I believe I promised an excerpt of my third short story last time. So, here it is! Enjoy reading the first few pieces of Tales from Karatera 3: Clanless!
The following is a work in progress and has not been edited nor proofread. The final product may read differently to what is presented below
Dumu stood at the great gate of Aradsar alongside his fellow dragonkin, staring up in awe. Two colossal redstone towers stood on either side of an enormous wooden door, larger than anything he’d ever seen in Broken Egg village. Yhirax stood beside him, almost bouncing with eagerness, while Theera had placed herself in front of the two of them. Two long blue cloth banners flowed from the towers, each emblazoned with a roaring, sand-yellow dragon’s head with a thick horn jutting from its snout – a depiction of Gharamax the Storm Dragon, king of the Bluebane Alliance.
They had arrived with what seemed like hundreds of other dragonkin; red firescales, blue stormscales, brown rockscales like Dumu, dragonkin of all descents had gathered here as fresh recruits for the Bluebanes. Surrounding the crowd were proper Bluebane warriors, dressed in scale armour and blue cloaks, their faces impassive behind their draconic helms. Dumu towered a good head and a half over of all of them, thick of limb and broad of shoulder. He’d hoped that he would find other dragonkin who were as large as he was, but as it had been back home, there were none who matched him in size or strength.
Slowly, with a deep groan, the doors began to open, and the dragonkin swarmed in.
Dumu had never seen a town quite like Aradsar. A human settlement, it was built into a narrow river valley within the hills, its buildings chiselled into the cliffs and crags. The humans watched Dumu and his brethren warily from the windows of their stone homes and the walkways that connected the two sides of the valley. Colourful streamers were tied across the walkways, each bearing the symbol of a dragon clan.
“There’s hundreds of them!” Yhirax exclaimed. The young sandscale had a grin plastered across his maw, his ruby red eyes gleaming and his tail swinging back and forth with excitement. “It’s not just warrior clans, either. I can see smithing clans, witching clans… that clan over there, that’s dedicated to Archdragon Tiamat, I’m certain…”
“And that one,” Dumu added, pointing up at one of the largest banners, hanging from a walkway. It was a dragon’s skull, white against black, adorned with two long, forward-facing horns. “That’s the Ntharls, isn’t it?”
Yhirax’s grin widened. “Aye, that’s them.” He elbowed Dumu playfully. “Our future clan, eh?”
“You think so?” Dumu asked, uncertain. The Ntharls of the Bone Pit were the mightiest warrior clan in the eastern deserts, their sworn clansmen numbering in the hundreds. To be sworn in with such a clan was an honour that a common dragonkin like Dumu could only dream of.
“Of course!” Yhirax insisted. “A clan as fearsome as the Ntharls? They would kill to have Dumu the Giant amongst their ranks!”
“I don’t like that name,” Dumu mumbled, turning away. “Giants are cruel and savage. They eat hatchlings and destroy villages.”
“Dumu the Mountain, then,” Yhirax suggested. “Or Dumu the Rock?”
Theera did not look half as thrilled as Yhirax did. Their green-scaled brood-sister was looking up at the Ntharl’s banner with wary eyes, the frills on her jaw fanning out anxiously. “Ntharl Jhex is mad,” she muttered. “You’ve heard the rumours.”
“So? That’s all they are. Rumours,” Yhirax replied dismissively. “And they didn’t stop you from joining, did they?”
“Of course not,” Theera replied irritably. “I’m no coward. But I’m here to free my kin in slavery, not to join a clan.”
“Can’t we do both?” Yhirax laughed. “Do as you will, but by the end of this war, Dumu and I will be clansmen.”
End of excerpt.
So, that’s it! Let me know what you thought in the comments below, and make sure to share it through the links below! I’ve also updated the story pages to let you add comments, so if, for some reason, you want to go and write your opinions on Spiritbinders a week after reading it, you’re in luck! I’ll make sure that each page lets you do comments from here on out. For some reason, I thought they were added automatically.
I’ll see you all next week!
Sprouting Nonsense 
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