„By the light of the sun“ Those were the few words, that hesitated to pass over his lips and almost got swallowed by the rumbling, growling sound that filled the huge halls like rolling thunder. No approaching storm was the source of this unholy noise, which left his ears ringing and his body shaking. It was no relentless forces of nature, which humanity learned to protect themselves from over the course of eons. It was the bellowing roar of a creature, which was with them in these sacred halls. A beast so big, that it almost claimed his whole field of view. A dragon.
With hectic movements he reached for the collar of his cowl, fingers in a desperate search for the leathery string of a necklace that would eventually lead him to a talisman. His hands closed tightly around the clunky pendant, made of gold and shaped like a radiating sun. He did not even care, that the pointy frame jabbed the palms of his hands like predators teeth. It was the symbol of their cult. A representation, that stood for their hopes and beliefs. The necklace was gifted to him by their leader, who seemed to be blessed by the deity they worshipped with an infinite amount of perseverance and strength, coupled with an everlasting life. A man some of them admired even more, than they admired the god he spoke of. And now, right in front of all his followers, that man turned into a vicious black scaled beast. A dragon with eyes burning like fire, fueled with not only accumulated hatred and anger it seems, but also some kind of triumphant satisfaction. The realization finally struck him cold and ruthless, like someone just stabbed him in his back with a dagger. His hands were shaking and his palms radiated a stinging pain, when he loosened the grip around his pendant, which showed traces of red from his own blood. He knew now that the talisman was useless and would not protect him. It was just a lie. A clunky piece of precious metal that’ll probably soon return to its former owner. Everything was a lie. Only the game of a vicious beast that now came to an end and all that was left for that dragon to do, was getting rid of the pieces that exceeded their purpose.

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Gosh that was so incredibly hard to write... I somehow feel really ashamed, since it's not even that much. But writing in another language and make it sound good, was so difficult! Not even sure it's good, but at least I ended up being happy with it. It's written from the PoV from that guy in the picture holding that pendant shaped like a sun. He got no name. He's just "That guy with the pendant"

My goodness I'm so happy with this picture. Especially the coloring and light, that just seems so rusty and muddy and works so well with Tarkus scales. The whole scene is just awesome and so well composed and I'm really happy to get this milestone of Tarkus' life illustrated.

For those who wonder, since it's obviously not really clear. Back in his years, I guess when Tarkus was about 350 years old, he started to really hate the thought of living in dark caverns, while the lesser races have their beautiful castles and towers and homes. So he thought of a plan. Disguised himself as a human and manipulated a lot of people into thinking that there was a forgotten deity. A sungod, that would start an era of wealth and wellbeing for the ones who worship him. And there was a lot of worshipping to be done, eventually ending in all those people building a temple for that god, hidden deep in a mountain chain and carved in the mountain itself. The temple got finished after quite some time went by and in the end Tarkus was quite happy about 'revealing' his true form to his followers. Must have been quite the sight. Well that's how one part of that temple probably looked like.

Awesome awesome artwork by  nomax who was a real pleasure to work with.
Also I took the title of his submission, 'cause I liked it.