Tales from the Forgotten Realms: Tarakhin Grimscale

Chapter 2: An Innocuous Past-time

Tarakhin spent his earliest years learning the skills most vital to a dragonborn born of his station – how to kill and how to lead. His father, Adakai, was largely absent from his life, spending his time arbitrating disputes and doling out punishments. There were only 50 dragonborn in Tarakhin's clan, but he was told that long before his people were left stranded on this planet, his family boasted a long and glorious lineage as the hereditary champions of Tiamat. The conjunction of the spheres had happened only 100 years before, leaving creatures native to the planet Eberon suddenly stranded on a mysterious and historied land, known as The Forgotten Realms. The dragonborn were one sect of these creatures, and despite their sentience, they were treated much like the mindless and murderous creatures that were brought with them – hunted to near extinction.

Tarakhin was taught mostly by the elders, Morreki and Abelok. He excelled in all physical combat, from archery to wrestling to sword-fighting, as could be expected for a dragonborn of his size. At the age of only 12 years old, Tarakhin was already fully grown, towering over the heads of the members of his tribe at a height of 6 and a half feet. His red scales sat heavily on his broad frame, and his eyes already shone bright with deep and unflinching ambition. While Tarakhin was physically impressive however, and remarkable in his creativity when it comes to winning a fight, he was not easily taught. He was aggressive, unruly, and incapable of being controlled, so much so that the elders would call him "wild flame", when his father wasn't around. His favourite past time was not regaling the long and cumbersome history of his people, it was hunting and fighting. He could often go missing for days at a time, only to be found much later with the half-eaten carcass of a dire wolf in tow. This troublemaking was the only time his father would ever pay attention to him, as he would be celebrated at the feasts thrown in his honour. The dragonborn way was not sentimentality and love, Tarakhin was taught from an early age that acknowledgement could only ever come from success.

Clan Belrak lived in a rural village, consisting of hastily put up huts barely covered by a scarce treeline, and situated only 20 miles from the grand and historied city of Waterdeep. It was a cold, damp morning when Tarakhin decided to leave, Morreki had already bored him with lectures on responsibility, and Abelok had painstakingly detailed the history of Tarakhin's familial sword, Blackrazor. He ran through the trees, sniffing the brisk air in the hopes of catching an animals scent. He ran and ran, failing to find a meal as a result of his lumbering movements. It was almost eight hours until he came to a clearing in the forest, one of his favourite spots, a large open pond, accentuated by the powerful stream of a large waterfall. Tarakhin walked behind the curtain of falling water, sticking close to the cliff wall from which it plummeted. The freezing cold mist danced across his scales as he finally entered the cave behind the waters edge. He set down his dagger, crossbow and satchel as he gathered sticks to ready a fire. It was going to be a cold night. Tarakhin made a makeshift bed out of leaves and sticks, uncomfortable, but good enough for him, and set the fire going. Now all he needed were some fish.

Tarakhin exited the cave and watched the moon as it shimmered across the edge of the icy pond. He readied himself, seeing a school of fish swimming beneath the surface, and inhaled deeply into the bottom of his diaphragm. His back arched and his frills contracted as a jet of gas shot out from glands in the back of his neck, which was ignited by his forceful outbreath to form a furious jet of flame. The napalm caused the water to bubble and hiss violently, as a school of fish were fried in an instant and a column of steam was rapidly ejected. Tarakhin collected 6 large mackerel and returned to his cave, "this should be enough", he said to himself. He enjoyed the meal, with minimal cooking required, and he settled to bed with a full belly, and the determination that he was going to catch something bigger tomorrow.