Father of Storms

[dreaming_dragon]

((closed))

Far from the cities of men, in the sultry southern seas is a tall volcanic island called The Father of Storms by the sailors who have encountered it. It is a simple cone, covered with lush jungles that have grown up in the years since the last eruption, and though the mountain occasionally smokes, it has been dormant as long as anyone remembers. There is no safe anchorage near the island, as sharp volcanic rocks and treacherous coral reefs surround it, and many a ship caught by the wild storms of the hot sea wrecked on the island, and left none to tell of it.

The island was the home to a dragon, thousands of years old, like a serpent as big around as a man is tall, with a lion's head and a ram's horns. A thousand years ago, the dragon had broken the law of heaven by loving a mortal woman, and was imprisoned on the island until such time that a mortal woman returned his love. Though unable to leave the island, the dragon was able to call storms to him, from hundreds of miles across the ocean, and he did so whenever he saw a ship sailing by, but in all the centuries of his imprisonment, none of the ships that had wrecked on his island had carried a woman.

The animals and birds of the island served him, and the crabs and fish that lived in the shallows. The birds told of ships sailing near, and the crabs and fish brought him the treasure from those ships that wrecked on the rocks and reefs of his shore line, such that nearly the whole crater of his volcano had become like a palace, filled with gold and silver and all manner precious things.

A frigate bird had brought him news of a fleet sailing past, the mighty ships countless and vast, to his simple bird's eyes. He had reached out with mystic senses, feeling the hulls cleaving the water dozens of leagues away sailing this way, cutting around his island as ships did when they were rushed, or foolish. He felt the massive upsurge of a hurricane a hundred leagues beyond that. He called for the wind, whispering the storm towards him. He had done this thousands of times over the centuries, and some of the time the storms blew the ships against his island.

The next day, the ocean was calm. A boat could have landed on the rocky shore of the island and people could have come, but it was a false calm. The sky was clear, but in the distance, the great black tower of storm clouds could be felt, and by noon mighty waves pounded the shore. Fei Pan perched on the lip of the volcano to feel the wind blowing over his jeweled scales, and his eyes saw ships caught in the grip of the storm. Mortal men, like ants, scurried around the ships, trying to keep them afloat, but in the darkness and rain of the storm, they would only see the island when their ships ran against the rocks. His long tongue flicked out, tasting the lightning on the air.

Perhaps this time, there would be a woman aboard.

 

[Eleiscion]

Melina Aldridge turned her face to the wind, her soft skin as tuned to the weather as any hardened seaman. The clean salt smell carried with it a darkness, an energy that only meant one thing.

"Storm Brewing." but when she said it, she smiled. Nolan, the Second Mate, saw her smile and shook his head. None of the men, up to and including her father the Admiral, understood that girl's love of rough weather. She stayed on deck with the crew for every possible moment, long after her father had ordered her to her quarters. She said that she liked the power in the storm, the wildness.

She took prode in her father's fleet, the warships shining in the warm light of the so far calm day. Some of the men disapproved of her presence, saying a woman had no place using a warship like a pleasure craft, her father doted on her so where he went, so did she, bouncing blonde curls, dimples and all.

It wasn't too long before her prediction came true, even the most traditional of the crew had to admit that she had a nose for the weather. Dark clouds rushed in on fast winds and the fleet began the timeless fight to keep the ships under control, and losing that, afloat.

At some point, Nolan tied a rope to her waist that bound her to the ship. "Can't take chances losing you, miss." For her part Melina tried to stay out of the way. She thrilled at each new wave that drove over the deck, even when it soaked her to the bone. Her laughter pealed out as the deck bucked, it was like a game between her and the storm, how much could she take before fear caught her and drove her to the warmth of her quarters.

She never actually thought the ship would fail first. Her father had never lost a ship and certainly not one she was on. Fear started when she saw the ship to port run aground and the sailors abandon her, praying for the mercy of the sea. Soon another ship of the fleet went under, so fast that surely every soul aboard her was lost. Then the mighty ship shuddered from a mortal wounds and she heard the call to abandon her. She screamed for her father, but it was Nolan who was near enough to cut her free and wish her luck with the storm.

Soon she lost even him, her world becoming the chaos of the cold water, churning with shrapnel and the bodies of those already lost. She would hear screams, but they were far off. For her, it was the oceans strong embrace and every desperate breath. She swam, fighting against the drag of her skirts and struggling to breathe deeply in her stays. She lost track of time, each eternity from one breath to the next. She was so tired, but she still fought, trying not to think of what exactly was brushing against her.

She found a large piece of wood and clung to it, pulling herself almost out of the water and letting the terrible waves take her where they would. She could do nothing more.

The long, terrible night ended gently, the sun warming the sky and showing her that she was quite close to land, an island with the dramatic cone of a volcano, the source of the sharp shallows that claimed her father's fleet was to be her salvation. She slogged her way to shore and up into the trees, finding a place to stay out of the tropical sun before giving in to exhaustion. Someone would find her. She couldn't have been the only one to survive.

 

[dreaming_dragon]

It had been a long night, watching as the mortal woman seemed to do her best to drown, and he sent his allies to do their best. They were only fish, though, and it was their nature to avoid the surface during storms, to avoid humanity, to dive deep and stay safe. Fei Pan watched and twirled in frustration, as he watched from the volcano's peak. She was barely a quarter mile away, a distance he could traverse in seconds, but until she reached the shore, he could not touch her. The fish nudged her towards the surface, again and again, and again and again, her heavy skirts dragged her down. At last, a shark, whose razor sharp scales would have cut her flesh to ribbons, pushed a piece of timber into her arms, and it kept her afloat until she reached the shore.

The dragon leapt into the sky then, dancing in the lightning in his joy, until his scales crackled with electricity, and the black clouds blew past the island. He settled down into his palace before the storm was gone. He did not want her to see him yet. Mortals were so easily frightened when they encountered dragons, and so fragile. The birds told him she was sleeping, and the crabs brought him those parts of the ships cargo that weren't destroyed by the storm and the sea, adding to his treasury. His long body twisted around itself as he thought, and at last he decided.

A fish, nearly the same length as the woman herself, was baked in one of Fei Pan's sighs. A massive golden platter that had come to the island was big enough to hold it, and his birds brought fruits from around the island to decorate the platter. Fei Pan did not trust any of te animals to bring it to her, so he bent the trees and they passed it from branch to branch, setting it at last on the warm sand beside her as she slept. Beside it, rich silk garments, centuries old, that had been in watertight chests, and a single piece of jewelry, that he chose out of the thousands of thousands that were his. A golden bracelet formed in the shape of a dragon, with dozens of tiny emerald scales, and pearls for eyes. These, he let his birds deliver.

He watched from the top of his mountain, far out of the sight of her mortal eyes. He could see her easily, and he watched and waited for her to wake.

 

[Eleiscion]

Her hunger and thirst woke her and she stretched slowly, her body bruised and aching. Her fingers found the silks and she jumped in surprise. Here, in seeming untouched wilderness, there was an entire wardrobe, made for an empress, and laid out for her as if by an invisible servant.

"Hello?" she called. Nothing answered her but far off birds.

A golden dish the size of a table held an impossibly large fish and fruits, laid out with the care of a master chef who had at his fingertips the wonders of all the gardens of the world.

"Is anyone there?" Only the wind in the trees.

Next to these wonders, almost where her hand had been was a jewel that exceeded in beauty anything she had seen before. A perfect miniature dragon, made with thousands of sparkling gem scales and the most inscrutable eyes. She turned it over and over in her hands before sliding it onto her arm. It fit along the back of her hand and her wrist, its coils claiming her almost to her elbow. It fit her perfectly, like it had been made for her, or had it twined around her arm and then clung just a bit tighter? surely, that was her imagination.

"Th-thank you!" she called again and getting nothing in response.

She found a stream that ran with clear, sweet water and stripped off her tattered clothes, stiff with salt, hissing as each cut and abrasion on her bare skin slipped into the cool water and stung as it was cleaned. She dove under, a strong swimmer, letting the current pull the ocean's dirt from her hair and body. She delighted in the look of the gold and green dragon against her skin. She loved how the drops of water magnified each of its perfect scales, its golden underbelly and claws. Her very own dragon. She pulled herself from the clean water, marveling at the paradise she had found, wondering when the other men from her father's fleet would find her here.

That thought made her blush and she dressed quickly in the silks, fumbling with the unusual style, but fitting the embroidered robes with their long, flowing sleeves around her body. The silks were as colorful as the birds here, folded around her breasts and then bound with a wide, colorful sash that acted almost as a corset, holding the wonderful rich fabric tightly against her skin from just beneath her breasts to her hips. She shivered with the pure decadence of it, nothing between her skin and the caress of layer upon layer of soft silk except the jewel, its heavy gold warmed from her body now.

She could find herself drunk on the sensuality of it, the beauty everywhere she looked, the crisp sweetness of the fruits, tangy and moist and the delicate tenderness of the morsles of fish that she ate with her fingers, licking juices up with her pink tongue. She laughed, for all the terrible stories of depravation the sailors told of shipwreck, she was having quite the lovely adventure.

She supposed that she should find some kind of shelter before night fell again, though she had yet to see any hint of anything more dangerous than a bird, it was something a good sailor just did. Find water, find shelter, make fire. She wondered if she would find her mysterious benefactor or if perhaps this island was simply an enchanted paradise.