Amid the brutal devastated landscape of Zar'Noosh, stood a
large craggy bluff. At one time the entire area around the
precipice had been a thick lush jungle. Yet now only broken
bits of the once majestic trees poked out of the dry and cracked
ground. Scattered throughout it all were bleached white animal
bones and human skeletons.
Standing atop the cliff, taking in the devastated land
below, was a woman. She wore a long black open cloak that
exposed her revealing clothes underneath. Each bit showed that
the woman was physically fit, strikingly beautiful, and appeared
to be in the prime of her life. Her long black hair blew freely
about in the dry breeze exposing her stern focused face.
Yet despite her human beauty, there were a few odd bits
about her. For example, her focused eyes were not human, but
golden lizard eyes. Emerging from her temples were two long
smooth black horns. Their sharp tips were coated in gold.
Sprouting from her back were two great folded black dragon
wings. While poking out of her rear was a long scaled tapered
tail. It languidly swung back and forth while she stared. Even
her exposed feet were not human, but three toed dragon paws.
If the woman appeared to be mostly human, standing beside
her were two male human shaped dragons. They did little to
cover their lizard bodies. Each had a dragon shaped head, large
bat like wings, long tails, plus fingers and toes that were
tipped with sharp black claws.
"My lady, what would you like to do with them," questioned
the being to her right.
"Nothing yet Xaldar. I want to see where they go," softly
spoke the woman. She flicked a hand causing a small circle to
appear before her. Within it appeared a much closer view of the
two humans slowly making their way through the devastation.
"They appear to be patrolling," added the other male.
"I can see that Dengal."
"Sorry my lady," bowed the second being.
"How's our troop strength," questioned the woman as she
turned to regard Xaldar.
"Decent my Lady Caistine. That last attempt to breach
Castle Miire's walls had been costly. General Xor might have
made it if it had not been for Ianril."
"Then we will induct those two. Afterword form a soldier
raiding party," order the woman.
"Your will shall be done my lady," deeply bowed Xaldar.
Suddenly both dragon beings leaped off the cliff, spread their
great wings, and flapped away from Caistine. She watched from
afar as the two worked their way towards the two humans.
While waiting, Caistine pondered the endless global war she
waged against her brother Ianril. She wished, for the countless
time, that her assassination attempt against her brother had
worked. During that time Caistine murdered her father in what
looked like an accident. After that she then poisoned her
oldest brother who was next in line. However Ianril seemed too
slippery to destroy. Especially as he was an honest white
wizard. Not someone like her who was versed in dark draconic
magic.
After her oldest brother's death, she ascended the throne,
and the traditionalists flocked to her side. Some were loyal to
her, yet most were pledged to the throne she sat on. Afterword
there was a large segment of the kingdom who was incensed at how
she came to power.
At the beginning that group had no leader to rally around
until Ianril reappeared. At first Caistine thought she had
killed him when she ascended the throne. However he had
survived and pledged to revenge their father's death. All those
disaffected by her actions flocked to him.
At first the war had been mostly conventional between vast
armies of soldiers, nobles, and archers. Each was supported by
numerous spell casters. Within a few years, the conflict drew
in surrounding countries. Before long a stalemate began to form
between the two factions.
After a while Caistine decided she needed more power. At
first she made a pact with the wild dragons. These vast lizard
beings joined her side and wrecked havoc with Ianril's forces.
Before long it looked like her brother was going to be defeated.
However during one battle, a few dissatisfied dragons chose to
switch sides resulting in a stalemate again.
Caistine chose to cast a powerful spell over all her
dragons that forced them to be loyal only to her. Next She
realized she needed access to more power. First it was with
talismans and such. Then she learned how to imbibe the dragon's
inherent magical pool within her. She began to grow numerous
dragon aspects as she gained more power.
Then Caistine focused on her own people. At the beginning
she thought they were loyal to her. Yet they began defecting to
the other side when they saw how far she was willing to go to
defeat her brother.
Like the dragons, Caistine cast a different spell over all
her subjects. They would die a horrible death if they tried to
defect. At first that seemed enough. Yet that spell did not
help their survival rate on the battlefield. That was when she
began transforming them into half-dragons like Xaldar and
Dengal. Before long there were no more humans loyal to her,
just all dragon beings.
With her enhanced troops and dragons, Caistine nearly
overwhelmed and decimated many strongholds. Plus those humans
that were not killed she transformed into her own troops. It
seemed like she had the edge until Ianril countered with his own
magic.
Yet her remembrances were interrupted by the return of the
two half-dragons. Each held a squirming human captive. Seeing
Caistine, both men began screaming in horror.
"Don't worry my dears, it'll be over soon," cooed Caistine
as she reached out to caress their cheeks. It had been a long
time since she touched another human's skin.
With that she laid her hands on their foreheads. Then she
began chanting something causing both limbs to glow blue.
Immediately each human started shrieking in pain. However an
even larger pink glow came out of their skins. This glow
inhibited her spell stopping what she had been doing.
"Dammit Ianril, why'd you have to cast such a powerful
protection spell over them," she cursed out. With a gesture
from her, both half-dragons twisted their captive's heads
killing them. "I thought that last tweak might've done it."
Years ago Ianril had created a vast magical protection
spell on all the remaining humans. This ward kept Caistine and
her cohorts from transforming his people. Then on top of that
he erected magical barriers over his cities which allowed only
humans inside. Thus none of her half-dragons, or herself, could
enter. Plus those barriers could withstand everything she threw
at them both physical and magical.
Angered that her latest experiment did not work, Caistine
turned away from the cliff. Behind her the two half-dragons
chucked the corpses over the precipice. Finally with a flick of
a wrist, she and her two companions teleported back to her
stronghold. Afterword she began searching through her massive
library for another way around her brother's protection spells.
