Guardian Dragon

 Here is a Zbrush dragon I've been working on!  Sometimes when I work on characters I like to think up little stories about them, and what adventures they might be up to. When I was making this guy, he seemed like an important, regal, but not entirely unfriendly guy. Fierce looking, but intelligent...as a guardian of something important should be. I hope you enjoy cornball fantasy writing! You're gonna want to avert your eyes, and scroll to the end if you don't! (I've also included a turntable render of my model after the story:)

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Lan held the talisman aloft in the dark like a lantern, adjusting her direction when the glow dimmed. The soft green light cast snakelike shadows through the tree limbs,surrounding them both in movement as she walked. She kept her eyes ahead, attempting to ignore the brief glints appearing just off the path. Were they the eyes of night creatures....perhaps claws, or teeth? She concentrated on the intermittent soft clicks of Arfund's own large curved claws on the stone path behind her for reassurance.

The talisman had led them to a dead end.
A sheer cliff stretched up into the fog, obscuring its height. Lan turned to Alfund, who already had his wings unfurled. The world has changed much, perhaps this mountain was not here when the talisman was created, and the path is now above? Alfund disappeared into the fog above, leaving the girl alone. As Alfund broke through the fog into the grey morning sky, both heard it... The low boom, then another, and another, increasing in frequency until it became a constant rumbling hum.  Alfund immediately dove back into the fog,  he hit the ground behind Lan and threw a leathery wing over her. The source of the hum appeared to be coming from the solid stone wall before them, but the lichen, vines and dirt had fallen from the entire cliff face in a mist of grey dust, and the solid wall of rock now rippled, as if it were a lake into which a stone had been cast.
Lan crawled forward beneath Alfund's wing to peer out, mesmerized by the hum, and the sight of  fluid stone.  Alfund curled his talons briefly, then lifted his wing so that Lan could stand. As she walked towards the wall, she turned back..."I know you cannot enter, but I wish more than anything that you could."
"Dragons cannot enter the lair of another dragon uninvited, it is the last privacy afforded us since the blessing of insight connected us all, but I sense no malice from this one..you are safe here...at least until he knows your purpose." Alfund cast his eyes down, his jaws opened briefly then snapped shut.
"I will try my hardest to convince him to extend an invite, Alfund"
Alfund chirped and raised his eyes, Lan laughed. It was nice to have him along, even if he could not come into the mountain with her.

Lan took a deep breath and held it as she passed through the stone, as if she were entering a pool of water. She stood on the inside of the mountain shivering, finding it was quite a cold business to have passed though a mountain.

"That is a strange greeting, is there something offensive to your senses in here?"

Lan was so startled she froze. Here she stood, an ambassador for all mankind, before the guardian of all magic... scared stiff, shivering, and still holding her nose as she often did when jumping in the river to bathe.

"Step forward, and tell me why you are here."

Lan stepped forward, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the chamber, she began to pick out the silhouette of the guardian.  He had a peculiar arrangement of horns she's never seen before that gave the singular appearance of a crown upon his spade-shaped head.His scales glinted red, and his eyes glowed ochre and red like fire, far fiercer than the violet, blue and green she was accustomed to in dragons.

Lan had never been more afraid in her life.....................

 

Welp, hope you were entertained!

*Disclaimer: I haven't posted any dragons here in a very, very loong time, but I think it's been long enough that it's been established the stuff here is my *own personal art* separate from work...so get ready for a deluge of dragons!

Oh, and as an extra bit here are some more color scheme experiments!