Chapter 4 ( The Dragons)

One hundred years later........2341 AD

Deep in the Himalayan mountains in the center of the lotus city was the young air dragon Briesef. Twenty feet long from nose to tail moving with sinuous grace as she silently went through her cotta. With deft movements she pulled the incense sticks out that the monks had left behind for her to honor the Jade Emperor and thank him for the containment of her egg for so many thousands of years. She lit the incense and waited for the old monk to come ring the bell for her seven times. Slivered beams of sunlight shone through the window slats, illuminating the translucent opalescent scales into fractured rainbow hues upon the ceiling and walls . She bowed each time he rang the bell then began to move about the room as though she danced upon a cloud of dragon dust. she spun and leapt and twisted through the beams of light that struck her scales like incandescent fire flies.

 Three hundred years ago she began to stir in her egg and soon she and her brothers and sisters birthed forth from their confining homes. She looked around her and saw many different kinds of dragons. Some like her, others with long necks and smaller arms with clawed hands and luminescent wings in the center of their backs. Many were snake like in appearance the remnants of the Jade Emperor left behind for the world. The droplets of water from his great katana that carved the universe and all her glory left the eggs for this world and no other. 

She herself was hatched by the great Dali Lama himself. He cared for her and loved her and protected her in the night. He kept her warm when it was cold and cool when it was hot. He bathed her in ice water from the mountain peaks during her three year dragon fever. She very nearly died several times before her one hundredth year. There were legends and tales that spoke of that if a dragon was ill that its future charge was ill or died. if the dragon died the path to its keeper had been lost. She shivered at the thought of even being so near death her scales rippled like hackles raising  on a hound.

 Pulling back into the proud warrior pose, she held there for what seemed an eternity before she slowly lowered her arms and wound her legs and tail into the tree. Shaking off her birth remembrance she could hear the gathering gong being sounded and nodded her head once more to the Statue of the Jade Emperor and left her domicile. Moving into the walkway she ran into Pong the blue water dragon she was deeply in love with.

They had always spoken of mating when the time was right. Pong loved the way her eyes and scales shone in the morning sunlight and anticipated the moment she would step into the sun. Moving into a beam of sunlight, he grasped her claws with his and turned her so he could see hear scales shimmer in the light once more before turning to walk beside her through the gardens as they communed with the earth’s energy and tended to the plants and trees there. “ Pong, I have been having dreams lately that,…Well that, that, shake me up. I saw myself flying with a human woman upon my back and she was casting a shield of protection about us while we were flying above a field of battle. But I have sensed since my birthing I was intended to be a males guide. You were there too Pong.”

 He looked at her with an incredible expression and smiled at her, his large fangs protruding from his mouth as he did so. His love for her older than time it’s self bubbled up into his chest and his heart skipped a beat as he spoke in turn, “I too have dreamt this dream of being in battle with a being on my back but this man had pale skin and he had slightly elongated ears almost like cats ears. He was casting this large beam of electric blue light that seemed to come down from the cracked moon its self high above us and never hitting us.” They conversed with each other for a few more minutes as they walked through a large archway as they entered the common area of the gathering place two thousand dragons all looked forward to the monks. Dali Lama stood up and rang the bell 7 times and the note reverberated off the ceiling and throughout the temple gardens. They all bowed seven times in unison as one swift movement. “The time has come my children for you to be free. I have taught to you all the knowledge I have gleaned over the years you have seen many of us humans die and carry on the work of the one before them. There are ten of us now left and a time comes in a young dragon’s life

Where he or she must be free to live and fly free and soar in the clouds or walk upon the earth or swim in the great oceans that lay beyond the barriers of our great city. The Lotus city is our most sacred of homes upon this earth. The secret of the Jade Emperor. Ten dragons may stay behind to protect our sacred home for when we human are gone; the city will fall to dragon rule. The young dragons looked at each other and breathed deeply. Had they heard correctly? They were to fly free! How amazing! Briesef looked at Pong and knew they would fly forth together from this land always together. Standing up on her hind legs she called out, “Who will go with Pong and I to investigate this world together?” Twenty dragons of earth, air, fire and water and three beautiful green wyverns decided to go with her and Pong. Pong stood up on his hind legs and spoke,” Tomorrow before the two suns rise we will fly from here and find our new home.” YOu may return to the lotus city if you ever have need of knowledge, or guidance or help in any form.

When they ventured out they flew over much ruin and devastation. Buildings lay crumbling and falling, bridges broken hanging in the naked sky bared for the entire world to see such great engineering go to waste. They flew and flew for many years finally settling on a place near the Carpathian Mountains a little open glen between Transylvania and Budapest. Here they began to build their homes and troves. The area would be known in the future as Moltair’s Rise. Here they erected huge vast temples to the Jade Emperor and hollowed out tunnels and caves in the Carpathian Mountains to hide should there ever be a need to do so. And if the humans needed them, they could be used for a place to reside for many a year. Years passed and the dragons began to lay their eggs with in the hollows of the mountains for protection. But unlike before, when they sat unmoving for millennia. These young dragons prospered and grew and hatched from their shells healthy, cognizant, thinking, speaking dragons. They built families and made unions along with forming alliances along with a few splinter cells of dragons that gravitated towards the darker path but therein remained a balance of both dark and light upon the planet and they prospered mightily.

Many Loupe Larou would come to them for advice or healing as well as a good many humans who understood these dragons were far beyond any legend has ever spoken of them. Their honor reigned supreme and they brought up the young ones to walk in the paths of the Old Ones and to always seek honor and strive to be true. Here is where the Order of the Rose began. The great dragon Marrukkah began to teach humans truth and justice and honor and to value the blade. All this things had been lost with the event of technology and somehow things had not figured out how to blend them with the old ways and path of the old ones. Brum Rhinesfeld was the first Knight of the old code. While Marrukah sent out delegates worldwide to find the vestigial remains of the Templar knights he trained Brum. Brum was strong , fast and the power of God was with him. He led the first battle of Frankfurt where he drove the orcs out of Germany and into the ocean. He chased them like hounds to the coast of France and watched them leave . they crossed the ever fraught putrid zone of Gahennah and across to the Americas and into South America to Buenos Aires. Here is where the Orcs decided to remain.

Meanwhile droves of warriors and priests converged upon Marrukkah and he trained them all men, women, children all who vowed to follow the paths of the old ones, vowed to have honor and be true to their word and wield  a sword with an axe or bow. and combine them with the word of God and alchemy. many ancient spells were taught as how to consecrate the land on which one stood to purify themselves and the thing they were fighting. often times the purification spells killed whatever was attacking due to it's unpure existence.