Seculded away in the sheltering shade of the Southern Ash woods, the forest dragon Garjan sat with one of his many siblings while they idly watched over some of the local youth as they pranced and played. Anyone who had ever spent time with energetic young folk knew they were fonts of constant motion and sound, and the trio Garjan was keeping a watch over this morning were no different. Holding yelled conversations while constantly shoving and pushing into one another, the three laughed in between constant chasing of one another. The group consisted of two fledgling dragons, one green and one blue, both intermittently fleeing from a human youth wielding a stick that she brandished with giddy enthusiasm as she yelled in a shrill voice.

The trio seemed to be arguing, amidst their unrelated play, about the appearance of the earth dragon that had recently passed through their home in a confrontation with the would-be figurehead of the southern ash, Garjan. And such claims they made! If their stories were to be believed, the monstrous beast was easily twenty foot tall at the shoulder, maybe bigger. Dozens of razor sharp teeth, bright red demonic eyes that glowed and oozed blood, steel horns and talons, spikes jutting from his scales, no doubt filled with earth dragon venom. The human seemed convinced she had the right information, claiming she once saw a book with a picture of an earth dragon, clearly making her the authority.

"Oh dear, shouldn't you set them straight?" Asked the smaller of the child-sitters, looking up to Garjan with an amused chuckle. Garjan only chuckled, shaking his head a bit.

"Let them believe what they like. Legend and lore is one of the old brown's many strategies, after all." Garjan offered with a shrug of his shoulders, heavy set green giving a yawn as they continued to watch over the youth.

"Oh? You sound like you want to do him favors. Surprising after the thrashing he gave you. I figured you'd be cross with the Elder Earth, at the very least." the younger male chuckled, sounding a bit surprised at his older brother's response, his eyes looking up to the shattered horn and and mangled base scales on Garjan's head. The older of the two chuckled, casting his own eyes upward, though he obviously couldn't see his damaged horn. Still, he knew it would regrow given time.

"I crossed the Elder Earth himself. Not only did I survive, but no one else was harmed, and the Southern Ash wasn't razed and burned. A broken horn, bruised head and likely a minor concussion seems like a fair trade for my gamble." Garjan offered with a shrug of his shoulders, chuckling as he recalled the singular headbutt from Cain that had leveled him unconscious in an instant.

"Master Ollimar will not be pleased when he learns about your plot, dear brother. Was it worth it?" Willow chided with a toothy grin. Garjan only smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

"I'm certain. It won't be the first, nor the last time, honestly. I think, in the end, he'll be pleased to learn he was correct. Cain is obviously no longer the monstrous scourge from the storybooks. The old brown has changed."




The second commission I managed to get from the ever talented  ashary. Please go check out their gallery when you have the time!

I really wanted to see a rendition of Cain in their style and I'm pretty pleased with how rad their take on the old brown came out. It's a bit of a design departure, but that's always the fun of putting your character in the hands of artists! Fearsome and almost otherworldly, I imagine the mythos for the seldom seen brown would vary from group to group.