A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words - The Peacock Dragon

This post was inspired by an image-based writing prompt in the Freewriters community, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

Just for a laugh, I set myself an additional challenge; to write exactly 1000 words excluding this intro 😁

Here is the wonderful image created by @wakeupkitty -

"Why have you bought me here, Melfass ?"

Zithaka looked around, absorbing her surroundings and trying to make sense of the unearthly vista before her.

The sky was a uniform peacock blue colour, and the uneven landscape was covered with alien tree-like things and giant mushrooms glowing with a strange magenta faerie light.

The sorcerer seemed more relaxed. He smiled a grim smile, and said, "As you know, we're in the Feywild, but an obscure corner or it even by the standards of such an unusual place. Pay no heed to the glowing mushrooms, or the fungus trees. They are just part of the landscape, and mostly harmless. Mostly."

That didn't reassure Zithaka in the slightest. Melfass was a strange fellow, and was rumoured to be Fey-touched in some way himself. She knew he had spent an unnatural amount of time here, some of it involuntary, and the Feywild changed those who were over-exposed to it. On the one hand, she knew he was vastly inferior to her in experience and power, but on the other, they were on his home territory. That was bound to give him a significant advantage if the tension between them came to open strife.

The expression on Melfass' face grew more tense. "I haven't bought you here to harm you, or trick you. I want you to see something. A terrible creature which is something completely new. It could be a terrible threat to our world."

Now Zithaka was worried. Melfass wasn't the sort who cared about others much. But for him to seek to warn her of a danger to the mundane world they shared, he must truly be afraid.

Her train of thought was broken by the sound of distant wings. A slow, steady pulse that grew louder as it grew closer.

Melfass pulled her under the cover of a giant mushroom, a monster of a fungus fully ten feet tall.

The she saw what was flying their way. A dragon, and a large one at that.

With a burst of speed, the huge beast rolled over in flight and dived for the ground. It landed no more than two hundred feet from Melfass and Zithaka as they huddled under their mushroom.

On the ground, the monster was even larger than it had first seemed. The wedge-like head rose fully forty feet above the ground on a long, scaly sinewy neck. The wings were like no other dragon they knew off; gossamer and bright, almost insubstantial, like the ghost of peacock feathers.

The dragon's eyes burned with a purple fire, mirroring the light from the mushrooms. There was a terrible, terrifying malevolence in them, a hatred for all life.

Strangest of all was it's colouration. It was crystalline, a beautiful translucent turquoise colour. Almost like cut glass. But it shaded to the darkest jet black all along the length of it's underside, glossy sable scales glinting in the mushroom-light. The dragon's topmost scales were a complete contrast. They were the colour of ice in the sunlight, a white so bright that it seemed to glow in places, although it dulled down towards the tail.

The dragon looked around for a few moments, sniffing the air.

Then it's head dropped and it pulled a mushroom up in it's tremendous jaws, tilting it's head back to swallow the thing whole. It did this two or three more times, swallowing the mushrooms in a single gulp in the same kind of way a snake swallows a mouse.

Zithaka and Melfass looked at each other. They were both holding their breaths, trying to remain absolutely silent. Two more mushrooms and the dragon would be at their one. Would it even notice two crunchy mortal morsels ingested at the same time as their protective shelter ?

Then, inexplicably, the huge monster stretched, beat it's wings to create a great downdraft, and took to the air once more.

As fast as it had arrived, it was gone. Sated, for now.

Zithaka looked at Melfass. "What.... the.... hell... was.... that ?" she grated out.

"That, my dear, is a new sort of dragon. One more evil and powerful than any other we have yet heard of."

He pulled out a leather-bound notebook. "I've been observing it for a while. Usually from a much safer distance than today's little encounter. Let me tell you what I have found."

His manner was like that of a schoolmaster to a very junior and exceptionally sullen student, but Zithaka let that go. For now.

The sorcerer continued. "I'm sure you know that most dragons are either coloured or metallic. Coloured ones tend to be evil, and metallic ones tend to be benevolent, at least in dragon terms. Perhaps you have heard that some good dragons have become corrupted by evil. They change, and become what we call Tarnish Dragons. They take on some characteristics of their opposite colour, but don't fully change colour. Instead, they become something halfway. For example, Gold Dragons don't go Red, they become Rust Dragons, and Copper Dragons become Verdigris Dragons."

Zithaka nodded impatiently. She knew all this.

"But did you know of Gem Dragons ? A third type entirely. Mostly neutral in outlook. We think this one was originally already a cross-breed, between an Emerald Dragon and a Sapphire one. But now it has become corrupted, terribly so. It's coloured opposites appear to be black and white, which would normally be opposite in turn. Yet it is picking up traits of both, and can breath death both cold and acid simultaneously."

This was a shock to Zithaka. She could see immediately how such versatility combined with an absolute evil nature could be a threat.

"So then, what do you call it ?" she asked.

Melfass shrugged. "Damned if I know. The best I've come up with so far is Zebra Dragon."

Scoffing, Zithaka laughed, "That doesn't do it justice at all. I'm sure we can do better than that. How about we call it the Peacock Dragon ?"