User:Peregrine2976/Fanfiction/Scarab of the Sands/Prologue

It was night over the desert sands of Silithus. Though the Silithid had been crushed months ago, the watchers of the Cenarion Circle were wary. The horrors witnessed in the depths of the Silithid hives were too deep to brush away after so short a time.

A shadow briefly obscured the moon. The watchers felt a chill creep over them, but looking up at the black night sky, they could see nothing. Shivering, they pulled their cloaks tighter about them and dismissed it as an errant cloud.

But within the ruins of Ahn’Quiraj, the shadow alighted on the sandy ground with a scrape of claws and a flap of wings. Burning eyes gazed over the destroyed temple, then found what they sought. As the being moved toward its goal, a shaft of moonlight revealed black scales, partly covered over with metal plates hammered into the very flesh of the beast.

Reaching a specific destroyed structure, the gargantuan black dragon stopped, then began to dig with his front claws, shifting tons of debris and rock and sand with each scoop, searching…

“What… do you think… you are doing…”

Annoyed, Deathwing turned to search for the source of the interloping voice. The ruins were empty, save for him. A light breeze began to stir the sand, and quite suddenly the breeze picked up into a gale, swirling the sand into the form of a dragon’s head.

Deathwing turned his back to this phenomenon, unperturbed. “What do you think I am doing?”

“You are not welcome here…”

Deathwing laughed a deep, booming laugh, then turned to regard the swirling sandy dragon’s head again. “And what can you do to stop me, whelp? Not even your master could do so!” Reaching out a giant claw, he crushed the sand head, and the projection collapsed in on itself.

A voice whispered across the sand. “You… will not… succeed…”

With a roar of triumph, Deathwing extracted a small, gem-like object from the ruin. “I already have, Bronze!” With that, he took flight, the gem clutched in his claw, and with a flash he disappeared.

The watchers over Silithus felt a shockwave ripple from the ruins. Alarmed, they rushed to their towers and battlements to peer into the night, attempting to discern the source.

But by then, it was too late. --- Part I >>>