The Becoming

1

The Becoming

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. That is until in the evening of The Transformation in the Valley of Nod. The Valley of Nod was a beautiful and peaceful place, but its harmony was shaken to its core by the malevolence of Ambrose. Ambrose came from a family of questionable individuals. They never wanted to be a part of the traditions or help the village in any way. They ostracized themselves and the community didn’t bother them since they decided to not be part of them. One day, both of Ambrose’s parents passed away under mysterious circumstances and even though he didn’t want to, he came to the village to ask for help in burying them because he was overwhelmed and had no idea what to do, and of course the village helped him. The Nodians also helped him in cleaning the home and packing the things his parents left behind that he would have no use for. In his parents’ bedroom, Ambrose found tucked away in their closet scrolls about a strange dragon religion they practiced without his knowledge and that changed his whole perspective about the community in the Valley of Nod. He became obsessed with those scrolls; he would study them day and night. Every Friday morning, he would wake up and go to the middle of the Valley proselytizing about how the Nodians were condemned to die because of their sinful and wicked ways. Few followed him because he was a passionate orator; he spoke with fervor and gravitas, holding people’s attention. Zillah, the priestess of the village, could understand why others decided to give him the time of day. Those who began to follow him really believed the tenets he was spewing about the ancient dragon religion, especially the one where they had to sacrifice those who believed in the ancient gods and ways to gain the favor and riches of Uriel, the eminent dragon.

Overnight, Ambrose had created an overzealous religious faction whose sole purpose was to destroy everything the people had built in the Valley of Nod. They wanted to completely eradicate the Nodians’ culture and beliefs. How can this pariah manipulate the minds of people? Were people really that weak minded or did they just needed something/someone to believe in? Nevertheless, on October 31st, at midnight Ambrose and his followers had waited in the forest for the villagers to be asleep and headed to the top of the hills, north of the Valley of Nod. They were going to perform a dangerous ritual that was written in one of the scrolls his parents left behind. In this ritual Ambrose was to be possessed by Uriel in order to consume the Nodians with fire, so that they can be reborn pure and holy. They brought a doe to be sacrificed for the ritual as a blood sacrifice was needed. Once, the doe was sacrificed the followers smeared its blood on his bare chest, while Ambrose wrote Uriel’s name in the ancient Dragonian tongue. After, everyone joined Ambrose in repeating the incantation to invoke Uriel’s spirit to take power over him. Everything happened in the blink of an eye at the exact moment where night and day became one, so did Ambrose and Uriel. As the followers’ gaze fell upon Ambrose, they immediately were in awe of his transformation. His body became extremely muscular and he slowly began levitating as fire surrounded him, but did not consumed him. In his chest where the doe’s blood was smeared Uriel’s dragon form began to emerge as a tattoo. Ambrose’s eyes were a luminous and incendiary amber color, assertive and determined to destroy—and it was at that poignant moment that his devotees knew that they would follow and do anything he asked of them.

Zillah and the rest of the Nodians were awakened by the smell of fire and a distinct odor like they had never smelt before. As some rushed outside their homes to see what was happening, it was the most catastrophic thing they had ever witnessed. That distinct odor was the charred flesh of people—children, men, and women—many of whom Zillah knew. It was an unfathomable sight to behold. Ambrose’s mouth was emitting fire and he was no longer breathing fire, his hands were delivering it. How can one person be the cause of such a heinous crime? The fiery blaze was consuming not only the people, but peoples’ homes and the temples of worship. One day everyone was alive and the next they were ceasing to exist. Uriel’s possession had wreaked havoc in the Valley of Nod.

What Ambrose and his overzealous crew failed to notice was that Zillah was raised in the Dragonian religion; it was not as ancient as the people of the Valley of Nod thought. Before Zillah came to live amongst the Nodians. Her actual home was Lumeria, an enchanted island where she had lived with and worshipped dragons. But a terrible disease fell upon Lumeria killing the people and the dragons, to preserve the last eight dragons the remaining Lumerians gathered and performed a ritual in which the essence of those dragons went into eight unique dragon shaped pendants. Those eight pendants went to the last survivors of Lumeria who were scattered around the world and in times of crises they will call upon their dragon to help them. Zillah arrived at the Valley of Nod on the eve of the Autumnal Solstice, an auspicious time for the Nodians. It was a time of seasonal change, and nothing brings change a like a stranger arriving in your community. Even though she felt helpless, because her people and the magical creatures of Lumeria had all been ravaged by the terrible illness. The Nodians welcomed her and made her feel as one of their own. Before the last remaining Lumerians were to disperse their separate ways, they were given the scrolls and proper instructions of how to invoke their dragon. And although Zillah practiced and taught the Nodians polytheistic religion, she never stopped practicing her own.

Unlike Ambrose, Zillah did not need a group of followers to bring about Zipporah, the dragon was always with her when she needed her. While the Nodians were running to escape the fiery pillage that was inexplicably brought upon them, Zillah was heading to the mountains of the Valley of Nod. It was time to beseech Zipporah, the unconquerable warrior of Lumeria. As Zillah stripped off her robe, she began saying the ancient Dragonian prayer to call forth Zipporah. Just as she was finishing her last sentence, she took the pendant on her chest and twisted its head dabbed some of the essence of Zipporah on her right finger and with the tail of her pendant, which was sharpened made a small incision above her left breast and put the finger there for her and the dragon were now one. She turned around with tears in her eyes as her body began to change. Zillah felt everything ripping apart inside and out. Her skin became black and scaly like a reptile and from her back side a barb tail sprung; her arms transform to bat-like wings and her hands to razor-sharp talons; her legs became thick, and her feet, also became razor-sharp talons. Lastly, her neck elongated, and her face stretched to accommodate the facial transformation of a dragon. Zipporah stood there in all her onyx glory. Looking around with her slit-red determined eyes; her ears perked up as she heard Ambrose/Uriel causing mayhem in the Valley. With a loud roar and a fiery breath, she spread her wings, crouched, and leapt to the sky to fly towards him. It was time to finish this poor excuse of a human being and his useless devotees once and for all.