An Awakening

"There weren't always dragons in the valley", he said. His face forlorn, riddled with cragged lines where time had marked the many years. The fire, it's hell blaze, reached towards the heavens. Its heat immense, raging, as the men stood there in their armor thirsty for old tales and new ones to be made. The light cast shadows behind the man against the large boulder's face. Dancing shadows, emissaries of some other spirit reaching towards an unknowable blackness, seeking some god or demon to consume them. "Behold, times lost, now revisited. Time, before time when the world was young and its lust for life was manifest in blood." It began to drizzle, the water bouncing off the young men's armor and in no way quenching the fires' thirst. The king, that great orator's voice rang with magic.

"Before the great fire rested in the heavens, the world was black in graying gloom. The mountain tops burned in eternal flame and the waters overflowed reaching toward the heavens. The waters waged battle, roaring against those mountain flames and the fire hissed as it met its foe. Their battle unceasing in time unnumbered, those great eternal foes. Then the water, mad in its fury cast its full might against the fire. The world shook in that great collision. A sound echoed through the heavens awakening the gods from their deep slumber. There, in the aftermath of battle, through clouds of steam emerged the two children. One a scaled beast, the father of dragons, the other, a hairy thing of muscle and bone, the father of lions. The waters' incessant roaring formed the lion in its bosom. The fire's hissing formed the dragon, giving birth to it, deep within the mountains. The two beasts lay there on the cooling rock. That place where the water met fire, hardened and calloused them into a new firmness. The birthplace of land."

He wiped his brow. His hands reached out as if he was grasping some faint image out of the past. "There they grew on that rock. Just as water and fire before them, the beasts waged their battles against the other. The dragon's massive talons carving valleys, its fire vomiting the tar of mud. The lion, its strong legs forming hills and mountains, its teeth sinking into the earth when its foe evaded him, creating those great holes where the cave peoples now dwell. When the gods saw the land, it shaped and beautiful, like a sculpture, and when they beheld the great battle before them filled with fire and roaring their eyes turned from heaven to earth. "What great thing has awaken us?" they said in unison. They looked on at the beasts and were in wonder at where they came from. The god of man, the wise god, watched the two beasts rage as the others talked, pondering what would be done. These beasts, the enormity of them, they were dangers to the gods and their plans. The gods quickly grew to fear them and wondered what evil magic was done among them. Who in their midst, who among them would create such monsters in their sleeping. The whispers of misconduct became accusations and the accusations became shouts and the shouts became a thundering noise in the heavens. The beasts, stopped their battling for a short time to listen to the strangeness of the sound. Then in the midst of the shouting, the wise god, the god of man shouted "Listen! Do you not hear? Or do you only see with your eyes? Listen to the hiss, listen to the roar, is it not clear to you?" They sat quiet, all of them knowing and respecting the wisdom of the man god. "These beastly children are the heirs of fire and water. Listen to their language, it is the same. Just as we created the fire and water, so water and fire created." For a moment, there was peace in the heavens, all knowing none of their fellow gods had betrayed the other in their sleep, but it was a short lived peace. The god of mirrors who sees all possible futures, sang a sad song of doom. Painting a tale of death if the gods did not soon act. There they debated many long days. Each god with a fiery speech of what must be done. The god of man sat in silence, the last to speak as all wise men to this day do. Then in a fit of rage from the waiting, the tree god took his great spear and cast it toward the lion. Striking the beast in the eye. The beast railed and screamed, shaking the foundations of the universe. It pulled the spear with its paws, casting it far into the deepest valley of the world. The tree god jumped down to earth to retrieve it, it was his favorite spear. There he was, deep in the valley, in the graying gloom without enough light to see, there he met the great beast. It pounced upon the tree god, mauling him there with its great paws. The gods' green blood seeped out of his body, covering all the land, becoming the grass and the trees and all things that grow and die in their due seasons. The one eyed beast grew even more ferocious after the death of the tree god. Having tasted blood it desired more. Continuing its great battle with that scaled beast. Carving up more of the world and molding its landscape."

The men shifted as the rain came down harder upon them. The king took a long drink from his horn. His eyes red and mind berserk from the mushrooms he took an hour before. His voice echoed off that rock and far into the fields beyond where wolves ran from the fear of its ferocity. "They were furious! To see one of their own, dead upon the world they had created. Even the wise god, the god of man yelled out in anger at the beasts. Their shouts rained down in a fury. "The beasts must be destroyed!" The King swiftly turned to the crowd, "And to this day we utter the same cry as the gods!" unsheathing his sword which he raised above his head, his face red from anger, "the beasts must be destroyed!" the men replied in unison "they must be destroyed!" The king prowled back and forth on his makeshift stage until the rage began to subside, sheathing his sword."There the gods yelled for hours on end their words shaking the foundations of all things. The words divine, the beasts screeched in terror not knowing the what they met. Then the god of man, in his infinite wisdom, began to quiet the other gods. Their voices moved from deep yells to quiet whispers and there they hatched their plan. They sharpened their weapons and their minds. The god of mirrors and the god of man sang a song together, a song of unity and triumph, the first of the war songs. They flew from the heavens. All one hundred of them, casting their arrows of light, and their great spears and waving their swords and their axes above their heads. The beasts fought savagely, just as cornered animals do today. Wild eyes, never seeing so many foes before them. The great lion, his eye now lost, was cornered in the caves he had built. The places where wild cats sometimes still dwell. There the beast shrank in the eyes of their glory. The god of hunting fought the lion with sword and shield and a great lust burned in his heart. In his pride and arrogance, he begged the other gods to leave him to fight this beast alone. They said to him "surely, you know you will die without us", he said unto them "this fire that burns inside me can only be quenched by my sword alone. Leave me be!" They left him there. The yells of that great beasts and the yells of that great god shaking the foundations of all things. The beast tore at him and the gods arms became like strips of meat above the fire. His shield cast away, he lay there in the cold of the cave defeated. The grip of death and that eternal darkness beyond laying sway on his mind. As the beast came to deliver the death blow, the god remembered the dagger he kept tightly bound near his thigh. He lept and with one great strike ripped a hole in the beast. The blood poured out, gushing like rivers at the end of winter and the beginning of spring. The beast fell there. Life flowing out of it. The god lay there next to it and then the god of medicine came dressing his wounds. To this day, all great hunters know of this story and keep a blade tied to their legs!"

"The other beast, that great dragon, breathed fire over the gods. Its hissing a tyrant against words and friendship. "Death to the beast" shouted the gods having cornered it in one of the great valleys. The beast then suddenly sprouted wings, soaring high above them like a bird, raining fire on them. The gods took shelter behind the rocks, each feeling fear in the due time. The god of man took his bow, that great golden bow and placed a golden arrow in its notch. He blessed the arrow saying "you then arrow, my favorite arrow, enemy of my enemies, friend of my friends, fly straight this day and be remembered always as the foe to all flying beasts." As that dragon hovered above, gathering breath, the man god loosened the arrow. It flew straight into the mouth of that great tyrant and then the beast fell in a loud screeching hiss. The world shook in such great force, the gods fell to their knees when that beast struck the ground. There the two beasts lay, in the gloom of the gray world, dying in the land they shaped. The god of man in his wisdom carved the belly of the great beast. Reaching in he took the source of the fire from its stomach and hurdled it up to the heavens with one great throw. The world then burned brightly and the clouds of the gray gloom rolled back. He called this great fire day and he called the absence of it, darkness. Then the god of hunting, took the bow of the man god. Placing the great eye of the lion onto the arrow, he aimed toward the place where the lands were filled with darkness and casted that great eye up toward the heavens. Then he said "may the lion's eye gaze upon that great flame. May it always chase that light in the dead of night and may the light chase that eye in eternal battle until the end of time." That eye, the lion's eye, man named the moon, the great reflector of the great flame. Behold you see it now even as we speak." He pointed at the sky and men shifted to see the luminous moon barely peeking out from behind a cloud.

"Then there was day and night and the gods found the day to be pleasing for travel and exploring and the night pleasing for thinking and loving whispers. They celebrated their victory on the world, forgetting the comfort of the heavens. They drank from their eternal cups, the wine forever refilling. They ate from their magic plates, where each time they turned the food would renew and be doubled in its place. They fell asleep, drunk on their wine and full of their food. For a thousand years they slept there, snoring, content and happy as the twilight of the world rolled onwards."

"As the gods slept, the bodies of the great beasts began to decay. Their bodies began to heat in the sun and expand, their bodies then exploded and with that explosion came new life. From the body of the lion, outpoured many creatures of the warm blood. Cattle, sheep, fox, oxen, horses, wolves, smaller lions, children of its own. All the warm blooded beasts came from it. From the dragon, there came out of its bosom a whole host of creatures of the cold blood. Lizards, snakes, spiders, ants, bees, all those things that we know to be cold blood came from it. Just as the lion before him, the beast also birthed two children of its own. As the gods slept, the creatures began to grow and multiply. They covered the whole world. The cattle began to graze, the wolves learned to hunt the cattle and the lions and the dragons became lord of them all. When the gods awoke, they were amazed to see what they had found. Animals of unthinkable numbers, insects beyond counting and life abundant in the song of the birds. As they stood there nursing their headaches from their long drink, they marveled at the world, its beauty and all of its charm. The god of man said very wisely to all who were near "look at the beauty this chaos has birthed. Those beasts gave life to a lifeless world, knowing not what they did and through our wisdom we have created something wonderful." They all laughed, in amazement of what good fortune they had."

"As the gods explored this new world filled with life, the god of man walked alone. He walked for many long days watching how the birds of the air feast on the bodies of mice. He watched how the ants ate the bodies of dead things and how the children of the great beasts ate whatever they pleased. Then it occurred to him that these creatures needed a guide and needed not to be destroyed. They needed a governor to rule them and their never ending love for flesh and blood. He gathered all the gods together and told him his plan. He asked them to tie him down and to cut off his right hand, for his right hand wrote the first of the wise words of the gods and he knew that in his body, it held the greatest amount of wisdom. The gods all found his words to be true and humbling. The god of poetry spoke loud and true "these creatures, even the great children of those great beasts are no threat to us. We should no longer kill, but let us give a ruler to the world, before we abandon it and begin to create again elsewhere. Your sacrifice is great, to take your right hand for the beauty and wisdom of your children. I know you will visit this world often even when all of us have abandoned it, for they will have their blood in you and you will love them no matter how far you travel. Let it be said then, before we create these "men'' of yours. That we shall bless the world with magic, with health and with these wise men, but you must swear to leave them be. For if we determine right and wrong for them, we will do a disservice to their growth. If we destroy all that is opposed to them, whether animals, or their enemies, or the gods of eternal darkness, or the dark spirits that may come, they will grow weak and when you finally abandon them they will resent you most of all and be like beasts without talons!" Then the god of man said "what you say is true and I agree to these terms, but I disagree on one part only. I will give in every generation one of them power. Power to defeat whatever evils they must face. Whether it is through the power of magic, or if it is through great strength or great wisdom, one of every generation shall be blessed by me to carry out the rule of man and in doing so, they will have power to defeat evil spirits that may come, or other creatures that may be planted when we leave." The god of poetry turned to the god of man and said "I believe what you say has much wisdom. If we all agree to it, I think it shall be ruled as law, true law from now until the end of time when all will be destroyed!." They all nodded in agreement and then in one swift move they chopped off the right hand from his body. Then the god of poetry casted the hand toward the ground of the earth and planted the hand in the soil. First the short cave people came from that short finger the one we all have to this day." He raised his hand showing his thumb to the crowd. "Then there came the men of the north" he held up is pointer finger, "then there came the men of the south" he held up his middle finger, "then the men of the east and the men of the west" he held his hand sprawled open toward the crowd. Then the crowd in response lifted their hands up mirroring their king. "To the good of all men." They replied in unison "to the good of all men!"

The king continued his story. "Now, the world had reason and reason brought forth farming and farming brought forth long life and long life brought forth learning and learning brought forth kingdoms. Kingdoms in the north with the northern men, to the south with the bronzed southern men, to the west, to the east and in the great tunnels where those short men live, but as time went on and the years moved onward, men, in their foolishness did not seek out the beasts of the world. First there were very few and the dragons were all, but scary stories to correct the behavior of bad children. As they grew in number, they festered in the valleys of the hills far beyond." He pointed toward a ridgeline off in the distance, shrouded by the rain. Just then fire arched the night sky from the breath of a dragon. "Yet still, though we saw them afar and though we feared them, we did not approach them, for we thought then, that although there may be many, they would not cross those great mountain peaks. How foolish we were! The god of man should have given us a bit more wisdom! For, what we did not know is this. In those early years, when the lands were still young and man was learning to tend them, the dark spirits came. Those enemies of the gods, who sow foulness in each world they create. They stole our great strong men back then in the dead of night. Possessing their minds through magic, moving them about like a marionette toward their dark kingdom. There they took their hands and planted them in that soil far beyond where those mountains rise. The spirits raised through their dark magic, the foul monster, in mockery of what the god of man created. The cyclops, the cyclops who eats and raids the lands of men. Those great brutes with enough reasoning to kill smartly, but without enough reason to become good by virtue. There they grew in number in those dark charred lands. Eating lizards and drinking from the hot pools of water where the dragons lay. The spirits, then in their cunning charmed the dragons, entering their minds, but after they entered, they realized they could not leave, for before the god of man cast a deep magic on the beast, knowing they would be tempting for all evil to come. "What enters you shall not leave, and when you be destroyed, so too they who enter shall be destroyed" is what he spoke before the gods left this world. Now those beasts, are smart, smarter than the cyclops our great enemy with their pathetic kingdom and their war hammers of death. They too are smarter than us! They may speak to you with their minds and they may deceive you. Although the beasts may lack virtue, they do not lack the means to trick you. For what is in them, is a deep dark magic of demons and of foul thought. This is why all kings must vanquish a dragon, before they are crowned, they all must become the dragonslayer, for defeating the beasts is not just a test of the body, but a test of the mind."

"Before the beast attacked me, when I traveled into the lands yonder, seeking to become king, there it sunk its talons into my mind long before I encountered it. It showed me all of what I had done wrong in my life and it spoke a thousand whispers of hatred and a thousand whispers telling me to flee. Fear ravaged my mind and I threw up, thinking I had gone mad within. I thought ten men lived inside me, each shouting in never ending torment. I had started to go mad. I thought the only way out of this never ending madness was to cast my body onto my blade and then to tummel into the dark chasm of a ditch before me. My mouth had gone dry and food and water tasted as a vast emptiness in those lands. Everything good to eat became tasteless and all good thoughts became like a feather, weightless without meaning. At last then, the beast before it revealed itself to me, there came in my vision the form of a naked woman. She was beautiful, her eyes piercing and her body carved like that of sculpture in the great cities. I thought I had died and this was my soul mate who I had not yet met in life, but had met in the spirit world. In my mind there unfolded a million days of a life I never had and will never have. I was happy beyond all imaginings of the gods and I thought I would destroy the world and all its charm to have just one moment with this woman that seemed to be all life was. Then I remembered their incredible deceit and the magic the dragons had and this life I thought I had lived with this woman, became an apparent lie and then my eyes became open to the truth. There I was, sword in hand surrounded by a two headed beast, its mouth around my head, ready to clamp down and finish what it had started. I raised my shield at the last moment and the beast hissed in anger clamping down on that metal shield. I felt strong knowing my mind had not succumbed to its foul vision that tasted so sweet. I took my sword and I raised it high, thrusting it toward that beast. We were locked in battle, the hours became like minutes and time was nothing, but words spoken by fools. I thought of how the god of man blesses one person every generation and I believed it was me, for I had never met another man stronger and to this day, I still haven't. I lept behind a boulder. It's hell flames raining down upon me. At that moment, when the beast could not breath its foul breath no more, I hurled my shield with a great force like the wind, loping off one of its heathen heads. The bastard screamed in agony and then I followed up, chopping its other head into bits and then watching the beast flair until the death throw ceased." The king paused "and then I cooked it's flesh and made some dragon stew." The crowd roared in applause and laughter.

Once they had settled down The king paced the crowd, locking eyes with as many men as he could. "When you fight, you do not just fight for your life and for your king. You fight for all the good in the world. You fight so that those cyclops will be without captains and will be aimless in their stupidity. You fight the great beast that formed the world, that gave us life, that gave us light and all the valley we love, because though it gave us life, it is the same beast that has given us death and destruction. That fire that has given life in the beginning of all things, is the same fire that can give death. Take this flame here. At a far distance I am warmed and the coolness of the rain can not give me it's sickness and yet when I am close I become hot and begin to sweat. Yet, when I come closer, that which gave me life from the cold, may give me death!"

The crowd became solem and the rain pelted hard and the men who stood so long began to look tiresome. "raise the tents and get some rest. To the good of all men!." "To the good of all men!" replied the crowd in unison, the king held out his hand his fingers outstretched, the men mirrored their king.

The rain came down harder and the men hurried about, worried they would rust their armor. Later each warrior sat there in their tent as the sheets of rain came down in a torrent. The hours went by and all stood awake and thought of their king, that great orator and how they loved him. Tomorrow's march toward the rideline, was only a night away and yet all any man could think of was the great fire in the sky and how thankful they were that those great beasts lay dead long ago. Each one asked themselves the same question. "Whom among us will live to hear the new tales?"