(Pronunciation guide and translations at end of story)
Once, there was a time when dragons protected the earth. These ancient creatures lived far above the earth amongst the stars, singing the songs which explain the strange workings of time itself and guarding the wonderful wisdom of many worlds. While the humans walked below on the planet’s surface, the dragons were ever present, diligently controlling the weather and lighting the stars when it became dark. These reptilian giants were the protectors of the humans’ tiny corner of the universe, and they never knew that the dragons were there: that is, until the time that our story takes place. Afterwards, our planet changed forever.
Although most dragons were adults, there were younglings as well, but their numbers were few because dragons live for thousands of years and only lay their eggs once every two centuries. Young dragons were always very curious, and the youngest, most curious of them all was named Trsti 1. Throughout his yaelsn 2 (childhood), he never had many playmates. This was because he seemed very different from the other younglings: primarily because he was the youngest of all of them (his egg had been very late in hatching), but ultimately because his scales were a very strange shade of gray which hadn't been seen on any dragon in generations. Because of his differences from his peers, Trsti became very shy, and only spoke to a select few of the older dragons. Frequently becoming lonely, Trsti would fly off by himself and stretch out on the moon to gaze at Earth. None of the dragons ever went closer to the planet than that shining rock which circled it, and Trsti never quite understood why. Intrigued by the stories he had heard of the creatures whom they protected, he dreamt what these humans would be like and decided that any creature could be nicer than his peers. He wished to learn more of the humans and to get a closer look at them. Trsti eventually decided to ask his closest friend, Beyearn 3, why dragons had never become friends with the humans. This began an interesting conversation.
“Humans aren’t like dragons, Trsti,” Beyearn told him. “We do not make direct contact with them because they will not understand us, and what humans do not understand, they fear, and what they fear, they attack.” Being one of the oldest, wisest dragons ever to traverse the heavens, Beyearn had answers to most problems, and Trsti went to him with all of his questions. He was a colossal green dragon who had wings as large as ships’ sails and a glittering tail larger and greener than the tallest tree on earth. All dragons revered him. “Why are you suddenly so interested in humans?” He queried. “Well…”, Trsti faltered. Unsurprisingly, the shy little dragon wasn't entirely certain how to put his thoughts, or if he even wanted to tell them to Beyearn, as much as he trusted him. “Well, I know so little about humans, I was just wondering if…” “Yes, Naerhan 4?” “Well, I’m so lonely here, I was wondering if… if it was possible to become friends with a human, and if it is, I wanted you to come with me to try and meet them.” Beyearn stared and tried extremely hard to suppress his laughter. “Friends?! you wish to find friends amongst the humans? My dear Naerhan, humans are too foolish, too different from us to ever become companions to us. Besides, humans will never be able to understand us.” When Trsti heard this, he was severely disappointed, but decided not to give up all hope just yet. “If humans are so different than us why do we protect them?”, he asked looking up into the eyes of his large friend. “We protect the humans because they need us: there are many evils out in the great darkness, and we have the knowledge and experience to defend against them.” Trying hard to understand, Trsti frowned as another question formed in his mind: “But, how can we effectively care for them if we don’t know any of them?” Beyearn blinked. “Trsti, you must trust me on this. In the end it is better this way. If your curiosity will not be satiated, nothing can be hurt by your going down to earth’s surface. However, I cannot go with you; my place is here, beyond the skies of the human world.” Trsti was shocked. “You’re not going with me? B..b..but I can’t talk to a human on my own! Please, Beyearn, I need you!” “I’m sorry, Naerhan, but you must either face your fears, or be content to remain here. You must go now, I am needed amongst the elders. I wish you luck in your quest.” Beyearn said with a fond look, and turned to go on his way leaving a bewildered Trsti behind him.
To go...or not to go. That was the question which persecuted Trsti. He had never met a human before, so anything could happen if he did go. Maybe Beyearn was right, and the humans wouldn’t understand dragons after all; but if he didn’t go he would never find out. Flying back to his usual perch on the moon, Trsti gazed back on Earth. “It’s beautiful”, he mused inwardly. As he sat there staring at the blue and green orb he suddenly knew that he had to go down there, just to see it, or he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. Taking a deep breath, he leapt off the white rock, and dove towards earth.
He flew down, faster and faster, the wind rushing past his face. The journey took him a little longer than he had originally expected. When he reached the planet, he perched on a cloud (Dragons had the ability to do that in those days) and looked down on the land, wondering what it was like down there; again he started to question his decision to come, but quickly shook his head and dove off the fluffy cloud before he lost his courage altogether. As he neared the surface, he decided to explore the island of Bretchen 5(Great Britain: the dragons would study Earth’s geography and give its islands and continents their own names). He had always thought that the island looked interesting from afar and couldn’t wait to see it up close. As he swooped low over the land he noticed a small village nestled in a picturesque valley. The valley was filled with trees, thus the village had forest on all sides. Because of this, Trsti didn’t notice the stream that ran the length of the valley until he was hovering right above it. Realizing he was thirsty, he landed on the bank of the creek about 100 yards downstream from the village. Once he was done drinking, Trsti lifted his head and found himself face to face with a human boy. Not even noticing that the boy was frozen with shock and fear, Trsti gave a terrified “yelp!”, and fell backward, tumbling down a steep incline. Trsti was angry with himself for letting down his guard, and it took him some time to disentangle himself from his wings and tail. When he finished, he looked back up the incline and saw the boy peering nervously down at him and realized that this human was probably more scared than he was. After staring at each other for a while, Trsti could tell that the boy was curious as well as scared. “What are you?”, the boy murmured to himself. “ I”, said Trsti, drawing himself up proudly (trying to salvage his dignity after his ungainly tumble), “am a dragon”. The boy’s eyes grew wide and he turned pale. “What dark magic is this? You can talk?” Trsti was surprised that the boy didn’t know what a dragon was. “Of course I talk. You didn’t think I was a beast, did you?” The boy was staring at him open mouthed and seemed disinclined to continue speaking at this point, so Trsti tried to put him at ease by being friendly: “ My name is Trsti, I came here because I wanted to meet the humans who live here. Sorry if I scared you.” The boy immediately became defensive, “What made you think that I was scared? Nothing scares me. The name’s Brendan, by the way. Were you flying just a minute ago? I didn't think that a creature so large could fly. Where did you come from? I’m from the village upstream; I come here when I’m lonely so that I can listen to the birds…” The two of them engaged in a lengthy conversation and eventually started a game of tag. Only too soon it became dark, and Brendan had to go home. That night, Trsti curled up in a tree to sleep. Meanwhile, back at the village, Brendan told some of his friends about the strange creature he had found in the woods, and it became necessary for him to bring them along the next day to avoid being called a liar. Trsti ended up befriending all of them, and eventually the rest of the villagers too. He came to realize that humans were just like dragons: they had the same impulses to protect, to love, they appreciated beauty in the same ways as dragons, and there were even many ways that they could teach dragons to broaden their horizons. The men of the village did well protecting their families, but many of them without families wished that they could do something to protect those who couldn’t fend for themselves. However, only men of noble blood were allowed to become knights in those days. This gave Trsti an idea, and after presenting it to the villagers he decided to fly upwards, back to dragon territory to present his idea to the elders.
“So you see, with my idea, we could not only protect the humans more directly, but help them to protect themselves”, Trsti finished, nervously standing before the group of elders who he had hastily gathered. After a very lengthy, very awkward silence, Beyearn spoke up: “your idea is very unconventional, Trsti, and we would have to think it over before we made a final decision; however, I think it just might work - if what you say about humans is true, that is.” Trsti was surprised and grateful that Beyearn had taken it so well. After that vital conversation with the elders, it still took many weeks of argument and meetings between dragons and the world’s leaders. Many were flat out against the idea, but it gradually came to be seen as the only way to move forward.
And so, an Order was made; an order in which a young human and a dragon youngling were paired together and trained to fight against the darkness in the universe. The goal was to defend Earth, and to help those who couldn't help themselves. The order was named Kiaelroth Aman Roule 6, which is Dragon for “Lights in the Middle of the Darkness”. The dragons and humans who enrolled in Kiaelroth Aman Roule would have to go through extensive training before even considering being paired with a partner, or “Bond”. After their training was over and partner was chosen, the trainee would go through ‘Initiation’, a ceremony in which both the human and the dragon would swear magic oaths to protect and care for their Bond and to devote their lives to protecting others until the end of their days. Obviously, Trsti and Brendan joined the Order once they were of age and became each other's Bonds.
So you see, through one shy little gray dragon facing his fears, the dragons came to understand that no one is so different that you cannot learn from them and become their friends. Thus began the golden age of the Kiaelroth Aman Roule. However, not even this glorious order could last forever, and today even the memory of its existence has been forgotten and lost to the mists of time.
Pronunciation Guide and Translations of Dragon Names and Terms:
(In order of appearance in text)
1 Trsti TUR - stee: little star
2 yaelsn YALE - sin: a dragon’s childhood/ the first 25 or so years of a
dragon’s life
3 Beyearn BAY - urn
4 Naerhan NARE - hon: small one - a term of endearment
5 Bretchen BRAY - shin: the island of Great Britain. The translation of this
dragon word is ‘shield’, because of the way it
seems to shelter the much smaller Ireland.
Long after the days of the dragons, this name
was combined with the human name, Ritton,
meaning homeland. Thus the island’s name is
now ‘The Great Shield of our Homeland’.
6 Kiaelroth Aman Roule kee - ALE - roth AH - mon ROOL: Lights in the Middle of
Darkness - an order consisting
of dragons and humans,
dedicated to the protection of
Earth.
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