Dragondawn

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley.

This was a mantra which Zhang Si had grown accustomed to hearing repeated throughout his life, though he had never known how it was truly meant to be interpreted. Clearly, it was - at least at its surface - an objective fact, as as old as dragons were, they were not eternal. On the other side of that, however, the dragons had been there longer than any other race could remember. Si, the youngest Zhang, had lived in the Valley for his entire life, and the same could be said of every dragon he had ever met, which included his father Zhang Shu, who was entering soon into the second millennium of his reign as emperor. Before Shu, his own father, Zhang She, had ruled over the dragons for over three thousand years, living his entire five-millennium life inside the Valley.

Si had no knowledge of any life for his people outside of this valley, except that there had been one very long ago, and as far as he was aware, the same could be said for every dragon that called the Valley their home. The mantra was constantly repeated, though, particularly by the high courts. It was such a mainstay in their culture that it was written into the introduction of their code of laws. Despite this, Si never knew its meaning completely. He knew what it meant at a surface level - that there was a time before the dragons, but he never thought about what it might be saying on a deeper level; no one had. As far as he knew, there was no deeper meaning to the phrase, and it simply was reminding the dragons that though they were essentially immortal compared to the world’s other races, there still was a time before them, though Si was unsure the purpose of this constant reminder when the Zhang dynasty had ruled the land for so long that even the oldest human history books referred to them as the ancient rulers of the Valley.

The Valley itself was the majority of a large island which lay in the northeast of the Great North Sea, hundreds of miles from the nearest continent, but large enough to be one in its own right. The rims of the forge reached up as mountains which formed the perimeter of a bowl, the bottom of which had the grassy plain extend for hundreds - if not thousands - of miles in every direction. Since the only habitable part of the island was covered by the Valley, the dragons were the only group to call it their home; this was also a result of the cold weather from its geography which led to a low amount of resources which would be necessary to sustain a different population. Thus, both the nation on it, and the continent of the island itself, were named Longyu by the dragons that called it their home.

For as long as history was kept, the Zhangs had presided over Longyu and seen the longest era of peace in the history of any nation. In the reigns of both Shu and She, reaching a combined length of five millenia, Longyu had seen no war, no famine, and minimal - if any - unrest. Juxtaposed with the realms of the other races, where the humans were lucky to go one hundred years without one of these bringing an end to a dynasty and the elves, despite their relatively long life compared to them, were constantly brought into human issues. Due in part to their age, in part to their power, in part to their wisdom, and in part to their strong leadership, the dragons were regarded as higher than elves or humans. They were respected, they were influential, and they were known to be a powerful ally to any. As a result of this, on the rare occasions when the dragons did speak on human affairs, the matter was almost always considered to be settled as soon as the words had been said.

These facts lay in the back of the prince’s mind as he went about his day. On this sunny morning, he was walking through the topiary in the back of the castle grounds, observing the plants which his family grew, some native to Longyu, some imported from other nations as gifts for one of his forefathers. As a prince, part of his training for when the time came for him to take the throne involved schooling to learn the ways of the world, and today’s lesson was a combination of botany and the history associated with the plants in the topiary.

The sun glimmered off of the dragon’s emerald scales, and his four trunk-like legs made a small crashing sound as he stepped through the area. There was a quiet slithering sound as his tail dragged on the ground behind him, reaching several feet behind. He walked with his long neck raised to allow his head to peer over the tops of the plants, bringing it down whenever he needed a closer look at any of the plants. The head at the top of his neck was serpentine, with a pointed snout which reached out with bright white teeth jutting out over both the top and bottom lips. Over top of the base of his snout, a pair of dark purple eyes faced forward, so dark that the pupils were nearly indistinguishable. His eyes were covered on the top by semi-circles of hard bone. Behind his head, surrounding the nape of his neck, was a frill of more hard bone, with five small horns curving out of it to point upwards.

Si took a moment to look closer at his own personal favorite of their plants, bending down to place his nose as close as he could to maximize the scent which he received from it. A bush of pink roses, which was a descendant of one given as a gift from an ancient human king to Zhang She, stood out prominently among the mostly green of the rest of the topiary. The smell reminded Si of long ago, long before he had turned eight hundred and begun the preparations for his own reign. Before he had begun his schooling, he would come into the topiary to observe the plants, and the rose bush was one which always drew his attention. Before it was even expected of him, he had taken an interest in its care, eventually taking care of it himself on occasion.

As he breathed in the nostalgic perfume, he was suddenly startled by the loud crash of fast footfalls from another dragon running directly towards him. Si snapped to attention, standing erect and turning to face the direction of the sound, and immediately was able to see its source: a black dragon, considerably larger than himself, was running at high speed down the path. When the dragon grew closer, he outstretched his wings to their full size in order to create drag so that he would be able to slow down in time to reach Si without running directly into him. As he came to a stop, he spoke, yelling in a deep, gravelly voice with a tone of both fear and concern carried in it.

“Prince Si! Come quickly! You must come to the throne room right away!” Before Si could object, the dragon continued, no longer yelling, but still evidently just as concerned. “Something terrible has happened. Emperor Shu is dead.”