Primal Times
When Time was young and Dragons and Giants forged new Worlds, there was a dragon of fire, called Blazewing the Scorcher. He did what fire breathing dragons do. Traveling between worlds, scorching the landscape, draining rivers and lakes into chasm of molten lava, letting volcanoes erupt at random places, sometimes forming islands on accident, but most importantly, he annoyed those pesky giants, for example by toppling their carefully carved rock and stone formations. Though they simply won't understand the primal beauty of a dragon's creations.
One day, when Blazewing was on his way to one of his favorite places, an area, where he could bathe in the finest molten minerals at his leisure. Then he spotted that his ashen fields with the lava lakes were overgrown with a lush green jungle. It was a century since he last was here and from the looks of it, his sister Barkscales the Bringer of Sprouts has left him this gift. She often causes overgrowths where she goes and those are just perfect to start a wildfire. Barkscales was also the one who gave him the proper title “the Scorcher”, after he spent a year burning down her woods and meadows. One truly can’t hope for a better sibling.
Just as he was fantasizing about how to best start the inferno, Blazewing spotted something in the distance. A stream of smoke was rising from amidst the jungle. That couldn't be possible! He was supposed to burn those plants down! Quickly he flew closer, from about a mile away he spotted the source of the fire in a tiny clearing. Around it were a bunch of creatures with skin, hopping around a fire in a circle, they were barely half as long as his forelegs. One after the other, they took parts of trees and threw them into the fire in their midst.
Blazewing was confused. He never saw such animals before, they were only using their hindlegs to walk, just like giants. But they were tiny, maybe as big as a giants finger. Circling above the clearing, he watched them for a bit. The anger in him was gone, replaced by something new. Was it curiosity? The small creatures continued their dance, either don’t minding their observer or not noticing him.
As his curiosity began to get the better of him, Blazewing decided to land in the clearing, to get a better look at them. As he approached, the people stopped their throwing of sticks into the firepit and stared at him, hiding at the other side of the fire, right next to some tiny caves made out of hides and bark. He looked at their bonfire, it was filled with charred and burning sticks and the fire barely would reach his chest.
Then, one of the creatures got closer and stood next to the firepit. It looked funny and wore colorful stones around its neck. It was slightly bigger than the others and Blazewing noticed how he used some magic to control the flames and hurled some at him. The touch of the cool flame tickled the Scorcher. But now he understood what the pyromancer wanted from him. They were waiting for Blazewing to partake in their celebration! So he turned around, unrooted a tree and placed its crown carefully in the way too small fire pit. Then he took a deep breath, channeled his primal fires and set his plantpiece ablaze.
There was a moment of silence. Blazewing waited for their reaction, for what seemed like an aeon. Then they made loud noises and finally continued their dance. They liked fire! For the first time in centuries he had someone to appreciate his craft of setting things ablaze! The Scorcher decided to give them a true spectacle and wanted to make the inferno truly special he had planned for this forest. While he was in thoughts, the people continued their feast, but Blazewing barely noticed them anymore.
The next few weeks he stayed close to the settlement. While he tried to come up with a spectacle the universe hadn’t seen yet, he often visited the village. After a few days he noticed they not only liked fire, but they used it for other things, than turning stuff to ash. They sometimes put their food in it. After a rainshower, they used it to dry their clothing and for some reason, they seemed to keep the smaller ones away from the fire. But didn’t they like it too? Why can’t the small ones enjoy it?
During his stay he often hunted some of the bigger animals, when he got hungry. A few times he even noticed the Grays taking the leftovers of his meals with them. Some of the bones they placed on an open space and made a new cave with hides out of it. On the inside was always a little burning fire. Other parts, they used to make things. Stuff they used to hit other things with, just like he saw it from giants once. And sometimes, they even gave Blazewing some of their burned meat and food. It wasn’t much, but it smelled and tasted nice.
As the years passed Blazewing's fantasy of making the best inferno ever became an afterthought. Because after some time, he saw how one of the Grays took some mud, formed it with it’s hands, put it over a fire and the mud turned into a solid rock. It then built a new hut with it. They even began to craft other stuff out of the mud, where they could store their food or put their food on to eat.
It was fascinating what the Grays were able to do with fire. They weren’t just amazed like Blazewing from its glow and warmth, but somehow tamed it, to make new stuff. He left the village for a while, to take a long bath in one of his favorite volcanoes. Blazewing needed time to think about what he learned from the Gray.
When he finally returned, the huts were gone. But close by were other huts, made of stone and trees at the mountainside. And there were a lot of them. The Gray were still there, but now they wore weird new animal hides and some were covered in shiny stuff that looked a lot like his scales. As they spotted him approaching their city, the Gray became hectic. A lot of people in the shiny scales gathered and they brought animals with them to the wood clogged part in their large stone formation. The wood opened and let them pass through the stones.
Now Blazewing was facing the group of Gray one of them stood before him, just like when he first met them. It was pointing at the Scorcher and the animals. But Blazewing did not understand it. So he just got closer to one of the Gray wearing the shiny scales. Most of them backed away, but one wasn’t moving, so Blazewing carefully reached out with his claw and touched his shiny scales. It was smooth, cold and an entirely new feeling to him. But Blazewing knew, this thing got somehow formed by fire and he had to know how. Then Blazewing finally noticed the stick the Gray had held in his hands the whole time. As he reached out to it, the Gray dropped it into his claws. He brought it closer to its eyes for an inspection. It looked a bit like the sticks they used in the hut village, but the black stone on its top got replaced by the shiny stuff the Gray was wearing. Blazewing gave it back to the Gray and looked at the others. Then he stared at the one who stood in front of the others. It hasn’t moved until now. After looking at it, he noticed a small other shiny thing atop its head. It looked a bit different than the scales and the stickhead. The Gray took it and gave it to the one Blazewing just inspected a moment earlier.
After that the Gray showed him the city, there wasn’t much of interest to him. Though, he noticed they had a lot of the shiny stuff and used it for all kinds of things, but often it wasn’t as shiny or had different colors. But they all clearly were formed by fire. At some point, they reached the highest place in the city. There was another dragon, but it was made of stone. Blazewing was confused again. It clearly wasn’t a cursed dragon, turned into stone by a spell. And the Gray pointed its arms at the stone dragon and Blazewing in alternation. Then it dawned on him, maybe it was supposed to look like him? It certainly had the same horns, but was quite a bit smaller. And looking at his sides, he noticed some mineral clusters on his scales that certainly weren’t on that replica of him.
Over the next years, the Scorcher visited the city often. The one he inspected was now always the one to greet him. After some time, Blazewing was able to understand their language. The shiny stuff they used was called metal. The stick was called an axe and the blade made of steel. The scale thing was an armor and made in Blazewing's image. And the Gray didn’t call themselves the Gray, but Cinderspawn. They told stories about Blazewing the Scorcher, a dragon that in ancient times helped their ancestors over multiple generations, but in those stories they called him Cinderbreath.
Though, Blazewing didn’t understand why the Cinderspawn that always greats him, became the leader of the city, just because his metal got inspected by him once.
Anyway, after clearing that language barrier, and the Cinderspawn doing basically anything he asked, he finally was able to observe how they made metal. They took rocks, called ore, from the mountains, put it in a smelter and turned it into metal with a lot of heat. Then with more heat and hammers, they formed the metal into the shapes they liked. Those Cinderspawn really were fascinating for Cinderbreath.
The Forgeshaper
Cinderbreath glided through the skies. He enjoyed the warm wind below his wings, his eyes searched the sky for the signs of a fire. Then he noticed a smoke column. As he approached his destination, he spied a group of felines, grilling meat above a fire. Their huts were primitive and the tools were made from stone and bones. They were just perfect.
Cinderbreath descended at some distance from the tribe. That proved to generally be a better approach than to land directly in their settlement. As he approached them carefully, they gathered between their huts. The felines got agitated and readied their spears. After a few moments of Cinderbreath channeling his mana, he was able to understand them. They were scared of him, so he assured them they had nothing to fear of him, instead they should watch him and learn. Cinderbreath dug a hole to get some clay. Formed it into a forge and burned it with his mana and a controlled firebreath. As his next step he took a bar of iron he carried with him and heated it in the forge with his breath, then it was time to knead it into a new form with his claws. When he finally was satisfied with his work, he presented the hammer to the felines.
They had watched him from afar, unsure if he was trying to trick them. But they haven’t seen a tool like this before. The most courageous, or maybe it was just the most gullible, finally approached and took the gift. Cinderbreath told him to take the hammer and strike it against a similar bone tool they used. As the tools of different ages clashed against each other, the bones lost a piece, but the iron didn’t even dent. Cinderbreath was pleased, the Felines reacted astounded as he had hoped. From there on, he could begin to teach them how to use fire for their crafts. The last civilizations he had patronized were matured and didn’t need his training anymore.
The next decades he instructed them on how to refine ores, burn clay, how to build chimneys and more. They got better tools, robust homes, their village got replaced by a small town and their numbers grew.
Then, when their progress pleased Cinderbreath, it was time for him to create the next volcanoforge. The Forgeshaper flew circles around the next mountain, until he found the spot he searched for. He grabbed onto the mountainside and tore a tunnel into it. Claws shoveled rocks aside, as if they were mere pebbles. The mountain itself succumbed to the will of the Elder Dragon, solid rock made room for halls, tunnels and holes that led deep into the ground. The ejected rocks formed themselves into a staircase to the bottom of the mountain. Cinderbreath dug deep into the bedrock until found a pocket of lava and diverged it into his mountain forge. The stream got further divided by its components. The metallic minerals were diverted so they could solidify, while the molten rocks would provide heat for his creation.
Finally he directed the mana richest parts into a pool that would serve as connection to his other volcanoforges.
When his work was done, he invited the people to his forge and showed them its purposes. At last, he broke a mineral crystal from his back and placed it on a pedestal. The Felines listened carefully to Cinderbreath, as he explained to them their task. They were to find a way to form the chunk of minerals into an artifact. To demonstrate, he separated a chip from it and heated it in one of the forges with his dragon breath and molded it into tongs for them to use. Cinderbreath would return every decade and any craftsman that were able to impress him with his work, would be allowed to attempt this task.
As reward he promised them, to answer that craftsman all questions he had to Cinderbreath.
After his proclamation, Cinderbreath the Forgeshaper retreated to his enchanted lava pool and dived into it. Through a veil sprinkled with red and orange sparks, he peeked into the astral sea. For a moment he reveled in the view, then he concentrated on his pool in the Cinderspawn city. His view got distorted, as if he was in countless places at once. Then he felt cooled lava dripping from his head and wings and laid his eyes on his first vulcanoforge. As he strived through the halls, the Cinderspawn got hectic, they soon would get their highpriest and gather the craftsmen, who prepared their workpieces. They got recognized as a matured civilization a long time ago by Cinderbreath, but the ritual was part of their traditions now and would elevate the winner to the office of a high priest. He liked them, they always came up with new ways to impress him.
Among the workpieces were two that especially catched Cinderbreath’s eyes. One was a bell, when Cinderbreath nudged it, it would perform a whole melody, instead of a single note. The other one was a weapon. First Cinderbreath thought someone tried to represent only an ornate hilt. But the blade was so fine, even the Elder Dragon's eyes had trouble perceiving it. Yet it was sturdy and didn’t break, despite applying enough force to it, to shatter any steel blade.
The Forgeshaper took his time to think about those two pieces. He was supposed to only take one. But they were both marvelous. So he decided he would add both of them to his hoard, but not before the craftsmen explained to him in the minutest detail, how they created their workpieces.
Though the Cinderspawn were flabbergasted that there were two winners this time. But they surely would find a way to work it into their traditions.
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