Draknor The Web Of Creeta

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The wasteland stretched on, hills of rock and gravel and the ever-present sun. Only the hardiest of plants grew, but the wildlife was even hardier. The wastes were shunned by most travelers who preferred the well-worn ancient roads, and yet there among the barren wastes two figures walked. Both were dracoz: a male and a female.

The first was male: his scales were black except for his throat, chest and underbelly, which were gray. His head, like all dracoz, was that of a dragon with two large horns jutting out from the skull. He was clad only in a dark and ragged loincloth which displayed his muscular physique for all to see. A greatsword with a ruby in the pommel hung from his waist where he had fashioned a crude sword belt. His bare feet were caked in dust as he walked through the hot baked ground, but the dracoz felt no pain thanks to his thick hide. His keen yellow eyes were constantly scanning the horizon for threats, while his tail - ending in a draconic spade - twitched.

The other dracoz was female. Distinguished from male dracoz was her mane of hair, hers being brown in color cascading down her back and over her shoulders. Her scales were a bluish-green, while her eyes a pale green. Her build was more slender than the male's, and she wore only a glittery sarong around her waist and a primitive satchel draped over her right shoulder. She had once had a chest cloth, but she had discarded it long ago. It really wasn't necessary: dracoz did not have nursing glands such as humans did.

The sound of the howling wind and the cry of birds was interrupted as the female spoke.

"Are we still in Agratta, Draknor?" She asked.

Draknor turned his head to regard her. "I think we've left Agratta far behind, Ylla. Good riddance."

Ylla inclined her head. "Too many years of my long life wasted there enslaved to that cad Thurn, and his putrid deity Tolgoroth. I shall not miss that kingdom."

Draknor winced and rubbed a deep wound in his scales that he had received while there. "It was but a short time for me. At least Tolgoroth and Thurn are dead now."

Ylla thumped her tail in response, "Indeed. Now that whole kingdom has fallen into chaos and disarray."

"Yes." Draknor replied. "Which is why we are avoiding the main roads while opportunists fight. We should eventually arrive in a more civilized country."

"More civilized country," Ylla grunted. "I welcome it, though we might not be welcomed so readily. We are dracoz, and our attire certainly doesn't do us any favors. Humans consider our kind savages and barbarians. Truly an irony given all that our civilization achieved." She paused. "Well, before the fall..."

"Hurr, humans are quick to pass judgement by appearance. Best we prepare ourselves for their reception."

Ylla inclined her head as she kept pace behind Draknor as they scrambled over boulders.

"It's not always bad. Remember I was once a governess to a human family. I intend to look them up as soon as I can. Why little Eli has probably grown, humans age so quickly."