Fallen One (Book three of Alfireán age)

- The Birth of The Dragons -

Barrier in place, the dragon continued, "As for what happened to her, that is a great bit more complicated. In an endeavor to prepare for the coming war, all fifteen of us dragons were moved into one massive cage in the hope that we would learn to act as a pact and breed with each other. And breed some of us did, until our number increased into the dozens. However, unlike the others, I never did take a bond-mate because I had fallen in love with Trina, despite her horribly twisted and deformed body.

That, however, is getting ahead of the story," Eldrin said, scolding himself. Retracting his fore-paw and tucking it back underneath his chest, his red scales gleamed under the white glow of the shield and crackling orange flames. "As with any beast or pack," the dragon's deep voice rumbled as he artfully resumed his tale, "there was a large amount of fighting when we were first introduced to each other. I, being older and having achieved patuah, was much stronger and smarter than the rest, and I quickly rose to the top to claim my place as the Lord of the Dragons.

Alf's mind swarmed with images as he pictured what it must've been like to live in a world with dozens of dragons such as the one before him. Emerald, sapphire, and ruby-colored creatures with magnificent wings flying through the sky danced before his vision. Suddenly, Olivia elbowed him in the side as Eldrin commenced his tale.

"But even as the pack leader," the ancient being's voice rumbled in his ears, "things were difficult, seeing as we had no language of our own or means of communication. That is where Trina truly came to play in history. While her body had become deformed and mostly useless, her intelligence had expanded tenfold, and together, she and I created what is now known as the Dragon language. As I suspect you may know," the dragon said, nodding at Drakovian, "it is based on the Hebrew language, the only acoustic and frequency-based dialect. We took their language to the next level and made each of our letters have its own magic capabilities. Thus in time, after I taught the language to the others, we learned to cast magic with our speech. Eventually, we could even help others achieve Patuah with a single word."

The ancient Dragon language, Alf thought to himself in awe while the fire crackled and the wind howled on the other side of the barrier. Even to this day, it was one of the most powerful and secret forms of magic ever created. In fact, the words were so powerful that if a human tried to speak them they would tear their mouth and throat apart.

"As our power and knowledge increased and the Great Wars kicked into full swing," Eldrin proceeded, rustling his wings and resettling them at his sides, "our handlers began to realize just how capable and smart we were. In their concern, they brought this fact up to the leaders of the country," the great dragon explained and let lose a puff of smoke in derision. "The government's response was to dismiss their findings, strip the scientists of their positions, and hand us over to new caretakers. Which also entailed moving us to a new facility," Eldrin said forming a scrying of the new laboratory that had housed them. The recording raced across the top of the water until it reached a large hangar opening in the middle of a lake nestled in the snow-topped mountains. Then like a bird diving inwards, the scrying flew through the open hangar doors and down into the depths of the secret facility.

As the holo-vid played on, Eldrin continued, "Due to our strength, our country won battle after battle in the first round of the Great Wars and emerged as the new world superpower. As such, our new facility was far more elaborate than our previous prison."

A throaty chuckle arose from the dragon. "It was equipped with all the newest technology: new technology that we readily made use of." So saying, the scrying flowed through rooms full of floor-to-ceiling screens, massive armored takoorah, and stark white spaces filled to the brim with glowing crystals and various other medical supplies Olivia and Harold could've only dreamed of.