A creature carved seemingly from golden bronze walked decisively upon the pearly white sand of a timeless desert. Thousands of polished metallic scales on her body shone uhe steltions of the Great Dark Beyond, bathing the Caverns of Time iernal crepuscur light.
She tilian behemoth. Her armored body stood proudly on four thick legs ending in massive bck manicured cws, plemented by a spiky, club-like tail and a rge pair of leathery wings. A simirly reptilian head with magnifit horns was at the end of her serpentine neck.
Ignorant mortals would flee in terror at the mere sight of her.
But one gnce was enough to distinguish her from a lesser beast. Her slitted pupils glowing a pale blue spoke of eons past, a history older than almost all mortal civilization. Around her horns were ornate rings, aed between them above her scaley eyes ridges was a posed of deep aquamariohrumming with power.
She was a dragon, an ageless creature of legend elevated to aence above the lesser species by the Titans to be the guardians of Azeroth. As of retly, they were perceived as monsters of fire even if it was circumstances f the life-loving ones eo it atrocities.
She shared the burden of this prejudice even if she was from a different flight, though she wasn't guiltless regarding the former. It must happen. Her appreciation had no role to py.
She was of the Bronze. She was Soridormi, the Prime sort of Nozdormu, the Timeless One and Aspect of Time. She was the sed in and of the Bronze Dragonflight.
Her movements suddenly reached a standstill, stopping in one of the rare few areas that could be sidered among the residual echoes of a multitude of timeways seamlessly merging with the Caverns.
As such, it wouldn't be unon to observe in this desert a cluster of estranged pirees with snow on their brahe fragments of a human vilge, and kaldorei ruins with only their tips left unburied. Each was ever-ging; one moment, it could be one, and the other another, or even somethiirely different.
It depended on the flow of time—what was being do was why, until retly, the theme had been intensely lively iation. But none of the unique aesthetic quirks of the bronzes' dwelling were of the matter. It was mundane, yet they were a sign of a most ret inprehensible disturbao the True Timeline.
"You slumber still…" Soridormi whispered softly, her wings curling around her body in anxiousness as she gazed at the Timeless One. Anxiousness could be seen by any familiar in draic body nguage, her wings held tight around her body.
His stilting body dwarfed hers–a true leviathan–as he y there in a profound state of meditation. An oppressive pressure emanating from his serene otent enough almost to make her bow her head and kneel out of sheer instinct.
Nozdormu state wasn't w by itself. He was not wounded or ill, her of body nor mind. He was studying, searg for the source or sources of these unforeseen ges, and proteg time from the schemes of tless as was his eternal duty.
Time was easily swayed and led astray if not for his presence by the efforts of baleful Infinite Dragonflight–who had been wly discreet as of those time irregurities–wishing all the opposite and others such malevoleies. Though it wasn't exclusively that, his mission was broader. Still, the smaller tasks, such as fixing the time anomalies geed by foolish mortals pying with forces outside their uanding, were usually the tasks of far lower flight members.
Unless it was critical, none of that was the source of worry. It was something familiar but entirely different, temporal anomalies that were never seen before, and the many ripples spread chaos in the primary timeline and its timeways.
Calling them temporal anomalies was less than an accurate representation of what they were, yet there was an absence of an equivalent. For all i and purpose, they were natural in all points–they were the purest expression of free will and not a viotion of the timeline by anyone or from anythihey had no reason to exist.
Every sed that went by with these anomalies' existehey resulted in uable ges where they shouldn't have been.
It was quite a bizarre drum.
Time had little it could be pared to; a river was one of the closest tenders. It was one of inprehensible depth and size, and only a fra of it was for the bronze dragons to protect, uand, and perceive—a current within a stream of endless current.
This current was tered around Azeroth but was the foundation of much more. And upon this, they were to fulfill the grand vision of Aman'Thul, the True Timelihe intended fate.
For that, they were to orchestrate a future that would stop the Hour of Twilight, to make the end of all not e to pass, and the river kept flowing, pure and unaltered. The Bronze Dragonflight's most noble and important duty was their purpose, cause, and mission.
The True Timeline wasn't to be mistaken for proof of the existenore tha was finite in its infinity. It was why their mission was of the highest importa was the only path to enforce among tless false and undesired possibilities the primary timeline could flow.
Timeways were what could be, the if and maybe of histories that have not happened. Some were absolutely parallel to the True Timelih little distin, and others were unreizable, such as everyone being murlocs.
They were ephemeral, g the tinuity of this strand of the endless river. They were unstable rivulets prone, if left unatteo vanish spontaneously. It may take a sed to a decade, but there wasn't an average. It didn't mean they were false, unimportant illusions, however. They were as real as the primary timeli remained fleeting, as was everything within and as they should, for the opposite was dangerous.
The Caverns of Time was situated above this river–still intricately tied to the present of the True Timeline–aiding the dragons in studying and swimming through it.
It was an observatory and bea in those turbulent pasts, presents, and future waters to maintaiimeline in its perfect state and stop any timeways from spilling where it didn't belong.
The river was a stant, the upper for the past, the middle for the present, and the lower course for the future were one singurity existing in synization, the first affeg the highest rippling through all following.
Time travel was no elementary matter, regardless of how om its use was for the dragons of bro had severe limitations and sported immense danger.
Many points were bnk, metaphorical sediment blurring the crystal clear water, others inaccessible, a cascade rendering the swim impossible. Lastly, they weren't the sole creatures treading those waters. None were mutually exclusive, and that scarcely was all.
'Yet none of that corresponds to what we have seen.' Soridormi walked away after a few seds of p, her destination to get the report of younger dragons.
Time hasn't been altered in any way that could be perceived by her or the Aspect of Time, the two most in tuh this facet of the world. If they couldn't se, then little of anyone else could.
Yet something had evidently been altered.
The first signs were of Ursol sing Vordrassil of its corruption, but nothing was do the time, for nothing could have been done.
The Bronze Dragonflight couldn't trick the Wild God with their avaible resources; heless, there weren't any arguments to give that would stop his rational and rightful a without raising arms.
This left violence, and simirly, it wasn't a viable option. As were among the few creatures the dragons o be extremely mindful of, and Ursol was among the oldest, stro, wisest, and most knowledgeable. Of course, aside from the Aspects, not everything was a nail to hammer.
It was without diving into his importao the True Timeline or the repercussions an attack would have on his person and the ce of it failing with its price. Again, the bronze dragons weren't alone, and moves of that magnitude were indiscreet.
Uhere was aential crisis, going this extreme route was unnecessary. Only certain critical points iimeline were absolutely required to happen, and this wasn't among them.
Sarios fwlessly proceedihe exception, and a simir result happen through distinct s of events.
This event was arguably positive in the end; even with how te it had been noticed, Nozdormu had chosen to foore pressing s, and Soridormi agreed—a mistake. It had been a mistake to believe the Bear Lord had one day sehe corruption and decided to rid his territory of it.
It might remain true, but whatever it was, Ursol possessed knowledge he shouldn't have had. The Wild God's voyaging to Kalimdor by using Dream Portals and giving warnings of the sed invasion of the Burning Legion to arius was frighteningly arming. And this scarcely was the only anomaly.
It roof enough that something was incredibly wrong, and Ursol was unknowingly used as a vehicle for it. Yet no abnormal energy trace was on his perso time magic, Void tainted, or anything of its likeness.
The Bear of Wisdom was normal, free of mind, body, and soul, ued by any outside forbsp;Nothing was wrong with him.
It was fusing.
What wasn't were the results.
The Long Vigil of the night elves immediately stopped at this revetion. Many of the druids awakehe sentinels sharpeheir arrows, and the priestesses blessed their fellow warriors.
It couldn't be fully halted. It had been too sudden to react. It has never happened in any timeways and future they have studied. It couldn't have been foreseen—an infuriatingly om occurrence as of te.
'Yet no trace of ancy be detected… it's as if there is none. How? It ot be.' The Prime sort frowned, her mah showing as anger and fusion fshed over her draic visage.
It could be aensive vision given to Ursol or one he had, but that possibility was rendered null.
The Timeless One's sense couldn't have been duped. He would have se; how mi might have ged nothing. Prophetic visio ripples. Pebbles made spshes; be the thrower a child or an Old God. One of such magnitude couldn't have passed through the . Yet it did the impossible and tio do so.
It should be impossible without leaving any evidence. Besides some very precise exceptions, it couldn't be avoided, and even then… it shouldn't be possible.
The Bronze Dragonflight held no authority over dimensioranged from the physical world like the Emerald Dream and Elemental Pne.
They were blindspots, but be that as it may, traces would have bee behind–they, as everything, evewistiher, were part of the stream, the velocity of its flow of no effed Ursol partly being of the Dreaming would and should have left hints.
Against all ats, there wasn't anything to search for what was wrong in the fabrics of the time tinuum. Nothing was amiss. The stream's flow had suddenly diverted without rhyme or reaso was as virgin of viotion as possible. The True Timeline was slowly evaporating, and all they had sisted of non-answers.
It was absurd and ao logic itself. It was why time travel wasn't a solution. It was a response sent to instabilities in the flux of the time tinuum; doing it in most circumstances was wishing for an uable catastrophe to happen.
It was a plex mathematical equation with a result needing to be as close to ral as possible; moving through time would push it to the positive ative and be an exploitable twist in time.
The few expnations implied a grim reality–a failure of their missio a being equal to the Titans at worst and at best vastly superior to Nozdormu or discrete enough to slip past his preternatural perceptions effortlessly.
Was it the Light? It wasn't unlikely. Then… was it Elune? If so. Shouldn't it be her High Priestess or arius, the receptacle of this knowledge? The Titan Keepers, perhaps?
Odyn was one of the principal suspects; his entrapment in the Hall of Valor was not absolute, and he could have sent Avatar to uh Ursol, who wouldn't ignore his words, false or not. This realm was also nearly impossible to glimpse as it was sealed off by magic, simir to the one used for the Elemental Pne.
Additionally, the once Prime Designate of Azeroth vehemently abhorred the dragons–judging them foolish, unworthy, and dangerous–and was one of the rare few that would possess this vast amount of information. He was not unknown to the Light as well, quite the trary.
The slippery ever, plotting Bde of the Bck Empire was not void of suspi. It might be an a scheme stretg before the rise of the Dragon Aspects, for all the bronze dragons were aware.
As, this all remained proofless jectures. No decisive clusions could be drawheless acted upon. The risk was simply too great to shoot in the dark.
Though dreadful as it was, they may be blind and deaf, but they weren't wingless, toothless, or cwless, and the timeline wasn't to permaly derail further than it already did. No matter the cost.
It was Soridormi's mission; the utter absence of any modification of the timeline, even if it had been, didn't stop the Bronze Dragonflight from reag adequately to realigimelio its true path.
Speaking of… perfect timing as was expected of a bronze.
"Mother!" A smaller if bulkier wyrm than her called loudly, and she restrained herself from smiling fondly at him. The present wasn't proo be used for pleasantries, and his call was sharp and full of tensioions were for the future.
"I was just searg for you, Anaos," Soridormi said, her head tilted to the side as a younger female dragon hastily arrived in her field of view from behind. The smaller one bowed deeply and was aowledged with a curt nod.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm te!" The you dragon of the three cried out, wiping her wing out to kill her momentum, nearly causio eat a mouthful of sand and make a small cloud of it.
"You as well, u, and I uand. I hope you both are well." The Prime sort added warmly, sitting on the sand before deeply sighing, exhaustion clear in her voice, "Nozdormu remains searg, and I must repeat not to disturb him… Now. Please give me your report."
Anaos went first, with a heavy frown over his scaley eyebridges, "The kaldorei are receptive to our reendations and be endeared on the correct path forward. From my estimation, intervention at critical time points to dissolve the anomalies remains necessary. Avoiding Tyrande waking her mate had not been an easy matter."
The male wyrm paused, "The mortals are not blind. To be truthful, Mother, the price to pay will be heavy. The chaos of the war and our visage fents will help diffuse the worst of the fallback, but the mortals' trust as our as are irrevocably unraveled will be broken regardless. It could prove problematic ter."
"Indeed, yet so be it." Soridormi decred her tone, holding no pce fuments, "If the Hour of Twilight came to pass, then we would lose more tharust and friendship of mortals. That be regaihey are fetful. Sacrifice must be made. And you, u, anything you have noticed I o be aware of?"
"Yes. And it's big and furry."
"Go on." The female wyrm said, with a keen i and a hint ency, and the younger female abided, her cherry self jarringly shifting to seriousness.
"A young furbolg uhe name of Ohto, the student of Ursol from my iigation. He exists in other times but never like this, even when he isn't stillborn. He is directly responsible for the Grimtotem deviation, and that's the least noticeable aspect of his. Ursod Ursol love him, and the tter kind of adopted him. Most importantly, he wields Life, yes, LIFE and, well, Nature too, but that one is normal. He is exceptional at wielding them. To be blunt, he might be the greatest mortal healer alive, ever, and I would bet very few red dragons are remotely parable to his skills. Of course, if there isn't any exaggeration and my spell to see fragments of the past is corred the rumors more than rumors. I didn't get close. I like my inside, where they stay warm!" She shivered at that part and immediately went on again with her rapid-paced, pause-less tirade.
"You know how sensitive and skittish those adorable murder fluffballs be in our prese times, even under mortal form. Speaking of, they are words with Ursol and Ohto cooking up something big to save the furbolgs from madness. I don't know a lot aside from the fact that it involves Nordrassil, and many druids are not happy with that." u finished, and the pregnant silence she earned spoke volumes to know it was taken with mixed results.
A furbolg wasn't what was anticipated, one favored by two As, running around with magic that should be virtually uo the Red Dragonflight even less so. It opened many questions and answered none.
He was an additional variable, a logical retroactive result of the ing iimeline, and a subject for ter debate. Healers were… double-edged swords. Anyone could kill, but a healer, an exceptional o that, defy death in a way on neanever could.
His fate was for the broo ponder.
"He is to be carefully watched then. The same applies to your st point, but it won't be easily dohey tell us apart from smell alone." Soridormi decred, and the three tinued as more dragons joined and they pnned. Po fix the beldam and chaos of the present that simultaneously was here and wasn't.
It couldn't be fixed until Nozdormu awaken, and so they will adapt; the road would differ, but the destination remains. Or so it was by their desire for the True Timelio e to pass.
The_Bip_Boop2003
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