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Min knelt on the floorboards, and Ethan came and crouched down next to her.
Out spilled a few volumes of general monster reading. Some kids’ picture books of the golden days before The Great War. The usual kind of thing they found when trawling around Motham. But then, at the bottom, Min spied a very old looking book.
She picked it up and blew off the dust. It looked like it had been buried in a pile of rubble, or a cave…
As Min dusted it with her hands, the title sprang out at her.
Verigo te Muto Draconis
by Bartholomew Blade
“The Truth of Dragon Shifting,” Ethan whispered. “Ancient dragonian language. Bartholomew Blade was my great, great grandfather.”
He was staring at the book, transfixed, his eyes bright blue and unblinking.
Min took it to the desk and gently put it down, then brushed off the dust carefully. The pages were yellowed and aged, but the illustrations of dragons were impeccably hand drawn and colored with gold leaf.
“It’s all written in calligraphy,” Min observed. One page was in dragonish, the passages translated into English on the other side.
The most powerful dragons to emerge from the volcano of Dolpha, around the year 47,100 were the dragons of the great Saulus clan. Gaining flight after eons confined to the underground labyrinth, the clan took to the highest mountains, living in caves for several hundred years. Eventually, violence from ogres and other dark species threatened to drive their clan back to the darkness of central earth.
Around this time a group of peaceful humans appeared in the mountains from the west, escaping similar unrest. They brought with them transformative magical powers, a green liquid in a golden vial. This magic had been harnessed from the Winds of the West by powerful mages, and carried within it the Alchemy of Shifting.
The humans became known as the people of the Westwinds, and with the dragons of the Saulus clan they set up a symbiotic existence, guarding both human and dragon young from the evil of devious demons and malicious ogres. As unrest grew, with the armies from the north gathering forces, it became imperative that humans and dragons combined their powers to fight this evil.
It is not known exactly how the first shifting dragon happened, but it is believed to have been the result of a dragon and human simultaneously drinking from the magical vial, under the guidance of a powerful mage. Thus, the first mating occurred that allowed dragons to take on human form—to shift.
Certainly, the first recorded citing of shifting hatchlings was in the year 47,750, more than a century after dragons and the people of the Westwinds set up home in the mountains together.
Many matings took place during the next five centuries, and it was, in the main, a time of great love and harmony between dragons and humans.
And yet, alas, just before The Great War was perpetrated upon us, a prestigious member of the Westwind clan was corrupted by humans promising wealth and status. He sold the magic vial of the Westwinds for personal gain. The shifting powers of dragons were weakened by this breaking of trust, and further dark wizardry was used to finally destroy the ability for dragons to shift.
That is the tragedy of the dragons of Motham. Destined to live in a twilight world, caught between human and dragon form. Being neither fully dragon, nor human. Their magical powers curtailed, and many of their treasures stolen.
When evil forces take hold, as they surely do during dark times such as ours, the spell of the Westwinds will lie dormant for many centuries. It is decreed that at some future time, the magic of Saulus and the people of the Westwinds will rise again, and that although it was a Westwind who betrayed dragon kind, it will be a Westwind who will unite us, once again.
Praise be to Saulus and to the magic of the winds from the west that shall finally transport our species back to their rightful status as proud shifter dragons.
Draconi eta surrexi agat.
Dragons Will Rise Again
As Min closed the book, all she could hear was the pounding of her heart against her ribs. Everything she thought she’d known about her past had irrevocably changed, become imbued with a magic that her soul had always sensed but never known for sure. And even more importantly, Ethan was by her side, strong and steady, her dragon, his heart beating to the same rhythm as hers.
Finally, he spoke in an awed voice. “Min, this—you and me, the sense we had from the beginning that we were mates, it wasn’t a coincidence. You are a descendant of the original people of the Westwinds.”
She looked up at him, and tears pricked her eyelids.
“The Westwind who betrayed the dragons must have been Colonel Westwind. He killed the magic between humans and dragons, destroyed their ability to shift.” She covered her eyes with her hands. “That is so awful.”
Gently, Ethan peeled her hands away and held them. “Min, the magic didn’t die, it just got buried, like a…” He laughed shakily. “Like a dragon buries its eggs, ready to hatch when the time was right. When I met you.”
“When you met me,” Min echoed in wonderment.
“We both knew there was a bond that ran deep between us… didn’t we?”
“Yes,” said Min. And then she frowned. “But there are still things that aren’t explained. Like how we came to meet.”
