In Arandor resides a quaint family home, blended in among the rows of floral-adorned residential streets. Two elder high elves kept this space cozy and charming. They diligently maintained a spare room that used to belong to their daughter, lined with bookshelves full of mythology, tales and folklore of Regisfall. One book particularly stood out from the rest, as it almost shimmered behind closed window blinds in the room. Its title featured the very inspiration for their daughter's name - Chinodoxa Luciliae.
The book was a collection of imaginary tales from times unknown, all in one way or another related to the snowy region to the north. There was no proof of anything from these tales actually happened in the history of Regisfall, but the stories were no less magical, and perhaps especially captivating to any children with an active imagination. In this case, an elven child had shown love to these pages over the past century, with pages well curled and occasional slips of notes hidden all over different sections of the book. The owner might no longer be there, but the book was left in a trusted place, treasured and secured by the family and the city of Arandor alike.
On a breezy summer night, the window was left open after a routine cleaning session of the room. A gust found its way through and pried open the hard cover of Chinodoxa Luciliae on a reading desk. The rest of its contents were left to be enjoyed by the winds...
Touch of the Mountain Peak
Once upon a time, there was a human scholar with no friend, no family and no companionship. She filled her days with books and parchments, documenting the histories and laws of her city by hand, but never let her peers and neighbours to fill her heart with joy. The human scholar's lonely fate was sealed when she volunteered to investigate and document a far away swamp, which had been fallen to a curse and no one dared to find out what happened there.
The human scholar left her travel steed at the entrance of the swamp, carrying a massive backpack of supplies on her back before releasing the steed back into the wilds, away from the danger of the swamp. She never relied on company, she thought, she would not need to long for a reunion with a horse. Then she stepped into the swamp.
The dead trees around her were oozing with sickly black tar. She navigated the paths using exposed tree roots and shallow mud held together by the roots of other plants. As she gingerly walked by a prickly bush, the thorns of a dark branch scratched across her right arm, leaving behind a black oozing wound. She winced in pain, and within only a few steps, she had to stop under a big tree and rest against it.
Could this be the end? Had her arrogance in being independent finally bit her in the arm and spelled her doom? In a drunken haze she remembered a rumour about deeply magical places like this swamp - magical creatures like gemstones. The more refined the better. With her left hand she reached around her neck for the sapphire necklace she had been wearing since she was young, given to her parents with the belief that it would ward off evil spirits for her. She put on a face of determination as she stood up with great pain, holding the necklace into the sky.
"Hear me, strange creatures out there!" She shouted into the sky, "I require aid, and I will offer this sapphire to whoever come to me first!"
Only a few breaths later, a gust of wind washed over the swamp around her. She stumbled but stood defiantly, left hand still holding out the sapphire necklace. Then there were noises of giant wings flapping, no doubt the source of the gust, and a giant creature almost as big as the trees here landed in front of the human scholar. She looked up to meet a lion head inspecting her and her necklace.
"Sapphire, you say?" The winged lion spoke as it sniffed at her offering hand, while folding its wings in. "I will aid you in exchange for this gift." The giant lion mouth slightly opened as the human scholar slipped the necklace around one of its fangs, securing it in place. "I need you to close this wound and stop the poison." The human scholar raised the back of her right arm at the winged lion. The lion head pondered for a moment.
"I can fix this wound for you, but it will come at a price," said the winged lion. "I will freeze your wound shut, along with the poison so it no longer spread nor work on you. However the rest of your blood will also be frozen. You will be alive, but you can never feel warmth again. Do you still wish to do this?"
She had already been a lone wolf all her life. The thoughts of warmth from friendship and family were all distant ideas to her. While this seemed like an irreversible dire consequence, she did not seem bothered by it.
"Yes, go ahead. Do it." She said to the winged lion.
The lion head nodded, then began raising its front paws upward, spreading its wings wide open but still standing on its hind legs. It took in a deep breath, then unleashed an icy blast directly onto the wound on the human scholar's right arm, freezing it shut. A visible streak of icy crystal formed over the wound. When the winged lion was done, it stood on its four paws again, and the human scholar inspected her new arm - her new self.
"I feel... nothing. No pain, no...?" She wanted to say joy, but found it odd that the word came to her mind at all.
"Yes, you are very much a cold blooded human now." The winged lion said plainly, "but I assure you, you are still very much alive. Now I shall return your offering to my trove. Your journey from here on should be a lot easier now, for no poison in this swamp will ever hurt you again." Then the winged lion lifted itself off with its wings, once again spreading gust all over the swamp. The human scholar stood against it with less difficulty, having been cured from the pain, but also robbed of much senses in her body.
(to be continued)