The Curse of a Blessing

PART: One

Eons ago, when humanity was at its infancy, strange creatures roamed the God's vibrant green earth. Strange but only to us, for they were considered wise and civil by all the spirits, angelic and demonic, and all the members of the flora and fauna. What they were called then is unknown to us, and may forever be , but we in modern English refer to them as Dragons.

Among the varied landscapes of Earth, ranging from the searing hot dusty deserts to the bone-chilling snow-capped mountains, from the great expanses of dark blue ocean to the plains that never seem to end, there lived dragons of all nature. Dragons that slumbered in the freezing regions of our world, their fire was cold as ice and blue. There were others who lived in the deep caves beneath the mountains, noted for their giant stature and hard scales. Some flew over oceans and settled in islands, where they stashed treasure of gold and silver (To be noted, those were not made by humans. Djinns were the craftsman behind those). The vast blue expanse of seas and ocean also harbored an innumerable amount of dragons, ranging from the small serpent like ones, whose entire body was poisonous, to the great bald ones, which were the size of countries.

They all possessed some sort of skills, hereditary gifts that enabled them to survive in that harsh world. Fire, hard scales, poison and even the ability to conjure tornadoes were some of the abilities that these majestic creatures boasted of.

There was one dragon, whose kind lived in lakes. He neither boasted of fiery flames or a humongous size. The scales of his body were tough but not crystal-like, and nor were his wings of any stature. What his kind did possess though was wisdom and a close connection to a natural magic that our Earth once contained.

The lake dragon, we shall call him Lake, was lonely. In the prime of his life, he looked for a companion, one who could match his wisdom and his tenacity. Far he travelled and many he met but the One still missed his gaze. It wasn't until Lake went to the southern lands that he found Missy.

PART: Two

Missy was an Autumn dragon, which was really rare. An Autumn dragon was someone who was born of both a blessing and curse. If a mother dragon, when she was pregnant, was cursed by somebody and the curse actually stuck, then both her life and the life of the unborn dragon were at danger. In that scenario, the elder of the family, most of the time the Grandma or an older aunt, had to bless the pregnant dragon, to counteract the curse.

It would save the mother but the unborn would perish, dragging the females of the family into mourning and the males into vengeance.

However, on rare occasions, the yet to-be-born dragon survived, and that dragon would become the possessor of immense power. They were called Autumn, since all the survivors coincidentally were born during Autumn.

Missy was such a dragon, hence she was the wielder of immeasurable power. Her fire was black and poisonous, and burned through even the coldest of ice and the driest of sand. But she also had a certain fragrance to her, that brought in only goodwill from her fellow dragons. That fragrance was what dragged Lake in to her presence.

For seven days and seven nights they tarried, in a bloom of romance amid the blushing sentiments of the youth. Songs could be sang and poems could be written of the meeting of those two, but it has to be done by a more abled hand than mine, for to capture the true beauty of love in it's sincerest form is too daunting even for the seasoned maestros. Lake in his charming humbleness pursued Missy, who was savoring the infatuation showed by Lake. She wasn't used to it, as most were intimidated by her. They would take long walks by the shore of the great sea, where Lake, being the traveler he was, would recount tales from his travels. That greatly interested her.

PART: Three

As time came to tell, they both realized that the feelings were mutual. In the customs of those times, it was up to Lake then, to find an appropriate gift for Missy and to propose to her. The gift could have been anything, to a flower in the bloom, to a mountain full of gold.

He went in search for it, as Lake planned to ask Missy for her hand in marriage at the end of the 7th night. It would be a cause of celebration for both families, and dragons did know how to celebrate properly. But those were afterthoughts, for in the mind of the youth only the Cursed Blessed roamed, her fragrance radiating through his subconscious mind.

He pondered on what would be a suitable present. Flowers were to common, and he didn't have much knowledge of them either. Gold would have been better but the family of Lake didn't possess much, their kind were more in tuned with nature and its ways. So Lake really had to think.

At last he found something, a child. A human child with bright green eyes. Small and round, just running around. Somehow the little thing wasn't afraid of Lake, even when he growled at it. The child kept gnawing at his feet, which he didn't understand, so he grabbed it gently and raised it to his eyes.

The human spawn was obviously abandoned. It was dirty and unkempt, which he has rarely seen. Lake took to the sky and looked around, couldn't see any tribes wandering around.

The dragon then decided, taking somewhat of a pity, to take it to the nearby lake and clean it. As it would be, the child didn't know how to swim. Frustrated, Lake took water in his clawed hands and splashed them at the little thing, while it was having the laugh of it's life.

As he was pondering on what to take to missy, it came to him that perhaps the human child wouldn't be such a bad thing. To dragons, humans aren't unlike pets, cats and dogs we resembled to them. So it wasn't unnatural for Lake to take the small life to Missy.

Also to point out, he had taken a fancy to the boy. Small and round, and biting everything and punching too, with his small fists; it arose a sort paternal instinct in him that wasn't foreign to his kind but to him. That helped enforce his idea to take the kid to Missy.

PART: Four

As he flew in, Missy came to welcome him. She sort of knew that he was going to propose to her, and hence there was a sort of glint in her eyes. Lake drew closer to her, and put forth the small kid and asked for her hand in marriage. She gasped, which took Lake by surprise. Missy was growling at the child, breathing in and out. Before he could say anything, she spit out her black venomous fire at the child. Lake saw the love of his life burn away a life that he brought in to save, that he took a liking to. He rushed in to stop her from spitting out more, trying to save the kid. She screamed, and a blood curdling scream it was.

And then Missy began to cry, perhaps out of guilt, maybe for fear or even shame. He couldn't believe it, as the ashes laid in front. The bond wasn't there for long, yet he felt immeasurable pain.

"Why did you do it? Took away a life that was given to you?" he asked, after a long dead silence.

She didn't answer for a while.

"Fear caught the better of me. Now its shame and guilt. Maybe you deserve someone better than me." said she, foolishly

Lake didn't answer for sometime. Missy committed a sin, taking the life of an innocent, but if he was to become her companion, then her crimes and its retribution were his to deal with too.

The unnamed power that Lake's kind possessed apart from wisdom was resurrection. A gift from the God himself, they were able to bring back souls from that nether region, where everyone is destined to go. There were limitations on that however, they couldn't bring back someone who didn't want to come back and Those who died of age couldn't return. Also, to summon one back, they needed a physical part of the body present that could be touched.

Lake looked at the ashes that were all that remained of the boy. He closed his eyes and beckoned at the gates of heaven to let the boy be returned. The whole sky turned a pale shade of golden, and in came strong breeze from the north. The ashes that laid in front of him started rising and forming shape. It began to resemble a human but the shape was still grotesque and horrifying, like a shadow corpse. At that moment the ashes began to take a different form, of a giant bird.

The bird was featherless, and had neither claws or beaks. Weak and trembling, it nudged towards the couple. Lake began crying, seeing the mangled recreation of that boy. Missy, seeing the love of her life cry like that, decided to atone for her sin.

"In my fear I did you harm. Now you returned but worse condition. So allow me gift you this, the Fire of Umbra Collis. Let the fire embrace you, for it shall give your claws and beak, and shall protect from enemies and betrayers. That is what my wisdom says it will give you, but more shall it give, for the fire comes from a strange land beyond the skies, but that escapes my eye. I pray you forgive me." said Missy.

The bird, adorned in fiery red flames, looked at them. He no longer bore the weak and trembling frame, rather he stood like the Kings of old dragons. With a burst of flame, he erupted into the sky, brightening the night sky.

Thus was born the Phoenix, out of the ashes of fear, rekindled into a beast of legend. Death evaded the ghostly bird, for it dared not touch the flames that encircled him.

As for Lake and Missy, they lived happily ever after.

Author's notes: Some of the words in this retelling may seem out of place, that is because it is a translation from a language not well known and the words they were referring to were difficult to find in the English dictionary. Also the rest of blame could be put on the Author himself, as he didn't spend enough time going through the history of the Golden age of the Dragons.