The Rising Dragon

Prologue

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. The history books all say that before the dragons came the world was in constant chaos, full of war and strife. Then, magic was discovered to be more fact than fiction by the worst sort of people and an already chaotic world began its slow descent into madness. It was a discovery kept secret at first by those in power who sought to use and abuse this new ‘resource’. A secret can only stay a secret for so long and, soon enough, the existence of magic became public knowledge.

The magical society, seeing that their secrecy can no longer protect them or hold them back, declared war on those who took advantage of their silence. It did not take long for the conflict to draw in those who were not involved and escalate the situation. This was the start of the War of the Realms, with no winning sides and the largest death toll in history. At the height of the war, when it was looking like the end of all things, the dragons appeared amongst the populace worldwide. Dragons emerged amongst all humanoid sentient species without exception.

All those who emerged awakened with the instinct to search for others of their kind and group together into Nests along with the drive to guide and guard the world. In each Nest, an alpha was instinctively chosen to lead and lead they did. As one, the Nests all over the world took to flight and established control over the war and ended it. Of course, not everyone took that well and there were people who tried to rebel, but that did not last long. While the dragons did not start the fight, they made sure to end it.

They showed their collective power by changing the landscape of the entire world, moving mountains, creating whole new oceans, and many more miraculous feats. They’ve been in power and maintaining the new status quo for the last few hundred years, and we’re all the better for it. At least, that’s what all the history books, and my grand-da, have been saying. My grand-da has been reading these books to me throughout my childhood ever since he gained custody of me. When I was nine, my mother died and my father lost custody over me because of his connections with the extremist group, The World of Man.

The World of Man is infamous for their hatred towards all things magical, especially the dragons. They’ve always been seen protesting the rule of the dragons and preaching anti-magic and anti-dragon rhetoric. They are suspected to have connections with arms dealers, human traffickers, and other unsavory sorts. They are even prime suspects of many hate crimes and violent attacks, but there is never any concrete evidence and without proof they can never be convicted or disbanded. My father is a member of this group and has been for years.

Since I was a baby, he had been raising me on this way of thinking, teaching me that magic was evil and unnatural. He would tell me that the dragons were monsters and tyrants. He had me homeschooled so that I would not become corrupted against him and his beliefs. He had been grooming me to join his group once he felt that I was old enough. So, it is with good reason that I have not seen my father since the final verdict.

Grand-da has been trying his best to teach me the history of the world and how much better it is now ever since I fell into his care. However, I never saw the need to learn or understand what I felt I already knew. I’ve been living in Night Valley, or the Valley of Everlasting Night, my whole life and I knew it like the back of my hand. To me the capitol province of the Dark Far North has always been and will always be my home and what it means to me will never change. To me, and many others of who grew up in the age of dragons, there have always been dragons in the Valley.

This common sense did not affect my day-to-day life and I believed it never would, then, I became one of them.