Visions of Dragons [PREVIEW]

Once there were two Dragon brothers; one, a breather of fire and the other, a breather of ice.

They have dominion over life. The Ice Dragon, Kari, embraced man, thinking them to be wondrous beings while his brother, the Fire Dragon, Ori, opposed them. Hating the flightless creatures, he considered them small, foul, and worthless.

Kari and Ori have never agreed with each other since their creation, but they were always true to one another. Their loyalties to flesh and blood never waned despite the years they lived.

Though the coming of man placed an unamendable rift between them, causing an argument that could never be resolved. So, Ori parted from his brother’s side with the other Dragons, leaving Kari behind with mankind.

Abandoned by his kind, Kari turned into the ice he breathed. He caused the lands to turn cold, killing crops, animals, and the beings he overlooked. Man was forced to huddle around their fires to stay alive, and they gradually grew resentful toward him.

For a long time, Kari continued his onslaught until, one day, a brave woman climbed the mountain to kill the Dragon that was plaguing her people and the land.

As the beast slept peacefully, she took a spear and pierced him through the chest, slaying the great Dragon Kari. He tumbled to the earth below, thrashing and bellowing, cursing the land and man until his last pained breath.

Victorious, she expected the lands to warm, but the cold never ceased, the storms became fiercer. As a result, the people became desperate as food had not filled their bellies for an age, so this mysterious woman led man to Kari’s final resting place.

There, they disturbed the snow and ice clinging to his body. No more was he the great Dragon that terrorized them, he was a mere shadow of himself, listless and distorted due to the fall from the rocky cliffs above. Axes raised, man hacked the flesh that defied the elements, refusing to freeze, and it seemed his magic still lingered in death.

The woman who slew Kari was the first to consume him. Upon devouring, a change overcame her. The cold stopped fazing her and stripping herself of her clothing, she showed man they would not perish from it anymore.

The others too began feeling different, less human.

But immunity to the cold was not their only blessing. They obtained the power to wield ice. The Dragon’s ability now belonged to man, yet, unlike the beast, they remained beautiful.

When the Fire Dragon, Ori, learned of his brother’s death, he was outraged and mad with grief. He vowed to eradicate man because, to him, they were the beasts.

Fire, claw, and teeth he sent to man, but man fought back with their newfound powers, refusing to be under the tyranny and mercy of Dragons any longer.

Ori was surprised to see the feeble creatures his brother had loved become such strong rivals. He tried as he might to end man, but the lands his brother cursed proved too much, too hostile, despite the Fire Dragons’ advantage in strength, numbers, and the skies.

And with no Dragons having the powers of ice to combat them after his brother’s demise, Ori was forced to withdraw. Kari was the beginning of a lineage he never started, no wife and no children and due to his folly, ice was lost to Dragons. Fire was not as Ori sired many children.

Slowly, as the ages went by, man became known as Mages. The war continued between the races. Many deaths occurred on both sides, each generation unable to forget the past.

To end the war, the current King of the Ice Mages asked for a treaty. For ten years of peace, he would give the Fire Dragon King one of his precious daughters.

Now, the time had come for King Orval, a descendant of Ori, to decide if he wanted to take a daughter and keep the peace. It was a decision that could change everything forever.