Young Writers Society

15 years ago…

Nighttime was coming. The sun was beginning to set in the west, setting the sky on fire where it touched, turning the clouds red, and illuminating and highlighting those proud mountain peaks to the southwest. The sunbeams fell upon the window of the room, covering the space in a dazzling orange-red glow. The long-lasting brilliance of the sun was finally concluding for the day, but that did not depress or upset the little blue-haired girl standing beside her bed. On the contrary; this was the favorite time of day to her. The rest of the day was interesting, but it was too lonely. Her parents were never around; whenever she asked them or their servants, they would always tell her they were busy helping people and ‘tending to the needs of our country’. They never had time for their six year old daughter, and this made her sad. As the girl was too young to attend school, her parents had let the girl wander about the mansion and take in the sights. Despite their parent’s consistent stance that the house belonged to them and, to an extent, the girl, she felt lost inside the massive complex that seemed more like a city. The girl thought that it was so massive that it would take a thousand years to be able to see it all; it couldn’t possibly belong to her and her family alone – it belonged to hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of people. She certainly saw many people as she walked around the mansion. However, despite that, she felt alone among those crowds. At the end of the day, when she retired to her room, that’s where she felt like she was at home. She felt like a returning adventurer; tired, but happy to be back.

That was not the only reason that she liked the time, however. This was the time of day when she could finally see her mother. Every day, on cue, her mother would walk into the room, sit beside the girl on the bed, and tell her stories with her mellifluous voice. The stories were always beautiful, being of glorious heroes, tyrannical villains, and great struggles leading to the heroes’ victory. Even though the girl almost never saw her father, the high priest who was always busy with his sermons, and hardly ever saw her mother, hearing her mother’s stories made each and every day a wonderful experience in the eyes of the girl. When she heard those distinctive footsteps down the hall, she did not hesitate to jump into her massive bed and snuggle among the red silk bedsheets. She giggled, her heartbeat racing ever faster, ignoring the stifling darkness that was beginning to envelop the land. She wondered what stories her mother would tell her that day.

With a small creak and a groan, the door opened. A figure stepped within the room, and young girl fidgeted in her bedsheets so that she could see the person who had entered the room. To her delight, it was her mother. Her mother, as always, was wearing a simple white nightgown, and her smile was radiant. Her black hair flowed behind her head smoothly, and her face appeared to be much younger than one she always claimed was forty. Her green eyes gleamed, and she smiled happily at her daughter. Despite those bags under her eyes, and the substantial evidence that she was weary, the mother appeared to possess a lot of vivacity and energy, charming her young daughter. She stepped forward, moving around the bed, and sat beside her daughter, who had wrapped herself in the bedsheets. Her mother had no need for bringing a book to recite stories to the girl – her mother always remembered the stories and the words by heart. After a brief moment of silence, the conversation began.

“Who are you going to tell me about tonight, mom?” asked the young girl in a chirpy tone, though her voice was usually deeper. She was exited, and did not attempt to hide it. “Are you going to tell me about Ar….Ark…Ar….”

“Archanea?” The soft voice emanated around the room, in a soft, kind-hearted tone. The mother looked at her daughter, smiling as she waited for a response.

“Yeah!” said the girl excitedly, before quieting down. She always forgot the rules of formality held in a mansion, among them not using interjections or yelling frequently in casual conversation. This was especially the case when she was happy. “Will you tell me more about the Hero-King? His wife, or….”

Her mother shushed her daughter. The girl obliged quickly, and looked at her mother with an expression of curiosity. This was not the normal routine of her storytelling. Her mother’s smiled faded, and the tiredness that had previously been invisible clearly showed itself on her face. She sighed and replied to her daughter,

“I thought it would be nice if we focused on our home. I never told you this story before because I always felt you were too young. Now, however, I think you’re old enough to hear about the story of your homeland.”

The girl nodded silently, though she was still curious. She was slightly crestfallen by the fact that the story wasn’t going to be about the neighboring continent to the west, Archanea, but she was also mystified. The story of her homeland? What could this mean? The girl did not know, but she was eager to learn, and so she told her mother, “What’s the story?”

Her mother sighed again.

“A long time ago, there was a greedy man. He was greedy for power.”

“Like the dragon prince?” said the girl, remembering the last story her mother had spoken.

“Yes, like the dragon prince,” replied her mother, “and the man went all around the world in search of power. One day, he found a dragon in Archanea.”

The girl bobbed up and down in ecstasy at hearing about her favorite place again. For a story that was about her homeland, thought the daughter, it seemed to be focusing on a lot of other places.

“You see, one time in the past, dragons ruled the world. However, a disease started driving them mad. The good dragons found out that they could seal their powers in stone, take human form, and they wouldn’t become crazy. However, some dragons, like this one, didn’t. They were slowly driven mad and became mindless beasts that attacked humans. The dragon was an evil dragon, and he was losing a war against the good dragons. He wanted to spread his evil will elsewhere, and, so, the man and the dragon’s destinies collided. The dragon bonded with the man.”

“Bonded?”

“Yes, they bonded. The dragon passed on his evil powers to the man, who then returned to his home. Our home.”

“What happened next?”

“The man founded an evil empire, having finally acquired the power he for such a long time had sought. He ruled cruelly, hurting many innocent people. But he wasn’t himself.”

The girl felt sadder the more she heard of this story. Unlike the other ones, there didn’t seem to be any respite in sight - this story was a tragedy. “How could someone not be himself?” she asked her mother.

“When they bonded, the dragon gave the man a book. The book allowed anyone who had bonded with the dragon to use the power of the dragon, but at a cost. When the man took possession of the book, the dragon possessed him. The book contained the evil dragon himself; the dragon was sealed when the two bonded, and the book held the dragon’s hatred for humans. The dragon became the man.”

“Oh,” said the daughter simply.

“That dragon removed the last kingdom from power, and formed his own empire and a religion. He wanted revenge on the humans, and, with his power, made the evil empire. But that wasn’t all.”

“How come?”

“When the man who had bonded with the dragon died, his son became the emperor. When his son was born, he inherited his father’s powers and the evil book to use them. He became an evil dictator like his father. In a way, the dragon went from one man to another. This happened for fifteen generations after the original man, and many people died because of them.”

“That sounds terrible….”

“But something wonderful happened. The people started fighting, and they started a war.”

The girl smiled, but said nothing. Her mother continued,

“They fought bravely, but they were trapped and surrounded in a place known as Darna. However, it was then that their fortunes changed. The good dragons realized what their evil brethren had done, and twelve of them went to Darna. The twelve of them came to leaders of the resistance. Just like the evil dragon and the man, each dragon bonded with one of the members of the resistance, giving these people their powers and strength. Unlike the evil dragon, the dragons were not turned into weapons for the leaders to use, but the dragons gave the leaders weapons. The weapons worked just like the unholy book, except for the fact that they did not possess the wielder. They were sealed with the stones belonging to the dragons; these stones were bound to the power of the dragons. This was to make sure that those leaders and their descendants, and only they, could be able to use the weapons. They didn’t want the weapons falling into the wrong hands and being misused.”

“That makes sense. Did they kill the evil king?”

“Yes, they did. These leaders, forever known as the Twelve Crusaders, came out of Darna and fought a long war, finally killing the evil king. The evil dragon was forever banished in his unholy tome, which was sealed and kept far away.”

“What did they do after the war?” the girl was excited once more, but growing tired.

“They ruled the continent peacefully afterwards. Many of them went on to found nations. They all married, and all of them have descendants in our world. Some of them possess great amounts of the dragon’s powers, but others possess smaller amounts. Those who possess smaller amounts cannot use the weapons associated with the dragons, but they are still powerful.”

“Did one of the Crusaders make this place?” asked the girl, pointing at the walls of the mansion. She’d always been told the mansion had existed for centuries, and it seemed so massive to her that she felt that only somebody powerful and ancient could’ve made it.

“Yes. Lord Fala made a duchy from this land, and made a mansion here. You are his descendant, my young girl.”

“Does that mean…”

“It does. You have the powers of a dragon.”

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I'm sorry for the poor quality of the story, and for the fact there isn't much action going on.  This is the culmination of an idea that has been developing in my head for quite some time, but I don't think I've developed it as much as I could've.  Yes, this is a fanfiction story, but I won't reveal what the fanfiction is until the second part of this opening chapter.  It's always fun to surprise the readers, isn't it?  Enjoy!