ORIGIN

The little dragon felt the massive coils grip him, and begin to tighten. Almost at once he felt light-headed and weak, the feeling of impossibly strong bands squeezing his body agonizing. His bones felt like they would all pop out of their sockets; his ability to struggle at all was being severely hampered, his limbs mostly tightened against his body or down below. Even his tail, now, was being restrained. Only one wing was left free, flapping weakly.

Absolutely desperate, he felt the agonizing heat in his gut roil up, giving everything he had for one last-ditch effort to drive the much larger predator off of him. With a weak twist he planted his tiny jaws against Septiezal's scales. For a moment he felt nothing--the crushing wall of muscle nearly stopped him managing at all, and his fear spiked even higher. Then he felt the agonizing pain of fire added to it, twisting along his throat and guttering into the snake's shining side.

A single defiant word, angry and terrified, escaped him, more a squeaking gasp than anything, as the pain and fear tumbled into a miasma of nightmarish unreality around him.

"NO!" This couldn't be real; this had to be a dream. He had to still be sleeping in his niche. He couldn't be dead the same day he had hatched.

Character: Dread Age: +1 (1 Cycle) Magic Level: +1 (Fledgling) ROUND 1 Attempt: +7 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +11 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +15 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +13 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +8 Penalties: -0 Total: 56

Character: Septiezal Age: +20 (20 Cycles) Magic Level: +3 (Pupil) ROUND 1 Attempt: +20 Penalties: -0 ROUND 2 Attempt: +3 Penalties: -0 ROUND 3 Attempt: +17 Penalties: -0 ROUND 4 Attempt: +13 Penalties: -0 ROUND 5 Attempt: +14 Penalties: -0 Total: 90

WINNER: Septiezal