Rinder the Giant Roc
Reluctant Prophecy

I am Rinder, and this is how I came to be.

          I was hatched into this world alone, this is not how it was supposed to be, breaking through the shell of life to find myself on a small shelf above oblivion. No food, no water, and most important no bond mate. No one to care for me for those first six weeks until my wings were strong enough to fly. No one to hear in my mind, no one to care for and to protect from harm. I was hatched with no destiny. My hatching was not supposed to take place. My future bond mate was killed by a greater dragon, I was taken and dropped from on high to die a scrambled death.

          After two days on the ledge, near starvation, I awoke to find a webbed sack of food and a dish of water. I had no idea where the food had come from, or the water. I ate and I drank, then I fell asleep. I was drugged, I know not why, I could not understand why someone would bother, I was near death if it was one more day, I would have been dead. The food and drink would have sustained me for another three days, is all.

          As my head cleared from the fog of the drug, I looked around. I was in an abandoned nest high on a wide cliff ledge. I was high still above Oblivion Valley, my position had changed not my circumstances. As I was thinking this I looked around and noticed a smallish cave, plenty big enough for me at my current size, but not for when I was full grown.

          I entered the cave, as soon as I entered I knew what kind of cave it was, the smell and scents of its last owner were clear, a Wyvern den. A smaller cousin of our kind, Dwarf dragons many called them. While we Roc, may not grow as large as a true Dragon, we were for our size much stronger than them. The true dragons and the Wyvern held the high skies, we Roc were limited in how high we could soar, but we flew high enough. The bonding was what made us special and helped provide us protection from high assaults. We would bond with a human or elf they would be the eyes in the back of our head, to watch above while we watched below.

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          I could smell the food, and the spring water source, even though a smallish cave as I grew I would be able to enlarge it, it would make a fine home. It had evidently been a fine one for it’s previous occupant, as I got sight of his body. His scales would be valuable, after eating and drink some more to finish clearing my head I would attend to my lessor cousin.

          Day four, I finally feel alive. I am still unsure why the rescue, or the how of the rescue, perhaps that was the reason for the drugged food and water. We Roc, like all hatch-lings have many innate memories. We are born almost ready to survive, by 6 weeks age we are able to live alone, as we have grown strong enough to take flight. My lessor cousin was going to have to wait a little bit for proper care, I am not yet strong enough, when I am I will give him the honors he deserves.

          Day fourteen, two weeks, I am now strong enough to help my lessor cousin. I have his scales, and I have built his burial cairn. I am strong enough to lift and drag his body to the top of it. It was a struggle but I was able to somehow manage it. I had been developing my fire ability by leveling the flooring of my new home and melting of the rock for alcoves. The value of the Wyvern scales is that they do not melt, they can be used to form and contain the flow of the rock, I was indeed lucky to have my lessor cousin still here.

          Day seventeen. I sit in front of my cousin, he deserves some final words. He was a very old lessor cousin, Wyvern’s live to be three hundred years old or older, and he had died of apparent natural causes. So I sat in contemplation of the words to sing him to his next land his next adventure.

My old friend who I did not know,
I found you here your bones grown cold,
I sing these words to set you free,
to lend my strength to set you free,
take what you want and what you need.

In your death you have served me,
let my strength now set you free.
I know I’m week and not yet grown,
but with your help, I made a home.

So take from me and do be free,
ride the sky, worry not for me.
In life you lived and I missed out,
but with your death I learn to shout.
Take my song, simple it may be,
from a cousin you’ll never see.
With my breath of my heart fire,
I set you free upon this pyre.

          It was not much, but I could not let him go so easy. Even in death he served as a friend, keeping me company, while I grew over these last few days. I will miss him. I have exhausted my self so now I must rest some.

          In my sleep, he came, in a dream. It was my lessor cousin, the Wyvern.

          “You have lifted my soul to the new skies. Many years I lay inside that cave, my body broken and forgotten. Those you think friends to be, may not be. Those thought to be enemies may not be. There are those in the shadows, that will be hard to see. Kill not for violence sake, kill not for a command. You will know one day where to stand. Until that day, do not kill. I will watch, I will lead, I will protect for the freedom you gave me.” the Wyvern spoke in his dream. I understood, do not kill. The rest was a confusion to me, but do not kill, was clear. I tried in my dream to speak back to him, but I could not, I saw my self shake my head in obedience to his request, then I woke.

          I awoke famished, the dream clinging to my mind, like an after thought. Do not kill, running in and out with each glance each step, I absorbed the mantra, Do Not Kill, deep into my bones and wings. I slumped down in front of the food, a short walk, but it felt as if an age had passed for me to reach it. I needed to eat, yet barely did I have the energy to lift my head let alone open my mouth to chew. I do not know how I managed it but I did, I filled my self with more food than I had ever eaten in at one time in my short life. I could barely move to the water, I drank and drank when I reached it.

Day 19

          I must have passed out while drinking water, I came to with a clearer head, and clearer thoughts. My mantra, Do Not Kill, no longer controlling my mind, but well placed in my heart and soul, I could once again think. I stretched, I felt stronger than ever, I flexed my wings, it was then I noticed I had grown. I left the cave for the first time in the last two days, the dream, the hunger, the sleep, running through my mind again. I wandered over to the cairn, and looked.

          “Do not fear Rinder”, spoke a golden ethereal Wyvern. “Yes in answer to your question I was the previous occupant of this cave. I have little time, but rest assured as in the dream, I will be watching, and guiding. I do this for the courtesy of the song, and the prayer, you made for me. You have a destiny Rinder, one that will be a hard road to follow, one that will be fraught with perils and dangers. I will not always be able to help, but when I can I will. She comes now, work with Sinestra, but make it clear to her you will not kill for her. All other request you can do, but never when it comes to a request to kill, and she will ask, she will demand, she will plead, but do not kill for her. Your soul is still yours, she will try to darken it, let her think she has, but never kill for her. Do you understand. I see you are confused, that is fine you are yet young, you do understand the Do Not Kill, I feel that deep in your very core, you will be fine, it will be a hard road for you, but do not fear. She comes, in five days you will fly for the first time, and we will talk then. Good bye my new friend”.

          With that the Golden Wyvern was gone. This left me once again in a deep confusion, who was Sinestra, how was I going to fly in five days, when was hatched less than three weeks ago, it would be far to soon, but I would try in five days. I look forward to feeling the wind flow across my back, the tug of gravity, and the pressure under my wings, to see the world from above on high, on wing. For now I could imagine. Who is this Sinestra, my memories have no link to her, she must be young, or well hidden from the view of the Giant Roc’s.

          I turned from the cairn, and glanced out over the valley, smoldering fires and ruins, few trees, and a few large camps of groups of beings. I could do naught but wait and bide my time til I could fly from my new home. I could feel a slight tug of longing pulling me beyond the Valley of Oblivion, but that longing would have to wait. My lost lessor cousin had laid the next several years of life out to me in our conversation, and in the dream he gave me. With a small shake of my head and a final stretch of my wings, I turned to return to my cave to continue work on my homes expansion.

          As I turned I saw her, I knew it to be Sinestra, a haunted spider, from the size of her I could tell she was a powerful being. From her scent, I knew she was the one who rescued and poisoned me at the same time. Sensing her power I dipped my head in a bow to her, and waited for her to speak. I held my place while she walked around me inspecting me as if I were a prized cow or bull, I held my disgust for her action at bay. After reappearing in front of me she spoke.

          “I am Sinestra, it was I that rescued and fed and watered your from that narrow shelf and brought you here. I see you cleaned that disgusting cave up, and are turning it into a home. For rescuing you I demand five years of servitude from you. You will obey. If not I will kill you. It is that simple. Do you understand?” she demanded to know.

          I looked at her and her demeanor, “I understand what you have said, I will agree to five years of servitude, I will never kill for you, other than that I will serve you. I am young yet, as you well know. I will slave for you, however I will not allow a slaver to darken my heart by having me kill for them. Look in my eyes to my very soul and see for yourself my self commitment to my own sworn oath over a funerary pyre to Not Kill. I was left for dead, my soul bond was murdered. I found my lessor cousin dead and abandoned. No one cared. I care. I made my self vow, and not even your compulsion web will cause me to break it. You may know of the Giant Roc’s, but you do not know of me. We are not made to be hatched alone, we die when unattended. I lived through dreams. I lived through the power of my soul and will. I will not sacrifice my soul to even the one who saved me from that cliff edge, so kill me if you must.

          For four and a half years I have served her. I have done her bidding. I have come close to killing for her, she has tried several time to compel my compliance, but my heart and soul still beat strong. I am still on occasion visited by my old dead friend the Golden Wyvern, he has yet to tell me his name. One day is all he says. I know who tried to kill me, and I have found the prophecy that spoke of me. I have found the counter prophecy also that spoke of me, I will be no ones tool, in less than six months I will be free. I will allow no one to make me a tool for their own ends.

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^{All images from @steemmonsters}

Link back to week Eleven contest post Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest! // Week 11 // 10 Booster Pack Prize!

I had as difficult a time as I did with the Divine Healer on this one. One of these days, I will gather and tie all my little steemmonster stories together, and edit and fix them, and present a nicer more coherent story I hope, Well that at least is the dream for right now.