Gallery

Demidrew felt the cold trying to wind its fingers under her velvet scales and gave her entire body a shake, shrugging it off. Her tail’s feathers fanned out behind her, and her dark eyes closed, pushing away the sensation before she opened them again and took in the sight before her. The sun was shining through the winter-bare trees, barely a cloud in the sky. Snow hung heavy on the branches, lay like a thick quilt on the world below, enchanting and bright. It was only broken by the ...

Kaiser moved like the winter wind over the tundra. He wove in and out of the morning and evening fog, barely visible except for his skull, wings, and halo. He stood out most when the fog finally faded, outline visible against the more-vibrant sedges and lichens which spread out in bleeding pools of gold and red. His rider had sent him on a simple mission: find a snowy owl. With the lack of snow and the plentiful food, one would have thought it an easy task. But perhaps the plent...

Where Bismuth had found the pinecone was rather irrelevant. As for what he wanted with it? The young dragon had to make his own fun—and he often did: stalking other creatures on land and on the sea bed; adding things to his growing hoard; and fishing when the mood suited him. But sometimes even a person’s most favorite hobbies in the entire world could be boring. So Bismuth had found the pinecone somewhere, and he had dragged it down to the bottom of the ocean. And he...

The mug of cocoa cooling on the counter would not have ordinarily caught Persephone’s eye. Chocolate, by the time it was made into cocoa, was too inorganic. It didn’t taste of the bitter cocoa plant, not the way that herbal teas often recalled their roots with extreme clarity. And one could forget any silly dairy additives like scoops of cream, a pat of butter, or a splash of milk. Such things were not for her! However, there was a conspicuous curl of cinnamon poking out of ...

When the porter said that he had Cinnamon ready for the sleigh rides tonight, this was, perhaps, not what the guests expected. Cinnamon towered over the sleigh—all decked out in cozy blankets and fairy lights. A harness wound around his chest and through the gap between his crest and his dorsal spines, and hefty ropes attached at his sides down to the sleigh. If he chose, at any moment, to break into a dead sprint, the guests would either have to hold on for their lives or be ...

Lanterns danced in the ever-dark of winter at the far, far north. This was the longest night, where the sun began waning as soon as it rose, only a handful of hours before relinquishing again to night. The darkness of the mind was, here, more acute, more damning. All living creatures needed light not just to live but to be well; when starved, many shriveled, and could only bide time ‘til the Solstice came. “I’m here,” a soft voice over the howl of the winter wind, a warm...

It had been Aither’s idea to be helpful. That wasn’t Meelo’s only reason for doing it—Meelo didn’t dislike helping people—but it had been a massive push towards actually doing it rather than wondering if there had been a possible solution and allowing the opportunity to pass her by. Which was to say that Meelo wasn’t opposed, but this hadn’t been Meelo’s idea at all. The harness was modified from a horse’s, tightened to fit her body. Meelo understood the impu...

The café was bustling in the early afternoon, clientèle huddled around intimate tables piled high with delicate, often elaborately-decorated patisserie and porcelain tea sets. The soft murmur of many quiet conversations were underscored by a duo of string players on a raised dais, playing so softly that one could forget that they were there. Hooves clopped on the café floor as Penne followed his rider towards a table set aside for one. A few people took note of him, and he shrank ev...

Gwen’s poncho had been left draped over a chair as the dragonrider had gone about her business in her den. That was where it lived, day in and day out, easily grabbed and slung on. Which meant that when it went missing, she knew it hadn’t been misplaced. It didn’t take long to find—after all, it was bright red. But the lump under it seemed shocked and sheepish to have been discovered. Kilauea peered big dark eyes up at his rider, tufted tail tucked close to his body and ...

Sometimes, being an enforcer meant standing around, being as threatening as one could be. Silent, stoic, the implicit threat of violence in being big and spiky and hard to hurt due to the thick scales all over Morn’s body. And sometimes—most of the time, even—keeping the peace meant mediating the most inane, childish conflicts between two adults who really ought to know better, fretting all the while that people were being insensible, possibly escalating, might require him to be ...

Enceladus had been born with another half, a mirror image. Family was, yes, blood, lineage: the identical wooden mask to his own, the great dragons from which they were descended. These basic facts had been known to him before he had broken his shell. But, like all dragons, his greatest affinity was to his rider, and he felt no greater calling than this: Blue, her back against Witch Hazel, both half asleep as a storm raged outside, the gentle rumble of thunder and endless...

The skitter-scuttling plap-plap-plap of Glitch’s feet could not have been more obvious even if he were trying to be sneaky. The bright gleam of his Star Pearl above him zipped through tables and benches, each covered in potted plants, large vegetables, and an endless amount of flowers. The bright Jungle dragon stopped suddenly, the after-image around him seeming to stop several frames later, then it lunged seconds before he did, squirreling up onto a tablecloth and waving his wings t...

The strawberry patch was a lovely place to be. This early in the morning, with spring still so very new, the air was crisp, nipping. But the ripening fruit lent a sweet taste to the air, sitting on the front of her tongue. And! When she found a ruby-red fruit, all trace of green youth gone, Angela could pluck it from the stem, let the flavor burst in her mouth, then subside with contentment until it came time to wend her way through the brush again. The strawberry thicket was es...

There was a swarm in the Great Tree. Bumblefree had been minding his own business, lazing on a distant branch, when he’d felt the distant buzz vibrating through the fine scales on his wings. With great reluctance, he’d peeled himself from his napping spot, and bounded in slow, frog-like hops from one branch to the next, until he found them. The mass of bees was larger than he’d anticipated; easily able to swallow a smaller Jungle dragon. This was a full colony, absconded f...

The long summer festival was coming to an end. Food stalls turned out their lights, shelves now bare of fruit and fried bread. Games were finally packed away, and livestock made quiet, settling noises as the deep blanket of night swept over the festival grounds. The merrymakers spread themselves out, waiting as a single person with a lantern lit a fuse on a not-too-distant hill. Explosions of light and color rocked the night sky. Oohs and aahs trailed from the gathered festival goers, ...

“Suhi.” A quiet, disagreeing noise; a smaller body burying into a larger one, eyes squeezed closed, shutting out the world. Affection bleeding into Ruin’s voice, sing-songing her name in a low croon, “Suuuuhi, it’s practically noon.” Ruin bent his body—never enough to actually disturb Sihu—and gently placed his muzzle against her back, making a nibbling motion that rocked her entire body. In the end, it was his metal faceplate that got her to sit up...

Waves crashed at the edges of the rocky shore. The night was brisk, biting, beaten back by the towering bonfire on the beach. The wood crackled and popped, smoke rising into the crystal-clear night. The wood they were burning smelled strangely sweet, a smell that only intensified with each pop and hiss as the fire cracked the wood open further, exposing damp pockets to be licked clean by the flames. Meena was some distance away, a beacon in her own right, gleaming like a star. Orange a...

Feet pounded down narrow streets, a soft cackle echoing off steep alley walls washed with distant neon signs. The sound of cloth flapping in the wind followed chased the eager dragon until she jumped, unleashing her artificial wings, golden in comparison to the other dark and drab colors of her, carrying her up and away from the city, precious cargo clutched close to her chest. Daphnis landed well past the city limits, orange, slitted eyes mirthfully curved as she examined her ill-gott...

Lights smeared the dark canvas of the night sky. At first, they’d been solitary flares, but now there was a steady shower, like a far-off distant rain of fire high above the sparse clouds. Bright, gleaming trails of light that soon dissipated into nothingness. Orm watched, steady, implacable. His fins and tail moved, pushing him through the still water of the lake. His wings hovered above the surface of the water, the magnetic force within them aching to rise towards the meteorites....