Sutematsu

The rain in The Dragon Wastelands always smells of ozone and wet stone, but on the day Sutematsu appeared, it carried the impossible scent of sweet berries. Legends claim they were not born, but dreamed into being by the land itself, a memory of a gentler time. They wandered the scorched plateaus trailing a fine shimmer of diamond dust, sipping a strange pink milk that could mend the illusions the fog wove into a mind. It was Juon, a scavenger of dragon bones, who found them first. Juon expected a trick, a ghost-dragon in disguise. But the sweetness was real, and so was the chimp who offered them a sip. Juon, who had survived by trusting no one, began to follow Sutematsu, then to walk beside them. Their bond is now a tale told to quiet children during the storms—a legend of how the harshest ground can still nurture the most tender love.