I finally had the chance to find out a little more about the strange dragoness I met in the abandoned village. I must admit that it was not an easy task, the documentation on her is very sparse. The big libraries of the main cities had absolutely nothing about her. The only place I could find information was with a old collectors who so kindly allowed me to leaf through dusty old tome that dated back to the Age of Discovery. Thanks to them, I was finally able to learn enough to write these few lines.

To begin with, she answers to the name of Anima, but also has the nickname of "Dragoness of the Souls" and also that of "Guardian of the Dead". These nicknames represent quite well the vision of her disciples in front of her, because indeed. During the Age of Discovery, dragons sometimes settled in cities, often to protect them in exchange for various offerings. In this area, however, she is a unique case. She did not have a disciple like other dragons, but rather priests who travelled the land to spread the words of the dragoness and draw more attention to her. Not just to get more people into their religion, but to offer a new opportunity to those who had none. After all, Anima's religion was about offering people solace in death. Telling them that if they were faithful enough to the dragoness, their peace would be eternal when they died. They were spreading a world of hope for those who were close to death and were looking forward to that fateful day. But that was not all, these priests had another unique element compared to the other disciples. From what I could understand, the most faithful of them were able to use magic in her name. This allowed them to do some healing spells, like closing wounds or curing minor illnesses. They also offered blessings. All this in exchange for a donation, most of which was given to the village and the rest to the dragoness as tribute. However, this was not all that this cult could do. In the village itself, there were regular free public masses in which the high priest made his presentation with Anima behind him, sitting on her throne. Once the mass was over, people had the opportunity to meet the dragoness. This caused many travellers to come to her village to attend these masses in the hope that she would relieve them of their suffering. In these cases, the visitors gave what they had to the dragoness. Often it was precious stones or gold, but sometimes it was miscellaneous items of little value. Once her deed was done, she kept what she wanted from these donations, then gave the rest to the village to help them financially. In the tomes, I also found some examples of people who did not give gold as payment. Some gave years of their lives to work for the village, some gave services or acquaintances, but of all the ones I read about, my favourite was a farmer who gave his best cows in exchange for her curing their son who was fatally ill with Typhoid fever. Anima accepted the payment and cured the son of his deadly disease without further ado. I imagine she must have given the cow to the village afterwards as she seems to prefer precious objects. At least, that's what I concluded when I saw the big pile of gold during my visit. She is still a dragoness after all and gold is definitely their favourite object since ... well ever. However, there is one thing I wonder about. I imagine that this amount of gold must have attracted some ... curious, but still. I can't find any mention of it in the tomes. There doesn't seem to have been any attempt to steal it, let alone a successful one. Which is strange, I find it hard to believe that no one tried to break into that room to fill their pockets. I'd put my paw on the fire that some of them probably tried it and met a bad end. I imagine the dragoness must have kept it all secret to avoid looking bad in front of the priests, but hey. Without proof, I can only speculate.

Now to her physical appearance, I had the great pleasure of seeing her up close, so I can easily describe her without the help of the tomes, but I still took the time to confirm it. I wanted to be sure that the two were the same person. Like all dragons, her body is covered with thick scales. They are black like coal with a few stiffer patches that have a slightly darker tint. Also, like her fellow dragons, she has a large pair of wings, although hers has a particularly dark purple membrane. Her eyes are a slight shade of grey with a cat-like pupil, while her iris is blue. She is not the largest dragoness I could find. She is quite small for her race and extremely skinny. When I met her, I had the impression that she was skin and bones... but it's hard to see under so many dark scales and the books don't mention her weight, so I'm just speculating again. I guess she was never fat or they would have mentioned it as a unique trait of hers. However, while reading about her, I found a surprising piece of information. Several books mention that the dragoness emits a bluish glow under the plates of her scales, something I did not see when we met and I don't think I could have omitted this detail. Despite the situation, it's very hard to miss a light in a completely dark room, even if I can see in the dark. Maybe it's that she decides when they come on? Or is she too weak and has lost that ability? I'll have to ask her... But anyway, back to the topic. There was another striking element that I took mental note of during my visit. It is that she is visibly injured. Her protective plates show obvious battle damage, she still has cuts which, although they don't bleed, don't seem to be fully healed yet. Her wings also have holes in them. She seems to have been in a lot of battle over the years, which might explain the bones... On the other hand, I am not surprised by this. A dragon's treasure is always something that attracts the most envious.

But, I didn't just learn about her appearance in these volumes, I was able to discover some of her abilities without seeing them for myself. To begin with, she hates the sun terribly. According to what is written, she rarely went out during the day, always favouring the night. This meant that the village was alive both day and night. On the other hand, when she went out during the day, witnesses said that a slight black smoke left her body. It was as if she was burning in the sun, but she did not seem to suffer from this condition and did not show any signs of burn on her body. This effect lasted for a good hour or two before a small black smoke finally surrounded her, stopping the smoke from leaving her body. Some curious people asked her about this and she told them that she was only uncomfortable under the sun, but that it did not hurt her anymore. Also, like the other dragons. She has a breath, but hers is bluish and, according to witnesses, will incinerate everything in its path in a single breath. I guess it's a caricature of a dragon's breath which, indeed, burns everything it touches severely, but despite the immense heat, I've never seen it incinerate a victim entirely, normally it leaves a charred body, not only a pile of ashes, but anyway. This blue flame was very much used by Anima and not only to incinerate people. It was also used to light the torches in the pillars that were in the village. Keeping the village lighten during the night. To end on a high note, I have this last and most intriguing ability. She mentioned it to me when I visited her, but I thought it was a bit strange at the time and found it hard to believe, but now that I've found some written evidence. I see that she was telling the truth. Many times in the books, it is mentioned that she devours the souls of living creatures for food, never eating any meat... Now that I think about it, maybe she used the cow for that. But to get back to our sheep. She fed at least once a day. Her... feast? Could be a public event if it was a festival or the desire of the traveller or the priest to have it that way, but more than not. It was done in private in her room. Her, uh, living meal was lifted into the lift for her to feed upon. Then lowered back down. Leaving a perfect, undamaged carcass. This allowed the cook to use the meat later in their meal... animal meat of course... They wasn't feeding humanoids like game to the dragoness. At least I hope not, that would have been cruel.

Otherwise, the most recent writings mentioned that she was dead and that another terrible entity had taken her place, but this is obviously not the case as I have seen her with my own eyes. The latest writing I've found on the subject mentions that the travelers and priests who returned to the city after the attack found the place destroyed with a dreadful creature in the temple killing anyone who would disturb its rest. I imagine it was Anima who was attacking those who came in between. Perhaps she had become frightened and defensive after this dreadful assault which must have left her badly wounded, which would explain the badly healed marks on her body. As a protector, she had to fight fang and claw during the assault to protect the village. Which have leave her badly injured. Once the fight was over, she had to hide in her room to heal her wounds. Killing anyone who enter. However, I don't know why they are still not healed, but on the other hand, I really don't know much about dragons. Maybe it's normal? Maybe it takes them a lot longer time to heal wounds than it need to us. They live far more longer than us after all.