=- Children of Marloch -=

=- Prologue -=

The moon shone brightly above the island. The waves lapped gently on the shores of the beach, and a little orange crab snapped backwards. The golden decor of the multi-storied palace sparkled in the starlight.

Nobody was out. Curfew was far passed. On the top of the mountain, a massive dark abyss loomed in the nighttime. You almost couldn't tell where the sky ended and where the abyss began in the pitch-black darkness.

A little barn owl on top of a small straw hut hooted, then flew away in fright as the door below its talons slammed and shook the roof.

A small, green, wingless dragonet winced. Webbed spines ran down her back. She slowly tiptoed across the grass, then started scampering as she got farther away from the house. Her toes were tiny, and her shoulders were her wings would have been were shiny and smooth, maybe the slightest bit scarred. 

She gasped and panted. Running was difficult when she was so weak. The outline of her bones stuck out from her ribs, and her legs were slim.

She blinked at a house ahead of her periphreal, and trotted towards its rickety log walls. She knocked on one rhythmically, and it got pulled back.

A wingless, ruby red dragonet around the same age crawled out of the hole made by the log. She was equally as skinny and malnourished. A large black stone was tethered to her back by a rope. It was smooth, and she looked strained as she struggled to hold herself up under its weight. 

 "Cmon", the green dragonet mouthed. The red dragonet paused and elbowed the log back into place. She would nod, and the two would trot behind her hut. A wrecked dirt trail lay dug in the ground, and they both padded on the trail.

The red dragonet faltered, her legs buckling under the weight of the stone. She fell to into the dirt, a small cloud of dust exploding from under her feet. The green dragonet rushed to help her up, and the red dragonet's lips curled into a smile.

The two trekked up the trail to a stone wall. The green dragonet put her toes into the holes in the wall, and she climbed up the wall. Her toes perched on the top, and she leaned over and pulled the red dragonet up. 

The red dragonet climbed down carefully, and the green dragonet jumped off. Grass stains covered her claws, which were scratched by the stone. The red dragonet in front of her blinked, and tapped her shoulder, and the green dragonet looked forward.

In front of them lay a huge hole in the earth, maybe at least two miles wide. It was like a tear in a book. Perfectly smooth, until a ragged piece of paper juts down into the book, ruined. The sides of the abyss were spiraled, creating a rocky, grassy path. Occasionally, there were breaks in the path. Trees were scattered, leaves falling into the abyss. However, if you looked down, you couldn't see the bottom. It was night, but even in the dark, the blackness could not be mistaken for a shadow. It was continuous darkness, and the shadows were clearer then ocean waves.

The green dragonet turned toward the red dragonet, and began to untie the ropes binding the obsidian-black stone to her back. Her callused claws worked as the rope became looser, and as it came free, the stone cluttered to the ground. 

She clawed at the stone, and it didn't budge. She leaned down, and pushed the stone forward with her forehead. It scooted across the ground. When it was at the very edge of the cliff, she gave it a fierce budge and it launched off the cliff. It barely dodged the spiraling path and went straight into the darkness.

Both dragonets scampered forward and listened. They couldn't see the stone falling, nor could they hear it. They waited.

 And waited.

After twenty minutes it was quiet as it was before, and nothing could be heard.

In the silence, the loud noise of a door slamming made the dragonets jump, and out of fear that it was a noble, they ran back and clawed their way up the rock wall. As fast as they could run, they dashed back to their own huts, leaving the piece of rope that held the still-falling stone behind.