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Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Western Dragon
Gender Male
Size 1280 x 904
File Size 172.6 kB
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Fall, 1326
After three days of climbing, Mera and Logan suddenly found nothing to look up to but empty sky. They had finally reached the roof of the world. From its spine, Skyline Ridge dropped sharply to the massive greenery of the Back Valley two thousand feet below them. Here and there, the steep slope was broken up by large rock outcroppings that jutted out of the hillside like the spines on the dragon’s back, a relentless fog wrapping itself around these stony sentinels until they turned into lonely islands in a roiling gray sea. Cold winds from all directions buffeted the two figures, driving the light drizzle onto their faces.
Logan stopped, breathing heavily in the thin air and gazing eagerly at the valley below. “We made it.”
“The danger’s not over yet.” Mera replied, his wings wrapped tightly against his body to keep out the cold and damp. “We still need to get to Giant’s Pass.”
The dragon suddenly stopped, grabbed Logan and shoved the hunter to the ground.
“Hey!”
“Get down you fool!”
The wyrm curled down upon the hunter before inching over like a cat to the Western edge of the cliff. Curious, after a pause Logan followed suit. The grass and stones parted as the hunter went forward, revealing alpine landscape before them: a massive spire stood in the distance, a thick mass of limestone capped by a large marble boulder towering above the swirling fog. Large figures leisurely hovered around the upper cap of the stone pillar.
Mera spoke quietly: “Be careful Logan; we’re entering gryphon territory. They don’t take very kindly to trespassers, especially dragons.”
“Why dragons in particular?”
Mera shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve wondered about that myself. We’re both large, predatory creatures that fly, hunt and covet privacy, so it could come from a long history of bad encounters. Perhaps we are too similar to be able to like each other; perhaps we are too proud as peoples to see others as equals.”
“Well, you can fight them off right?”
“I don’t know. They usually hunt in packs, and I still can’t fly very well. It’d be best for everyone if we could avoid a fight. Let us tread lightly.”
Logan looked at the spire standing menacingly in the distance. He shuddered, thinking about monstrous birds suddenly descending from the sky.
“Well if anything happens, I’ll be hiding underfoot.”
***
From the top of Skyline to the valley, the mountain escarpment dropped a dizzying five thousand feet in less than a mile. The two figures gingerly worked their way down the massive basalt pillars that formed the mountain path, the smoothened tangle of hexagonal stones making the going slow and tedious.
After several hours, dragon and human had just entered the confines of a ravine, picking their way past the final basalt slabs at the bottom strewn about like logs after a storm, when suddenly Mera’s head shot up, then immediately went down to his belly and horizontally into a large overhanging crevice by the cliff. A front paw rather rudely shoved Logan over for a second time as well. The hunter gave a grunt, but had the presence of mind to not snap back at the dragon. Instead he glared at Mera, who rolled his eyeballs upward. Logan’s eyes looked up to see a dozen gryphons soaring overhead, taking advantage of the updraft being carried by the canyon to fly over to the spire. Eight feet long, with feathery wingspans of twelve feet in length, the gryphons were clearly visible despite being hundreds of feet above the shelter: creatures with the body of a lion attached to the foreclaws and head of an eagle. The eagle’s heads ended in a powerful break that seemed capable of crushing bone, and both leonine hindpaws and the avian front talons hung ominously below them like spearpoints.
“Don’t move.” The dragon whispered, continuing to gesture with his eyes at the figures above. “They have sharp eyes and sharp hearing too.”
The flight of gryphons passed ominously overhead, casting long shadows in the broken rock below. Sharp eyes idly stared towards the aviary, while both dragon and human huddled in the shadows of the canyon walls, scarcely daring to breathe. It seemed like hours, even though it was likely less than five minutes, before the gryphons finally became specks in the distance.
Mera breathed a sigh of relief. “Luckily this path is too windy for them to hear or smell us.”
“Good thing they didn’t come out when we were still navigating the rockfall.” Logan replied. “We would have been spotted immediately.”
“We probably would have been royally screwed. Let’s continue onward.”
The pair continued their descent down the slope only a little further when the dragon suddenly pushed Logan to the ground with his forepaw and crouched again.
“Down!”
The hunter was getting sick of ducking.
“Another flight?” Logan whispered.
“Just one gryphon; it’s small too-probably just a straying adolescent.” The hunter looked up. Indeed a single gryphon flew hesitantly in the sky above. It quickly gave nervous glances at the mountains around, and then desperately beat its wings in an attempt to rejoin the group that it had straggled from.
Logan gave Mera a puzzled look.
“Then kill it. Why are we hiding?”
“Nah.” The dragon got back up, and with a swoop of his paw lifted the hunter onto his back before continuing their descent. “I’m getting sick of killing.”
Johnny Greenwood - Open Spaces
From
Axelon!
Original: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47428780/
After three days of climbing, Mera and Logan suddenly found nothing to look up to but empty sky. They had finally reached the roof of the world. From its spine, Skyline Ridge dropped sharply to the massive greenery of the Back Valley two thousand feet below them. Here and there, the steep slope was broken up by large rock outcroppings that jutted out of the hillside like the spines on the dragon’s back, a relentless fog wrapping itself around these stony sentinels until they turned into lonely islands in a roiling gray sea. Cold winds from all directions buffeted the two figures, driving the light drizzle onto their faces.
Logan stopped, breathing heavily in the thin air and gazing eagerly at the valley below. “We made it.”
“The danger’s not over yet.” Mera replied, his wings wrapped tightly against his body to keep out the cold and damp. “We still need to get to Giant’s Pass.”
The dragon suddenly stopped, grabbed Logan and shoved the hunter to the ground.
“Hey!”
“Get down you fool!”
The wyrm curled down upon the hunter before inching over like a cat to the Western edge of the cliff. Curious, after a pause Logan followed suit. The grass and stones parted as the hunter went forward, revealing alpine landscape before them: a massive spire stood in the distance, a thick mass of limestone capped by a large marble boulder towering above the swirling fog. Large figures leisurely hovered around the upper cap of the stone pillar.
Mera spoke quietly: “Be careful Logan; we’re entering gryphon territory. They don’t take very kindly to trespassers, especially dragons.”
“Why dragons in particular?”
Mera shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve wondered about that myself. We’re both large, predatory creatures that fly, hunt and covet privacy, so it could come from a long history of bad encounters. Perhaps we are too similar to be able to like each other; perhaps we are too proud as peoples to see others as equals.”
“Well, you can fight them off right?”
“I don’t know. They usually hunt in packs, and I still can’t fly very well. It’d be best for everyone if we could avoid a fight. Let us tread lightly.”
Logan looked at the spire standing menacingly in the distance. He shuddered, thinking about monstrous birds suddenly descending from the sky.
“Well if anything happens, I’ll be hiding underfoot.”
***
From the top of Skyline to the valley, the mountain escarpment dropped a dizzying five thousand feet in less than a mile. The two figures gingerly worked their way down the massive basalt pillars that formed the mountain path, the smoothened tangle of hexagonal stones making the going slow and tedious.
After several hours, dragon and human had just entered the confines of a ravine, picking their way past the final basalt slabs at the bottom strewn about like logs after a storm, when suddenly Mera’s head shot up, then immediately went down to his belly and horizontally into a large overhanging crevice by the cliff. A front paw rather rudely shoved Logan over for a second time as well. The hunter gave a grunt, but had the presence of mind to not snap back at the dragon. Instead he glared at Mera, who rolled his eyeballs upward. Logan’s eyes looked up to see a dozen gryphons soaring overhead, taking advantage of the updraft being carried by the canyon to fly over to the spire. Eight feet long, with feathery wingspans of twelve feet in length, the gryphons were clearly visible despite being hundreds of feet above the shelter: creatures with the body of a lion attached to the foreclaws and head of an eagle. The eagle’s heads ended in a powerful break that seemed capable of crushing bone, and both leonine hindpaws and the avian front talons hung ominously below them like spearpoints.
“Don’t move.” The dragon whispered, continuing to gesture with his eyes at the figures above. “They have sharp eyes and sharp hearing too.”
The flight of gryphons passed ominously overhead, casting long shadows in the broken rock below. Sharp eyes idly stared towards the aviary, while both dragon and human huddled in the shadows of the canyon walls, scarcely daring to breathe. It seemed like hours, even though it was likely less than five minutes, before the gryphons finally became specks in the distance.
Mera breathed a sigh of relief. “Luckily this path is too windy for them to hear or smell us.”
“Good thing they didn’t come out when we were still navigating the rockfall.” Logan replied. “We would have been spotted immediately.”
“We probably would have been royally screwed. Let’s continue onward.”
The pair continued their descent down the slope only a little further when the dragon suddenly pushed Logan to the ground with his forepaw and crouched again.
“Down!”
The hunter was getting sick of ducking.
“Another flight?” Logan whispered.
“Just one gryphon; it’s small too-probably just a straying adolescent.” The hunter looked up. Indeed a single gryphon flew hesitantly in the sky above. It quickly gave nervous glances at the mountains around, and then desperately beat its wings in an attempt to rejoin the group that it had straggled from.
Logan gave Mera a puzzled look.
“Then kill it. Why are we hiding?”
“Nah.” The dragon got back up, and with a swoop of his paw lifted the hunter onto his back before continuing their descent. “I’m getting sick of killing.”
Johnny Greenwood - Open Spaces
From
Axelon!Original: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/47428780/
Category Artwork (Traditional) / Fantasy
Species Western Dragon
Gender Male
Size 1280 x 904px
File Size 172.6 kB
Listed in Folders
Remember the set of four spikes at the end of the tail is called a Thagomizer, after Thag Johnson. Caveman. The actual Paleontologists did not in fact have a name for such a thing, and when they saw Gary Larson's cartoon, they went with that.
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