Empire of Dragons: Dragons & Cicadas (Watty Awards 2012)

The Annihilation

PROLOGUE

THE ANNIHILATION

Song: Never Forget by Martin O'Donnell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDZscyf8lU
Unforgotten by Martin O'Donnell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExJzPxwlRLg

You live in a world where aliens have long fled earth. Any traces of them were integrated into the evolution of earth's life forms.
Dragons, regal creatures that changed Earth's history, have lived with humanity since the dawn of life. Crotonians, the majestic aliens of woe and wonder, live alongside dragons on the same planet. Owls, hybrids in nature and masters of the shifter form, populate the world with their vast numbers. Tir'wells, animal shifters gifted with the ability of shape shifting, no longer exist. Finally, the Alma Maters, the draconic gods of science; they are unknown and unbound. They are the forerunners of science and the ancient arts of creation.

There was a time when these beautiful creatures had to remove themselves from your life. The Annihilation sought to erase them from memory. Every vein of the dragons' existence was dead. The same occurred for Crotonians, Tir'wells and all the others. Reduced, they were all reduced to legends and myths. The world they crafted fell into obscurity.

Italy, the home of the powerful Italian Dragons, had become distressed. Politics tainted the country's soul. The greed of men destroyed all that the Karrucci Family's descendants created. Europe itself began to fall. It was no longer respected aside from its vocational beauty, which hid it's true colors.

Africa, once the kingdom of the much-revered Skyhouse Queens, had been reduced to poverty. It was no longer the technologically advanced utopia that Wyrl's descendants created.

America, the once-struggling domain of the Tir'wells and Owls, had somehow risen to the top. It had become respected by neighboring countries. It had become the ideal place to spread your wings. A role once filled by Italy had shifted to this new world. The United States, as they call it, had become a singular superpower. However, beneath that exterior was a country unfair to the people who built its pillars.

What has become of the alien creatures that populated your Earth? The dragons were sadly reduced the creatures of myth. They were reduced to fire-breathing dangers that plagued man's existence. They were talked about in stories: as saviors, destroyers or companions. They were not the mighty empire that sought to spread life across the universe. In this new world they were written as animals, and so they were perceived as such.

Crotonians were no longer the graceful and beautiful insectoids that vied for the dragons' destruction. They had been reduced to flying wasps that humans deem pests. Unrecognizable and able to fit on your finger; they were not the intelligent race of old. Instead they were merely insects to loath.

Owls and Tir'wells can no longer shift and have lost sentience.
Owls cannot enjoy the feeling of sunlight anymore. Nocturnal, fated to stay as night creatures, they too have lost their power.

And so forth, they all disappeared from your earth, going back into the universe in search of more worlds.

However, in their home universe, they still flourish. On their earth, everything is how it should be.
Perhaps one day they will return to your planet.

This book chronicles the lives of these magnificent beings in their home-verse. Each story, no matter how short, shows us a tiny fragment of their lives—including the lives of the creatures they sent to your universe; before, during and after the annihilation. These stories form a shared theme, and is a worldly tale of over five-hundred thousand words. It opens our eyes to the creatures that live...and their impending return to your parts of the universe. Your ascension begins on the next page.