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Young Writers Society


16+ Mature Content

In Secrets & Shadow - Part 1.1

by ScarlettFire


Warning: This work has been rated 16+ for mature content.

A/N: This is a subplot/side story to On Stolen Wings told from Elder Shandor's POV and is part of the YWU!

Part 1.1

The echo of giant wings slithered through his head and Shandor sat up abruptly, jostling Zara in the bed beside him. They weren't supposed to be in his chamber, but well. Here they were. Shandor frowned as he sat there, shoving a hand through sweat-soaked hair and then sighed, lowering said hand before he could nick himself on rough, curving horns. He'd had the nightmare again, the one he couldn't remember, and he hated it, even as the echo of beating wings and freezing cold haunted him. What was he even dreaming about to cause such a reaction?

Zara murmured something from beside him and he reached over to brush along their arm reassuringly, sighing softly. "Shandor...?"

"Go back to sleep," he muttered, and shifted to get up just as he felt Iztal's presence flowing into his mind, large and cold and ancient. Iztal.

Beloved, the ancient dragon murmured, his voice like roaring coals and cold mountain air, frost and fire and ancient stones. I feel a...stirring... I do not understand it.

"A stirring?" Shandor murmured and Zara made a soft, sleepy sound. He glanced back and got up, snagging his hooded robe off the end of the bed and pulling it own. What do you mean by that, Iztal? He turned to pull the blankets back off Zara, watching them fondly for a moment before he straightened up and tugged the hood up over his head.

"Mmh... Shandor? Where are you going?"

"There's something I need to go check on. Go back to sleep, Zara."

Shandor, hurry.

Zara frowned at him, and he waved them off, glancing away. They gave him a sleepy, confused look and Shandor shook his head. Now was not the time for lingering. Iztal's tone was insistent, as was his presence in Shandor's mind, all flame and ice and deep, dark earth.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go."

With that, he turned and padded out of his room and out into the hall, circling round towards the back of the mountain where the smaller entrance to the catacombs was located. It wasn't a long walk, but Shandor was so very old and his energy was waning. Iztal's was already fading, but there was not much they could do about that.

The trip down into the catacombs was a slow, quiet decent into secrets and shadows, the only sound Shandor's soft footfalls against worn and aged stone, echoing shallowly through first the Hall of Elders and then the catacombs beneath. Down, down, down until he reached the lowest point, a landing outside the Chamber of the Primal Source.

It was here that Shandor hesitated and he frowned at the shadowy doorway before him. A moment later, a claw-tipped hand landed on his shoulder and Iztal's human form--bronze-grey hair, tanned skin, tired silver eyes--came into view.

"Iztal," he breathed, watching his bonded dragon and old friend. "You should not be up, old friend."

"Your mind is pacing too fast, beloved," the dragon murmured, voice hoarse from disuse. "I could not sleep with such a buzz in my ears."

Shandor flushed a little and glanced away. "My apologies, dear friend. I did not mean to wake you."

Iztal shook his head and cupped his cheek, bringing their foreheads together. "You do not need to apologise, my beloved."

"Iztal..."

For a moment, they stay like that, eyes closed, foreheads pressed together, just basking in each others presence for a moment before the ancient dragon pulled away. Shandor watched him with a sense of growing sorrow and Iztal gave him a small, sad smile in return.

"Do not worry, Shandor," the dragon said, pulling back completely and letting his hand drop. "I'll always be with you, now go. You have magic to do."

Shandor inclines his head and turned to watch his dragon head back to the stables, Iztal's human form melting back into his giant dragon one as he did so. He smiled fondly and then turned back to the looming doorway, taking the handful of steps needed to pass through the short corridor into the Council's Chamber of the Primal Source.

Dark purple eyes lingered over intricate stonework and worn paths, glided portrayals of ancient people and even older places. Locations that no longer existed; sprawling cities, mountain temples, towering ruins, a port city in the middle of a storm, even a sailing ship with three tall masts and billowing sailcloths in vivid white. All of it faded and crumbling slightly.

And there, in the middle of it, practically fused to the pedestal it sat up, was a large dragon egg. It was easily nearly as tall as him, glowing and pulsing in slow, steady beats of red-green-blue and beyond, all colours of the rainbow, bathing the room in its glow and beckoning him forwards with teasing fingers made of light and magic.

A thick layer of dust covered it all, undisturbed and almost peaceful. Shandor took a step down into the chamber and carefully picked his way over to the dais that led up to the Primal Source. He paused in front of it, eyes drifting to first the candles on the left, lit and dripping wax down onto the engraved scales that covered the entire room between murals and portraits, then to the incense sitting on the other side, still smouldering slightly. And then his gaze caught of something in the dust in the middle, between candle and incense, as if just waiting for him to find it.

There was a single word traced into the dust right in front of the egg, and it made a shiver go down Shandor's spine, dread and shock pooling low in his gut because there were no footsteps leading up to it and none leading away, as if something had spirited itself in there and traced the lines into the dust without disturbing anything else.

Run.


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Fri Sep 04, 2020 5:51 am
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Omni wrote a review...



Heya Scar! Happy RevMo! Seems like the perfect time to review this, and since I’m a part of the YWU, I will probably be scrutinizing the plot of this as well mwahahaha

I like how you describe Iztal’s voice in Shandor’s mind. It’s wonderful imagery and elicits such a good and fond kind of sensory reactions from me. I like it!

One of the things that’s interesting about Shandor and Iztal is how they (spoiler for anyone else who’s reading this that is not Scar xD) alone power this protection around Draconis, and they’ve been doing it for so long that, well, it will be the thing that kills them, of course. I was going to say that it’s killing them, but that’s been happening for a very long time. I don’t know exactly how old Iztal is, but I would say that his age is somewhere near, either higher or lower, Tyndros’, and yet Tyndros, for his age, is rather healthy and not anywhere near the same threat level of dying as Iztal is. The huge difference between the two, though, is that Tyndros stayed in hiding for thousands of years, secluded himself, and didn’t use his magic, while Iztal has used so much magic for so long. I wonder how Iztal would think if he and Tyndros interacted. How would things have changed if Tyndros more actively assisted his kind, especially when they were hunted to near extinction?

Dark purple eyes lingered over intricate stonework and worn paths, glided portrayals of ancient people


This description is weird, and honestly doesn’t make too much sense. Are you talking about Shandor’s eyes or Iztal’s eyes? Even then, I think there’s still something missing at the beginning her, explaining whose eyes they are and what is going on here. Is Shandor pouring over some, so that explains the eyes?

So, this egg here, is this the primal source? I don’t actually remember what it is, so I’m asking here. And if it is the Primal Source, does that mean that there’s something, magically at least, still alive in that egg? And of course, it hasn’t been touched in awhile because of the dust that is on in. Speaking of said dust, your description “dust right in front of the egg” is a bit awkward of a way to say that. I would rather change that the right in front to something different, like “on the face of it” or “on the front” or something along those lines.

Overall, this chapter isn’t actually showing us much, and I think it’s… too mysterious? At least, it’s too vague. This feels more like one of those prologues that don’t actually add much to the story and can be left out, because they’re more really trying so hard to be vague and mysterious, and I think a similar thing can be said here. So, what’s actually going on here? Shandor doesn’t know, Iztal doesn’t know, and we don’t know, and instead of anything really being answered, we get a vague, what’s supposed to be terrifying, “Run” at the end. Listen, it’s honestly not that terrifying, haha. And I’m saying this as someone who knows what kind of power this would take to be in this room, or at least the position it takes. I’d like to start a conversation with where you’re thinking of taking this, so I can understand more of your thinking regarding the future of this story and what you were hoping to accomplish here with this chapter. I think I could help you more that way. I honestly can’t say much more until there’s more to this story, because this chapter was pretty short and didn’t offer much except vague mysteries. I hope this helped! And I also hope this review made you freak out a bit or sweat a bit because the BIG BAD OVERLORD OF YWU CAME TO REVIEW THIS or something like that, idk im tired XD. Now your turn to review The Forgotten??




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Tue Sep 01, 2020 4:52 am
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KateHardy wrote a review...



Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! Its me The Prince of Darkness finally here to do that review I promised. Hope it's worth the wait.

First Impression: Wow this was a really good start to a story. This makes me wish I had joined YWS last year so I could've joined On Stolen Wings (*takes a moment to punch nearest wall*) It's really attention grabby and now I can't wait for more of it to come out. (*cough* this means you have to tag me in future chapters *cough*). Anyways lemme get to some nitpicky things now.

Anyway let's get right to it,

The echo of giant wings slithered through his head and Shandor sat up abruptly, jostling Zara in the bed beside him. They weren't supposed to be in his chamber, but well. Here they were. Shandor frowned as he sat there, shoving a hand through sweat-soaked hair and then sighed, lowering said hand before he could nick himself on rough, curving horns. He'd had the nightmare again, the one he couldn't remember, and he hated it, even as the echo of beating wings and freezing cold haunted him. What was he even dreaming about to cause such a reaction?


Lovely start there. Immediately asks a lot of questions, tells us a couple of things about Shandor and tells us he has horns too. A very well done first paragraph.

Beloved, the ancient dragon murmured, his voice like roaring coals and cold mountain air, frost and fire and ancient stones. I feel a...stirring... I do not understand it.


Hmm...dragons always feel things that they don't understand.

"A stirring?" Shandor murmured and Zara made a soft, sleepy sound. He glanced back and got up, snagging his hooded robe off the end of the bed and pulling it own. What do you mean by that, Iztal? He turned to pull the blankets back off Zara, watching them fondly for a moment before he straightened up and tugged the hood up over his head.


I think you meant down there.

Zara frowned at him, and he waved them off, glancing away. They gave him a sleepy, confused look and Shandor shook his head. Now was not the time for lingering. Iztal's tone was insistent, as was his presence in Shandor's mind, all flame and ice and deep, dark earth.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go."


I'm going to take this to mean that whatever this thing is it must be a secret for Shandor to avoid mentioning what he's going to go do.

With that, he turned and padded out of his room and out into the hall, circling round towards the back of the mountain where the smaller entrance to the catacombs was located. It wasn't a long walk, but Shandor was so very old and his energy was waning. Iztal's was already fading, but there was not much they could do about that.


I think that second out isn't really needed there. And it feels a bit repetitive.

It was here that Shandor hesitated and he frowned at the shadowy doorway before him. A moment later, a claw-tipped hand landed on his shoulder and Iztal's human form--bronze-grey hair, tanned skin, tired silver eyes--came into view.


Great description there. (And dragons can be humans in this world...why have I not read this yet)

Shandor inclines his head and turned to watch his dragon head back to the stables, Iztal's human form melting back into his giant dragon one as he did so. He smiled fondly and then turned back to the looming doorway, taking the handful of steps needed to pass through the short corridor into the Council's Chamber of the Primal Source.


I really hope they have an acronym for CCOTPS because that is a mouthful to read multiple times. Once or twice its kinda fun but when you recite that five times you get tired of it.

Dark purple eyes lingered over intricate stonework and worn paths, glided portrayals of ancient people and even older places. Locations that no longer existed; sprawling cities, mountain temples, towering ruins, a port city in the middle of a storm, even a sailing ship with three tall masts and billowing sailcloths in vivid white. All of it faded and crumbling slightly.


More beautiful descriptions that are also very mysterious and I love that sort of thing.

There was a single word traced into the dust right in front of the egg, and it made a shiver go down Shandor's spine, dread and shock pooling low in his gut because there were no footsteps leading up to it and none leading away, as if something had spirited itself in there and traced the lines into the dust without disturbing anything else.

Run.


Okay mixed feeling about this ending. One hand it is an amazing place to end this. Definitely ends on a massive cliffhanger that goes all "dun dun dun" and makes you want to read more but then you've also gotta consider that this is part one of a chapter so its the middle and that would probably spoil the drama of this moment but then I've no idea what goes down in part 2 so we shall see...

Aaaaand that's it for this one.

Overall: Alright that was awesome just going to say that. It builds some really good mystery up and I love the way you go about introducing this world. Its very subtle but leaves you definitely hooked which is nice to see in a world where so many fantasy stories start with a boring history lesson about the world. Your characters seem really good two. From what I could see of this in this very first chapter I can see that they are definitely two very distinct personalities and their conversation seems really natural. You've done an awesome job there as well. So I think I just ended up praising this one aka nothing to point out. Great job and I can't wait to see more!

As always remember to take what you think was helpful and forget the rest.

Stay Safe
Harry




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Mon Aug 31, 2020 11:09 pm
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ChiravianSkies wrote a review...



Heya! It's the chiravian here to review your work today.

So the first thing that I wanted to say is that this piece is an absolute treat. I entered, saw lively description and strong characterization, and was already excited to finish this. As a disclaimer, I haven't read the main story that this is based from, but am highly considering it.

Plot: One thing I noticed is that the plot shows up very organically here. I really enjoy that we're given the time to place ourselves within the story. It's nighttime, Shandor has just woken up from a nightmare, simple things like that. It really helps to situate the reader within the world and gives us just that little bit of time to get comfortable. Then at the end of the first paragraph, things get right with the move-on. I really love how even though we can still see character interactions, Shandor's main goal still creeps at the back of his mind with the help of Iztal. It's a really cool element that means we can learn more about characters without things slowing down! Especially with the cliffhanger about the egg, I was immediately hooked.

As for dialogue, it feels really natural? It strikes me how Iztal's words use a lot less contractions than the main characters, maybe showing that he's not native to the language that all the characters speak? As well, I'm slightly confused about Iztal and Shandor in general. Is it a companionship, or more on the terato side? It admittedly struck a bit of confusion when he called Sandor beloved, considering how charged the word that can be.
As some final words, I really do love this! Your descriptions are strong, the plot immediately hooked me in, and I'm intrigued about the world. The scenery is strong, and I especially appreciate how much time is spent describing more important parts of the story. It makes them harder to skip, leaving a reader confused if they do. I'm sure to be visiting the novel that this is based off too, and would love to be tagged when you post the next parts to this one! Have a good one ^.^

- Chiravianskies out





Opportunity does not knock, it presents itself when you beat down the door.
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