Hidden Beauty of the Vale

Sunning on her favourite grassy hill, Perditta suddenly heard some unfamiliar noise. It returned repeatedly and echoed in the woods below, accompanied by some lower buzzing and cries from animals she didn't recognize. It interrupted her rest and after a while gave her a headache, so she swooped down to check on it. It originated in the forest near a rock face on one of the hills, but the canopy was too thick to see anything. Circling around the area, she smelled smoke, and she felt some tingling, uneasy sensation she couldn't identify.
 - So, the forest is on fire - she thought. - And the noises are the trees dying and flames roaring - she concluded and flew away. Several cycles later, she decided to check on what was left of her favourite spot. To her amazement, although the smell of burning wood was still there, and strong, there were no traces of forest fire. Instead, right next to the hill there was a small area of fallen trees. perditta gracefully landed on top of the hill and neared the cliff to lookdown. The clearing was populated by a group of animals that moved on two hind legs only and were trying to build a kind of a lodge  from the fallen trees, just like beavers do, but making a lot more noise. The smoke was strong here, and looking down she noticed a largish cave just to the left from where she was. Ther was fire burning in front of it, but instead of burning wild everything in its path, it stayed in one place, surrounded by stones and sand. At this moment, one of the animals came out of the cave and started to feed the fire until it burned high and bright.

Several weeks passed and Perditta made it her custom to check on her new animals. She usually took advantage of her colour masking at night, but sometimes one of them looked up at the sky and noticed her, but she easily fogged their minds with pictures of big, colourful birds that the animals preferred to dragons and were not usually afraid of. The settlement grew. More trees fell and more lodges were built. But the beavers must have been very hungry, because they started to dig all the roots from the hewn forest to the bare ground. The animals worked with purpose and helped each other, clearly indicating they are more intelligent than mere cattle.

One night while watching the village, Perditta  got surprised when some of the animals touched the fire - which they did a lot - and took some burning branches with them to a newly built beaver's lodge, and entered it too. Soon enough the smoke was visible at the top, and strange cries could be heard from within. Afraid her pets will burn, and she had to admitt she grew attached to them, she panicked and landed down among the structures. Poking her triangular head through the opening, she grabbed one of the animals and tried to pull it out. Instead of finding it in agony and burning, the animals looked as if they were scared of her and started to throw stones and sticks at her. Hurt by the sharp point, she uttered a confused mental cry, let go of her rescue and escaped, barely remembering to cast a charm at them to appear as some other animal.

 

Hidden Beauty of the Vale 

Hidden Beauty of the Vale is a pink female dragon who hatched on the 24 cycle. Unfortunatelly she has some quite messed lineage and I don't know if I'll be keeping her.

Stories from the Vale

 Wstęp do RPG-owej historii którą tworzę dla moich smoków. Wymagany jest język angielski i nie przewiduję tłumaczeń.
An introductory piece I invented for my dragon RP. This series is gonna be in English.

The Vale
The Vale is bordered by high mountains to the south, and a plateau to the north, while it's only slightly lower than the eastern plains. Craggy outcrops form a hundreds of miles long barrier between the more cyvilised southern areas and the harsher northern lands. The mountain range turns south-east just at the eastern edge of the valley, opening it to the inland steppes of the continent. Formed by two large riversmeeting at the northernmost point, it forms a triangle of warm, moist and fertile land standing against it's harsh neighbourhood - arid steppes to the east and cold, barren wilderness of the north.
Accessible only through the riverbed and marshes from the north and from wild uninhabited steppes from the east, the place remained untouched by human hand for thousands of years. It's lush forests and grassy meadows with abundance of water attracted large numbers of animals to thrive in the mild climate, lacking any large predators apart form a wandering mountain bear now and then. It's been only recently that scouts and trappers form the couth breached the mountains and started to spread the word of paradise existing in the, otherways uninviting, northern land.
Still, not many were brave enough to leave everything they knew and loved behind and enterprise a dangerous journey. The first group of daredevils decided to enter the dragon's domain to the west attempting an easier, but more risky,  route through lesser mountains. They've never been heard of since. After a second party, led by an experienced dwarven mountaneer, disappeared on their alternate route through the higher mountain pass, further attempts were not endavoured. Most people started to doubt the existence of the Vale, and distrust the scouts as confabulating, or even accuse them of some pact with evils lurking in the wilderness and trying to lure poople to their doom.
Several years have passed until one day an alarm was ringed in one of the southern villages of an approaching dragon. Men armed with bows and torches gathered in front of their abodes trying to scare the creature away, but it circled above their heads and chose to land in the fields just behind the houses. To their surprise, villagers running to protect their crops were stopped by a man who claimed he rode the dragon back from behind the mountains to let it be known the long forgotten party of adventurers found their way across the mountains and setted in a friendly environment.
As hard to believe as it was, the settlers seemingly found a way to tame dragons and use them at their services. Since that day, the Vale is no longer cut off the civilised world and messengers mounted on dragons go there and back again, maintaining trade and sometimes even bringing brave souls willing to try their luck in the new world. The custom of picking abandoned dragon eggs and helping them hatch and grow spread worldwide, enabling people to inhabit territories not accesible to them before.

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