Seven Years

[Visant]

((On the white marble floor of Visant’s private home large sheets of drawing paper have been laid out a row. Each drawing is held in place by two smooth stones being used as paperweights. The first series is made up of detailed graphite drawings that have been done in a realistic style that makes the places and people involved easily identifiable to those who have encountered the subjects before.))

{The first picture shows a walled keep over looking a small town on an island. It is clearly the abandoned place in the Plaguelands once called Caer Darrow. However in the picture the village is still inhabited. Humans go about their about daily lives and soldiers man the walls of the keep under a clear sky. There is an idealized quality to the picture, as though the image was intended for a child’s picture book.}

[Visant]

{This drawing depicts a scene outside of the keep at night, illuminated by moonlight. A small cart is being driven through the street leading up the hill towards the keep. The female goblin guiding the oxen pulling the wagon is looking over her shoulder with a furtive expression on her face. A tarp covering the back of the wagon has slipped off revealing several large eggs covered in dark scales. Near an open side entrance there is robed human holding aloft a lantern as though signaling to the approaching cart.}

[Visant]

{Two humans with pieces of cloth tied around their lower faces are hunched over a cluttered worktable. One of the men is using a mortar and pestle to grind up some dark powder. Brow furrowed in concentration, the other is using calipers to measure one of the eggs resting on the table. To his left there is a stack of papers covered in runes. Next to the table on the floor is a large bubbling cauldron. In a niche set into the dark stone wall nearby, the bones of several humans bodies are neatly stacked.}

[Visant]

{A simple drawing of a black dragon whelp hatching from an egg. There are patches of flesh missing from its face, so that its tiny, razor sharp teeth are exposed in a gruesome smile. Other spots of decay are visible all over its body, showing muscle and bone beneath. Around the egg are the curled up bodies of several other dead whelps showing the same signs of infection.}

[Visant]

{Another nighttime scene showing the exterior of the keep. This time the wagon is smaller, with only a single large draft horse hitched to the front. A robed figured with its back turned is holding up the canvas to show what is in the back of the wagon. Again the same human man is present, this time holding up his lantern as he inspects the cargo. Inside there are more of the large dark eggs, but towards the center there are several eggs that are lighter in color and the scales have a different pattern.}

[Izrail]

((I am curious as to what this is all about.))

[Visant]

{A drawing done in colored pencil of three dead dragon whelps lying on a table, wings twisted and broken. Large patches of open sores that go down to the bone mar their bronze scales. One of the human researchers is examining a corpse, frowning.}