly worrying, as he tends to let Kang know where he's going, but isn't a reason to start panicking and make any announcements. So, the draconian finds him in the park while out for some fresh air.

Disappearance + doubling in size can mean only one thing.

"...you went home."

Aurican turns his head, eyes nearly aglow. "Kang."

He turns his body to face Kang - more serpentine now, muscles coiling underneath golden scales. "Yes. I went home. I continued my way through the Darkness Beyond with Darlantan. I met Patersmith. He told . . . "

He trails off. How can he explain what he has been told? "He told me stories of my mother." Aurican actually had a mother! It's strange to think of such. "I know how to fly now."

"Of Aurora? And her sisters?" There isn't much on the first dragons in the records, and Granak had only recently been granted any sort of access to the Library of Palanthas. Kang looks Aurican over a little more closely, smiling. Now, he's dwarfed by the youngling. "Well, you've certainly grown enough to be able to. I was worried you'd have to find a teacher here."

"He told us about their magic, and how it died with them." But he was vague about how they died. All Aurican really knows for sure is that Aurora and her sister were larger than life, had powers no one can ever imagine . . . and that power died with them, struck down by the Dark One.

"Not sure if a human can teach a dragon how to fly." Is that snootiness coming out of Auri? Why yes it is.

He smiles wryly, "I know very little of the old stories myself. Thesik or Granak, if they ever show, could tell you more - about how it was lost and then regained."

Ah, there it is, that famous gold arrogance. Kang can't help a small snort at that. "Yes, exactly. There are a few flight-capable imPorts, but non have wings quite like yours."

Aurican considers. Daryl might have given lessons, but his body and his wings are so different than to Aurican's that what might work for Daryl might not work for Aurican. But then the idea of lessons made Aurican to remember something else.

"Kang, you once told me you'll tell me about the gods. Patersmith told us of Paladine and the Dark One, but he was a little vague on everything else. Are there more gods back home, or is it just them?"

"Many more," Kang moves to it by the water and shifts to his natural form and clothing, dark bronze scales glinting in the sunlight. "What were you told of Paladine and the Dark Queen?"

"That Paladine created Aurora and her sisters, and the Dark One hated them all, and sent her own dragons after them. "

He never had a mother before, he doesn't really understand what is like to have a parent looking over you. He suppose Patersmith is closest thing Aurican knows of a parental bond.

Patersmith and Kang, now.

"They fought and every single one of them died, and spell magic died with them."

By the loss of spell magic, Aurican lost several nestmates that never hatched from their eggs. He had never really considered the origins behind the eggs before, but now that he considered the implications by this particular loss, it makes the urgency to rediscover magic more important than ever.

Kang nods, "The chromatics. The very first metallics who were corrupted by Takhisis. She is the Dark One you speak of. She is the sister of Paladine, and the most powerful god in the dark pantheon."

How they were corrupted, he's not clear on.

"Your mother managed to stop her dragons from destroying your nest, from what I remember. She was clever, just as you are."

Aurican's chest inflated with pride, as it always done when hearing Aurora's good deeds. Aurican may never know his mother, but he wants to be just like her. But he has also felt a chill down his spine when he hear's the Dark One's name for the first time. And the idea of corruption - if Takhisis corrupted the first metallics, then what does that mean for Aurican? What is corruption? How far does it go? Is he vulnerable to corruption?

So many questions, and Aurican is trying to contain himself. He decides to focus on one topic at a time - he knows so much thanks to Patersmith, and yet so little, as he knows a lot from this world.

"Pantheon. Does that mean there are more gods? More than Paladine and . . . " He can't say her name yet. " . . . and her?"

"Three pantheons, with seven gods in each. I can't tell you of all of them. I never bothered to learn - most weren't relevant to my life." Mainly the good and neutral ones, that is. "Of the good pantheon, I know of Paladine, and his consort Mishakal, the patron of healing. Habbakuk is the patron of beasts, and of the hunt. Kiri-Jolith, his brother, is the patron of warriors. I only know the names of the other two: Branchala and Majere."

"If one pantheon is dark, the other is good, then what is the third?" He thinks that out of all the good gods, Habbakuk sounds more like Burll, for his unending desire of hunting and eating bats.

"Neutral, of course. Gilean leads this pantheon. It also includes Reorx, the god of the forge, Zivilyn, Sirrion, and Chislev. They help to balance the scales of power," Kang lifted an eye ridge, amused.

Aurican flips the tip of his tail back in forth in consideration. So much potential, so much knowledge, limited by his own questions. "The neutral never obtained their own dragons?"

He shakes his head. "No dragons follow the neutral gods. None that are known, at least."

If all you told was turned to gold

Heropa

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