Snow Demon

It had been a long, treacherous journey thus far into the wilds in search of the peculiar stone tablet.

 

Magnus' spy network had long since returned with the strange information on its surface, and with his companions by his side, he'd decided to go try and fetch it himself. He'd nothing better to do at  home, in his manor, and the political dance had once again become so boring that he had decided enough was enough - an adventure was needed to clear his head.

 

The T'terre was used to attempts on his life; That was a natural thing that came with the chore that was running a township with a less then soft hand, but he was used to it, and even expected it. When others were nice to him, he assumed it was a lie and more often then not, his servants would come to him and inform him one of his food tasters had died from a rare and unknown poison, likely derivative of some Jungle poison. 

 

He'd had a man hold what seemed to be a gun to his beak and threaten to pry it off his face if he made a move, only for Mavis to slither onto the scene and use her barbed, vicious tentacles to sting them to death. 

 

He'd had drones with lasers, fires set by possessed furniture, drugged darts that hit his wall rather then his wing thankfully, and an all out siege, though that was when he was a child and his father settled the rioting peasants fairly quickly with his own special weapons. 

 

Up until now, though - those incidents were man made, one could say. Weather the planner or the executioner were man or beast had not mattered, the end result was the same. But now? Even nature itself seemed to want him dead. 

 

Magnus had laughed without pity or emotion to his companions as he felt the first draughts of snow and ice drift from the heavens and down onto his feathers and travelling cloak, it making his vision through  his spectacles blur and dim. 

 

"Wonderous..." he mumbled under his breath, making Glasswing, Mavis and Kittiwake raise their heads curiously. 

 

'There is nothing particularly wonderous about the freezing snow, Master' Mavis rumbled in his head, her thoughts about as spikey as her crest was.

 

'Now now, there's no need for such downtrodden attitudes' he sent straight back. 

 

Kittiwake tilted his head, but spoke no words of comfort or confusion. Not seeming to be able to speak, Magnus had worked out over many a job. Curious how a creature of so little human traits could understand him without much worry or complaint. 

 

He didn't seem to understand dragons, though. So the wonders ebbed there. He'd provided an excellent lightsource in the storm to come though, with his goggles and his lantern. The gale force winds didn't allow him flight to guide their way, but his light... it was perfect. 

 

Mavis had to keep one of her many tentacles wrapped around Glasswing to keep him blowing away entirely, having mostly hidden within Magnus' shadow to help her move along the frigid ground with  her limited speed and even further limited mobility on land in general. With two hooved forelegs and the back end of an octopus, it didn't help much in movement. What she lacked in it though, she made up with in potent, deadly venoms which where usually administered by spitting, or if she managed to grab her victim in a tentacle. 

 

Hidden in the middle of her many suckers were small, needle like barbs that could easily inject prey into paralysis, or death, if she wanted it to be so. Magnus never carried antidotes on him, either. His dragons were trained to the letter, and he knew they would never hit him. Accidentally or otherwise. 

 

She had come with them because of her ability to weed out danger near water, which is where they had intended to be going, but with this storm...? It was near impossible. 

 

 

Kittiwake's lantern didn't seem to just guide, however. It also lured. 

 

Taking shelter was the only option for them after a while, and as they sat and tried to warm up, a sudden interruption. A huffing noise, piercing the wailing wind and snow. 

 

Within the storm, a shadow loomed, and while Magnus at first thought it to be the strange polar bear they had encountered a while back, he was proven decidedly wrong as, as if catching their scent somehow, it hauled its massive body over to them in an instant. 

 

. "Oh, good. I hear lunch!" he rumbled, stamping out the lantern, who's crackle had somehow alerted it, and sending the group into darkness. 

 

"Brace!" Magnus commanded back. 

 

The sounds that echoed afterwards was a battle for life - the dragons rite to take theirs, and the groups right to change their fate with tooth, claw and sword.