The Rockmother

This one took me a while to do, and while the lighting isn't quite right I am really happy with how it turned out! I wrote a little bit of narrative to go with it:

"They ravage my realm, mortal! Rocklings! Their teeth gnaw and nash my rocks with insatiable swiftness and greed, like the crashing wrath of a thousand storms! Even the lifeblood of the earth, the bubbling magma that surrounds us, does not wreak such havoc! Kill the rocklings, little werewolf! Still the pained cries of my young ones. Only then will you gain the trust of the Rockmother."

"I have seen the trouble that these creatures cause, Rockmother." Eva the werewolf shook her head, her eyes closing for a moment, opening to reveal anger as fierce as the hissing magma below. "Boring holes and caverns through the very fabric of the earth! Unnoticed until the inevitable toppling of a great mountain or cliff-face. How many have been crushed to death by their unearthly greed?" She growled softly. "I promise you, by my claw and fang and the iron sword, that I will slay them all! No more shall die by their account."

"You have my thanks, mortal."

With what sounded like the colossal grinding of faults, the upturned hand of the Rockmother Gulfa rose slowly and carefully, Eva digging her in her claws and gazing warily at the crackling cliff-face, still tinged orange by the lava, her tongue lolling slightly in the heat. Finally the hand stilled, and digging her powerful claws into the creviced areas in the rather smooth rock, she perilously climbed off Gulfah's hand and onto the warm rock.

Below, the bubbling lava pushed its way to the end of the fissure, a pressing heat under Eva's padded feet. She scrambled along the sheer crags, once hidden, part of a rocky plateau known as The Lower Sparrs, until pushed apart by the Rockmother's rage. Burns forming if she lingered too long, she risked a look back into the couldron-heat. Gulfah had sunk back into the lava, her piercing eyes no longer boring into the werewolf's back.

As a long, shining claw scrabbled for purchase on the smooth slitherite, she could not help but marvel at the sparkling gems and rich mineral deposits that had been oncovered. The cliffs were too sheer for rocklings to easily traverse, but perhaps she...No, she could not bring herself to steal from the Rockmother's realm.

As she climbed she wondered how long it would take before Dwarken, (a more rubble-ridden, greedier and rock-skinned version of Earth-tale Dwarves) found out about the fissure, caused by Gulfah's thrashing earthquake that utterly destroyed a Dwarken mining operation further east. Did the Rockmother know of these creatures, as much a threat to her children as the scittering rocklings?

Soon, Eva was very sure, heaving herself over the jutting rim of the fissure, she would have to get her hands dirty with more than just the wet shale-like blood of Rocklings. The Dwarken would stop at nothing to get at those valuable gems! The Rockmother, connected as she was to all forms of rock, not just here but across all of Cloudsdruff, giving them a life of their own, would slowly weaken as they pillaged her bounty, the Earth-magic within her thinning to the point of no return...And she would die.

So grim was the thought that she sat down and pondered for a moment, and absent-mindedly sharpened her sword against her powerful claws. In her heart, Eva feared, that without Gulfah's control, the earth itself would run rampant, crashing and heaving in a relentless dance to the destruction of all! Without the Rockmother's life-giving magic, gold would dull, diamonds would crack and shatter, and what life seemed to glitter in precious stones would fade forever.

Determination flowed anew as Eva the werewolf rose, her head high against the contrasting cool wind, her claws extending to their fullest length, and she bellowed a howl that crashed and echoed all around the plateau!

"I will NOT let it happen!" She roared her promise to the whipping winds. "The rocks will have their guardian! No Dwarken or simpering Rockling shall seal the fate of the Rockmother while I still breathe!"

A crumbling sound could be heard from behind an outcrop of rocks, and Eva grinned, her claws glinting in the sun. It's a nasty job, she thought, but someone has to do it!