Jik

Standing at just over three feet, and lacking any weapons or powerful magic with which to defend himself, Jik is by no means an impressive figure. Having dull bronze scales and bright green eyes, he's rather typical for a member of his race, although he's certainly faster than normal, which earned him the very important position in his warren... of Runner.

Simply put, it was little Jik's job to sit around a guard post at the entrance to his warren, and, if he saw anything dangerous coming, to run as fast as he could to alert the warren of the threat.

Perhaps not a terribly glamorous job, nor one that ordinarily required any particular skill other than 'be able to run away from things very quickly', but in the end, it was a job that ended up saving his life. On a fateful day not so long ago, his warren had the great misfortune of being targeted by a particularly greedy dragon. Though he attempted to warn them, the dragon moved far more quickly than he could and, ignoring a single kobold in lieu of the veritable plethora of potential servants he could acquire in the warren beyond, left Jik alone in the tunnels, too terrified to return home and too afraid of the outside to be able to leave the tunnels. But, the presence of the dragon behind him drove him deeper into the network of caves he'd made his home in, praying to whatever gods were listening that he'd find someone who could help, some sort of refuge...

He's not sure how it happened, but after walking for what could have been anything from hours to days, he encountered a sudden, almost blinding light... The light of the sun. It shouldn't have been possible, and yet when he turned back around to re-enter the safety of the tunnels, he found only solid rock. Somehow, the magic of the Hollow had drawn him in... And now, alone, the poor thing has to find his own way in a dangerous new world...

~~~

A Loxagn alt.

The image is half of a piece done by the super-talented Dezzy, cropped so as to fit in the constraints of the profile. The original is here.