The legend does not say who the magi was that calmed the creatures down, and it gives no more detail other than that. So, I played around with the idea and came up with a story...Jaktus dragons are thought to be from the east, from lands unknown. Their arrival was abrupt and unexpected, and almost ended in bloodshed. Jaktus dragons are social creatures, and did not hesitate to wander into towns. The people grew extremely agitated as excited dragons began knocking things over, and tried to force the dragons away. These companions did not take kindly to what they considered an attack, and retaliated. The blue orbs that jaktus dragons carry with them are not simply for show – they are full of magic. When thrown, these orbs shock and immobilize, and that was exactly what happened. Luckily for all, a magi was present when this unfolded, and gained back her movement first. She calmed the beasts down, and eventually all of these dragons were shown the way to The Keep, where they were welcomed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Koffi quietly strolled through the market, looking at the different booths that lined the street, filled with new wares that had just come into town. Some of the booth venders shouted out, calling for people to buy their wares, others were busy selling their popular items, and others still were sitting back on chairs, enjoying the peace that only a small town can bring to a merchant.
Koffi stopped at a booth filled with bright colored scarves and picked up a gold trimmed one to admire.
The merchant selling it smiled at her. “G’day to ya, my dear. This scarf is only… only…” he gasped suddenly “Oh my!”
Koffi looked up at the merchant, seeing alarm written on his face as he stared at something behind her. She turned and looked around, noticing several other people were looking up, mesmerized. She followed their gaze up to the highest rooftop in town, then she caught her breath.
Staring down from the rooftop was a dragon-like creature that she had never seen before. It was wingless, being purple and teal in color, with golden horns and hypnotizing gold eyes, and the strangest glowing blue orbs floated lazily around it.
There was a clunk behind Koffi. She turned, looking up, to find another one of the creatures on the rooftop behind her, staring down at her curiously. It leaned out to her, pulling its front feet in close, seeming to hover in the air. It inched its way closer to her, looking between her and the shiny gold trimmed scarf in her hands.
Koffi swallowed, gathering up her nerves which were jumping around inside of her with excitement. She was a magi. Befriending creatures was kind of her job. She should not be nervous.
She slowly raised her hands, holding out the scarf to the creature.
It locked its golden eyes onto the scarf and leaned in closer, sniffing.
Suddenly, there was a scream, and the creature jerked back, alarmed.
Koffi turned to find the source of the scream and saw three similar creatures digging into barrels of fruit, greedily chomping and gobbling the fruits up.
“Get away from that! Get away from that!” a woman shouted before picking up a switch and striking one of the creatures on the head.
“No! Don’t do that!” Koffi cried, but it was too late.
The creature that was struck stumbled back with a wail, shaking its head in pain, then it snarled. The glowing orbs floating around it grew brighter and spun in a wide circle around the creature, striking the woman. The woman’s face went white. Her entire body suddenly went stiff and she fell to the ground like a log.
Shouts and screams filled the area as people began to run in different directions, exciting the creatures and frightening them.
“Wait! Stop! You’ll only make it worse!” Koffi cried, trying to stop a few panicked people.
She heard a snarl behind her and she turned to see one of the dragon-like creatures, the one that had investigated the scarf, floating in the air. Its orbs grew bright right before they shot toward her. One of the orbs hit her in the shoulder, but instead of the pain she was expecting, Koffi only felt an incredible numbing sensation run up and down her limbs.
“That wasn’t so bad.” she thought to herself.
Just then, her arms and legs went stiff. She began to weave, her body unable to hold itself up.
“Oh no… oh no! This is gonna…” she toppled over and hit the cobblestone street with a hard thud “…hurt.” she concluded. To her surprise, though, she did not feel a thing. No pain. Nothing. She tried to move, but she had absolutely no feeling in her body whatsoever. A bee could sting her and she would not feel it.
Helpless, she watched in horror as the creatures, angry and scared, struck down more people, immobilizing them as well. This only caused the panic to escalate in the village, and soon, Koffi spotted people gathering up bows and arrows, clubs, pitchforks, and even swords, to force the creatures off with.
It seemed like she was helpless for agonizing ages, but within a few short minutes, the feeling began to come back into Koffi’s limbs. She staggered up to her feet, stumbling around as her legs were uncooperative. She had no time to recuperate though. She had to stop all of this chaos before both people and creatures were hurt.
She tumbled into a man with a club, knocking him down to the ground. He looked at her in surprise, and she grabbed his weapon, jerking it away from him. “Slop! Vou’ll unly mak ee vurs. I cun hep!” she grabbed the man by his shirt and shook him “Weh cont squirt zem!”
The man blinked at her, and that was when she realized that her lips and tongue were still numb.
“Mu vase ith gum…” she said, running her fingers across her face.
Despite the chaos, the man actually grinned. “Are you okay, m’lady? Those creatures did not seriously injure you?”
She nodded. “No herm dun,” she replied.
He nodded and helped her up to her feet. “You are a magi? Can you calm these creatures?”
Koffi nodded, then turned and stumbled out into the middle of the street. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the words to a harmless light spell, reciting them in her head. Blue light began to glow all around her and spread out from her like a gigantic bubble until it covered a quarter of the village. Then, just like a bubble, it popped, creating a shower of sparks.
The sound got everyone’s attention, especially the new creatures. Everyone stopped screaming and yelling, and the creatures stopped terrorizing the villagers. Slowly, they began to float from rooftop to rooftop, moving in closer to Koffi.
She cast a few more spells, creating illusions of pink and purple fireflies, which mesmerized the dragon-like creatures. She waved her hand, creating a ribbon of sparkling gold light that weaved around her in a circle. This drew in the creature that had been curious about the scarf. It floated down from the rooftop and landed on the ground. It moved in closely, hypnotized by the sparkling light, until Koffi made the light disappear with a soft “poof”, which made a shower of golden sparkles fall to the ground. The creature watched the sparkles fall, awe written across its face, then it looked directly at her. It blinked, its eyes filled with an imploring look, and it made a chortling sound, begging for more lights.
Koffi smiled. She waved her hand and made a tiny explosion of sizzling little lights that slowly spiraled down to the ground in little ribbons.
The creature bounced excitedly on its feet and snorted at the lights, blowing them up higher so they could continue to spiral downward.
The largest of the creature’s came forward then, his golden eyes glinting with wisdom and age. He studied the lights for a moment, then he looked at Koffi. His eyes were soft with kindness and bright with intelligence.
Koffi raised her hand to him, palm out, in a nonthreatening gesture. He studied it for a moment, inching his nose in closer before smelling her hand. He blew his warm breath over it several times then he gently nestled his soft nose into the palm of her hand with a warm purr vibrating from his throat.
The other creatures all began to make a chattering noise in excitement, and they all crowded in closer, each wanting to investigate their newfound friend.
Koffi giggled as one creature began to nibble at her robes and another at her hair. One grabbed her hat between its teeth and jerked it off her head, waving it around in the air gleefully.
Koffi laughed. “All right, all right!” she snatched her hat back from the creature “Let’s go to the Keep. I know some people who will be very interested in meeting all of you.”
She stroked the curious, scarf and light loving dragon on the face, then she began to back away. Each of the creatures moved with her eagerly, so she turned and began to walk toward the Keep. The creatures all followed, some gliding over the rooftops gracefully and the rest walking and pushing in as close to her as possible. They knocked tables and barrels over in their exuberance, but none of them noticed. They all purred and hummed happily, bouncing and dancing, some pausing momentarily to investigate different objects before turning and following her again.
When they approached the Keep, and the dragon-like creatures saw all the different companions wandering around the yards and gardens of the Keep, they each let out whoops and trills of joy and scampered off, each finding a different animal that they found utterly fascinating to investigate.
Koffi was met by several surprised magi, and she smiled when she saw the awe lighting up their faces. “I need to go see the Archmage.” she said slowly, glad the feeling had come back into her face and lips “It appears that we have some new friends to learn about.”
Thank you so much for commenting!
