Valley of the Dragon Jewel Market

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. As Nina approached the bustling market nestled into the heart of what used to be named Eden Valley, she stopped short, catching her breath. She remembered the quiet place she used to play as a child, bursting with apple trees, flowers, lush grassy meadows and lazy butterflies doing crooked dances around her head while she tumbled and laughed with play mates. As she walked up to the heavy black gate that now marked the entrance to the valley, her senses were invaded. Aromatic smoke from incense sticks mingled with the heavy charred scents of cooking meats. Vendors called out with shrill, ear-catching cries.

“Red, red, reddest of rubies!”

“Get your golden goblets here!”

“Gilded and engraved by the Gods!”

“Diamonds mined from the centre of the Earth!”

“Three thousand year old emeralds, one time special price!”

“Amethyst, turquoise, opals, lapis lazuli! Why get only one type of treasure when you can get a gem for every colour of the rainbow?!” Clinking and clanking, money changing hands for gems, jewels and precious metals of all types, the sounds of bargaining and arguing erupting everywhere. As Nina pushed through the heavy black gate, the glint and sparkle from the piles of gemstones and gold made her shield her eyes with one arm. The heat was blazing in the Valley of the Dragon Jewel Market and as Nina walked up to the first table, she began to sweat.

She had heard several rumours about the Dragon Jewel Market that circulated in the small village where she had grown up, only five miles away. They all seemed to press into her mind at the same time as she scanned her surroundings; people from nearby towns going missing who were last seen at the market, terrible fires erupting in the middle of the night, engulfing the homes of innocent people who happened to live nearby. She saw the Scori, the representatives of the five dragon bosses who ran this market, young men with white, blank eyes devoid of pupils and irises, their mouths moving quickly with voices emanating from them that were much too deep and rumbling for their small frames, like the sound of building thunder. Their bodies moved rapidly, reaching for goods piled on their tables, taking cash and other valuables from the frenzy of market patrons around them. Ms. Baleida, the local baker, had told her that these young men were like conduits for the dragons, who rarely revealed themselves to the people but who would sell and barter their goods via their human assistants. The dragons themselves were concealed in five massive tents that bordered the valley, made of luxurious fabrics with intricate adornments made of the speciality ware of each dragon and labeled with the names of each dragon’s business: ‘The Ruby Exchange’, ‘The Imperial Emerald Palace’, ‘The Royal Gold Emporium’, ‘The Diamond Nexus League’ and ‘The Treasure Chest’, the latter a market business that carried a wide variety of gemstones. Across the valley, which was now mostly stripped of trees, except for the odd ornamental tree or bush strung up with flashy wares here and there, lay a wide and massive swath of blackened, scorched earth. It carved a diagonal trajectory through the valley and on hot days, which was almost every day, it looked like it was still smoking and alight with glowing embers. It was rumoured that two of the dragon bosses had got into an argument over some market dealings and engaged in a horrific fire fight. The market had been closed for a whole month after that and when it reopened, branded and blackened by fire, the rumours started to fly.

As Nina was examining a golden goblet encrusted with gems, glancing furtively from side to side, she caught sight of her, Demeter. Nina’s heart began to race and blood pounded in her ears. She was just as she remembered her, a Goddess Warrior Priestess Queen of the Night and the Underworld, tall at around 6 foot 2, with jet black hair that fell in shining straight sheets down to her waist, tightly wrapped in black leather and bedecked with what must have been at least one million jewels of all types. Diamonds glittered from her breast, rubies framed her face, following the line of her forehead and the sharp slant of her cheekbones, framing a face so beautiful, Nina could barely stand to look at her, as it left a searing after image when she closed her eyes. A gold plated structured bodice cinched her waist, causing her breasts to erupt over the hard plating which hugged the curve of her hips almost as if she had been dipped in molten gold, hardening to her body as it cooled. Following behind Demeter like obedient ducklings were twelve Scori, walking in tight formation. Their eyes were not vacant and white like when they were selling as conduits and translators for the dragon bosses, but they seemed to have a residual dead and empty expression. Demeter’s sharp, amethyst-coloured eyes met Nina’s unexpectedly and Nina almost choked on her own tongue as she quickly looked away. She’d been hoping for more time to scout out the market before confronting her old mentor. She had trained under Demeter at the Goddess Colony Combat School for Girls. Demeter had been a general in the Goddess Colony Army; her ruthlessness and battle strategies were legendary. Images of experiences from her training flooded her mind; the pain, the pride, the camaraderie, the burning desire and the fear but she pushed the thoughts away to focus on her objective.

***

The five Dragons that populated the Earth, always living in close proximity to each other in the mountainous region of Maldenia, had always been from time immemorial, hoarders of treasure, as everyone knew. They guarded it with a fiery wrath. The noblest of knights, crusaders and simple treasure-seekers had tried for thousands of years to part the dragons from their treasure, but found only death. Their smoking and charred bones were always left in a heap outside the dragon’s cave for their families to collect, but some were not collected and old unclaimed bones and skulls piled up around the entrances to these caves. An alternate theory was that the dragons perceived the bones of humans to be a source of contamination to their inner sanctum. But around ten years ago, the dragons began to move out of their caves and without much challenge, they claimed and occupied the Valley of Eden. People were generally shocked, terrified and mystified to catch a glimpse of these majestic beasts lumbering by. Their scales of iridescent blues, greens and purples glimmered, reflecting the sun light with row upon row of fearsome spikes and plates jutting from their shoulders, wings, knees, elbows and down their spines. They had held their heads high, casting no more than a brief and disinterested glance at the humans at their feet either scurrying away or frozen in place, jaws dropped and gaping. There was one group of zealots who called themselves the Cult of the Dragon Devotees, who approached the dragons in their exodus with a type of ceremonial parade with copious gifts, guessing at what the dragons would like: a roast goat upon a platter, piles of grapes, pomegranates, figs, mangos and oranges and chests full of random human valuables. The dragons gave them the same sideways glance they had given to everyone else. But no one was harmed in their transition to the Valley of Eden, not a trace of fire escaped from their mouths. What was even more peculiar than seeing these five giant beasts promenading past villages and towns was the procession that followed them and the rider that straddled the lead dragon’s back sitting atop a saddle encrusted with jewels. It was Demeter, the purple eyed battle Goddess in full bejewelled warrior garb, her head held as high and aloft as the dragons, refusing any interaction with the people below her, screaming with proclamations or questions. The procession included a long caravan of gold-plated wagons covered in the most ornate, beautiful tapestries. Their contents were a mystery at first but later when curious folk went to inspect their abandoned caves, they found them entirely empty, so it was later presumed the hundreds of wagons in this caravan held the total sum of the dragons copious wealth in treasure. Behind the caravan of treasure wagons, walked around one hundred young men, all dressed in black, double swords crossing their backs, with very serious expressions on their faces, again not interacting at all with the curious crowd of onlookers. These young men were later known to be the Scori, the Guild of Dragon Translators. When it became clear their destination was the Valley of Eden and that their intention seemed to be to set up some kind of market to sell their jewels and hoards of treasure, the rumours and questions started to fly. Why were they doing this? Why had they chosen to leave their caves and sell off their goods? Why did they want to join in with the human economy and amass human money and wealth? How did Demeter, a fairly well known General of The Goddess Colony Army and prominent recruiter and trainer, half human half deity, end up being the Dragons right hand and leader of the somber Scori guild? Who were these young men and where did they come from? Nobody seemed to recognize them from any of the nearby villages. Were they doing this willingly or did their vaguely hypnotized demeanours suggest some kind of coercion? Over time the lush green Valley of Eden lost all its vegetation due to the aggressive construction of the sizeable market and became the hot, dry, dusty, smoky, noisy, busy Valley of the Dragon Jewel Market.

***

Nina fidgeted and fumbled with the goblet in her hand, dropping it accidentally back into the pile of gold coins, bricks, jewellery and other assorted gold objects. One of the Scori turned towards her, his vacant white eyes landing upon her.

“Please be careful with the merchandise. Can I help you with that? Do you have any questions? That particular piece you’re holding is 2000 years old and comes from the Andalian Empire, it was sipped by the lips of Queen Andalia the Second herself. I can make you a special one time offer of two pieces for the price of one, which is five hundred dollars.” All this came out in a guttural snarling voice which left Nina with the eerie, cold feeling of communicating, albeit indirectly, with a dragon. It surprised her how practical and involved in each transaction these dragons were, showing perhaps a controlling nature towards their precious possessions.

“I..uh..I’m just looking…” Nina stammered. Just then she felt a hard grip around her wrist and a sharp tug, which pulled her away from the covered table out into the open sun. Nina was momentarily blinded and shielded her eyes with her other arm, but she quickly realized it was Demeter herself who had such a tight grip on her.

“You’re coming with me,” the Goddess General growled. Nina felt herself being pulled through the busy bazaar with a force that she had tried to forget. Suddenly ‘the trials’ she went through came flooding into her mind. Images, sounds, smells and sensations that had been locked away, burned her hotter than any fire. The sound of Demeter’s voice and the rough touch of her hand brought her back to the dark tunnels of the labyrinthian Underworld maze where a combination of sensory deprivation, starvation, dehydration and repeated demon attacks to fend off with her bare hands and wits alone, were presumably meant to toughen and train her into an elite soldier and to inspire ultimate loyalty. It was Demeter who held the reigns of this thirty day nightmare. It was she who kept it going and decided when to end it. Memories sparked of Demeter cradling Nina’s head in her lap, stroking her forehead and humming a tune as she nursed her back to consciousness with sips of water in a dark, dank tunnel, only to violently shove her back into the maze and slam shut the trap door, enveloping her in darkness once more, hearing only the demons shrill shrieks echo in the musty corridors and seeing almost nothing except for shadowy shapes approaching her. She remembered the phase afterwards as well, nursed back to health and fed with plums and berries by Demeter herself in the General’s very own chambers, dressed in delicate robes of the softest materials Nina had ever felt. This is where she fell in love with Demeter, falling into her caring, charming, humorous and seductive side. They developed an enchanted relationship that sprang up as quickly as a geyser spurting up from the Earth. Later Nina realized this was a process Demeter went through with all her hand-picked promising young Lieutenant candidates that would serve directly under her. Nina had been one of the only ones bound by these inexplicable psychological forces to Demeter to escape this bond and servitude.

“Pay attention!” Nina heard as a familiar slap landed on her cheek As she snapped back to the present moment, she realized she was sitting in a chair in a darkened tent with Demeter looming over her.

“What in holy hell are you doing here Nina?”

“What do you mean? It’s a free open market. I came here to shop.”

“How could you risk coming here. You know the consequence of abandoning the Goddess Colony Army! The consequence of abandoning me!”

“Certain death?”

“And yet you stroll in here as casually as if you are looking for a wedding gift without a thought to the fate that awaits you. I have been searching for you for years! Where have you been? Where have you been hiding? Who has been helping you?”

“I don’t know what you mean. I just went overseas to stay with some relatives, to help them with their farm.”

“You were never a good liar Nina, that’s a ridiculous story! I had my people on every continent searching for you. Why did you leave? You were about to embark on the most illustrious career imaginable as top Lieutenant in my army. You threw it all away to live in exile with certain and inevitable death looming over you at every turn! Was it worth it?”

“Well…that’s why I’m here actually. I regret my action and I desperately want to serve you, serve the Goddess Army. I miss you…I love you. My life feels meaningless without you. I was scared…scared of the power, scared of the darkness to come, so I ran. But I am…nothing, without you. I need you to restore me.” Nina looked up into Demeter’s flashing amethyst eyes, her brow knitted in anger and concentration. She prayed in that moment that Demeter would believe her, that she knew her well enough to exploit her one and significant weakness, the desire to be truly loved. Demeter stood there for what felt like a long time staring into her eyes, staring through her, but finally the expression on her face began to soften. She bent down, her lips lightly touching Nina’s ear and whispered, “I’ve missed you too.”