When the dark things were driven into the ocean, some of them took mortal men and women into the depths with them. Others crafted servants and left them in the world above the depths to carry out their will. One such a servant was a dragon carved from a solid mountain of onyx, with two sapphires for eyes, and given life through the arcane ritual sacrifices of the dark things.

For years on end the onyx dragon spread its terror through the lands of mankind, carrying off men and women for its masters, tumbling down the walls men built up, and burning to ash all their farmlands. Those lands burned by the dragon’s flame never grew back the same, for the creature was eternally tainted by its awful creation, and its own twisted nature was burned into the earth itself.

News of this dragon reached a kingdom in the lands seven leagues past the nine mountains, where they learned the dragon planned to carry off the men and women of their kingdom, tumble down their walls, and burn all their lands to ash. None knew what could be done about the beast until at last the youngest of the king’s sons spoke and said, “We must ask Halfshadows.” All the princes, and the king and queen, and all the knights and generals and ladies in waiting fell silent, but the young prince was right.

Thus the king sent his fastest runner to the deep cave where Halfshadows dwelled, bearing news of the dragon’s coming. Halfshadows was so called because her mother was Shadow, Night’s handmaiden. Her father was rumored to be one of the mortal descendents of Blood (sometimes erroneously known as Life, and sometimes even more erroneously attributed with the creation of the world), or Blood himself. Halfshadows recieved the runner and his news, and dismissed the trembling messenger without any reply. The darkness in her home deepened as she considered the dragon’s presence, and finally she strode out of her cave and waited for its arrival.

She stood upon an outcrop of stone for three days, watching for the dragon. On the fourth day it appeared, a dragon the size of a mountain, with a shadow that blocked the sun. But Halfshadows was her mother’s daughter, and took hold of the dragon by its enormous shadow. With a wrench of her hand, she brought the dragon crashing to earth.

The dragon reared up to its full height, raging, roaring, flame pouring from its jaws at Halfshadows. But flames have ever danced with shadows, and thus Halfshadows danced around the dragon’s flame. She plucked the dragon’s corruption from this inferno, and with it she adorned her arms and brow. “Vile homunculus. Let your masters learn about corrupting my blood, my land, and trespassing on what is mine.”

With the dragon’s own blood on her hands, she tore its shadow in twain and cracked its onyx heart in two. She scattered its shadow to the four corners of the earth, and the dragon was shattered, spilling out the last of its foul blood amongst its own obsidian fragments.

To this day, obsidian casts no shadow. As to Halfshadows, she is perhaps still in her cave, for as much as she guards her kingdom, she always walks through the nightmares of all who dwell there.

The dark things learned their lesson well that day. There were far worse and more frightening things living in the world of mortals than anything of their own design.