Fantasy Prologue Challenge

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

Soon Tek Oh stood hand in hand with his new bride Mai-Ling and looked down on the vast gathering of well-wishers. The roar of the crowd filtered up to the happy couple. The unification of their warring dynasties was now complete.

It took two centuries.

The Shang Dynasty was now united. The lives lost throughout two hundred years of bloodshed had ended. The feast had begun. Food was central to every festival. The wedding festival coincided with the Dragon Boat Festival where Zongzi is the celebratory treat.

Preparations for the ceremony and feast had taken weeks. Rarely has the feast been over a thousand people but this was a spectacle to ensure the dynasty was truly united.

Soon-Tek and Mai-Ling, in deference to their families, agreed to wed. They weren't happy. Soon-Tek had bedded many of the servants in the family employ and Mai-Ling suspected as much knowing her own father's sexual proclivities.

She hid the dagger in her obi. Her hand trembled as she reached for it. Her painted smile remained in place while she looked over to Soon-Tek.

She looked down at the crowd, took out the knife and plunged it into his neck severing his carotid, withdrew it and saw the spurts of blood escaping with the last of his heartbeats and confident the blade found its mark, withdrew it, and cut her own throat.

They collapsed in a heap, falling below the eyesight of the revelers below.

One of the bride's attendants shrieked in horror, a piercing scream. A scream that silenced the crowd. Revelry turned to horror as the word spread about the murder suicide.

Horror turned to riot. The peace was over, and the war commenced as if it never ended. Food and drink were mixed with blood and severed flesh as weapons were unsheathed and combatants fighting unabated.

Above the rioting, the wedding parties and families battled too unleashing more carnage and death.

Two weeks later, the dead were buried or burned. The camps of the dynasty factions, while in the process of unification, were back to isolation. Several additional skirmishes came and went over the weeks, and they would continue.

In the end, the Shang dynasty would end, and the Wu dynasty would emerge. In later years, Mai-Ling would be heralded for being the catalyst for change.

There were many defections within the Chang dynasty which enabled Wu Zhou to succeed. Wu accepted the defections but cautioned his warriors to be wary of the defectors. "Feed them, house them, tend to their wounds if needed, but don't trust them", was the command from Wu Zhou. In the caste system of the Zhou Dynasty, Shangs were below the peasants. Most were enslaved, indentured to the peasant class.

A hundred years passed, and the Wu dynasty flourished. Both Shang and Wu dynasties were traditioned in a class system. At the top, royalty, followed by aristocrats. Below them came artisans and craftsmen, just above the peasants.

It was King Wu Zhou that enabled the dynasty to carry on. His heirs were educated to continue in his place and did so for generations. Aristocrats maintained their lands commissioning artisans to beautify dwellings to which the peasants served.

Royalty, starting with Wu Zhou and the succeeding generations attributed prosperity to the presence of dragons, while their spirit guidance was undeniable and a cornerstone of their beliefs.

Dragons are benevolent creatures whose spirits foster prosperity. Indeed, the Zhou dynasty prospered under the guidance of good business fortune, bountiful crops since they controlled the weather, and sea dragons kept the waters calm and fish plentiful.

There weren't always dragons in the Valley, which Wu Zhou believed was his rise to power. The dragons now lived in the Valley.

Wu Zhou's greatest fear was the presence of a Black Dragon.

It was coming.