(this story works as a pt.2? Of a previous work as it expands a bit on what happens after the acknowledgement of the missing scrolls from the clan) gonna post that later I guess lol
Today was not my day. It has been like this for a while, and all I can find to blame are those pesky bugs that follow my friends around.
They don't seem to notice them too, or perhaps are too busy to be bothered by them, I can't blame them though, bugs are common occurrence in these places near the Garden. Our lair is quite spacious to be able to maintain such thing deep underwater.
I'm rambling now, I know. Maybe I'm starting to take on a bit too much from my parent, but they are my one direct family, even though we are not related at all. This brings me to the problem at hand.
Since that day we caught notice on some missing records and scrolls from our shelves, Tucker and Sidewinder chose to keep a closer eye to any visitors wether they be clanmembers or not. For some sort of 'security reasons' we had to move the most valuable papers to a safer area (one not-so-happily provided by the vault keeper herself), they were mostly the oldest records kept and other things I hadn't been around to know about; to be honest I thought of them as useless waste... This clan seems to have dealt with quite heavy issues within itself and they feel the need to keep their mistakes written as some sort of reminder? Sure, peace and partnership has been enjoyable but I'm not of the idea of keeping old rags on the metaphorical chest of the past; but it's not my place to discuss such matters, I simply nod and carry on with my duties.
Today I was assigned to guard some medical records. This one came as a sort of surprise as it never crossed my mind that our healers kept such tight and complete registry of any cases they have dealt with (they seemed like such traditionalist practitioners, more fond of old customs and such). And so I became burdened with the responsibility move those heavy documentations to the vault. I could have asked for help, but despite the trust I have for my fellow clanmates, I felt that I had to do this one for myself.
That was a mistake. Not even a couple of hours later I found myself overwhelmed by the task, I underestimated how big this place could be and in my desperate attempt to just get the job done I decided to take onto the lesser tracked paths carved unto the cave, for once taking advantage of my size.
I knew of these from childhood and I could often catch sight of young hatchlings making use of the carved tunnels to get somewhere new to explore. We don't know how they came to be (I was told they were here since the moving from the old lair, but I can't say any better), but they work perfectly as shortcuts across the lair given you know your way around. I committed to my memory and climbed onto the closest hole of the library (the one behind the deepest shelves) and climbed upwards.
Sure, using this method would take me a while as I could only carry so much into such reduced space, but the trips would become shorter between each other and that was enough for me. As I carried on I found myself astounded by the great amount of newly carved tunnels, some bigger in size than others, (perhaps the work of the bigger kids?) after all it had been a while since I traversed this place.
A firefly flew by my side and behind it a small group came around entering the place. Curiosity took the best of me and thus led me to find out the end of a curiously carved path surrounded by the faint light the bugs emitted.
As I went on following the small bugs something lurched in my stomach as I touched along the edges of the tunnel, I could feel ragged borders and somehow, they felt desperate, like something that tried too hard to break the stone but then receded. The fireflies seemed to stop once they knew I was standing back and only resumed flight when I started to move again. In that brief moment it felt like something had watched me and wanted to say something but it stopped. Once the bugs stopped around me it felt like someone's eyes were trained on me, it felt odd.
I arrived to an open cave only illuminated by the small bugs and for the life of me I couldn't hear a thing from the outside (it had been a while, but only in the moment of my arrival did the thought cross my mind), I felt like I had entered some sort of foreign lair but deep inside I knew I was still within Bleuspont.
The fireflies dispersed and went off but in their faint, fading light I saw a face similar to mine in race, but different to an extent. I could only step back in a remote feeling of fright as I instinctibly held closer the scrolls I had forgotten I had. The thing looked up at me and I saw again eyes very similar to mine but they were... Heavier...? Like they belonged to something so, so old.
The bugs lighted up again and so the odd images inside my head faded away as I could properly see the dragon in front of me. It was a spiral, so much like myself but so much bigger as well, her eyes were a deep shade of orange with a deep fade to Black on the corners, they wore an arrangement of pieces and clothes that I had seen somewhere, maybe they were taken? Many things had gone missing in this place before, I wouldn't doubt they took them for themselves; the fireflies nested across their form still glowing faintly, many more lighted around us giving light to the darkened cave
In the now illuminated place I could see bundles and piles of trinkets and stuff, some of it things I knew had been missing as well; the dragon motioned to the scrolls I carried and gestured to themselves, I immediately declined whatever they had in mind but they didn't seem to like my answer and raised a clawed hand towards a nearby firefly, they whispered something to it and let it off to glow over my face. I tried to pry the bug away but I was held by the mysterious dragon with way too much ease. Everything went dark after that.
Once I woke up I was at the very entrance of that tunnel but the scrolls were nowhere in sight. My head pounded horribly inside and something like words kept repeating themselves over and over...whatever they mean, I don't care (or I don't want to care) but it would be difficult to explain the now missing papers to my clanmates.
The gargled words soon became clear in my mind but their message did nothing to reassure me, they only made the trek back to the library feel heavier...
"trust me, we are better off fixing this. We know better than Them"
I don't know if I should agree, but since the encounter it has been impossible to dismiss the weird quantity of fireflies that wander across this place at any moment.
I haven't felt alone since then, and it's difficult to say if this all feels any safer or not. I'm faintly worried about that.
