Embers in the Wind

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. For that matter there weren’t a lot of things twenty years ago.

The world had been turned on its axis the day, the portal had been opened. A gateway between reality and myth.

I was ten when my mother told me the stories, stories about how dragons came to our world. And how the humans enslaved them. The Dragon King, King Ronan, had come to our world seeking refuge for his people. The dragonians were a people with wings of all shapes and sizes. Some with feathers, some leathery, and some soft as velvet.

They could shape shift in to great beasts , some could breath ice, some fire, and some could turn invisible. Their trade was finding rare and precious gems in the deepest part of their home planet. But due to the fact that their world was being over run from invaders from another dimension , with iron tipped arrows and swords which were deadly to the dragonians, he had come seeking refuge.

He promised our King riches beyond his imagination, in return for sanctuary. King Thylin greedily accepted the Dragon King’s plea. In his haste to bring his people across into our world, he didn’t realize King Thylin had set a trap for him . When the last Dragonian refugee crossed into our world, King Thylin ordered the portal to be sealed forever.

The Dragon King was cast into an iron prison, bound in iron shakles, with his wings clipped. The dragonians were given a choice, either willingly wear a shackle made of iron or be killed where they stood. Some chose death, others chose the iron. Others said it was the same thing.

Many years passed and King Thylin had the dragonians working in the mines. Digging for precious jewels. I remember looking up at my mother as she twirled her bracelet around her wrist. Realization coming to me.

“ Mum, are….are you a dragon?” I ask excitedly.

She smiles a sad smile at me.

“ No my Ruby.” I just stared at her , trying to understand what she had meant by that. After a few minutes she spoke again

“ the thing about a dragonian wearing the iron to long. It caused them to loose who they were. Several generations later a lot of the dragonians, had given up on ever becoming free. To ever take to the skies once again. To ever feel the wind beneath their wings.but all is not lost my Gem.

There is a prophecy that a young maiden will rise up and free the dragonians. She will take her rightful place as their queen and bring the two races together along side the Pirate Prince. For she is from both. Her mother a human, and her father the Dragon King.”

Looking back on it now… I thought It was all a fairy tale. A child’s bed time story. Something to help fill the hole of my absent father. Mother would always tell that story on my birthday when I asked. Never hesitating to let me know each and every detail over and over again as of it were true.

As I grew older,my view of the world changed. All I saw were people who took from those less fortunate. Never reaching out a kind hand. For the world is cruel place to those that are deemed different. I should know.

On my twentith birthday. The King rounded up all the young men of age to fight his champion. The champion was rumored to be a dragonian stuck in their beast form. For the past three years he sent in man after man to defeat this……monster. He promised riches and estates to the Victor. But sadly no Victor was found.

Enter Killian Argent. The out cast Prince. Heir to the Razhoan throne. Cast out from the palace at the age of thirteen, Killian Argent was anything but helpless. He defied his father, left Razhoan and sailed the Turquoise sea. Making a name for himself as the Pirate Prince. He and his crew intercepted many merchant ships his father had in his Armanda. Giving the supplies to the dragonians slaves.

King Thylin didn’t like to look like a fool. So he set a trap for his son. Killian intercepted a merchant ship, The Kings Treaure, when he boarded, it was filled with the Kings guards. Killian was captured and thrown into prison. He was given a choice either fight the champion or be banished forever. Killian chose to fight the kings champion.

Killian looked to the iron gate that housed the champion. As the gates raised , he took up a rusted blade from the dirt floor. He faced his fate with bravery

The beast stepped into the arena. Obsedian talons gleamed in the sunlight as the dragon moved from the shadows. Dark emerald scales Changed into forest green with each step. The clanking of iron shackles resounds with each step the fire drake takes. Silence except for the clank, clank , clank.

The Dragonian champion Faced the Pirate Prince.

A snarl reveals long sharp fangs. The Pirate prince raises his sword , arming for battle. Then stops when a feminine voice speaks to him

“ Have you come to kill me ?”