The First Sacrifice

Customs and Conflict

The sitting pillows beneath me was made of a taupe fabric that had blood read fringe tassels lining the sides. My finger twisted the fine strings as Aurora scanned the book shelf behind the table we were seated at. Infant of me were upwards to ten intricate leather bound books. I had never seen this many books in my life, the books we had back in the village were worn and covered in crude leather and stitched by hand. These were of a different breed, old and hand written like the ones at home but the covers while worn held a sturdiness I was unfamiliar with. The titles were in our shared language but some of the subtitles were written in something unfamiliar to my eyes.

"AHA!" Aurora exclaimed frightening me. I jumped and she turned brushing back tendrils of brown hair that fell from her twist. She sat down before me and smiled.

She ran her hand over a thin book covered in the same hearty leather and smiled. "The Redwing Clan is on of the oldest and most powerful of the dragon clans in the land. So old we still speak Dragondov in many of our traditional ceremonies."

I nodded as she turned to the beginning of the book. "In this book are your vows, the traditional vows of the betrothed princess, they are in dragondov and you will be expected at your coronation to recite these from memory." She said softly.  I looked down at the book and the symbols they had were very unfamiliar to me and seemed picturesque.

Aurora clucked and her finger ran down to the end of the page. "The languages alphabet is a series of crude drawings and below each symbol i have taken the liberty of writing the pronunciation using our known alphabet. Dragondov is lyrical and it helps if you sing the words instead of speaking them."

I nodded. "Thank you, Aurora do you have the translation as well. I would like to know what I'm saying in my vows before I say them." She smiled and nodded.

" Your vows are as followed. "Heavenly winds and cloudless skies allow you to soar. Fire, Smoke and Rock below. From that I came forth a blessing on to you from the Moon to provide you prosperity and love evermore. In famine, drought and sickness I shall stand by your side. In war and strife by you i shall fight. With passion and fairness by you I will rule. With love and devotion I will mother your sons and nature your daughters. Heavenly Wind and Cloudless Skies will be the vision of our union. Fire, Smoke and Rock will be the vision of our powerful rule. In love and devotion will be our future. I promise to you myself and my loyalty until the sun sets on my life. I promise to the clan my devotion and my care until the Moon comes to claim my morning."

She recited softly and reverently. It was beautiful. I would take my time to learn this and to digest every word and what it means for my future and the future of the Redwing Clan. I am a princess and future queen  I needed to start acting like one. "That beautiful." I told her. She smiled and kissed my forehead.

"You've been briefed of your duties in house. I'm confident that you will fair well in those duties. However when it comes to being a host you are unaware of the Dragon Ways and I would like to have you certain of them come the date of your coronation. We are of high status in the land and we bow to no one but others of equal or higher status.  Next week at your coronation their will be three families the The WindSoar Clan, they are the dragon clan that occupies the south coast, theses people have been our closet allies since the fall of the female dragon. They follow our same customs and are also the high priests and priestess of the Moon and Sun God. Then we have the FireStone Clan, they occupy the Mount to the north, their snow capped mountains and rough terrain are similar to their personality. They are crude people and are rough around the edges. The Sun God has blessed them with impeccable strength but with that comes with a temper that almost always ends in destruction. They are also our allies but they are not always friendly. We keep them close because a war with them will always end in death and fire. Lastly we have the SteelClaw Clan of the west, they are not our allies we have a lot of disagreements but currently we are in truce with their leader Pontius. His son Theodore is going to be crowned king soon and we are all awaiting that moment. Maddox and him have a amicable relationship and we hope that will begin an new renewed relationship between us both. We have a long history of war between us stemming from the plague. They are human stealers and we show our utmost dislike for the practice and they ignore us. Theses three families hold rank with us, The Windsoar family as the high priest and priestess hold a higher rank than us and we bow to them." Aurora gleaned.