The Dragon and the Queen

[slut_in_white]

(Closed for JadeKnight)

The sun rose over a beautiful, bountiful forest that stretched to the east as far as the eye could see. To the west, there was a sparkling sea. A small distance to te south saw the forest open into rich, rolling hills covered in farms. And to the north, a single lonely mountain with a shining castle built directly into the living rock of the cliff.

Spreading out from the base of the castle was a huge city that wove between the massive trees of the forest. The streets were rich with colour and life, and full of magic. The people were of all races - elves, humans, dwarves and gnomes alike, shopping, working, hawking their wares in the streets.

The sound of a horn trumpeted through the street, and the sea of people parted to allow a group mounted people through the center of the street, heading toward the castle. They were walking two by two, all strong looking men and women dressed in shining armor and bearing the standards of the royal family. In the center, riding alone, was a young woman of stunning beauty sitting astride a white horse. Her long curling hair was black as night, a stark contrast against her pale skin. She was the queen of the land, sole ruler since the deaths of her parents a few years ago. The people bowed their heads in reverence and she smiled, waving at them.

The procession moved slowly up the street to the castle and, once inside, she sighed, exhausted from the ride. Her horse was taken to the stable immediately and she headed straight to her chambers.

"Vivi!" she called. A young woman dressed as a servant rushed into the queen's chambers immediately.

"What do you require, your Majesty?"

The queen smiled kindly at her. "Could you pull up a bath for me please?"

Vivi nodded, smiling brightly. "Right away!"

A few minutes later, the queen was naked and alone, luxuriating in hot, perfumed water. From where her bath was located in her room, she could look out through the open door of the balcony to a beautiful view of the sea. She was perfectly content to stay until the water grew cold, though she knew her duties would prevent her from doing so.

 

[JadeKnight]

While life was bustling on the queen's planet, the cycle of life was being interrupted on another planet, half a galaxy away. All life that had been able to find deep places to burrow for hibernation ten years before was now encased beneath a sudden ice age that had covered the planet. In addition to the ice-covered planet, a large errant meteorite struck the furthest planet in the small solar system. As the small planet was knocked from it's orbit, it was sent careening towards one of the two moons that orbited the ice-covered planet. The impact created a bullet storm of meteors, massive chunks of the moons flying in every direction. The second moon was destroyed as well, creating a massive meteor storm hurling towards the ice covered planet. The meteors ranged in size from micro all the way up to several hundred that were over a hundred miles in length.

The first part of the planet to be destroyed was the atmosphere, burning away by the passage of several close misses. The crust of the planet was cracked apart, flying into outer space. Next a massive hit to the planet's core cause it to explode, even more chunks of planet adding to the meteor storm racing through and out of the now extinct solar system.

Several meteors reached the planet where the queen lived, the largest only half a mile in length. The small group reached the outer edge of the queen's planetary atmosphere shortly after she got into her bath. They could be seen as bright fireballs as they traveled through the atmosphere towards the ocean, half heading towards the ocean as the rest disappeared over the horizon. Steam rose in waves half a mile from the shore of the kingdom, small waves traveling towards the shore. The largest chunk of ice and rock was seen as a massive fireball, impacting a mile from shore. The impact created large waves thirty feet high which rolled outward in every direction.

The large meteor actually contained T'rak, the last of his kind from the destroyed planet and a creature not seen on the Queen's. The ice had preserved him in a state of animation despite his attempts to hibernate in a deep hole. The warm waters slowly melted the ice-covered rock as it sunk deeper and deeper to land on the sandy bottom of the ocean.

http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/20800000/White-jewels-Dragon-dragons-20857646-359-500.jpg?1384820197775

 

[slut_in_white]

The queen watched in awe-struck silence as the meteors smashed into the ocean, raising massive waves and igniting the sky with light. Her city was safe - there were floodwalls in place that would prevent any significant damage to the people or infrastructure - so she had the luxury of simply sitting to watch the show.

Once the light in the sky faded and the waves calmed, she pulled herself out of the tub, wrapped herself in a robe, and began immediate preparations for an expedition into the sea to recover the fallen rock. If they were very lucky, the meteor would contain starstone, a powerful material used for a wide variety of things and which fell from the sky only once in a generation. She wanted it recovered for her government and her people before pirates got to it.

Within a few hours, the first scout ships had set sail for the impact point. The queen herself stood on the dock, watching the ships sail away. Her body trembled with excitement - a harvest of starstone that large would have an enormously positive impact on the kingdom. They would be set for generations, if they were lucky.

 

[JadeKnight]

The meteorites that rested on the ocean floor ranged in various sizes, the smallest being the size of a small boulder. The largest one, in which contained T'rek, was half a mile, but nearly two miles in depth. It came to a rest with the opening to the hibernation hole at an angle, the ice cover melted away. The dragon was safely protected in a water-free hole with the angle, water not rushing in on him. He continued to sleep, his body heat slowly warming up. It wouldn't be long before his body clock would hit the right temperature for him to wake up.

As the meteorites came from various parts of the galaxy, including T'rek's destroyed planet, they contained various types of elements in varying amounts. It didn't take long for the ships to reach the impact zone, and it wouldn't take long to get down to the depth they needed to pull up the meteorites. However the opening to T'rek's hole was positioned almost parallel to the ocean floor, so no one would be able to get in.

As perpetration got underway on the surface, another meteor shower was seen, but it was high above the sea.

 

[slut_in_white]

It wasn't until the following morning that the queen finally received word of success: it seemed several of the meteorites did, in fact, contain starstone. Many of the largest pieces couldn't be lifted from the ocean floor - the largest, at a half mile wide, would never be able to be moved. At least, not without some means of breaking it up into smaller pieces.

Pleased with the news, the queen spent her day making preparations for the escorts that would be required to return the starstone to the palace. It was an extremely valuable material - bandit groups that would normally never consider attacking a royal caravan would certainly do so if the prize was even a little bit of the rare mineral.

She also began the process of determining how they might break up the larger meteorites for harvest as well. It would almost certainly require magic, and a significant amount of time. The starstone collected from the smaller rocks would keep them well supplied until they could determine how best to continue to harvest.

 

[JadeKnight]

The meteorite that T'rek had remained largely intact through it's journey to the planet, but the journet also took it's toll on the rocks around the cavern entrance. The expansion and shrinking from the ice build-up, sub-zero temperatures of space, freezing, thawing, and refreezing as it passed multiple times around countless number of suns, re-entry heat and the cooling of the ocean, the rocks in that area had become brittle.

T'rek awoke in darkness, much the same time the Queen and her royal caravan arrived at the site high above the dragon's current home. His red eyes open slowly, penetrating the darkness. He could see easily in the darkness, noting the two foot deep pool of water around his massive bulk. He measured twenty feet long from the tip of his tail to his muzzle. His wingspan measured that as well, but his wings were folded tight against his body. He took a little bit to examine the cavern carefully, moving along slowly towards the front of the cave. The tilt of the large meteor made it so that he had to climb downwards along the rocks, stopped five feet from the opening by the water.

He snorted for a moment, diving into the water. He stopped when his snout touched the sandy bottom, putting his front claws on the ocean floor. Feeling around the edges for a few moments, he foundt he could dig around, but not enough to go very deep. Coming back up for air, he sat down on the ocean floor, the water barely covering a quarter of him. He was trapped, and he wasn't sure how long he would be able to survive in the cavern. On a whim, he rammed his shoulder into the rocks on his right side. Dust showered him as a few of the rocks shifted, but water also began trickling in. Growling at the thought of being drowned, he reached over, claws digging into the rock face. He was able to pull away a large boulder, tossing it up into the cavern. The trickle became a stream as more water came in.

He used his massive strength to claw and beat into the rock, chunks and dust flying. The water began pouring in and the same time, threatening him more. When the water was up to his neck, he was almost through, but he didn't know that. With a frustrated roar, he breathed in large amount of air before releasing a massive blast of ice into the collapsing rock wall. After the release, he bum-rushed the now ice-encased wall. The force of impact was enough to shatter the ice and rock wall, dumping him into the sea.

Disoriented for a moment, he felt around the water with his claws. When his back claws touched the ocean floor, he used it as a spring board to go upwards. He was clear of the mud and dirt swirling, moving quickly towards the surface. He soon spotted what he thought were very large logs, but they were the boats of the retrieval fleet. He angled for the largest one, the queen's ship.

He moved swiftly, his claws using the side of the ship to propel himself from the warm waters. The force of his grappling crunched the wood beneath them, tearing large holes into the ship. He was soon on top of the ship, sitting on his hindquarters. The sun glittered on the jewels embedded in his body, absorbing the life-giving energy. He roared loudly as took in the new scenery, spreading his wings wide.

http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/20800000/White-jewels-Dragon-dragons-20857646-800-1114.jpg

 

[slut_in_white]

There was a great deal of chaos, of screaming and terror when the dragon exploded out of the water. The entire ship tilted violently, threatening to topple it over. The creature landed on the ship, breaking much of the deck into tiny splinters.

The queen stumbled out of her cabin to stare, agape at the creature. She had never seen anything like it in her life. She turned to her soldiers. "Steady! Arm yourselves!" she ordered, taking up a longbow. Her soldiers drew back their bows, arrows trained on the monster. She gave the order, the arrows loosed, and... bounced easily off the dragon's hide. She stared in utter shock. What were they going to do now?

 

[JadeKnight]

T'rek snorted for a moment as he looked down on the strange creatures scrambling over the deck of the strangely formed log. The wildly shifting boat caused him to shift his body to compensate his weight as the queen came out. He pulled up to his full height, watching their actions. He didn't move as the arrows flew at him, bouncing off of him. He snorted for a moment and then opened his mouth wide. The jewels on his body glowed brightly for a moment before he released a multitude of lightning at the groups, striking at all the soldiers.

As the smell of burnt flesh and wood rose into the air, T'rek doubled his height and weight where he sat. With a loud roar he leapt down on the deck, his right front talons knocking down the queen beneath them. He didn't crunch her, just pinned her against the planks. He peered down at her for a moment, sniffing at her. It was only a matter of moments before the boat was sunk, water cascading towards them as the dragon studied the Queen. His wings spread wide for a moment as his talons closed around the queen and wooden planks, grasping her tightly without hurting her. With a quick downward stroke of his wings, they were airborne.

Spotting the landmass, he turned their direction towards land, searching for a new place to nest.