The Dragon Rises Again

Sahlokniir had remained in his dark, crystalline prison buried beneath the mountain for over a millennia. He drifted in and out of sleep until the centuries seemed to pass every time he closed his eyes. He was only awoken by a strange feeling; freedom. After all these long years. The magic that kept the crystal orb intact had finally failed, seemingly reaching its expiration date. Raising his hand to the walls, he gave the crystal a testing tap with the claw of his index finger. To his elation, the usual shock that usually came with touching the edges of his prison did not happen. His senses were correct. He was free to leave. Unfurling his grand wings from his back, Sahlokniir launched his cranium straight into the upper portion of the crystal. It shattered with the impact, the great wyrm emerging into the primordial cave that held his prison orb. With a gentle flap of his wings, Sahlokniir hovered above the ancient underground lake. His insides began to heat up, causing him to glow with a faint orange light that radiated just beneath his scales that illuminated the surrounding area. Looking at his hands, the dragon clenched and unclenched his fists. He was a fair amount weaker due to his imprisonment, but that was nothing that could not be solved by simple training. The concept amused him. He had not trained since he was a young wyrmling.

This was truly his chance to start over. To forge a new empire beneath the blue skies of this planet. A low, guttural chuckle escaped the dragon's maw, a roaring inferno flames escaping his lips as he did so. With suddenness and zeal, Sahlokniir flew upwards, reaching out for the stone of the cave's ceiling. He began to claw and dig, rapidly pulverizing stone and moving it aside as he burrowed his way from the mountain's depths and breaking out into the open world above. The wyrm raised his hand to block out the light of the afternoon sun, quietly cursing in his primordial Dragonspeech. Once his eyes adjusted to light after years of witnessing his surroundings through night vision in the dank, dark cave, Sahlokniir perched himself on the mountain peak, gazing down at the desert below.

Everything was different than what he remembered when he first landed here, but it was still familiar. Looking down on the wingless, scaled megafauna below, his draconic instincts led him to assert his dominance. Raising up on his hind legs, the wyrm spread his wings out wide, extending his arms outward like some kind of god. Throwing his head back, Sahlokniir let out a deafening roar to the sky that could be heard from many miles around, flames spewing freely from his mouth as he did so, the orange glow within his body only growing brighter as he announced his return. At the sudden appearance of this massive, fire-breathing creature, the dinosaurs that had gathered around the mountain began to flee for their lives. Even the birds and smaller creatures fled before what could very well be their imminent deaths. Sahlokniir was not interested in them, however. None were brave enough to challenge him. That satisfied his need to assert his dominance. After a few minutes of roaring and fire breathing, the great wyrm settled down on all fours, spewing black smoke and sulfur from his nostrils as he did.

"Krosis. After so many long years in imprisonment, even my rein-- my roar-- has dulled in its magnificence." The great wyrm's voice came out gravely and rough, but carried a sense of regality beneath it. He looked around the sandy, rocky landscape. This place was surely not suitable for a kingdom. Besides, the sight of his mountain made him uneasy. It had become just as much of a prison as the orb had in the time he was here. While unsure of the exact time he was imprisoned beneath it, he knew that it was long enough for any of the surrounding humans to be long dead. The world had forgotten Sahlokniir; Death's Maw. The God in Fire. But if the great wyrm got his way, they would all remember, and they would welcome him as their savior.