The Second Tome: Murder

We Dragons are no strangers to hardship, neither are we strangers to pain or death. 

We are however strangers to a Human invention. Murder. Their first victim, my son.

My son was a gorgeous White Dragon, this was before we understood the concept of 'power' and how it could be gained. A peaceful race we were, Green, Blue, Red, Black, White. There existed no hatred among us, The Humans sought to turn us against each other, promising their 'power' to the curious Young Dragons.

It was during this time when a Dragon claw was first stained in Dragon blood. A promising Young Red Dragon by the name of Alavr, challenged my son to a race above our Holy City and- faking an injury to his wing, fell from the sky. My son dived to save him and Alavr stabbed his claw into my son's chest, tore away his scales and bathed in his blood. Murder. A word that previously did not exist in our language. We imprisoned the Young Dragon and I in grief stepped down from my position of Dragon King.

Tears welled up in Ra's eyes, his heart was torn, "We taught the Dragon's to kill? Why...for what purpose?" he felt like a weight was resting on his lungs, he fought to swallow enough air to continue reading,

I no longer gave a thought to ruling, they can choose another King, but I only had one son. My son...Whose body rests in this cave sheltered by my wings. His blood crusts on my once pure white scales, his hearts no longer beating and his undeveloped dragon soul expelled a cloudy rock not even large enough to be called a pebble. His life cut short, I will spend the rest of my life searching for a reason, and I will leave behind my findings to assist future generations before I follow my son into the void.

The tears now flowed freely down Ra's face, splashing onto his uniform, he felt damp all over and his body shook with quiet- gasping sobs.

He couldn't read anymore, he didn't want to. He was already thoroughly disgusted with the actions of his people, he felt he owed it to them to finish, to know the full story. But not tonight, he needed to sleep.

Ra released the book in his hands and the Tome floated back to its original position beside the other 6. He watched the light pulse around the Tomes as hundreds of questions raced through his mind. He felt a profound sadness towards everything he had learned today.

"I cannot make up for what my people did but I can ensure it doesn't happen again-" Ra fell asleep with this thought in mind.

Ra woke a dozen hours later feeling recharged and immediately grabbed the second Tome, there was no rush of energy this time which made him feel puzzled but he didn't give it much thought. "I hope this has a good ending," he sighed as he began reading.

A new King was chosen today- Apophis, I thought it strange that a King would be chosen from the Reds. Our Kings have always been White or Black Dragons, they are after all, the wisest of our race, I know now that this was simply a form of prejudice and that the color of our scales has no bearing on our ability.

Apophis quickly proved himself to be a strong King, but his mind had been affected by the Human influence, his ideas were- to say the least, strange.

Word has reached me that the Humans have sent several emissaries to camp inside Dragon Valley with many of them going so far as to set up near the foot of Dragonwall.

Apparently Apophis was enraged at this clear sign of disrespect and flew out in anger to confront them.

The Humans had shown little to no respect for our King and even ridiculed him, some three rocks, it is said that the deep scratch in one of Apophis' scales came from these rocks. This was also the first day a Dragon touched human blood.

Enraged, Apophis swooped down and impaled the offending Human through the gut, he tore him in half and blood rained from the sky.

The remaining emissaries were shocked into silence, none dared to throw another stone, or move- or breathe. They stood there with their mouths detached from their jaws from several long seconds before- they turned and fled.

Apophis returned to the city the Humans had built for them, he had named it 'Egradim' A name which in the Dragon tongue would mean 'Eternal Dragons' our Holy City.

To the sound of cheering roars that shattered the sky, the Dragons revealed in the death of a Human, felt pride for driving them back, but this was only the beginning.

"Of course it is..." thought Ra,

The Humans returned, they brought weapons.

Apophis went out to speak to them and returned heavily wounded with one word, a word that had never existed in our language before,Wuur.

War, the Humans brought war to Dragonwall, they knew our defenses, our weaknesses, they exploited it all. We had no concept of warriors, we were forcefully baptized in battle.

We were killed like the Humans cattle, slaughtered like pigs and dogs, life was nothing to these monsters. Mere wheat to be harvested, they cut us down by the hundreds, we died in pain and agony but our torment was only just beginning.

We Dragons had always shared a close connection to the land, however we weren't aware of this particular factor, The Fallen. 

The land retaliated for the loss of Dragon life in the only way it could, saturated with Dragons blood the land split in half, bubbling magma and thrusting our mutilated corpses back in the air. Our race was reborn, But at what cost? Born in fire and touched by madness, we rose again breathing flames from our bellies and smoke from our nostrils. A twisted form of what we were...

"This is the origins of the fallen?" one revelation after another hit him with the force of several Dragonlords, "so the Dragons become fallen when many of them are killed, but that shouldn't be possible right?" 

The Humans have long forgotten about the other races who came to this land beside them so long ago, races they had forced into hiding. Over the years their history has warped, even thinking that the Fallen are the legendary Phoenices their ancestors wrote about. But they are wrong, The Phoenix is real and we have allied with them.