Ancient Myth (2)

"Wait, please."

The purpled didn't catch which of the four talked to it. With teeth still bared it paused in the air. "Why?"

"We didn't know, we are sorry." All four dragons grouped in front of the purple dragon. "How did you do this? Can you show us?"

The purple dragon snapped at his brothers but didn't connect. "Fine, for a price. You four belong to me for the rest of time, you do as I say. You will offer your power to protect my world when I call for it. Swear to me and I will show you."

The four other dragons bowed to the purple one letting out gental hisses into the darkness of space. The steam and ice floated toward the purple dragon coating his scales and giving him a shine with the power from the other dragons. Now their fates where tied to the purple dragon's.

The purple let them come with him back to the surface and used them to rebuild the garden. This time the purple dragon wanted to see what it could build that didn't look like it and he used his brothers to help him. The red dragons tried out warm blood. While the blue dragon took land animals and changed them back to live in the ocean again. The yellow dragon made wings and helped the animals take to the sky and the green dragon created animals that dig and hide.

After the dragons learned what their brother had been making they took back to heaven leaving the purple dragon alone on his small ball of mud again. The purple dragons grew tired and returned to the mold cave. He slept and watched his garden grow from the mouth of his cave. Years passed and peace reigned on the world as much as it ever does. The animals still need to eat, the plants still need land to grow and the forces of the world kill that which strives for life. Yet for now the purple dragon was happy just watching.

A troop of monkeys took up life in the plains and trees by the mouth of the cave. The dragon just watched as the creatures formed families had children and died in time. The monkeys lived off the plants and fought with each other but their play made the dragon strangely happy. The monkeys were selfish but they would care for the young ones until they could take over being selfish. The dragon would watch as parents would be killed and other adults would take the children and raise them. That they passed information from one generation to the next was amazing to the dragon. They seemed to be capable of learning, something the dragon had thought was its alone. Granted they died too fast to put much of what they learned to use.

Every generation got a little bit better though, a little more of a head start. A few of the monkeys came to the cave and braved the dragon's presents so the dragon taught them. How to master fire, how to cook, how to make drawings. More time passed as the dragon watched the monkeys teach each other the skills. There were few accidents with the fire but the monkeys learned to use it against each other anyway. The troop stayed small just living at the foot of the mountain where the dragon kept its cave. They never hunted or explored the world of God, but they were not the only life in the world. There were hunters and killers in garden.

The monkeys were strong but they had been sheltered under the shadow of the dragon for generations when a monster entered the shadow. One with claws and fangs. It ate through the troop in minutes. While the purple dragon was taking a nap to pass the time. The noise and smell of blood woke the dragon but not quickly enough. The tiger had just killed two of the children when the purple dragon came down the mountain.

The tiger fought the dragon even wounding its brilliant scales in the fight as the dragon tried to save the last of the troop of monkeys. Yet the dragon couldn't bring itself to kill the tiger either, it was just living as it always had. This was the dragon's own fault. The purple dragon pinned the tiger which struggled and cried in the dragon's claws. Steam rolled out of the dragon's mouth as it looked down at the tiger. "Fool."

The tiger grew quiet in the grip of the dragon as it listened to the sounds the dragon made. The dragon looked around at the remains of the nests. "I should have done more. Well, you will do more for me."

The tiger screamed as the dragon blasted it, but it didn't die. The orange stripes lost their color and the black seemed to grow darker. The tiger got larger and the fur grew longer. The dragon let the tiger up and it crouched ready to spring away but something kept it from running. "Stay."

The purple dragon turned and looked through the bodies seeing if any survived the massacre. The dragon found two monkeys, both only eight years old. They held each other crying in fear at the sight of the dragon. They knew the dragon was safe but it was scary being so close to it.

The monkeys cried out in fear as flames of blue green light surrounded them as the dragon breathed out again. "Do you understand me?"

The smaller of the two monkeys looked up at the dragon amazed that it wasn't dead. "Y-yes, dragon."

"Good, I find your abilities interesting but I forgot that my garden can destroy anything that doesn't spread. So I am giving you my language, a drive to survive and multiply, the ability to eat and live off of almost any other life, and a guardian to watch over you. Your offspring will have an advantage in learning to speak and think that no other creatures have had. You must leave this place now. Head for the ocean." The purple dragon's flames receded leaving the monkeys with less hair than they had before. The small one had lost more than the bigger one but the dragon didn't care. "Tiger, watch out for them."

The purple dragon took off to get away from the smell of blood. Leaving the hairless monkeys and their guardian behind. The purple dragons spent some time in the ocean after. When you are immortal time has very little meaning. So the world changed around the dragon as it spent its time swimming.

The other four dragons came and went a few times over the years careful not to kill enough life to get the purple dragons attention. They were interested in the hairless monkeys, and they pitted them against each other in little tests to see how they would react and if the purple dragon would react. They introduced different languages with different grammer, they played with minor features to make the monkeys look different. None got the attention of the purple dragon.

The monkeys started naming the different animals, believing they were kicked out of the garden of heaven. The humans made clothes and tools. They built nations and developed beliefs integrating the problems of the dragons that interfered with them. As the population exploded and migrated the tiger had a harder and harder time keeping them safe. Soon the nature of humanity made the dragons and the tiger fade into myth. When the dragon saw ships floating over it in the sea it chose to return to its cave. The trees had long ago died and grown again the blood gone. The dragon crawled into the cave laying down to watch over humanity again.

More years went by and the dragon just watched. Soon a new village appeared at the foot of the mountain where the nests had been. The purple dragon wondered if the new family knew anything of what had happened here. The dragon could listen to the people from the town without getting any closer. Stories came slowly from other places in the world. They knew so little.