220Prologue: An Unlikely Find.
"Saruman believes that it is only great power that can hold evil in check… But that is not what I have found. I've found that it is the small things… everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love."
-Gandalf the Grey.
-OtWoF-
Crashing into the vast forest, the large firedrake skid across the ground painfully. As she slid, the winged beast uprooted trees as she created a new small valley before coming to a painful stop.
Glancing down, she spotted the many arrows sticking out of her hide. The landing having shoved some of the infernal projectiles deeper into her, causing more pain than even before.
She knew well at this point that she was dying, those damn dwarves and their contraptions made sure of that. She thought maybe with some distance and rest she might survive, but now with her life's blood seeping into the damp forest floor, she knew it was her time.
Glancing down to her abdomen, the dragon felt a burning rage building within her. The fallen remains of the forest around her began to sizzle and pop as the fire within her reacted to her anger.
She was gravid, she knew that long ago, but her pride and power didn't allow her to think that she could be struck down as she was. After all, how could she become injured with an entire hoard of dragons descending on the grey mountains to assault their prey, even if they were mostly her minor brethren? What chance did those little mountain dwelling filth have to deal her a mortal blow?
It turns out, the chance was higher than nothing, and now she had to die knowing her bloodline dies with her. Yet another great fire drake brought low by mortal weapons.
She was the last surviving descent of Ancalagon the black, and knowing she was one stupid decision into ending the line entirely made her deep burning hatred turn into an emotion that dragons like her rarely ever felt.
Sadness.
"Oh… Oh! Oh dear… That looks bad…"
The soft voice caused the nearly dead dragon to lift her head up. Her normally sharp eyesight was blurry, but oddly close to her head was what looked to be an absolutely ragged looking child of man in a brown robe.
The dragon could do nothing but stare at the odd two-legged being next to her snout. It wouldn't take too much to simply breathe a bit of her last fire on him, and the thought of ending another pathetic life brought a small smile to her menacing face.
Before she could even take in the breath, however, something shifted in her gut, and even though she was dying, she knew it was time to lay her egg, even if it was the last thing she did.
And it was.
-OtWoF-
Radagast the Brown was stumped.
The brown wizard was in his element after all, and never in his many years of existence has something so abruptly absurd stumbled into his path.
Sure, he was certain that something was different when he left his hut in the woods this time around. After all, it wasn't often that something shook the ground and uprooted so many trees with the force that this dragon did, but this?
He poked the perfectly smooth onyx black egg with his staff.
This had him stumped.
In front of him was one of Morgoth's unholy creations… and yet…
Glancing up to the mother, he knew that she was already gone. The writhing and painful wails of mere moments before filled the newfound forest clearing, but now an eerie dead silence filled the area.
Along with an egg.
Looking to the singed grass and uprooted trees around him, he knew deep down that if that egg hatched it would spell yet more untold destruction. Death and fire and sadness would be the path of whatever creature came from that shell.
Nonetheless, the brown robed wizard thought it might be high time to move his hut further south. The ongoing war between the dragons and dwarves over the grey mountains was definitely not something that the nature loving Radagast wanted to be caught in the middle of.
And so, without any further thought on the subject, he turned and began to leave the clearing. He knew full well that the egg would not hatch by itself, as he knew it took incubation in fire to hatch a dragon egg. It would lie here in the wilderness, a life doomed to die due to circumstance and bad luck.
Die?
He couldn't just leave it to die could he? Sure, it would eventually become a murderous killing machine, but that wasn't a reason to deny life to something simply because of what it was…
No! He couldn't save it. Wouldn't! The dark creature would only wreak havoc on the landscape and might even burn the forest to the ground!
The soft chirps of an overexcited bird flew past the wizard's pointed hat and into the clearing behind him.
"No, not that way!" The brown robed wizard yelled as he spun around. "You might get your… feathers…"
Turning back to the smoldering clearing, he spotted the egg sitting on the ground below the still form of it's mother. The songbird perched innocently on the onyx egg staring back at him with a tilted head.
"... burned…"
The sight before him honestly confused the poor wizard. Birds like that avoided everything evil. It was in their nature to be where things like that weren't.
And yet…
Before his better judgement took hold, the brown wizard walked back and ushered the bird into the nest in his hair. He knew the little rascal had a reason for what he did, and while he didn't quite know why, at the very least he wouldn't leave the poor egg there while he tried to find out. It would be ghastly to have something die so close to where it was born.
Bending over, Radagast scooped the egg into his arms. The large and heavy egg felt almost hot to the touch, making Radagast adjust the sleeves on his robes to hold it safely before he made his way out of the dreadful place.
A pit of despair filled his gut as he fled with the egg in hand. He knew he could not hatch it, though he knew he could not leave it.
And so he would do neither.
-OtWoF-
Rushing his way across his hut, the brown wizard looked for another one of his personally made medicines. As he bustled about, he heard the poor pained squeaks of the squirrel in his arms which caused him to quicken his motions.
All around him was forest wildlife skittering about. With the sickness seeping into the very roots of the forest itself, he allowed all to seek refuge in his admittedly small dwelling.
Quickly finding what he was looking for amongst a small horde of butterflies, he quickly grabbed his staff and removed the gem. He knew by now the sickness that seemed to be enveloping the forest in recent years, and he wouldn't let yet another creature fall victim. The witchcraft that seemed to plague the very land itself in recent years, causing his workload tending to the wilds to increase exponentially.
Sighing, Radagast used yet another incantation to remove the taint of evil from this creature. The inky black substance seeped into the gem, tainted it temporarily. He knew he would need to offload the inherent wrongness somewhere else, but that was neither here nor there.
The poor creature sprang to life once more the moment the taint was removed, scurrying off at a pace that honestly surprised the wizard.
"Wait! Not that way!"
Crash!
Cringing at the noise Radagast could only stare in disbelief as his carefully balanced cookware all fell to the floor in a loud crash. The resulting chain reaction took almost a full minute to fully settle down, causing the brown wizard to cringe as yet another metal pan crashed loudly against the floor.
After a moment, Radagast could spot the healthy squirrel scurry out of one of the many gaps in his housing and back into the forest around him. Chuckling, the brown mage began to make his way over to his fallen pots and pans.
"Silly creatures, those squirrels. Always in a hurry…"
A glimmer of sunlight caught his eye. A reflection of something smooth drew his attention as he slowly turned his head back to his cupboard.
Sure enough, the black dragon egg still sat motionlessly, buried under his clutter. The poor squirrel uncovering an egg long since forgotten for over a hundred years.
Being sent to this world from Yavanna herself, the brown wizard couldn't find it within himself to end the creature, even one formed by Morgoth himself, before it hatched. He long ago spelled the egg to live in stasis, and yet without fire it would never hatch.
A pang of guilt rose up within the wizard at the thought of what he was doing. Holding a newborn hostage without giving it a chance at life. He felt wrong, knowing he picked up that egg for a reason even though he knew not what.
Walking over, he grabbed hold of the smooth oval, feeling the hot surface once again. Even all these years later it still almost burned to the touch. Reaching out his mind, he felt the small presence within the shell.
Visions of fire and death assaulted his mind. Entire armies burnt to ash as wings as great as the largest ship's sails caught the wind. Roars of a mighty beast could almost be heard, the sound being able to bring fear into the hearts of anyone who could hear it. An orange slit eye, wreathed in fire stared back at him in pure malice as it contemplated his demise.
Harshly setting the egg back where it was, Radagast wiped his now sweating brow.
Now that he came back to his senses, he only now noticed several birds perched on his arms. All of them appeared concerned for the keeper of the wilds, but he simply smiled at their kindness.
"It's nothing… Nothing at all!"
One particularly brave bird flew off his shoulder and landed on the draconic egg, tilting it's innocent head. At this, the brown wizard almost gasped.
"Oh no! You don't want to go near that! It's… evil."
The bird once again let out a series of tweets before sitting down on the onyx egg. Apparently the bird approved of the heat the egg gave off and began to settle in.
The sight almost brought yet another smile to the wizard's face, though the action brought more thoughts of what exactly he carried with him on his journeys in the forest.
If only he could hatch it and raise the poor thing. The idea that a creature was doomed to imprisonment within its egg, even if it was a creature of pure darkness, still didn't sit well with the wizard.
Oh well, Radagast thought. It isn't like I can simply make the dragon good!
Blinking, an idea formed within the wizard's mushroom addled brain. His normally frantic eyes moved to the gem in his staff, still tainted with darkness from mere moments before.
Looking back to the egg, his thoughts turned into something drastically different.
Maybe not… but perhaps I can remove the evil…
He knew where the dragons came from. He knew from which dark fires this race was brought into this world, but even then his mind turned toward theories and maybes.
If the dark can corrupt the light, perhaps the light can purify the dark! If men can be turned to evil deeds and good forest wilderness can wither and die… Then maybe something great can come from this egg…
Before he could second guess himself, he reached for the gem once again.
-OtWoF-
It worked.
The absolutely mad plan worked. After almost six months of extracting inky black wrongness from the egg, the ritual began to only pull small faint traces of evil from it. With as much as he managed to pull from the oval, he half expected that the egg might end up pure white by the end but the shade never changed even a bit.
Eventually, Radagast almost cried at the success of what he did. After all this time the inky black magic within the creature seeped out and became a cloudy grey, then a cloudy white.
Radagast knew full well that with something like this you couldn't extract every bit of evil within the creature. He would end up creating something far different than what was there originally. He settled for where he was and in the end he could only hope and pray.
As he looked upon the massive bonfire he created. It felt strange as he watched the flames make their way skyward, the smoke billowing whichever way the wind blew it.
He has spent his life basking in the wilderness, and even though he knew he gathered only what the wilds didn't need he still felt a cold pit in his stomach as to what he was doing. This one Fire would surely create so many more with what he was doing, but something still stirred him on.
Crack.
The wizard started as he flicked his gaze into the bright flames onto the small raised rock that held the egg. Sure enough, there was a small crack now.
The brown wizard actually felt excited. After all this toil and trouble, he knew he was about to witness something that the entirety of middle earth had never seen before.
A dragon born without evil clouding it's mind… He hoped.
He knew full well that if everything went as planned that this creature would be an invaluable ally against the evils of this world. A weapon just as potent as it's evil brethren, but yet he knew he couldn't think of it in that way. This was to be a creature of its own mind, and therein lies the beauty of it.
Something new. Something different.
Not a weapon at all, but what it would end up being, the wizard knew not.
Crack.
More and more splinters from the eggshell fell into the fire and landed as the egg began to shake violently. All around him, he could hear as if nature itself knew that yet another incarnation of flames and death was being born, causing the wizard to begin to sweat.
He turned around and dropped to his knees, kneeling before the vast forest behind him. A single tear fell from his eyes as he began to beg for forgiveness to the wilderness itself.
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't let it die… I just couldn't…"
It was far too late now to regret his decision, for at that moment the egg hatched.
The small drakeling uncoiled from its egg sending the smoldering embers everywhere. The heat made the debris rise into the air and scatter to the winds, but that wasn't what caught the brown wizard's attention.
No, his attention was on the deep blue eyes that turned to face him. The deep blue that were definitely not the raging inferno of orange he saw every time he picked up the egg. No, the blue he now saw burned no less hot with power and knowledge behind those slit pupils, but unlike the blazing madness of before it was a calm flame.
That color alone let the wizard know, he did it. Sure, it was still a dragon. It would still grow up to be an absolutely massive carnivorous fire breathing monster, but at the very least Radagast knew he gave it a chance. A chance to live a life without the hatred and greed and corruption that its kind normally possessed.
The slit pupils studied him for a long moment as the raging flames of the bonfire surrounded the baby dragon, licking and warping around the creature as if hugging an old friend. Tilting its head, it began to fully study its surroundings. Being the first thing to immediately become noticeable, it glanced down to the glowing embers below it.
Sniffing around, the curious lizard began to poke and prod the flames below it with its right forepaw. The innocent behavior brought a smile to the wizard's face as it bent down to sniff the coals.
Until a rather large coal directly beneath its snout released its moisture, letting out a loud pop directly below the dragon's snout and causing a cloud of dust and red hot embers to rise right into its nostrils.
Radagast saw the sneeze coming from a mile away, and he wisely dove for cover. The resulting inferno was easy to predict after all.
Sure enough, after patting down his singed leggings, the wizard peeked his head over the rock he found himself behind. Sure enough, the baby dragon was propped up on its hind legs, rubbing it's muzzle with its forepaws… talons… hands? In an attempt to rid itself of the embers.
The brown wizard couldn't help but smile. If you removed the roaring inferno that the baby was sitting in, the sight was so innocent and pure. Without even thinking about it, he muttered out the first name that came to mind.
"Yúla."
Ember.
-OtWoF-
Gandalf the Grey was stumped.
It wasn't very often that he got a missive from one of his order, and rarer still that it was from Radagast.
Unsurprisingly, it was a messenger bird of some kind. The grey wanderer was sure he would get it's breed wrong and he would never hear the end of it if the creature tattled on him, so he kept his ignorant muttering of its breed quiet.
Glancing once more down to the letter, he read the hastily sprawled letters once again.
Gandalf!
I need your help! Something has happened, and I require assistance! I am afraid that it is an issue of my own making, but it is something that might aid you- everyone- against the darkness of the world.
Come quickly. Come alone. Come… Expecting a long term commitment.
The letter appears to have been stained with ink, and oddly enough has a small scorched corner. Thankfully, there was a map on the back, with directions as to where to go.
Gandalf knew he was getting close to Radagast's location, and yet something felt a bit strange this time around. Slowly making his way on foot through the woods, the grey wizard smelled something in the air that he normally didn't when approaching the brown wizard's dwelling.
A campfire?
Radagast typically never lit a fire. The wizard avoided the even remote chance that he sent the forest ablaze. The smell caused the grey wizard's nerves to stand on edge, and he sped up his pace a bit because of it.
"Hey! Get that out of your mouth! I'm warning you!"
The familiar voice of Radagast caused his tense muscles to relax. His old friend seemed more flustered than threatened.
Speeding up his pace a bit, the grey wizard came across a clearing for only a moment before a loud screech assaulted his ears and he was sent flying off balance.
Landing onto his back, the wizard felt several things sharp and heavy poking into his chest. Looking up, he found himself face to face with what could only be a small firedrake, staring down at him with deep blue eyes.
And two staffs in its mouth, one of which he idly noted to be his own.
"Yúla, get off him!"
The dragon snorted, sending a puff of smoke into Gandalf's face before bounding off of him.
Groaning, the stunned wizard got to his feet as fast as he could. After all, small or not, a firedrake was a grave threat.
Spinning around, Gandalf readied himself for a battle only to see the onyx black form disappear into a small cave that seemed to be dug out next to what could only be Radagast's hut.
"Gandalf!"
Spinning around, the grey wizard was met with what can only be described as a fully toasted Radagast. His normally brown clothes were covered head to toe in soot and ash, making Gandalf have a quick idle thought about which one of them truly was the grey wizard.
Before Gandalf could fully steady himself and form a plan of attack, Radagast began to speak.
"Thank goodness you received my letter. I need your help!"
Gandalf gestured idly to the small burrow next to the singed wizard's house.
"Clearly! You should have been much more clear with your letter, else I should have brought a sword!"
"No!"
The emotion and feeling within that single word caused Gandalf to take a step back. It was as if the very idea of what the grey wizard suggested was unfathomable to Radagast.
"She doesn't mean any harm… She's just a bit over excitable today." Turning to the burrow, he called out calmly. "Yúla… please come out and give us our staffs back. There is someone I would like you to meet."
Slowly, the form of a dragon's head poked out of the burrow, like a serpent slowly inching out of a hat at the behest of a flute. Gandalf could still see the two staffs in the creature's mouth, and while he didn't quite know how he was going to retrieve his weapon, he knew he would need to.
Slowly but surely, the small dragon made its way over to the two wizards before setting the two staffs down in front of them with a soft plop. The action was so unexpected, that it honestly took a few moments for the grey wizard to regain his bearing and scoop the weapon up again.
"Yúla… this is Gandalf." The brown wizard started, gesturing to his grey robed magical companion while picking up his staff. After a moment, he turned to the one he gestured and gave a smile.
"Gandalf, this is Yúla."
The two simply stared at each other for a moment, and the grey wizard took the time to fully examine the drake. Even on four legs, the winged beast stood taller than him. It had deep onyx black scales that seemed to absorb the sunlight filtering through the leaves, looking like a shadow more than anything else.
After a moment of awkward silence, the brown wizard whacked the snout of the dragon with his staff with a loud crack. The sound of the timber striking the armored hide of the dragon could be heard, making it sound as if he struck a stone rather than what he did. The creature reared back in shock before looking angrily at the brown wizard, a deep threatening growl filled the area that made Gandalf's hair stand up on end.
"What do we say when we take things that aren't ours?"
As if these events weren't strange enough, the firedrake let out a deep sigh, snaked its head forward sniffing him for a moment before baring its fangs. Taking in a deep breath, the dragon lowered its head towards the ground as it readied itself to-
"I'm sorry. Want to be friends?"
—Authors Note—
So, this is my second story.
I got a bit of a writers block on Songbird, and while rewatching lord of the rings, I had this idea that wouldn't leave me alone. I've always been fascinated with dragons, so this isn't all too surprising.
First things first, I know this won't be the only dragon fanfic for this fandom, as most of them are already on my favorites, however this will definitely be unique among them for several reasons. The first, of course, being that I plan on keeping it close to the cannon lore.
Every single other dragon in LOTR fics has them transform into a human at one point. Every. Single. One. And that bothers me.
This is a dragon. It will do dragon things. In a dragon manner. That will have it's up sides and it's downs.
Sure, you can think that is Mary Sue if you want, but honestly if you think firepower and overall strength are the only traits of a character, then I pity the fics you have been reading.
Oh, one more thing. The only real reason I mentioned Ancalagon was for scale color. I wanted an onyx black dragon, and that was the way I went with it. I will specify size and everything when she's fully grown, as she won't be mountain crushing size.
For now, I will still be trying to focus on Songbird, so don't exactly expect consistency when it comes to this one. Than again I don't have the best track record for updating my author's notes later, so this could be a moot point. :)
Anywho, the journey begins once again. Read and review, and if you like it, consider giving me a follow and a favorite!