The Nzeac (Nn-zay-eek)

THE NZEAC PERCHED ITSELF HIGH IN A TREE, ITS SLENDER, SERPENTINE NECK HUNG LOW. ITS SHARP SHOULDERS HELD HUGE LEATHERY BLACK WINGS, WHICH ENCASED ITS BODY. ITS FACE WAS STRANGELY HUMAN, YET DEFORMED. IT HAD ONLY ONE EYE, THE RIGHT ONE, WHICH HARBORED NO PARTICULAR HUE, EVERCHANGING, LIKE THAT OF A SPIRIT'S GAZE. WHERE IT'S SECOND EYE SHOULD AND WOULD HAVE BEEN, WAS INSTEAD A GAPING DARK HOLE, THAT SEEMED TO SPIRAL INWARDS, NEVERENDING. IT HAD SHIMMERING BLACK SCALES, THE LIGHT FALLING FROM THEM AS THE RED OF THE WESTERN STAR FELL BELOW THE FAR HORIZON. IT WAS A MALIGN CREATURE, CARVED OUT OF SORROW AND DESPAIR. LONG AGO, GENERATIONS, IN FACT, THE NZEAC, HAD NOT EXISTED, BUT IN ITS PLACE, THERE HAD LIVED A YOUNG MAN BY THE OF SARO. HE WAS THE YOUNGEST OF FIVE SIBLINGS WHO, SINCE BIRTH, HAD BEEN DESTINED TO LEAVE MANY WAVES IN THEIR WAKE. BUT THAT IS A LONG STORY, PERHAPS FOR ANOTHER TIME. Saro had lost his right eye in an unpleasant accident when he was seven, which I will not go into detail about. When he was 12, his father, erkai, gifted each of his children a small bottle of dragon blood. Dragon blood is extremely powerful in many ways, similar in physical form, to liquid metal, never hardening, unless commanded correctly. The children learned how to mold and craft the blood, to their will. They each made a powerful gift of their own, infused with magic. Saro made himself a small perfectly round ball, to replace the eye he had lost. It also allowed him to see into the spirit world. His eldest sister Aefid, who was a very complicated character, decided that she wanted her younger sibling's gift as well. So with a small reserve of her dragon blood, she cursed Saro to obey her every wish, and always to protect her. Then she changed his body into that of the Nzeac so that no one would know it was him. Somewhere deep down Saro still lives trapped inside The Nzeac.