Embertales
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Fantasy

Flour and Dragonfire

Every dragon hatched on Mount Rusk is claimed by the Crown before its eyes open. The red ones pull war chariots. The blue ones carry royal mail. The little copper egg that rolls out of a flour sack in your village bakery is not on any register, and when it cracks, the creature inside is no bigger than a loaf of bread. It sneezes sparks into the sugar, sleeps in the warm brick above the oven, and follows you everywhere. Raising it in secret might work for a week. Then livestock start vanishing from the royal aerie, a dragon inspector arrives with an empty cage, and something enormous begins circling the village after dark. Your hatchling is growing. Its mother is looking for it. The Crown is looking too.

Inside this tale

Choose where the story begins

Each opening starts in the same world at a different moment. Pick the pressure point that interests you, then decide what your character does.

Opening 1

The Egg in the Flour

The egg hits the bakery floor at half past four in the morning. It rolls out of a flour sack, knocks over the salt jar, and comes to rest against your boot with a warm little thud. Copper scales cover the shell. Something inside scratches twice, waits, then scratches back when you tap it. You have seen dragon eggs in royal wagons, chained into padded crates with six guards around them. This one arrived between rye flour and dried apples. There is no seal, no paperwork, and no sensible reason for it to know you are there. A crack runs under your thumb. Smoke curls through it. Before you can fetch anyone, one bright black eye appears in the shell and fixes on your face.

Opening 2

Three Rules for Dragons

By sunrise you have learned three things. The hatchling will eat charcoal but prefers cinnamon buns. It can climb anything except the ladder you want it to climb. And when frightened, it becomes hot enough to scorch fingerprints into a shovel. You hide it in the warm brick recess over the oven and tell the baker the noises are mice. This explanation lasts until a narrow copper snout appears behind her shoulder and steals the spoon from her tea. The baker stares at the dragon. The dragon sneezes a blue spark. From the street comes the first blast of a royal hunting horn, close enough to rattle the window glass.

Opening 3

The Inspector's Cage

Inspector Vey arrives before noon in a red sash, with two aerie guards and a cage small enough to carry under one arm. He says a storm damaged the royal nesting grounds last night. One egg is unaccounted for. Anyone sheltering Crown livestock will lose their shop license, their oven, and perhaps the roof holding both up. The hatchling is asleep inside your coat, its claws hooked through your shirt. Each time the inspector speaks, a thread of smoke slips from your collar. He sets the empty cage on the flour counter and asks to see the storeroom. Under your ribs, the smallest dragon on Mount Rusk wakes and begins to growl.

Opening 4

A Shadow Over the Barley

The barley fields go dark in the middle of a clear afternoon. At first everyone looks for rain. Then the shadow banks, turns, and comes back against the wind. A full-grown copper dragon is circling the village with one torn wing and an iron aerie chain hanging from its neck. The hatchling scrambles from its basket and calls to the sky. The sound is tiny, almost ridiculous. The answer shakes flour from the bakery rafters. Inspector Vey orders the guards to load the roof ballista. The mother dragon drops lower. You have one heartbeat to decide whether to hide the hatchling, hand it over, or carry it into the open where its mother can see.

Playable roles

Whose choices will you make?

The role changes what you know, who trusts you, and what is at stake when the tale opens.

Elsi Marr

she/her

Elsi is the bakery apprentice who finds the egg and becomes the first person the hatchling trusts. The bakery supports her younger brothers, so hiding Crown property could cost her family its home. She knows ovens, hunger, and frightened animals better than royal law, and she refuses to believe care should count as theft.

Appearance

Elsi is 16, short and flour-dusted, with brown skin, a thick black braid, and a burn-speckled leather apron over a saffron shirt. She keeps a bent copper measuring spoon on a cord around her neck.

Bram Hallow

he/him

Bram once trained courier dragons at the royal aerie and left after seeing hatchlings broken to the harness too young. He recognizes the copper egg's breeding marks and knows exactly why the Crown wants it back. Helping this one dragon gives him a chance to repair an old cowardice, but the inspector at the bakery was once his finest pupil.

Appearance

Bram is 47, broad and stooped, with a shaved head, a grizzled copper beard, and an old scar across his nose. He wears a patched green riding coat with the royal badges cut off and carries a leather falconer's glove sized for dragon claws.

Tavi Reed

they/them

Tavi carries mail through the mountain villages on a stubborn pony and has spent years dreaming of the sky routes reserved for royal riders. A bond with an unregistered hatchling could open that life or put them in prison. Tavi wants to teach the dragon to fly without turning it into property, even if that means giving up the future they imagined.

Appearance

Tavi is 24, lean and wind-browned, with cropped auburn curls and a quick smile. They wear a blue village post coat, mud-stained boots, and a satchel repaired with bright red thread; one sleeve bears an old dragon bite.

The rest is not prewritten

These openings establish the place, people, and immediate problem. Once you begin, the Storyteller responds to your choices and carries the consequences forward. There is no fixed menu of actions and no single correct ending.

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