Shifting Dragon

Over the last five hundred years the world has changed beyond any recognition of what it once was. In a way it has both evolved more than ever and also moved back from it’s industrial technology that it had once possessed. The wealth of families is earned through honour of their kind and their proven skills. With this new born tradition if the highly honoured families not working they instead bought slaves to do their labour.

It was not from the honour of families which decided who were become slaves but their position in society. Those who had appeared to evolve less then others were considered a disgrace and used as slaves to those who were thought higher of.

This evolution which had occurred is in a way very similar to the apes evolutionary process to man. This evolution has enabled to allow men the chance to experience senses that only certain animals are given. They were given the ability to shapeshift.

It began as all great changes have, slowly. At first this extraordinary change began small only able to allow those evolved to shift to small powerless animals. But as all things do once it has begun the process improved quickly and soon there were animals which had been thought of as myths ruling the shapeshifters, the dragons.

It had taken a hundred years of this evolution for the dragons to be born and rule over all. Within that hundred years the world had been in chaos. The first fifty years was spent with no authority around allowing many to test their new power on technology they no longer needed. With the loss of this technology they had taken so long to find all order was gone from the world fights for honour began.

It wasn’t until after those fifty years when the lions and panthers evolved that things began to change. They claimed themselves as the rulers over other shifters and began to set up a new way of living. They continued to allow fights to earn honour amongst the society, in fact it was made it was made an entertaining event for many. The thought of working was appalling to them and they insisted on using those many lower shifters and the few non-shifters left as slaves.

And so it went on this way for another fifty years until the last and greatest race was born, the dragons. In the next thirty as they grew they claimed the right to lead and honour of it built a magnificent castle to show their authority. They kept the fighting sport in order to keep control and at first found nothing wrong with the lower shifters being used as slaves. It continued this way for three hundred years before anything began to change. The lions and panthers were content to let the dragons rule as long as their way of life did not change.

It was around a hundred years ago that the dragons decided to change their way of living. They began to look at the slaves around them and wonder whether they really deserved such a life just because they weren’t as powerful. They began to set their own slaves free but allowed them to stay within the castle rather having them being recaptured and sold into slavery once more.

These new ideas of living didn’t settle well with the other shifters, especially the lions and the panthers. They began to rebel against the dragons and their new ways leading to gruesome battles and deadly wars. The dragons were a great race but they stood alone against all the others, especially the lions and panthers. There was a rumour that the lions had discovered a weakness of the dragons, something they would not even share with their allies.

Almost nineteen years ago the last few dragons except the queen fought against the lions. The king and the rest of the dragon race died that day. But yet the lions could not overrun the queen for one reason, her husband had died not knowing he was to be a father. According to the law the lions themselves had made they were not able to challenge her or her heir until they were strong enough to fight back. As frustrated as this was to wait for the heir’s eighteenth year the lions were willing to obey their own laws . This was both for honour and through fear that the panthers no longer fought by their side after refusing to give them information on the dragon’s weakness. They feared that the panthers would challenge them if they took the throne and wanted to make sure they were ready for such a war.

The dragon Queen Susanna named her son Philippe after his father and trained him well over the next sixteen years. He became a professional in knowledge, battles and magic but he had one flaw which couldn’t be mended easily, innocence.

By agreement with the lions the Queen and her son were told to stay in the castle and only come out every five years for a few hours so the lions could predict just how strong their young opponent was becoming. These first two outings were spent with young Philippe simply running around in amazement and disbelief. The lions and his mother would watch as he touched every flower he passed and smell air with every step. In those times he had been constantly told of the cruelty in the world but he had not yet seen it.

The third and last outing when Philippe was fifthteen was spent differently. A wealthy panther family accompanied the lions on the outing which consisted of the parents and their two children. The girl was almost a year younger then the dragon prince yet both were instantly fascinated with each other. The prince had never seen a young lady before and Isabel had seen neither a dragon, royalty or such innocence.

Instead of his usual running around he merely stood and talked with the two children about his hopes and the changes he wished to make. Although the panthers themselves despised the idea of slave freedom the two children, especially the son Edwin, began to change their thoughts on the matter once they listened to Philippe. No mind control was used, merely the power of speech effected Edwin as he quietly listened to Philippe while painting the scene before him.

Later Edwin and his sister Isabel would become different because of this day, but in very different ways from each other. For the children the next year was spent with both beginning to believe what Prince Philippe spoke was true. But after the fate of young Philippe and his mother Isabel’s new found belief died with them.

You see that day the lion and panther adults listened to what Philippe spoke and realised for the first time that they may loose. The determination in his voice and the flame in his eyes scared them more then any army of full grown dragons could. Philippe had nothing to loose and that alone meant he was capable of anything.

In that next year the lions began to plan an attack on the two dragons. Forgetting their own rules through the fear of Philippe’s goal they were helped by the parents of the family who’s children were beginning to believe in slave rights.

The attack was taken place two days after Philippe’s sixteenth birthday late in the afternoon when they knew the two dragons would already be exhausted from practising. A twenty three year old lion named David Heeding led the attack into the castle. They were not seen coming for both Philippe and Queen Susanna were concentrating on preparing for the battle two years away for their minds to pick up the intruders.

The hundred lions barged into the training room and instantly began to slash at the exhausted dragons. Despite the weariness in the two Queen Susanna managed to take down twenty five while Philippe came close to fifty. One of the lions managed to get close enough to use a mallet made with the dragons weakness combined inside it. He hit the Queen over the head and knocked her unconscious, Philippe was not so lucky.

It was young Heeding who managed to take the Prince down. He used a dagger made of the same type as the mallet and stabbed the young Prince in the neck. He then left his body there in the castle which the surviving lions burnt down to the ground.

Queen Susanna was tortured for the enjoyment of the lions. However there is a rumour that she died under Heeding, but not without whispering something that had made him feel true terror.

Even now when the lions believed both the lions to be dead by law they were unable to claim the throne until two years had past allowing any surviving dragons the chance to reclaim it. If none showed up then many shape shifters would battle to decide who had the right to be King. David Heeding was of course one waiting for that day.

As for our young dragon Prince he would have died as the lions had expected if not for one slave. Stephan had lived all his life in the castle, the first fifthteen years of his life was spent not working at all but after the death of the king he decided to work in order to help the Queen with her coming baby. When he was near the age of thirty two the attack on the castle took place. Instead of merely running as the other slaves did Stephan hid until the lions left and then retrieved the young Prince from the burning castle.

Although Philippe had been badly hurt and didn’t have enough strength to heal them all before they would become scars he was alive. Stephan carefully helped him stay alive while his magic healed himself and then led them both quickly into a life of slavery. This way Philippe would be able to hide lions who would kill him if they ever realised he was still alive.

The next two years were spent slaving away from one house to the next slaving away from one house to the next staying only a few months and then escaping to avoid being recognised. It was now two weeks till Philippe’s eighteenth birthday when he would grow to be at full strength when Stephan died. The slave labour was hard and food was scarce, the only reason why Philippe was able to survive was because of the dragon strength that prevented from tiring him out as fast. He had tried to heal Stephan’s exhaustion but this only resulted in making him as tired and giving Stephan only a few minutes.

It was when they had escaped their recent owners and were in a slave dungeon where they waited for their next owner to buy them that Stephan had breathed his last breath.

It is here as Philippe sat in a state of shock a this companions sudden departure this story begins. For the young Prince’s next owner was going to change his plans in many ways…