Sleeping Dragons

On average, only one in every thirty dragons would survive their first year alive. After that, only one in every fifty make it to their adolescence. After adolescence, only one in every five hundred make it to adulthood. For Dragons, Death was a common part of life. Although a Dragon could potentially live to see five centuries, most struggled to even see a decade. Their cousins, the Wyvern, only fared slightly better odds, but they only lived in the mountains of Eurasia, their two feet designed to perch atop the peaks. It was fifteen years ago when the last Himalayan Wyvern was seen, I saw him with my own eyes. But my tale for you isn’t about a Wyvern. My tale is of a Dragon, your other relative.

Ulaan khamar was close to reaching her 450th birthday with her fertility at the end of its course. She didn’t know yet if this was her last chance to breed or not, and she sometimes questioned if it was even worth the effort. Since she was forty, she had laid six eggs every three years, yet only one of her children had gone on to reach adulthood.

As she flew once more over the vast plains of middle Eurasia, she remembered him. She remembered how they would meet for every Winter sleep. She remembered how she offered guidance of how to construct a perfect lair. Of how-to best bargain with the greed ridden wrath of humanity. To attract any female dragon, you needed to display your ability to survive against the greed of man. What better way, then to play to their weakness? Be their king and hoard the gold.

She was halfway to her winter lair on the western side of Eurasia. It was good to find the cold in Winter, despite being cold blooded. For females it meant it was time to lay their eggs, the cold meant she could pick three eggs to be male and three to be female. She would lay on the female eggs, leaving the male eggs exposed.

Finally, there it was, the great lake. Beyond which were more mountainous lands, and with them, a forest. The Plaines were a dangerous place to rest, especially as Ulaan needed a three-day rest. In the vast Plaines man rides on horseback and although they loved nothing more than butchering each other for meaningless land, they would happily put their differences aside for a moment to slay a sleeping dragon. Even if they would naturally fight over who got to take the spoils of the kill.

Ulaan always took the time when gliding over the great lake to reminisce about her son, who must have been about two hundred right now. She hadn’t seen him for a hundred and sixty years, just as he had finished his adolescence. It was a cruel lonely life, but there was no land able to sustain two fully developed dragons at one time, so they had to separate from each other. She remembered how he would return to her lair in Western Eurasia every winter, when most of her children would slowly stop returning. She remembered once, when there was a winter a hundred years ago where none of her children returned. Not the six new hatches, not the six previous, and so on.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw land. The forest wasn’t too far away. With Ulaan’s experience, she knew how to time her flights west. She had found land on the other side of the lake just as the sun was beginning to set. Perfect timing to find her spot in the forest.

In the forest, she approached her usual spot, the same spot she had been resting in for the past hundred years. Her spot before was now underwater. The Winter night was approaching, but the skies were clear. As Ulaan began to settle in, she looked toward the sky. Her father would breathe fire towards the moon before he slept, to warm other Dragons that he had settled in this place. It was an old tradition, that was broken by man. Man killed Ulaan’s father as he slept. As a result, all Ulaan did before sleeping every night was watch the moon. Your loved ones leave, the geography changes and man became more and more dangerous, but the moon is always there, east or west.

Ulaan drifted into her long slumber just as the moon was at its highest point in the sky. For the next two days, she would rest, but only two hours into her slumber, she was awoken by the presence of another of her kind, the heat of fire.

It wasn’t the fire that Humanity stole from her kind, but rather a less smoky type of fire. A controlled and articulate flame that she felt approaching her. She looked through the darkness and saw in the near distance, a moving fire. As the fire approached, she saw a Drake approaching her.

Long ago, the knowledge of Ulaan’s kind was somewhat more commonplace amongst humanity. But today, many know only of the legendary dragons. Or perhaps even a hydra, which to the Drake, was a sort of cousin. A drake was a wingless and small dragon, about the size of a horse if you could even compare such a magnificent creature to such an enslaved beast.

Humanity always saw the fire of dragons as nothing more than a weapon, something they stole to burn their enemies’ settlements to ash. But fire is so much more than merely a weapon of mass destruction. Fire is a means of communication. A language, the language of fire.

The Drake approached Ulaan, with its throat echoing out a chorus of greetings. It spoke to Ulaan, telling her its name, Haile. Ulaan responded, lighting the skies with her name.

“So, you’re originally from Middle Eurasia?” Haile asked. Ulaan didn’t respond at first, it had been years since she had communicated in her own language. She hadn’t forgotten her language; she was just a bit anxious around others. “Well,” Haile continued “I’m from a place far away. Perhaps a Place you’ve never been to”

Ulaan looked towards Haile, she noticed that even for a Drake, she was small. Perhaps even just a foal. She wondered for a moment if humanity had learnt a new trick, some had recently begun to uncover the secrets of magic.

“Have you ever gone south of western Eurasia? There is a long river, beyond the great Human monuments, much further beyond in fact, there is a village where I am from.” Halie continued before Ulaan could ask. “And in this village, we protect the rules that God sent down from heaven. The rules God intended for humans” As soon as Haile finished speaking, she suddenly transformed into a human. A small human, just a child. She looked feminine, a trait of humans Ulaan noticed in her long life was the strong distinction between male and female. This one was a girl. But she wasn’t a human Ulaan had ever seen across Eurasia.

Ulaan was somewhat afraid. She had grown fearful of human, but something about the girl made her feel that she did not intend harm. Perhaps it was due to her transformation from a Drake into a girl that made her more at rest. But was she a Drake or a human?

“You look different from other humans” Ulaan finally asked. “I am not a human, nor am I a Drake” Haile replied. “I am something different.”

Ulaan sat confused for a moment but remembered the tales her father taught her. Humanity had found their salvation from their God, they had found an escape from the cycle of life and even found wisdom from the skies. But for Ulaan’s kind, there were tales of their own salvation. Humans had won, they were now God’s favoured guardians of earth, but when that day would come, God would declare vengeance against man for their potential destruction of his gift of life. Was this it?

“What are you?” Ulaan asked. “Someone who wants to make you an offer. Your children are all alive, I have saved them all.” Haile responded. Ulaan immediately stood up, with a great anger in her fire, she puffed out the fiercest heat she could “Do not speak of my children Human!”

The Little girl didn’t flinch at the sight of Ulaan’s anger, she stood her ground, not moving a single muscle. She looked up at the great magnificent Dragon that stood before her and readied her throat. In human form it was much harder to speak the language of dragons, but she didn’t resolve this by transforming back into a Drake. “You’ve come to this spot for over two centuries now, you think it’s because it’s your territory, that no other dragon would dare step on your territory in Winter” Her fire spoke with a hint of a sinister truth hidden within.

“What do you mean?” Ulaan finally responded, albeit a little bit hesitant. “What I mean is, you’re one of the last dragons Ulaan” Haile replied. Haile looked towards Ullan, who she could see was trying to keep a strong look on her face, but Haile could see right through her. She saw how Ulaan was shocked at the news, and of course devastated by the sudden news. Haile could tell immediately that despite the dragon not trusting her, she believed her. Perhaps Ulaan always thought it was true in the back of her mind.

“What do you want from me human?” Ulaan asked, trying to appear aggressive in her fire, but instead letting on a rather more weak and pathetic flame. Haile transformed back into a Drake, then into a Kirin, then a hydra, then into a Lindwurm. As soon as she had finished, she transformed back into her human child form.

“I can also transform into a Wyvern, an Amphitheriid and a Dragon. But perhaps two great demi-Gods in one location could attract uneasy attention.” Haile spoke with a monotone fire, as if she was about to offer Ulaan a deal. “Your son, Cucurāharū…”

“You know my son’s name?” Ulaan interrupted, overpowering Haile’s flame with ease. Despite her old age, she clearly still had a fire inside her that burnt stronger than the fires than would soon engulf the earth and will engulf it once more. “I gave your son my power. I allowed him the ability to transform into a Wyvern, so he could spend his days hiding in the Himalayas. He refused to become human, he took far too much pride in himself for such a thing” Spoke Haile’s flames. “Like mother like son” Ulaan replied quickly. Haile was silent for a moment, yet she had a slight smug look on her face, as if she knew that she was about to unleash some sort of masterplan. She looked dead into Ulaan’s eyes and roared out a fire brighter than any she had previously roared out.

“There is a man who calls himself God’s vengeance, who will burn down the centre of Human’s origins of civilisation. That great thinking city they call Bagdad, he will burn it to the ground soon. He will burn everything around him in flames. When the libraries of Africa and the civilisation in western Eurasia burnt, they look all records of your kind. When God’s vengeance reaches Bagdad, the last remains of human’s knowledge of your kind will burn in the fire. The rivers that flow through the city will turn black from the ink of all their books. The streets will be painted red with their blood. It will never recover. But Humanity’s wisdom will return, and when it does, God’s vengeance will once more be needed. For Humans are so great at burning each other, but in the future, there will be a time where they will take of life with them. We must prevent this; we must reset them to zero. We will burn their wisdom of destruction” Spoke Haile’s flames.

Ulaan looked towards Haile, and without a word, she immediately gave birth to her six eggs. Haile picked up three of the eggs, and with one final breath she spoke.

“These three will be females, I will keep them warm. They will hatch and I will transform them into humans, where they will live amongst them and one day, they will know. I will send them somewhere when the time is right” And with that, Halie disappeared with the eggs. Ulaan Left her three male eggs behind, knowing that they were up for forfeit. She didn’t know if she had made a wise decision or not, but any promise of burning Human civilisation to the ground was good enough for her. I don’t know what she did next, I heard legends that she went on a rampage, burning multiple civilisations to the ground. Turning their wisdom into ash.

I left you three to grow up in Inner Mongolia. You will hatch in hundreds of years, and never know of your true forms until you read this. I hope this finds you well.