The Dragon's Triangle

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. Now, it is the only place they thrive.

Every generation of my family are cursed to live our entire lives here. It is a legacy inherited from our ancestors for the part they played in a abhorrent chapter in the history of our country. We do not bear this shame alone, there are other families bound here too. A magic none of us has the power to influence keeps us tied here and sustains the Veil that separates us from the rest of the world. From time to time, an Outsider who is deemed worthy by the Veil may join us in the Valley but they are few. Only those touched by ancient magic can find our home on Emiko’s Island off the coast of Japan in a lethal region known as The Dragon's Triangle.

The legend of our curse is passed from generation to generation in stories told to the children so we grow up understanding the grave consequences of the actions of our ancestors.

Many centuries ago when the Japanese Empire was still young, dragons roamed the lands and ruled the seas. Jimmu, Ryujin King of Dragons', Great Grand son even became the first Emperor of Japan. The Three Sacred Treasures (the sword, the jewel and the mirror) that represent the three virtues of Japan: courage, wisdom and benevolence, were bestowed upon him by the Dragon King. The three powerful gifts became symbols of the Emperor’s right to rule. Dragons were honoured, revered and even worshipped by the people of the land. Temples stand to their glory, even today.

But as time marches forward, past alliances and generosities can be forgotten in the pursuit of glory and the power it brings, becoming the province of childish fables and myth.

Humans forgot their imperial ties to dragons and ceased to see the great good that dragons had bought to their lives. They only saw something thing to envy or fear. Spouses discovered their beloveds to be dragons who could shape shift and had kept their identities secret. Many husbands and wives lashed out in shock after discovering the deception. Warriors who gained accolades and great status through amazing feats, later exposed as a dragons in human guise found themselves the focus of jealousy and anger. Nobles and peasants alike envied the magic the dragons were born with. Soon, dragons were blamed, accused and persecuted for all kinds of misfortune suffered by humans. Suspicion turned dragons into horrid monsters bent on mayhem in the minds of paranoid and jaded humans which spread like a terrible disease infecting whole communities. People responded as they sometimes do when afraid, they resorted to violence.

To the great shame of our people, dragons and their children were hunted and murdered in cold blood. Some of the older dragons fled back to the volatile seas where humans could not easily follow. Others had no such safe haven to turn to, their mixed blood meaning they could no longer survive under the seas. A descendant of the first Imperial ruler now occupied the throne. Many generations removed from his origins, he turned a blind eye to the slaughter and a deaf ear to pleas for help from the dragons who he no longer recognised as his people. Ryujin, stricken by the sickening betrayal from his own blood, was paralysed in his grief. He never recovered, or so the legend says.

At the height of the madness, there were many who aimed to carve out a name for themselves as Dragon Hunters. But there were nine families whom had made the hunting of dragons an art form, earning a fearsome reputation and receiving rich rewards for ridding communities of the imagined monsters in their midst. A younger son from one of the nine families, known collectively as The Ku, had cornered a dragon and her young child in a cave by the sea where she had been hiding. His actions were the catalyst for our curse. Clutching the body of her child to her chest, Emiko screeched driven mad by her grief, pouring all of her anger, loathing and suffering into the sound. But a mother’s love is a powerful magic. And it is one Emiko unintentionally wielded in her state of despair, screaming a curse on the Ku. She ran from the cave still clinging to her child, flinging herself into the sea.

A light exploded from where mother and child had disappeared beneath the waves, spreading out across the land followed by an immense and destructive earthquake. The younger son, who is known only as Nanashi (meaning Nameless) was crushed when the convulsing earth caused the cave to collapse. The Nanashi had sought to make a name for himself amongst the Ku by tracking a dragon alone, telling no one where he was going. Thereby, his body was not recovered, his bones were never interred in the ancestral shrine on the sacred mountains and his spirit condemned. The loss of honour in death is his eternal punishment.

The rest of the country did not escape the consequences for the attempted dragon genocide. The earthquake decimated communities and laid low mountains. Forests were knocked flat and grand homes reduced to rubble. But it was not to be the end of Emiko’s revenge. A great tsunami followed on the heels of the tremors, flooding across the lands and leaving more devastation in it’s wake. Many died though the few sympathetic to the plight of the dragons felt it was no more than was deserved. In the aftermath and mammoth effort to rebuild, the dragons were all but forgotten. No one looked for them or hunted them. No one murdered them any more. For many of the people of Japan, dragons became no more than colourful symbolism in mythology.

For the Ku however, penance had only just begun. Emiko’s Curse called to the surviving members of the families, pulling them towards the sea like a siren’s call. Undeniable, unavoidable and irresistible. To observers, they were possessed by a madness that drove them to set sail off the east coast and never return.

They sailed through turbulent seas towards what was believed to be empty ocean. Land had ever been discovered in the waters they now found themselves. Great storms thrashed and menaced the boats, throwing them over terrifying mountains of water that crashed down before heaving upwards again while the wind seemed to screech and wail. That open ocean would become known as The Dragon’s Triangle.

The ships beached after many terrifying days of being tossed about on the turbulent ocean. The island they found themselves on did not exist on any chart because it had come into being when Emiko sacrificed herself beneath the waves giving her life and magic to enact her curse. At the centre of the island they found the lush valley we still call home surrounded by tall peaks. Building materials were abundant and everything the Ku needed for survival could be found here. There was no need to leave and no one wanted to. They had found some measure of peace after the darkness and upheaval of the time we came to call the Cleansing .

At first there were no dragons. Gradually however, they began to arrive in our valley. They were much changed from the creatures that had been mercilessly hunted. They held small amounts of magic but less than their predecessors. Some could become virtually invisible while others could travel great distances in a blink. One could breath fire when he chose to while another could make his thoughts known by communicating through images that popped unbidden into a person’s mind. None of them had the ability to shapeshift. Some believe they had rapidly adapted for survival, like evolution had sped up for them, becoming smaller and harder to find. Others theorised the dragons capable of changing form had either been hunted into extinction or maybe, just maybe, had been smart enough and lucky enough to hide amongst the human population, staying in human guise for safety. The last was not a popular theory with the early generations living in the Valley. Prejudices ran deep. Even so, as the river smooths rock, the Curse and the creatures themselves imprinted on our spirits and what was unthinkable before became commonplace. Those who were hunters and those who had been their prey became inseparable.

Emiko’s curse seemed to draw dragons to the Island as it had drawn the Ku. The first few arrived in the newly built village around a year after the exiled people. Some of the new arrivals came from lands farther away than Japan. It would seem our ancestors were not the only ones to succumb to human weaknesses. I’m sure you have heard of St George, famous for slaying dragons.

It must have been a shock for them to have woken one morning to dragons roosting on the roofs of the cottages. Hisa, whose name means Enduring, was one of the original Ku to arrive on the Island and was a well educated woman. Her calligraphy was as elegant and beautiful as she. It is in the Chronicles of Hisa that our history is recorded. She wrote our history beginning with the dark days of the Cleansing to the time when she left this life. After her, another took her place as Mistress of Chronicles and so on for each ensuing generation. Each Mistress adopts the name Hisa, having become more a honoured title than simply a name.

The first Hisa wrote about the very first clutch of hatchings born in the Valley. There are tear stains on the pages describing their emerging. I have seen the pages myself. And I understand her tears. Witnessing the birth of new dragons is an experience words cannot fully capture. Bearing witness to the first hatchlings would have felt like feeling the warmth of the sun after so much darkness. With each new generation of the Ku a new generation of dragons is born too.

While the descendants of the original families are bound to the island, a few at a time can leave, travelling to the main land of Japan and for strong ones, the lands beyond. It is an isolating experience as the curse makes us mienai, invisible, to Outsiders. Those who travel can walk the city streets bearing witness to how the world is evolving. We may even taste food and drink. But we cannot be heard or seen. I wonder how many of our visits spawned rumours of hauntings. The siren’s call is always present, an impulse to turn back for home that being mienai, makes it easier to accept. No one ever stays away for long.

The dragon population has grown to healthy numbers, the magic of Emiko’s Island expands the size of the Valley to accommodate increasing need for land. Our human populace cares for them and protects them. We watch the seas for Outsiders, dealing with the ones who are lucky enough to survive the storms that decimate their ships and find their way to our shores. We are trained in the martial arts should we ever have the need of the skills. Gratefully there is little need, the Veil serves its purpose well. The Outsiders touched by magic and deemed worthy by the Veil are given the option to stay or leave. They are the only people for whom we are not mienai. Some stay and become part of the Ku people, sharing our curse of their own free will. Others return home, often becoming our eyes and ears on land.

My name is Ren, I am one of the Ku and I am afraid. The Veil, our greatest defence, the magic responsible for the inhospitable environment that The Dragon’s Triangle is famous for, is failing. If the Veil falls, we are exposed. Emiko’s Island will no longer be inaccessible to the Outsiders. We will stand, ready to fight anything that comes our way. Side by side, dragon and human. I pray it does not come to that. The loss of life is unthinkable. Our best hope is a cure for the ailing magic. I shudder to think what the world will do if they rediscover the dragons...

Intrigued? Read more about Emiko's Island Here