Fragmentum Puteus Draconis Pestis

Part of the Peryite Arcana Series

[Attachment: This incomplete text seems to be an ancient Nedic folk tale, found within an Ayleid ruin where the corpses and the waste they left behind shows signs of dying of unnatural causes.]

####Fragmentum Puteus Draconis Pestis […]And as she cried into the River Niben, alone and surrounded by the remains of those that in life had been her friends, she felt something slither around her ankle and she gasped in surprise at its touch.

“Why do you cry, little one?” the thing around her ankle hissed as it slithered from her leg to her arm, and she could see it as it really was. The creature was a Serpent of a sickly green hue, with small wings that looked battered and worn.

She shrieked, and began to throw the creature into the river where it could be carried away with her tears but it tightened its hold on her wrist. “I have not come to do you harm little one, as your sadness brought me here of my own accord and I wonder why you weep like so.”

The little girl knew from her elders that it was not wise to speak with animals of speech, but they were all gone now and in her grief she forgot the warnings. “My kin are all now dead but I live, and I cannot carry on without them. Leave me be, so I may drown myself in my sorrows.”

But the Serpent hissed which frightened her and breathed green flame from its mouth, and she knew it for what is was as a Dragon. “How hast this fate befallen your kin?” it spoke as it wounded tighter around her arm.

“Those who live longer than the trees have destroyed my kin, for they wish to use us for their own means. Beautiful and cruel they are, and they search for me still.”

The Dragon found its way to the girl’s neck, where it sat there looking like a band of emeralds sparkling in the sun, but soon the scales lost their luster and it coughed. “Death and live, one is up and one is down. You are still up but they are down.”

“I want to be as down as they are then, for this pain is to much for me to bear!” The girl said as she wiped her eyes to dispel the tears, which had placed a veil across her vision.

“Nothing can stay always up or always down. They are down, for you must stay up,” the Dragon insisted, and this time it whispered into the girl’s ears as it spoke. “Balance is key for what is to come.” It coughed again.

“Then how will I ease my heart, as my masters come to take me back? I have no will to keep on.”

The Dragon wound itself around her neck and raised itself until it was between her eyes, staring at her. “Your balance is already set, but your masters are not. How can they be, if you say they are all beautiful? Are there no ugly ones among them?”

“I have never seen one of their face that looks less than perfect,” the young girl said, and she sniffed. The Dragon licked the dried up tears underneath her eyes, causing her to chuckle.

“Now, now,” the Dragon mused to itself. “We can’t have that now can we? They are always up, when they should be both sometimes up and sometimes down.”

The girl stood up from the banks of the River Niben, and stared at the Dragon as it made its way into the palms of her hands and wiggled around. “How do we make some of them down?”

The Dragon smiled and hissed.

“I have a gift I wish to give you that will ease your sufferings, but also make those that make you suffer feel as you do. Those that chase you will take you back to their home, and they will share this gift with the rest until they have all partaken in it.”

And the little girl cocked her head. “And they will feel as I feel?” When the Dragon shook its head, she smiled. “Where is this gift?”

And with those words, the Dragon bit her and it let venom drip out of its mouth and into her arm. The little girl screamed and the Dragon fell to the ground as strong hands grabbed her and took her away. As the cries grew weaker, the Dragon laughed in the mud and took flight[…]