Dracomorphs
By
Jefferson Davis
An excerpt from The Book of Ages:
nce
upon a time, there were two dragons. One was named Light, and the other was
Darkness. Light and Darkness were brothers, and they were the very best of
friends. Both had unimaginable powers, and they used them to create the
universe and all of its countless worlds. They created the trees, rocks,
rivers, mountains, and valleys. They created the birds, the reptiles, the fish,
the insects, the amphibians, and the mammals. And, last of all, they created
humans.
Many
years passed, and the humans had spread across the Earth… which was not
necessarily a good thing. The humans did nothing but fight, and Light and
Darkness were tired of it. So they created the Eight Dragon Gods and Goddesses
of the Elements (beings who could turn into dragons) to restore peace and order
to the world.
There
were four gods and four goddesses. The four gods were Pyros the Fire Dragon,
Magmus the Lava Dragon, Zakrius the Lightning Dragon, and Traezek the Death
Dragon, who was put in charge of making weapons for the rest of the Dragon
Gods. The four goddesses were Takora the Wind Dragon, Vasund the Earth
Dragon, Wintra the Ice Dragon, and Selissa the Water Dragon.
The
Dragon Gods and Goddesses ruled wisely alongside Light and Darkness, and peace
reigned throughout the Earth.
But one day, while Light and Darkness were
walking through the forest and appreciating all that they had created, they
stumbled upon a strange rock that neither of them could remember creating. The
rock seemed to radiate pure shadow. When Darkness touched the strange rock, he
became consumed by what is now known as Dark Power, and attacked Light. An epic
battle ensued, resulting in Light having to summon the Dragon Gods and
banishing Darkness’s spirit to the Dark World. But before his spirit was
banished, Darkness cast a spell, causing the bodies of Light and the Dragon
Gods to be destroyed, and their spirits scattered across the globe. The humans
mourned the loss of their rulers and creators, and could not believe that
Darkness would turn on his own brother. Nowadays, whatever allows us to see in
the shadows, we call light, and whatever tries to consume that light, we call
darkness, after the two brothers, Light and Darkness. As for their spirits,
Darkness’s spirit is (hopefully) still trapped in the Dark World, and the
spirits of Light and the Dragon Gods are still scattered everywhere.
Prologue.
The night was dark and chilly, which was just the way Traezek liked
it. His experience with humans had taught him that they normally didn’t go
outside in these conditions, unless they had something to hide, which meant
that there was less of a chance of him being seen. The one thing that would
have made this night better would be if the moon wasn’t full, but Traezek liked
a challenge.
He was hiding in the bushes by
the gate that guarded Elmwood Drive. Elmwood Drive was pretty much just a
driveway that led up to the enormous mansion that belonged to the Blaze family.
Traezek normally wouldn’t have bothered to do what he was about to do,
but this was urgent. The signs were everywhere, and the day of The Eclipse was
in three months. He needed to find all of the new Hosts and train them
before… But he didn’t want to think about
that.
Suddenly, he saw his chance. The guard that had been guarding the gate
finally closed his eyes and fell asleep. Now was Traezek’s chance. He dashed to
the gate and silently climbed over it. He could have turned into his dragon
form and easily smashed down the gate, but stealth was paramount for this
mission. Traezek ran up the long and serpentine driveway, his padded boots
making no sound upon the asphalt. He finally stood in front of the enormous
Blaze family mansion.
The Blaze mansion looked even bigger than it had looked from the
bottom of Elmwood Drive. Huge columns supported the area of the roof that hung
over the large porch area. The mansion was gargantuan in size, with white walls
that looked bedazzling in the day time, but looked absolutely stunning in the
moonlight. The door was about forty-eight feet high and forty feet wide, big
enough for twelve elephants to walk in, side by side, and with room to spare.
And, over the doorway, the Blaze family crest glimmered in the moonlight: a
depiction of a flame on a shield with dragon wings on either side. If this
wasn’t the home of the new host of Pyros' spirit, Traezek didn’t know what
was.
Traezek ran to the door. He searched inside his cloak for a moment, and
then pulled out a long, yellow envelope with the words “Tanner Blaze” written
on it. He placed it on the doorstep, and ran down the driveway. The new Host
would find it in the morning, hopefully a bit earlier than the others, and then
he would do again the thing which he had been doing for eons: to prepare and
train the hosts of the spirits of Light and his brothers and sisters to fight
the new Host of the spirit of Darkness. And this time, he knew, failure was not
an option.
