Chapter 17

The two friends soon reached the great hall and from the entrance could already hear excited chattering of children and youths of all ages who had come to spend time with friends or to listen to the popular stories and wisdom of the former Havroune Isolde who was one of the oldest people alive.

Walking into the bustling hall Alvar and Veli grabbed themselves some food and drinks and while sitting near the fire waited for the old story teller to appear, all the while watching the other children around them with curiosity.

Despite Veli being a skirtchaser in the making he was still a young lad and now that he was confronted with all the girls his own age had become increasingly shy to Alvars unending amusement. To get back at his friend Alvar had motioned for a nearby giggling group of girls to come over and under protests from Veli shoved his friend into their midst thus providing him glorious entertainment. Veli meanwhile was trying his hardest to not explode while in close proximity to the girls around him unable to bring out a clear word without stuttering which in turn caused the girls around him to giggle even harder and thus created a vicious spiral of no escape for the loudmouth.

Alvar meanwhile was rolling on the floor in laughter while Veli was still trying to escape the bundle of giggling girls with waving arms until a few minutes later said boy was rescued by the old Havroune Isolde's arrival after which he freed himself of the smothering and grasping arms of the girls and managed to escape back to Alvar who was wiping tears of laughter away all the while.

"You traitor! I'll get you back for this, just you wait…" Veli grumbled while Alvar was having a small hiccup from all the laughing. Plumping onto his behind Veli sat back down next to Alvar and began to eat and drink with the gusto of a survivor.

While the two returned back to their previous state of tranquillity the old Havroune had sat down in the circle of children that had formed and with old eyes took in all the young ones around her.

With a grandmotherly voice that spoke of many years of excessive talking Isolde asked the children around her: "What would you like to hear about this fine evening, hmm?" to which various requests were issued. In the end Isolde picked only one though, seemingly the only one of interest to her.

"Can you tell us about the ancient dragons, pleeeeeease?" A young girl had asked the Havroune to which the old woman could only chuckle in amusement.

"Ahhh, the enthusiasm of youth though I can't fault you for your interest I suppose. After all the ancient dragons have been a point of discussion for 250 years now since they first appeared on the face of the world." The old Havroune spoke while a few younger children were nearly bouncing in their place in excitement. Looking into the flames of the bonfire the old Havroune seemed to debate on how to begin her story the best until she finally spoke once again into the curious silence that had fallen on the great hall.

"Listen well children of the dawn for this story will teach you through stories of ages long gone.

Our story begins in a time when the vast lands of Tyria were not under the control of the mighty ancient dragons. In fact, at the time our story begins, nobody in Tyria had even heard of the mighty ancient dragons that are like a force of nature incarnate.

At the time the great races of Tyria had other things to worry about. The Charr had decided to take back their former home from the Humans and thus invaded their kingdom.

Under the might of the Charr-legions the Humans living in the east of Tyria had no choice but to retreat and thus fled to the west. In the coming years the Charr build themselves a new home which has become their capital under the name of "the Black Citadel".

The Humans meanwhile had fled to the west where they built themselves new homes in the form of small settlements in order to survive. Only later once the ancient dragons appeared did the Humans, just like the other races, band together and build themselves a capital with the name of "Divinity's reach".

In the west of Tyria the Azura dove deep into their studies of the Arcane Alchemy, minding their own business, just like the Norn in the north that were living mostly in seclusion.

While the great races went about their business another great race that has gone extinct today was fighting for their survival. The dwarfs of old, masters of the forge and mining had one day dug too deep into the protective shell of the earth and awoken an enemy that would be their doom.

The stories describe these enemies as creatures of fire and molten rock so you can imagine how hard it is to fight a being such as that without said being even having a pulse of their own.

Under the enemies furious and seemingly never ending onslaught the dwarfs retreated further and further. Their war though soon began to include the other races as the fiery enemies spread out and began to attack the Norn, Humans and even came upon the reclusive Azura, living mostly in the west of Tyria and the Charr that had mostly settled in the east of Tyria.

How exactly the great races came to fight together has sadly been lost to time but what we do know is that the great races formed an alliance of sorts in the far north of the Shiverpeak mountains, in a solitary building forged by magics and powers long forgotten, that still stands to this day and age under the name of "the eye of the north".

From there the expedition of Norn, Humans, Azura, Dwarfs and Charr fought their way into the deepest depths of the Shiverpeak mountains. Though their fiery enemies called "Destroyers" were too numerous and the alliances power was dwindling by the day.

Thus it came that the dwarven king of the time made a decision that would extinguish the dwarfs from Tyria. In order to fight the hordes of Destroyers King Jalis invoked the power of the eternal architect, a deity of the Dwarves, and with it transformed the remaining Dwarfs into moving statues of stone, making them resistant to the fiery blades of the Destroyers.

Under the combined might of the newly strengthened lines of the coalition, the allies charged into the heart of the Shiverpeak mountains and finally breached the lines of the Destroyers.

Arriving in the heart of the Shiverpeak mountains they came upon a huge version of the Destroyers they had been fighting for months on end by now. In the believe that said Destroyer was the leader and progenitor of their fiery enemies they attacked and soon after destroyed their foe.

In the aftermath of their victory a huge celebration was commenced but the great races moment of tranquillity was short lived.

Under horrified eyes the alliance soon came upon their true foes. An enemy the alliance was not strong enough to fight. Under immense casualties the first awakened ancient dragon drove the flimsy alliance out of the Shiverpeak mountains with no chance for the great races to fight back. Not long afterwards the first dragon disappeared. The respite given by their disappeared enemy was not for long though as more and more ancient dragons woke to the world.

In order to survive, the races retreated into their homelands where they began to build capitals and fortify their defences while the ancient dragons did the same and soon the war for the survival of the great races began which you as well will be drawn into sooner or later.

I hope you listened well children. Even though my story was filled with horror, your knowledge of the past may well present you with the knowledge to experience a tomorrow."