Tales from Greengrass (Secomber)

"Before there is renewal, there must be death."

Lying under blissfully warm bed rolls Max Rinnen and Allene Macgovern watched the sun rise from atop High Hill, the northern most butte of Secomber. It was the first day of spring and the two lovers wished to bring in a new season of birth and renewal with lusty ambition.

Littering the hillside were the leavings of their clothes; villagers looking up at High Hill would see a patchwork of color interrupting the constant lush of the grassy knoll.

A muted glow materialized over the distant forests. Both quietly noted it was not the warm golden sunshine of early morning, but a bitter ashen color as if a wayward wild magic storm descended from the High Forest to mute the morning rays.

They made love again and for several blissful minutes there was nothing around them- just their sweet act.

When they opened their eyes it was like looking through stained glass, everything was various shades and tints of grey. When they opened their ears they could hear great crashing and commotion as if a great gust of wind were rearranging Secomber.

Max and Allene rose up from the privacy of their bed rolls and the sanctuary of their arms to survey the destruction being wrought upon the town below. What they saw paralyzed them in fright.

Hordes of ancient skeletons had taken to the wide streets of Secomber locked in combat with Lord’s Alliance warriors, mages, and cavalry who were anxiously trying to save people from being torn limb from limb. 

Great icy claws bit deeply into Allene’s exposed shoulder causing her to tumble face-first down the hill. Max watched helplessly as Allene toppled clumsily down High Hill and out of site. What was down there Max quickly asked himself; would she be ok? A cold snap from an icy maw closed around his leg broke not only his worried contemplations but also his leg. 

Before Max knew it he was flying helpless through the air. All the world was a spinning soup of pain.

When Allene opened her eyes she found herself  lying in a familiar area of tall grass around a popular natural spring. Behind her the screams and battle cries were much closer, but in front of her however was the most frightening white dragon Allene Macgovern had ever seen.

Protruding out of the beast’s scales and spines were bones of all kinds, it gave gave the dragon an underworldly aura of death; and where there were not random bone fragments, a find powdering of bone dust gave the dragon a chalky color as if the great dragon enjoyed rolling around in the bones of ancient ruins.

Then she remembered. Secomber is built on the ruins of an ancient kingdom.