Chapter Text
Sonnet.
Upon opening his eyes, the first thing he knew was the sensation of falling. To his left, a blinding light seemed to hover in the sky… Until it didn’t, until he realized that the light was falling too. But it wasn’t falling with him, no— it veered away, and the light that should have been burning at his eyes soon faded. Somewhere in the near distance, a crash sounded throughout the sky. His eyes adjusted, and all he could see was… darkness.
A deep blue sky, faint stars and a quickly fading white palace of glamorous proportion. Glowing softly in the surrounding darkness, with two palace wings and a grand looking central portion. It was beautiful… and then it was gone. Smoke billowed down from the sky, somehow, until that soon vanished as well. It was then that he became aware of his own body, and he raised two shaking limbs as he fell. Golden flesh faded into browns and blacks, until only the very ends were still that brilliant shade. Something brown whipped in the winds of his fall, falling into his eyes and sticking to his mouth. Soft, yet so odd.
The clothing he wore was far brighter than the darkness surrounding the world, a shade of pale… white. Yes, that was it. It whipped in the wind as well, the material seemingly flimsy enough that it offered no resistance in the face of the force of his descent.
Descent… Why was he falling? The smoke, that brilliant ball of light, that palace… The being frowned, shutting his watering eyes and doing his best to bury his face in those hands of his. What… who was he?
Suddenly, something seemed to burst through the clouds. A… pillar of sorts, made from uncut stone and littered with growth. Somehow, the man thought, there was a beauty to it. But the pillar had to come from somewhere, he realized, and that somewhere was the ground that he was about to kill himself on. Oh, Principles… No, no, he couldn’t die! Something had to catch him, he had to catch himself, there had to be a way to—
A harsh impact slammed through his back, traveling through his bones and sending him into darkness. The last thing he heard was some sort of roar, and a rumble in his own throat.
~
Something was poking him.
The dragon jumped awake, eyes hardly even open, and the first thing he was greeted with was a high pitched scream. He blinked himself awake, blurry vision adjusting to the… stone platform he seemed to be on. A mountain, Morax, some portion of his mind seemed to supply. Morax? The dragon frowned, causing another scream coming from somewhere to his right. Hm. His name, perhaps. Good to know.
Morax turned, finally coming face to face with whatever little rodent was screaming its lungs out. The rodent, as he found, was awfully bald— nothing but a little tuft of fur on its head— and dressed in… some sort of brown furs, or something of the like. It looked at him with oddly wide eyes, and raised its little paws in front of it. It was shaking as well— how curious, Morax didn’t feel cold in the slightest. Perhaps there was a breeze that would come around now and again, but it wasn’t cold . Well, maybe it was for the bald rodent. That would make sense.
Then, a cry came from somewhere below, and another bald rodent appeared! Wow , Morax thought to himself, what kind of colony have I awoken in? Unfortunately, he wasn’t given much time to ponder this before the larger rodent pointed a sharp looking stick at him. With a huff, Morax got up and stretched, groaning as relief ran throughout his body and unused muscles. The rodents didn’t seem to like this, as the larger one shouted something and lifted its trembling paw up even higher to try to point the stick… better?
Morax huffed and whipped his tail just so, knocking the stick out of the rodent’s reach. The smaller one screamed. Why hadn’t they left yet? If they were so set on dramatics, maybe they shouldn’t have disturbed him. Then they wouldn’t have lost their stick. As the dragon lost himself in his own thoughts, the larger rodent did something… odd. It had something wrapped around its neck— some sort of twine, with a little chunk of something golden at its chest. It took this strange, dangling object off, and threw it to Morax’s feet. In response, he tilted his head, before bending down to investigate the item. As he preoccupied himself with inspecting this offering, the rodents ran back.
At least, he thought they had. Now seemingly free of disturbances, Morax lay back down, curling up and observing this little golden ball. He quite liked it, he found— it had no particular smell that irritated his nostrils, and it was shaped in an uneven, natural way. Under the faint light that the sky provided, and from the faint light radiating from his own being, it glimmered. Even more so, the composition of it somehow felt harmonious to his soul, to the blood running through his veins. He let out a pleased huff, picking up the twine with his teeth and pulling it closer to himself. If it was thrown at him, it was surely his, yes? ‘
Something in the bushes scrambled away, but Morax paid it no mind. Perhaps he would go back to sleep, he was still quite tired…
~
The next time he awoke, there was another rodent there. It was just standing at the edge of his platform, trembling like the other ones were and holding something semi-circular in its paws. Principles, Morax was beginning to believe that this species just trembled as a natural feature— there was no way his mountain was that cold. Regardless, once it noticed that he was awake, the rodent moved towards him on equally trembling legs. Twenty feet or so away from him, it stopped, and set down the object.
Morax huffed, getting up and stretching before strolling towards the object, before its scent caught on the wind. He gave it a cautionary sniff, and could have sworn that it smelled good. He angled his head lower, giving the thing a sniff directly— and oh, yes. Meat, he recognized. The object it was offered in was not very big so there was not much meat to begin with, but Morax scarfed it down anyway. The rodent was still there, watching, and something leaked from its eyes. Morax huffed and gestured with his tail, trying to get the message of leave my mountain across to the presumably less intelligent creature.
It seemed that it wasn’t as stupid as it seemed, because it stepped back— but not before it dug in a pouch hanging off of its attire, and threw whatever it had taken out at him.
The dragon sighed as it ran away immediately after, and once he was sure it wouldn’t come back to annoy him further, he turned to investigate exactly what had been thrown at him today. It was a curious blue-green stone which seemed to give off a smidge of its own light. It was rough like the gold that had been tossed at him before, and yet Morax felt some odd sort of feeling about it anyway. It was a little bit… fuzzy , paired with a strange warmth. He felt the need to move, and move he did. His tail swished side to side and up and down, and doing so seemed to increase the feelings in his chest tenfold. He sped up the movement. It felt… good. He liked it.
A pleased hum erupted from his throat, and he found that such a thing also affected whatever that odd, squishy feeling in his chest was. Then, for the first time, Morax turned to face the east and observed… near him were more mountains, of varying size and height. A glimmering ocean stretched as far as the eye could see in a few directions, and a lush, green mountain broke through the earth in the distance. Turning north, he saw verdant plains of grass and flowers, more mountains, and flowing rivers. If he turned even further, a vast desert stretched across the land somewhere beyond the imaginary border of this mountainous region. Quite the area… hm.
After a bit of pondering, Morax came to the conclusion that he was fine right here, on his mountain. He would have to go out hunting later, see exactly what kind of game this place offered— the sliver of meat the rodents offered him was good, of course, but it would in no way last him for even a few hours. But oh, his mind supplied, such a hunting trip would also be beneficial to get a lay of the land. And yes, it did seem to be a good suggestion… If Morax could get a scope of even the closely surrounding area, surely he could have some sort of advantage over who or what ever dared trespass on his newly acquired territory. Yes, yes, he liked this plan. He’d do a fly-over of the few miles surrounding this mountain, and then find a meal or two. So, the dragon got up again, stretched, and took off.
~
Some time later, Morax descended back upon his mountain, thankfully without any little bald creatures waiting to harass him. He unceremoniously dumped the carcass of some strange beast onto the stone, deciding that he would save it for whenever he next felt hungry. It had quite the impressive amount of meat on its bones, so surely it would last him another feeding or two. With a content huff, the now well-fed dragon pondered whether or not he should do something about his rodent problem… eh. They brought him things and didn’t otherwise seem to come up onto his part of the mountain, eradicating them would do almost nothing. What Morax had noticed about them that piqued his intrigue were their tools. The tools they used to chip away at his mountain, to be precise. They seemed to be hunting for metal, judging by the way they’d jump up and run to gather their rodent friends whenever they found some. Interesting.
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, Morax settled back down and curled around his small pile of trinkets, and felt himself start to drift off. He knew somehow that he had no particular need for sleep, and yet there wasn’t much else to do anyway. So, with a huff, he let himself be taken by sweet darkness once more.
~
He was sighing practically every time he awoke, what with how often the little rodents seemed to come up here and bother him. Today, he opened his eyes to see a whole pack of them, much to his vague disgust. The one in front, adorned with more fancy things than the others, was holding a square of… something. He squinted. It seemed to be a similar material to what they all wore, but something about it seemed to be higher quality. The first rodent stepped up— without trembling, mind you— and placed it a few feet in front of Morax, seemingly waiting for the creature to react.
And react he did— with a coordinated strike of his tail, he sent the offering flying straight off the side of the mountain.
The rodent’s eyes widened, and it barked something at one of the others, who quickly scurried off. The other members of the pack shuffled a bit, quietly communicating with each other, as if he couldn’t still hear them. Oh well, not that it mattered much. Unfortunately, his reaction didn’t seem to deter that first little critter, because it quickly offered him another one of those blue rocks. Morax felt his tail begin to stir again, swishing from side to side as he contentedly moved the rock into his pile. The rodent then bared its teeth, causing Morax to suddenly still and a low growl to emanate from his throat.
Two of the rodents ran, and yet the first remained, its pack now noticeably smaller. A brave one, Morax had to note. It stopped baring its teeth, and slid over some sort of vessel made of gold. The material was something Morax liked, yes, but he couldn’t possibly enjoy it when it was… in this shape. He didn’t knock it off of the mountain, but gave the first rodent an unimpressed gaze. Luckily, this seemed to be enough for it to understand that this object was not welcome. It took it back, quietly communicating with the few others that remained. Then, with a perplexed look on its little face, it offered him a rock. Granite, his mind supplied, with bits of quartz lodged into it. Oh, yes, Morax liked this one.
Morax and the rodent played this game for a little while, and by the time it finally seemed to run out of items, Morax’s pile was a bit bigger. It consisted mostly of uncut stones and gems, though he had perhaps been convinced to take a large bowl, since the rodents were also adamant to offer him some of their food. Not that he particularly minded, of course— the bald critters knew how to prepare meat well. And then, the rodent slowly stepped closer. And closer, and closer… before lifting up a paw and reaching it towards the direction of Morax’s snout.
The rodent fled the second he was received with a roar.
~
For a while, this became routine. The rodents would scurry on up his mountain, bringing gifts of stones, food, and whatever else they decided they needed to try to give him— almost never to any success, given his clear preference towards the stones and gems. At one point, he’d had to relocate himself to a cave due to his prompt and unfortunate discovery of rain, but he decided that he liked it better anyway. He couldn’t see the sky from inside, but he felt… warm. He felt at home, like this was exactly where he belonged. He couldn’t exactly place it.
That aside, he’d ended up building a nest of sorts, reluctantly taking the cloth offered by the little creatures and slicing the furs off of some of his catches to serve as padding. A good amount of his collected stones and gems were scattered around the edges, serving as a nice border to the nest. The cave system he had chosen was the perfect size, and even had a small spring which served wonderfully as drinking water. All in all, he really only had to leave his cave to catch food, or perhaps stretch.
However, he had his own curiosity to attend to as well. Morax awoke once with a desire to see exactly where the rodents were coming from— he’d only really done fly-overs of it, perhaps it would be nice to see those little artificial shelters up close. So, he departed his cave, and took the short journey down to the settlement.
Unfortunately, the rodents started shouting and pointing their sticks at him. He huffed— hadn’t they gotten over this yet? All of their little offerings seemed to imply that they wanted him here, or something of the like. Unimpressed, Morax stood his ground, merely giving the little creatures a disappointed look. Before he knew it, the pack parted to let through a larger looking rodent, dragging a smaller, more familiar one by his side. The one that had been scaling his mountain and bringing gifts, to be precise. And now that he had a look at it… it was smaller than most of the other rodents surrounding it, and didn’t have any fur around its mouth either. Not full grown, perhaps?
Regardless of the rodent’s maturity, it was tossed into the center right to Morax’s feet. He eyed the sticks being pointed at him, before deciding that they were hardly sharp enough to pierce his hide anyway. Let the rodents try— if they harmed him, he would have the earth swallow their little settlement whole. Daring to take his eyes off of the little creatures, he lowered his head to sniff at the… offering? He wasn’t quite sure what exactly this rodent in particular was meant to do for him, especially not when it was shaking so much that one could almost believe that it was freezing. He gave it a nudge, causing its eyes to start leaking water or something of the like.
With a huff, he looked back up, meeting eyes with the larger critter that had tossed this one at him. They were draped in the same materials and colors… perhaps a clan marking of some kind? Yes, perhaps that was it. Well, since he had no need of a pet rodent, returning it to the one who had unceremoniously “given” it in the first place seemed to be the most logical action. Thus, he leaned back down, pushing at it until it seemed to get the memo and stand on two shaking legs. Principles, Morax had no idea how these things managed to not only stand, but also run on those two flimsy looking limbs. Regardless, with another nudge it stumbled away, back into the arms of the one that had pushed it to him in the first place.
Apparently, this was a good thing. The bigger rodent locked eyes with him, and slowly bobbled its head up and down. Then it shouted a few things at its packmates, and every stick pointed at him was lowered as parts of the group began to disperse. The big rodent kept shouting things, before it… collapsed? Oh, no, it was fine. It sat on its knees and held its paws together, seeming to try to address him directly with its communication. Before he knew it, more of them were falling to their knees in the same way, even the rodent he’d sent back to them. Oh for Celestia’s sake— were they his pets now? Was that what this meant? He didn’t want them! Them coming up his mountain was enough already, he didn’t want to… feed them, or whatever came along with owning these kinds of creatures!
No. He was going to put a stop to this before it escalated any further.
With one elegant and powerful move he launched himself into the air, beelining to his cave and to his nest, where the rodents had learned that he was not to be bothered. He needed to relax, and to… think about what had just happened to him. Yes, that would help. Upon tumbling back into the comfort of his home, he felt his tail begin to switch again. It seemed to like doing that, swishing around and tapping against the floor— or was it him that enjoyed it? The act of such movement seemed to bring some type of inexplicable euphoria… Oh well.
Curling back up, he propped his head up on a raised bit of padding, and began to think to himself. Contrary to what he’d seen with other creatures, these rodents in particular seemed… advanced, almost. He couldn’t sense any elemental energy coming from them that wasn’t the base limit for life, nor did they seem to wield it due to their affinity for sticks of varying sharpness. What was worse was that there were more of them, scattered throughout the lands in their little settlements of plants, mud, and a few poorly placed stones. From a bit of watching he had done, he’d come to the conclusion that they were also intelligent, using traps and ambushes to hunt as opposed to mindless chasing. Based on the offerings they gave him, they also seemed capable of crafting… much to think about.
~
His adventure was interrupted by a loud blare from the direction of his mountain.
Morax had taken some time to wander through the surrounding areas again, and during his time doing so had learned about a great deal of… other gods . There was one that resided to his east, likely a few in the salty waters of the ocean to his west, and most certainly many who had lay claim to northern territories. The south seemed comparatively untouched— perhaps space for his own future expansion. Of course, that would only be if another didn’t get to it first. He’d passed an ongoing battle on one of his loops— a clash of Dendro and Cryo to the northwest, with seemingly devastating consequences. Meh. He’d continued on his way, not particularly inspired to join in. It wasn’t his territory after all, and thus not his problem.
He’d stopped to eat for a bit and to attempt (only to some avail) to groom his mane, before he was rudely interrupted by a harsh sound coming from the south and ringing painfully in his sensitive ears. Well, he thought to himself, someone’s losing their territory.
Golden eyes widened with the weight of realization.
Oh, that was his territory!
To say he rocketed back would be an understatement. He was not a dragon built for speed— his main ability seemed to lie in pure, brutal strength— but he made it there perhaps faster than most would. His fears were alleviated upon entering familiar turf and not sensing any sort of invading god nor lesser deity, but the clashing of weapons did not evade him. It seemed that his rodents were being attacked by another, rival group— and while he could of course stand back and let these lesser conflicts take their course, something urged him against it. Perhaps it was because he’d grown fond of their offerings, or perhaps because every god’s domain he could see had a settlement of these little creatures along with it. Regardless of the reason, Morax leapt off of the peak that he’d stopped on and darted towards the battle.
Upon arrival, the first thing he smelled was smoke. Some of those flimsy little shelters were burning, it seemed, at the hands of the invaders. They brought with them stone blades, quite unlike the wooden staffs that his… settlers seemed to use. No matter, stone was but a plaything to him.
Morax made a smooth landing onto a jagged pillar of stone erupting from the base of his mountain. Some of the little enemies seemed to take notice of him then, and a few even bolted right then and there. He huffed to himself, not impressed with their utter lack of honor. Then, without hesitation, he let out a roar of almost devastating proportions, causing the earth beneath them to shake and many of the little creatures on both sides to grasp their ears and scream. Admittedly, that wasn’t his intent. Regardless, as the echoing sound finally came to a stop, the dragon simply closed his eyes.
What came next was perhaps what sealed his fate.
In all of his time here Morax had learned a few things about himself, perhaps the most prominent one being that the earth would respond to his every command.
And thus, with a mere thought from him, it split open.
The ground rumbled with the sheer force of it as it was torn into bits, opening up deep chasms into the earth with every quake. By now, the fools that dared to trespass onto his land had begun running, and yet many of them were swallowed up by the stone and soil which hungered for blood. That which had not been split open continued to quake, and the rumbling echoed around the mountains and plains at a devastating volume.
It was… oddly beautiful, Morax found himself noting. Not the bloodshed nor the death, no— though, there was a certain pride to be had from his clear victory. No, the sheer strength that the earth wielded in that moment only made the dragon deity fall in love with it more. He itched to use his abilities further, itched to discover exactly what power lay at the tips of his claws, but he refrained. Those attacking his rodents were dead or good as it, and the few that had escaped carried with them an inescapable fear and a warning. Good. Let them have it, he thought. Perhaps he wouldn’t be disturbed again.
~
Once again, many moon-cycles later, Morax awoke to something poking him.