Much as Ellisaria dislikes the intimation of weakness, she dislikes being impaled on a mountainside even more. Her human form is simply more subtle, and thus better suited to evading the gronn.
Unfortunately, it is also conveniently sized to be eaten in one gulp by the mirror-faced snake (what) that comes out of literally nowhere.
At least she is alive to be indignant, even if she's no longer in Outland.
"Where are the stewards of this world? They clearly need reminding of their duty." Earth cracks and splits beneath her feet, and the rock starts melting.
"The ones who used to claim that title removed themselves from the world an age ago, and even before they did not much concern themselves with these parts."
She doesn't seem particularly threatened, but she does stay where she is, watching Ellisaria.
"Then if there is no one else, it will be me. I will not see a world be destroyed."
"One sorely needed." She settles down on her back legs. "I would know more of this world and its history."
She hums. "By the elven count, this year is the two thousandth, nine hundredth, and forty first of the Third Age. I was born in the seven hundredth and seventy first of this same millenium, so most of what I know is second hand. But I like hearing stories, and I've traveled far."
"Some time before the elves began counting years, there were the gods. The greater gods are called the Valar, and the lesser are called the Maiar. They made the world, and then they started fighting - mostly the Vala Melkor and his loyal Maiar against the others. Melkor's enemies won eventually, and they locked him up. I suppose he must have escaped, because he started fighting the peoples of a continent that used to be to the West - Beleriand - right before the start of the First Age, when the sun and moon were put in the sky."
"Melkor made the orcs, the trolls, and the dragons, and many others who don't matter anymore, and he had a great fortress in the north of Beleriand. Glaurung and Ancalagon lived and fought in the First Age, along with many other great dragons of legend. The Valar didn't do much about Melkor for a while - story-tellers disagree on why - until they decided all at once to go to war against him, with the elves they'd been keeping as pets on their continent, farther to the west. They killed most of the great dragons, and defeated Melkor again."
"Stories are pretty sure Melkor's going to come back someday, but no one agrees when or where or how. Most dragons think he'll make a new golden age for us but that's dumb, he'll just tell us what to do and probably get us killed picking fights for dumb reasons. Beleriand sunk during the war, and everyone fled east, unless they were elves and the Valar liked them, in which case they went west. That was the end of the First Age."
"A group of people with mixed elven and human blood ruled the western parts of the world not controlled by the Valar. They were annoyed they weren't immortal like their elven ancestors, and declared war on the Valar. This would've been a really good idea except for how the Valar dropped a mountain on them. The Valar then left the world in a huff. Somebody turned the world from the flat plane into a sphere and made the sun and moon into actual sensible things - they had been giant glowing fruits because the Valar are weird - I'm not sure that part's true, it sounds like poetic license."
"Then the humans and elves left on this continent got into a war with one of Melkor's lieutenants. The elves and humans supposedly won, ending the Second Age and starting the Third, except for how the lieutenant then showed back up a few thousand years later and started trying to recruit dragons to his cause, like a really annoying roach. This mostly didn't work, but some scattered bands of dragons got into a war with the dwarves a few hundred years ago. They won, but then they dispersed with their treasure, which Smaug then killed them for."
"Smaug decided to conquer a dwarven kingdom just before I was born and has been hanging out there ever since, sitting on his pile of treasure and presumably contemplating how much of an asshole he is."
...It's not more of a mess than stamping out the Black Empire was. The aftermath of that was better handled, though, due in no small part to the assistance of the dragonflights.
"The returned lieutenant first," she decides. "I do not like this Smaug either, so I believe I will kill him as well."
Bounce. "I'll help! Though I don't know where the lieutenant is hiding. He's a coward."
She grins. Or maybe bares her teeth. It's hard to say.
"That'll be quite exciting."
"I would still suggest confronting Smaug, first - he doesn't move around very often, and it would be annoying if he allied with that roach. And if you want to unite the dragons... Smaug is a symbol, in a way some distant shadow isn't."
"The Lonely Mountain. It's to the east and south of here - about a hundred miles east, the same south. Just south of the Grey Mountains over there, through the big pass." She gestures to a sharp range rising to their south, surrounded in a hazy grey fog.
"Magic of all sorts. Teleportation, conjuration, evocation, divination. As a member of the black dragonflight, I also have a connection to the earth, and can call forth elementals at need." She taps the ground with a forepaw and a small pile of rocks arise and form into a vaguely humanoid shape, about a foot tall. She prods it with a claw, and it raises two 'fists' to smash down on the ground, creating a small fissure.
"My songs are nowhere near that powerful," she says, a bit sadly. "You're impressive - I can control wind a bit, go without sustenance for a short time, shake the earth, make myself fly faster and higher, and I'm working on targeted lightning when there's a storm - I haven't much tested my ability to see through and cast illusions and control minds, but most fire-breathing dragons are supposed to be able to do that. I can counter-song the handful of other dragons I've fought." She pauses. "I think dragons around a lot of magic do some of that automatically, too, but it's - hard, out here, to have any sort of power."
She makes a happy noise. "Gold's also got magic in it - why most dragons hoard the stuff - but it's magic that Melkor put there. It feels like slime. Silver and iron are better."
"Interesting. We might not, noticeably, when ambient magic is high - you never hear of Ancalagon's hoard."
"I'm unsure if it's the same sort of thing, then, or if high magic places would be notably more powerful for you, too."
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