The rumblings and growls that made up wrymtongue were translated by a vocoder, worn traditionally on the right ear, stylized in the traditional manner of House Jagged. Which is to say, it was pointy and uncomfortable, but you got used to it. Of course, you had to.
Hyggnr was in a good mood today. As he surveyed Brimstone from high on his Aerie, he began to lecture Task as he often did when the sun was high and the breeze had just the right amount of sulphur.
"It wasn't always going to be this way," the vocoder chirped in Task's ear, as wyrmtongue reverberated through his skull. "Believe it or not, ape-man, this world was once meant to be yours."
Task continued sweeping without interruption, always aware of the great eye that would sweep back to check on him from time to time. But like many of Hyggnr's wild tales, he gave it little mind. Still, he listened politely as he swept.
"Ah, I can see that has piqued your interest," rumbled Hyggnr, as he always did regardless of Task's reaction. "Truthfully, we would never have known if not for Falgyr's happy great discovery. Although happy accident, is more like if you follow my meaning."
Task did not follow, and was breathing through his mouth occasionally as relief from the over-powering smell of sulphur. You'd think you'd get used to it, but you never did.
Hyggnr stretched his claws briefly, and yawned, loudly and without flame before continuing. "Should you be impertinent enough to ask him, which you would not unless you aspired to snack status, he will swear to you that he summoned great powers and divined the future with clarity and purpose."
He glanced at Task. "Man thing, " he said, "what are dragons?"
Task looked at the great eye and said, "Dragons are magic." inclined his head slightly, and continued sweeping a floor that every day seemed endless.
"Yes we are. Yes we are!" Hyggnr laughed, shaking the tower briefly as his sides heaved. "Isn't it wonderful? And what is magic? Chaos! Chaos. I tell you the truth, although it doesn't leave this room." His long head and snout moved in conspiratorially, towards task in a manner that was not entirely comfortable. Random snacks and violence had long been the human condition under dragon rule.
Task swept casually as the great head leaned in, pointedly ignoring his master's breath. "Yes, lord. Of course." He said. Breath aside, Hyggnr's stories could be entertaining, upon reflection, later in the evening, after the existential nervousness had passed.
"He sneezed." Hyggnr whispered, laughing as he leaned back, delighted. "He sneezed performing a relatively simple translocation spell and somehow, in a way that no drake has ever been able to duplicate, slipped sideways and forwards into another world!"
"Can you guess what he saw there?" Hyggnr studied his well-trained and submissive man-thing and sighed. "Well, I suppose you wouldn't, the possibility having long since passed. I will tell you. You! Well, not YOU. But you lot. He saw an entire world run by and for man-thing. Humon kind I think they called themselves. Adorable."
Here Hyggnr paused, grabbing a sheep out of the snack bowl and masticating happily. Crunch, crunch, crunch.
"It was horrifying, of course. Millions of you running around, leading drab, purposeless lives. Hundreds of towers but no aeries. No Dragons! What purpose could there be, without dragon magic in their lives. One shudders at the thought."
And so he did, setting the floor all wobbly, as he dramatically sent shivers down his massive body.
"Curious and appalled, Falgyr mesmered himself to man-thing size and shape and walked among them seeking answers. The language was easy enough to translate, and he soon found himself at a place of knowledge. A lie-brary I think he called it. And can you guess what he found?"
Hygnnr paused dramatically, "Horror! Not only were there no dragons in this sad man-city. There were no dragons anywhere! I tell you, I nearly vomited at the mere thought!"
Task kept sweeping, but quickly thrust aside the image of Hyggnr vomiting. He had seen a great drake vomit before. Those poor people.
"And would you believe why?" Hyggnr held his foreclaw to his chest, clearly trying to maintain composure. "You lot! You grubby man-things hunted us to extinction. The nerve! The appalling mendacity! Dragons are MAGIC." Hyggnr cast his eye accusingly at his faithful servant.
Task very, very carefully attended his duties, a single bead of sweat sliding slowly down his brow. "Dragons are magic, yes my lord." Task said carefully, with as much obsequiousness and feigned outrage on his lord's behalf as he could cram into one sentence.
"Yes, well, I see you are as shocked as I was. I can hardly blame you. Even your tiny mind should grasp such an awful idea. That it should even be possible ..."
Hyggnr paused, looking contemplatively off into the distance. Beyond Brimstone, perhaps beyond time and space itself. Task didn't know. Dragons were magic and man-things were well-trained monkeys. Or so the dragons insisted.
"Of course," he said thoughtfully, "we were not always as we are now. We were always magic, of course, but for a very long while we were ... what's the word. Anti-social? Isolated? In any case, in those days you would never see so many aeries nestled so closely, and the high culture of our cities was still centuries away. We lived alone and we loved it. We preferred other dragons out of sight and out of mind and mated rarely and with extreme suspicion. In many ways it was an ideal time for us, but as Falgyr's accident showed, it also made us susceptible to slaughter by an assertive and rapidly expanding society of belligerent primates."
Hygnnr returned to the present, his great eye lolling back to Task again. "Falgyr, of course, was mortified. As any one of us might have been, and recalled himself to his point of origin. With translocation spells, you see, it is far easier to come back than to go."
"And from there, the rest is history." Hyggnr was relaxed again, enjoying the day. "At great personal risk to himself he approached each of us at our caves or aeries and convened a great council, convincing us of the danger, at times letting us see this future imperfect through his own eyes, until we banded together and gave great purpose to your enthusiastic but undirected striving. A lucky accident for you, don't you think?"
"Indeed, my lord." Feigned gratitude was a skill one learned early with masters who had such large teeth and larger appetites. Task was nearly finished now, emptying the last stray scale into the bin. "Is there anything more at the moment?
"I am hungry my Task. Have we more sheep?" Hyggnr was eyeing Task for some sort of reaction, and pleased to find none.
"I believe so, sire. Shall I fetch them." Having enough sheep (or cows or what-have-you), had become a vital skill to the man-thing that didn't relish being part of the menu. Hungry dragons didn't discriminate. And there were always more man-things.
"Do." Hyggnr settled in looking over the proud architecture of Brimstone, profoundly satisfied with the world as a whole, and himself in particular. How could he not be? Dragons were magic. Himself most of all.
Task retreated out and down, gathering sheep for his master's next meal. And as he did, he thought of something he had not thought of since he was a child: a world without dragons.
And in complete defiance of all good sense, he did not put it immediately from his mind.
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