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Plaxica 85/85
He sniffed the air of this part of Ironworks and felt the scent of death and of the dragon's spilled lifeblood. The closeness of this many banewolves affected him even in his owl form, but the scent of the dragon was a scent already known to him and he recognized it.
His sense of smell mostly clouded he could not accurately say whether there were any banewolves close. Visually he could not see any of them, but these were creatures he did not know. And the unknown was always to be feared. He started going over an ancient poem he had learnt several years ago.
"I must not fear
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass
Over me and through me.
And when it has gone past
I will turn the inner eye
To see its path.
Where the fear has gone
There will be nothing.
Only I will remain...."
- Bene Gesserit litany against fear, from Frank Herbert's Dune series.
Slightly calmed down he circled the area where he had sensed the smell of spilled dragon blood, until he finally spotted the life-fluid of the ancient creature. It stretched in a large area, but there was no body to be seen. Could the banewolves have totally destroyed it? All to be seen was the massive quantity of blood. Not even a single scale remained of Arcades. Half-paralysed by shock it took Plaxica a few seconds to remember to flap his wings. He could see the blood soaking into the ground slowly. Much of it still remained and he could see it would still take several minutes to disappear.
Plaxica wanted to make sure that no banewolves would disturb him while he uncorrupted the blood so he circled the area several times more, while his thoughts started racing. Something was nagging at the back of his brain, but he couldn't quite get it yet.
Strangely the spirit inside of him had been silent for the last half an hour, and hadn't reacted in the least to the sight. Maybe it was already preparing for what Tao had said it knew needed to be done?
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