"Mmmm, everything seems to be alright here... Nice and healthy." I comment, jotting down some notes on my tablet before giving a smile to my patient. She shuffles about nervously, scales flashing out into the open on occasion before she scratches at her broken horns. She flinches, seeing my expression and her face heats up. A quivering smile.
"Our egg is alright?" she asks as I get to work taking off my measuring equipment. I start to nod and she gets up to hold our child, an affectionate hiss parting her lips. She bounces the deceptively strong object in her arms. Despite knowing this is how wyverns and dragons are, I reach out and put my arm on hers to make it stop.
I never knew my father to bounce my mother about when she was pregnant with me, after all!
My darling growls and one set of claws grips my arm, but, not hard enough to add more scars. Instead, I appeal to her baser instincts and tense the muscles up a little, pumping them up with internal-magic. She whines eagerly and shuffles closer to my bicep. Our egg is placed within my grip and her wings wrap around us like a blanket.
Chuckling quietly, I return the egg back to her, leaving her with a confusing tilt. While I appreciate the gesture, the reason we are up here is to keep an eye on local draconic migrations. Honestly, I am very lucky that my missus happens to be a wyvern. It's certainly an amusing part of the job, learning to wrestle a female and breaking her horns.
Certainly a lot easier than finding a pub or meeting someone if I do say so!
Giving my lover one final rub of affection, I grip one of her broken horns gently and use it to dictate her head's movement. Letting go, I move across the tent and open up my computer's databanks. Punching in a few details, I read through the logs my equipment has picked up on thus far and my brow rises. There's an odd lapse in the data.
A massive blank spot.
"Stay here, will you? I need to go and check something." I tell her and I put on my coat of mail. Slipping on some other items, I open up the magic-rich fabric keeping us safe and seal it back up. Clapping my hands toge/ther, I rub them and blow out just above. This mountain-peak site is certainly both very cold and bitter with how strong the winds are this high.
Finding the chain I need to grab, the thing rattles and the icy rock crunches underfoot. Spotting one of the wyverns that call this place home, I match their gaze the whole walk. It snorts and retreats back into his cave and I smirk a little. Oh, the fun I have when I get back to the institute.
"Alright, so nothing's broken here." I remark, finding the first measuring device. Applying some of my magic to the lock, I bring the machine out of its protective shell. It starts to unfold with twists and hisses until the skeletal thing is upright in its entirety. I run a finger along the metal and 'hmm' in thought as physically everything is fine.
Unlocking the console, I type in the commands I need and a system diagnostic runs across the screen. No arcane software issues either. I reach up and start to pull down on the data-gathering part of the machine, it blares in warning. Clicking my tongue, I type in what I need to lock the machine back up and reapply the lock.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The chain rattles in my grip again and I head up higher and higher, passing similar machines on the way. Giving these idle glances, I head on to the final one I drilled into this narrow mountaintop a few years back. An explosion of movement goes off behind me and a whole flock of wyverns head off somewhere. I frown, a little worried by this behaviour as this is not normal at all.
Putting a hand over my brow to block out the Orbital-Halo's light and some of the ice's reflection, I try to spot what might be the cause. Nothing is out there on the horizon. No dragon is flying close, no war-witches or even a plethora of guild ones. Airship isn't due to pick us up for a couple of weeks as well.
Spotting some green amongst the black rock and white snow, I watch a wyvern in its typical draconic form. The great beast peeks out from its cave and scurries back inside like a scared rodent. Crossing my arms, I take in a deep breath and let my senses try and figure some of it out. There's definitely something off about the air.
"But what? What, what, what, what?" I repeat to myself, going to the main device and unlocking it in a similar manner as I would the smaller ones. Setting up its printer, I type in the commands I need and the paper starts to run out. Grabbing its end before it can pick up some of the ice's moisture, I fold it into my grip. The oddity is in this as well, something is...
I run a quick system diagnostic to make sure nothing is broken.
'Operational, systems within acceptable parameters.' the screen flashes.
"What in the name of the gods is going on, then?" I ask, blinking in confusion as the paper stops coming out. Taking my time, I read it over a dozen times and then a baker's dozen more. This is all saying that there's a massive loss of magic relatively nearby, but, that's physically impossible. Nothing can cause magic to suddenly vanish like this on this scale.
The ground starts to quake and I scrunch up the paper, my hand snapping to the nearby gripping bar. The machine's alarm blares and it locks itself back up automatically. The inexplicable earthquake ends and the skies fill with roars of all kinds. Not just wyverns, elementals too, they all start to run without any of their usual conflict.
Following the way they're running from, I throw up some magic to shove one coming a little too close aside. My firm gaze lightens up and my mouth drops open at the immense shadow in the distance. A giant taller than any mountain rises to its feet. Even the tallest peaks only seem to barely reach their knees.
"What the..." I mutter, watching the nearby mountains suddenly vanish around the giant. It's not heading this way at all, towards us in the direction of the Dragon Coast. No, it's heading north, towards Thrurstradtur-Suhurlodst and everything else on that path. A lumbering catastrophe.
Ice breaks underfoot and I swing through the air, slamming my feet onto the ladder. Going down it with as much assured speed as I can, I leap down onto the part of the mountain the shelter is on. Slipping across the frozen rock, I dig my fingers into it and heave myself back up. Getting my family back into sight, I watch my lover whimper from the bed, the bedroom's bunker-like features itching to go.
"Come here!" she cries, clutching our unborn child close. Offering her a calming gesture, I head to the communication terminal and start to connect it to the institute.
"Dragon Observer Sma-"
"I need you to put in an alert of the highest priority to the Gnomon!" I interrupt the young man on the other end of the call.
"Of course, how many dragons are moving?" he asks, his hands loud enough with the tapping to reach the mic.
"Not dragons, something worse, make sure you tell them." I urge him, ending the call there and setting the shelter into lockdown. Hurrying to my lover, I pull her in close while whatever that giant is wreaks havoc with her instincts.