Dragon Mother

By Antiope

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Prologue

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In the beginning, the Earth was born of Chaos and Light deep within the black of space. From the Earth was born the seas, the land, the plants and the animals and creatures. Of all her children, the Earth favored most Lykia’la, the immortal dragoness, the only one of her kind. For hundreds of thousands of years Lykia’la traveled her Mother’s lands, soaring in the air, the control of each element at her disposal. In these thousands of millennia, the She-Dragon witnessed the creation of new beings, the procreation of life among the other animals of the earth through their love for each other, and became saddened. The Earth felt her daughter’s grief, and wished to know what troubled Lykia’la so.

The lonely dragoness replied, “In you, my Mother, I have known love, goodness and truth. But I have seen the new life being brought onto your earthly body through your simple children, yet I remain on this world alone, without the comfort of another like me.”

“You were born with the special gift of immortality, something your weaker brothers and sisters can not claim. You shall never die, shall never suffer pain or fear...for you are Lykia’la, born of the Earth, and all things. You will be forever protected within my embrace, guarded by the Skies and Seas. You need nothing more than life. Eternal life within the beauty of nature to guard over your brothers and sisters, and their children and descendents that follow them,” Mother Earth told her.

Lykia’la looked out over the earth and viewed her siblings, still troubled. Her heart yearned for the feeling she could see within the other mothers as they cuddled their young. After such eternity alone, her heart could not stand such torment, for her Mother did not realize that she was already in pain.

Unable to bare an eternity of solitude, Lykia’la begged her mother for the gift of creation.

“Such a gift must come with a price,” Mother Earth warned. “With life, there must be death. Should you choose to become a mother, then death shall follow. In the course of time, you shall weaken, then cease to be and be returned as ash to my body.”

Lykia’la could not be swayed from her choice, no matter the warnings from her Mother. Within the day of convincing her mother to allow her this, Lykia’la was pregnant. Soon afterward, Lykia’la was assailed with a pain unlike anything she had ever felt before. For several days she felt a burning within her belly. On the sixth day, she gave birth to four children, two male, two female, each born with a sensitivity for certain elemental abilities. From the blood of her lost immortality sprang the accursed humankind, and from her tears of suffering and pain begot that which was named magic.

Now renamed the Dragon Mother, Lykia’la was overjoyed with her children, both dragon and human. Realizing her elder children were far stronger than humankind, and very similar to herself, she appointed them as man’s guardians, and named each dragon lord or lady of the element they were sensitive to. For several centuries there was a peace, and happiness that Lykia’la had never assumed possible.

However, such peace, as our history has shown, is always short lived. After a time, dragons and humans began to fight to prove their superiority over the other. Over the next few centuries, man and dragon alike embroiled themselves in a violent feud for that which their fiery blood demanded: to control the balance of power and rule the world as supreme beings.

Unable to bear the pain of watching the war waged by her children onto each other, the Dragon Mother birthed a new race of beings, much to the outrage of the others. From her belly was born the Roale Dragon Clan, a Halfbreed society bred to protect the Dragon Mother and attempt to control their elder “siblings.” With the outward appearance of humans, and elemental control of dragons, the Roale Dragon Clan was a powerful society, that evolved over the centuries into a loyal group, fiercely devoted to the Dragon Mother, to the point of religious superstition.

Yet, the Dragons and Leaders of Humanity felt the birth of these new beings was an insult and betrayal from the Dragon Mother. A common hatred burned in them both, for the Dragon Mother and for the Dragon Clan. A broken-hearted Lykia’la resolved herself to concentrate on the well-being of the Roale and hardened her heart toward her other children, who were still bent on destroying each other, while attempting to ignore and ridicule her. She isolated herself away from anyone not of the Roale, and slowly, as much time had passed since her first children’s birth, began to feel a slight weakening in herself.

The Dragon Mother’s heart would endure more heartache, for shortly after her separation from the outside world an entire tribe of her Protectors were killed in a human attack. Not long after that, the Roale was being attacked regularly by Dragons, and by man. The war had become far more bloody than she could bare, as each of her children were fighting against the other, neither forming alliances, nor agreeing on a permanent peace.

Aware that her time was slowly coming to an end, and unable to discover any other way to protect her children from themselves, she decided to give birth once again. Without allowing the Dragon Clan knowledge of her whereabouts, Lykia’la traveled to a secret tavern, far from where she then resided. Deep in the dark cave, she bore the Mythical Three. The eggs of two dragons, created through her love and her Earth Mother’s power. The Gold and Silver Dragons were kept dormant within their eggs, hidden inside the cave. However, the Dragon Mother was aware of the cunning of her older children, and bore a human child, one to remain in child form, to protect the eggs for as long as necessary.

So these children were born in secret, Three with the power of Lykia’la, to take her place when she was gone and bring order to their “sibling’s” squabbles. Upon returning to the Dragon Clan, she took aside her most loyal family within the Halfbreed society and revealed to them the secret of the Three. To mark them as the Keepers of her secret and Leaders of the Roale Dragon Clan, she placed upon their backs the symbol of a black dragon, lined in silver and gold. They would bear her secret, each new generation taught to know their duty; that should the Dragon Mother command it, they shall travel to the distant cave, whereabouts known only to the Mother, and told to the family only when necessary. Once there, the chosen will endure the tests of the Oracle, and if successful, return with the eggs, and the human child.

As the years pass, the Dragon Mother begins to feel her life slipping...and the Dragon Clan, oblivious to her state, continue to try to mediate between the Dragon Lords, and the Human Race, while protecting themselves, and a weakening mother...

---Hidden Archives of the Historians of J’od (Taken from the words of Lykia’la, Dragon Mother)