The Fifth Day
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Ahem Yes. Yes. I do realize that you've heard this tale a hundred thousand times, but the only version you've had access to is the human propaganda. Their stories are only based upon their vantage point as God's favored works. Of course, one can not blame humans for our Creator's affinity for the underdogs. But, that's beside my point. Now, as I was saying.
In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth. Four days saw the evolution of the grand stage, pleasing both to the eyes and the senses. The Fifth day brought about God's minor actors to fill the stage and to supply further depth to the plot. Day Six announced the prima donnas. Our creator's own personal puppets made to dance upon his strings. Ahem Please forgive me. My cynicism is rearing its' ugly head.
For the sake of everyone's sanity, may I be permitted to fast forward the tale a bit? Ah, thank you kindly. As you may have heard; our main players were beset by a slick serpent and tossed from the land of Heaven on Earth. The gates nearly slapped them on the a… bottom on their way out. This left us minor players without a story to act and a lot of thumb twiddling.
Those of the creatures with little to no patience soon followed the pair out into the great unknown, never to be heard from again. Those of us with forbearance waited and watched until boredom and curiosity got the better of us. We too passed through the gates only to find the start of a hell on earth for our brethren.
Man had learned to hunt us. He meticulously used every bit of our flesh and bone to make his life easier. It was as if we had floundered our way into a twisted version of the world we knew.
God's perfection no longer relied solely on the fruit of the vine or the abundance of herbs. We had become "what's for dinner". We quickly evolved for the sake of surviving. The herbivores proliferated rapidly to meet both the demand for consumption and the need to continue their race. Hunters and prey alike learned to blend into their surroundings to keep the fangs and claws out of their hides.
Neither the fish of the sea, nor the fowl of the air were immune from Man's hunger for flesh. The more we evolved, the more Man did as well. He learned through trial and error the best methods to deal with us, to use us. Our world became survival of the fittest, which I'm sure amused our Creator greatly.
Time marched on and we danced a macabre dance with the humans. Those of us with sentient minds watched as Man advanced from dwelling in caves to living in steel and glass high rises. They still slaughtered our brethren, but in a more organized and… humane… manner. I do not see what is so humane about not having the opportunity to fight for ones' life, but… I digress once again.
Why yes, it does seem that I've skipped quite a bit of years, but surely you do not wish to be inundated with lengthy tales of the sentient among us playing our own games with the humans? Where some of our more unforgiving brethren hunted the humans in turn? That humans are an acquired taste? Oh, don't look at me that way. I only tried it once and even then I just chewed, but did not swallow. You humans are quite a fatty, gamey flavor; not at all pleasing to my palate. Moving on. There was also the graciousness others portrayed in blessing or cursing their worshippers' land? How some played a veritable peek-a-boo with the peons… er…homo-sapiens?
Perhaps a short summary would suffice in their stead. As man's territory expanded, so did our own. We watched the rise and fall of civilizations. To our Creator's displeasure, we witnessed man's deification of various false gods. As man grew more efficient, he also became conceited, believing himself to be godlike in his own right. Our western brethren fell to the lance and sword of those believing themselves, knightly; alternately given sacrifices and being destroyed. The eastern society was honored with beautiful ceremonies and gift offerings. We are not a quickly reproducing species thus our numbers dwindled until only the Asian sect remained.
Varied species with capable minds slowly drifted back to Eden as they grew weary of constantly being on guard. To this day, there are still only a couple of intellectual individuals left roaming this universe though finding us will be most difficult if we do not wish to reveal ourselves.
You see, we were creative in our evolution. There will always be some fanatic romanticizing dealing with dragons, gryphons, and a whole host of other creatures. One would be amazed at the lengths humans will go through to satisfy their curiosity and daydreaming. The resulting offspring of such liaisons mostly died shortly after conception or birth; sometimes taking the life of the mother as well. On a rare occurrence, a perfect mix of man and beast will be born. The effects of that child's DNA wouldn't always be apparent or manifest in any way. Those children were mainly carriers for our genetic material. A way for us to continue on and still be able to experience first hand the story God had set in motion.
Despite our animosity towards the human race, we were still intrigued by them. We observed them, mimicked them, and merged with them the best we could. After all, a supporting actor's goal is to one day become the lead. Unfortunately, the deck was stacked against us. We are only here to enhance the story God is creating.
The humans have turned into the pests we long believed. Multiplying rapidly, eating up resource after resource, and moving on when supplies have run out. If you'll look at humans from our stand point, you'd see that they bear a remarkable resemblance to cockroaches. You squish one and a million more are waiting to take their place. Do not get me wrong, there are always exceptions to everything. After all, how would we be able to mingle our genes if there weren't a few tolerable individuals? Unfortunately, those keep passing on and a new generation must be scoured through for the Jewels among the rocks.
Those Jewels were especially useful as liaisons between the human and creature worlds. Here we are, showered with gifts or sitting on pilfered loot, and no way to spend it. As western tales are fond to relate, dragons do tend to sit on hordes of treasures. What are we supposed to do with it? We collect it because it seems highly valuable to homo-sapiens, but we have no way to use it in the preferred fashion. Why, think of it, the sheer chaos of one of my brethren showing up to market with a palm full of gold and a grocery list. No, no. That would not be a very good day for either species.
Instead, we use those Jewels for more than breeding, as I've mentioned previously. They do receive benefits from being obliging. They are able to pick from the treasures about them, having a dragon's (or other sentient creature's) protection over their family, and being allowed to live after viewing something they shouldn't have.
I have been fortunate enough to have an entire clan swear their allegiance to me. The Long clan is one I have been gracious to in turn. I have even permitted my genes to mingle with theirs. Only one of my co-mingled offspring has survived to pass them along, but that is enough for me. I have watched their lives with a good deal of interest. I constantly monitored for any signs of my blood, any little quirk that signaled the continuance of my line.
There have been many hopefuls throughout their generations, but destiny had no need of them yet. Now though, our people are getting restless to visit our birth land. Eden. The feeling that this drama is coming to a close, has plagued us creatures. Unfortunately, as the centuries have flowed, our memories have faded, landmarks have changed, and the older ones have passed on. The knowledge of Eden's location has been lost to us purebreds, but we have hopes that one of our mixed-blood offspring may have inherited awareness of the gates.
This hope has brought me to the last of my line. Time will tell if Chang Wu Fei holds the key to our happiness, or if our hope is lost.