"Dragons go back to the creation of time. They were the loyal companions of the young primordials. In the earliest days before even Gaea created Uranus, the first being was Chaos. From chaos there was born Erebus, the first place of death and Nyx, the Primordial of Night. All else was void.
Eventually, Nyx and Erebus started to feel attraction to one another and this attraction created Love who brought forth the beginning of Order. From Love emerged Hermea, The first light, and Gaea. Gaea and Hermea had worked together to create Uranus, the Primordial of the sky and air. Gaea and Uranus then gave birth to the Elder Cyclops, the three Hecatoncheires (The hundred handed ones) and the Twelve Eldest Titans and thus your average Greek 'myths' are born. During this time Nyx and Erebus had many children like Doom, Fate, Sleep, Dreams, Death and Nemesis, but the first of these other children were the dragons." She looked proud to be saying this,slightly reminding me of my own mom telling me the story of my namesake- Perseus. The comparison made me smile, which she seemed to take as me enjoying the story and continued on with gusto.
"Our kind was very numerous back then, we were the caretakers of the Primordials and their most trusted friends and guardians. Then Gaea and Uranus had their famous battle where Uranus was chopped to bits and strewn across the earth. The first goddess, Aphrodite, rose from the sea to take the fading Love's place as Goddess of Love." Her expression changed to one of sadness and just a hint of bitterness, "Here is where dragons started to fade away in the world." Which explained the expression and tone change.
"Earlier, dragons had merely been there to care for the Primordials, they were fierce, winged defenders and friends but had no magic of their own excepting the inherent magic between dragon and charge however, for their service they were blessed by their patrons and thus the first dragon colonies were created. The first colonies were Air, who were given wings, grace and intelligence; water, who were gifted adaptability, leadership and passion; Earth, who were given great strength, perseverance and patience; Light, who were given wisdom, long age and healing; and Darkness, who were given agility, cunning and strategy. All with some form of control over their element.
After Kronos defeated his father and married his sister Rhea, his Light dragon companion gave a prophesy that one day Kronos would betrayed by one of his children, as he had his father. Kronos did not at first believe this, thinking that he was invincible and no one would dare dethrone him, but when Rhea gave birth to their first child he did not want to take ANY chances and so he swallowed his daughter, Hestia the goddess of the Hearth and Home. Then he proceeded to do this to Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hera." She took a deep breath and seemed to take a moment to collect herself, which allowed me to do the same. With my mom I had been given a brief overview of the various creation mythos from a variety of different cultures and religions and while they were fascinating bedtime stories, I don't remember much of them and from the lady's detailed explanation I could figure that this was important stuff and tried my best to keep track of it, reviewing what I'd just been told mentally.
I remembered almost nothing of what she'd just told me. Crap. I began internally trying to replay everything frantically but before I could really get past that there were 6 dragon types I'd been told she started talking again and I turned my attention outward again, determined to learn at least some of this.
"Now this is where traditional myths will depart from our story." Dang, this means I'll REALLY have to pay attention if that means I can't just look it up later. "Tradition says that Rhea tricked Kronos with a rock and kept her 6th child, Zeus, safe so that one day he could rescue his siblings and overthrow Kronos. THAT part is true. Now the other part where Zeus tricked Kronos? THAT is a lie. The myths say '" He grew into a handsome youth at the island of Crete. He consulted Metis on how to defeat Kronos. She prepared a drink for Kronos designed to make him vomit the other children. Rhea convinced Kronos to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to return to Mount Olympus as Kronos's cupbearer, giving him the opportunity to serve Metis's potion to Kronos. The plan work perfectly and the other five children emerged out of Kronos. As gods, they were unharmed and thankful to their youngest brother; they made him their leader.'" She looked disgusted.
"What really happened was, since Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter, Hera and Hades were not allowed to have bonded with a dragon for themselves they obviously had 5 dragons with no one to be their companions and so these dragons went to their 6th sibling for help. Now their 6th sibling was Zeus's companion and so they helped him create a potion to get their companions that they were denied by Kronos. So because of this it was not ONLY Rhea's convincing but 5 angry and unemployed dragons that made Kronos take a disguised Zeus on as the cupbearer."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa" I said, "So your telling me that dragons were basically willing slaves and WANTED to serve?" At this she gave me a VERY nasty look and the snake eyes only made it worse. I instantly regretted saying anything because she looked like she might go back on her promise NOT to eat me. Internally bludgeoning myself, I nervously watched as she closed her eyes and took a long, deep and (for me) pretty awkward breath. I noticed the younger girl had left sometime during the story, leaving me very aware that I was alone with the woman.
"Dragons were to the immortals as dogs are now to people except with MUCH more intelligence and cunning. That is just how it was back then. They had been doing it for generations and gained special blessings from their companions and blessed their companions in turn. May I continue the story?" She said, her voice sounding tight with what I could only describe as a cross between exasperation, long-suffering and annoyance. I got the impression that this wasn't the first time that she'd had to explain that.
"Yes!" (I'm a little ashamed to say it but I squeaked. You would too if you had an upset adult dragoness bearing down on you!)
"Where was I? Ah yes, Zeus was not immeadiatly trusted and so he began to learn things about his father that he started to adopt. When the time came he gave the potion to Kronos and his siblings were heaved out of Kronos but Zues had developed plans to become the new king and didn't want ANYBODY to be able to rival him, not even his companion who he had had since very close to birth. So he slew his and his siblings companions." Her eyes had lit up in rage "All but one. Hestia's companion was the daughter of a Light dragon and an Air dragon. The first Fire dragoness. She tried to escape but ended up turning herself into flame and became the hearth of Olympus. The first of her sparks became the Fire dragon colony that made their home in what is now China. Eventually sprouting up all the culture they have around dragons in that area.
From here the myths are basically the same again, like the battle with the remaining titans where the gods battled and won, except for the battle with Typhon, The father of Monsters. The traditional myths say that it was Gaea upset over her dead and defeated children but Rhea had already explained the situation and Gaea knew they had it coming. In fact it was Gaea who recommended the island of Sicily to hide Zeus on. Oh no, It was the parents of those 5 dragons Zeus had slain who were upset. So they asked Gaea to send a monster to punish Zeus for his actions and so Gaea sent Typhon to punish her 'god' child's killer. (The slain dragons were the grandchildren Gaea's own companion.) Zeus after finding out that it was the dragons that had sent Typhon to try to kill him then flew into a rage hunted them nearly to extinction and wiped them from the histories so no one would know of his deeds. Most of the dragons that lived then are dead and those still alive are old, docile and have forgotten about their past.
This is the only colony of dragons on this side of the world. Most dragons had fled to here after Zeus's hunt and have been here for centuries before this land was populated by mortals."
"So… that is the most in detail explanation of the beginning I've ever heard or wanted to hear." I said, reeling from the information presented to me.
"Haha! That's my daughter's opinion on it too." She replied with a smile.
"By the way, what is your name?" I asked tentatively. Her eyes went wide and apologetic,
"Oh! Silly me I am Intonay and my daughter's name is Melody. I have two other children as well, Ralen and Esmond, Melody's younger brothers. Our family are descendants of the Air colony but Jared, my husband, is a descendant of the Water colony. I am a minor music dragoness but Melody's voice is the equivalent of Aphrodite's own charmspeak. However, it only works when she sings and unfortunately she has a rather large case of stage fright and doesn't like to perform for others. Ralen and Esmond seem to be developing an affinity for gases and vapors."
"Oh… um okay, thanks." I said, still trying to take in all the information that I was getting in surplus.
"Now dear, shouldn't you be getting home? Your parents are probably worried sick." She said suddenly, as though the thought had just crossed her mind. I paused, debating whether or not to tell her about my situation. In the end I figured I didn't have much to loose.
"I, uh, I don't have a home." I said frankly. She looked at me, surprised and seemed to have her own internal debate for a few seconds.
"Hmm… well than, I think you can stay with us." I stared at her. What kind of person just takes in a random kid off the street just like that? She couldn't be serious. I told her as much and she just laughed, "Normally, I wouldn't but according to Melody you're a special case and having been in here with you for a while I've discerned that she was right, under all the scents of an unwashed boy living on the street there is the faded smell of dragon blood. That, and, its very hard to ignore or not recognize a calling when it happens and I've never been given any reason to doubt Melody's integrity about such things." I guess that made some sense, but a few things still remained that I had questions about,
"What did er… Melody, mean when she said I 'called' her?" I intoned. Intonay (ha! Puns) thought this over.
"Hmm… well dragons are able to call to one another in a manner similar to telepathically if they share the same colony in the last couple of generations. When you were in trouble did you happen to ask for help?"
"Yeah, but I sure as heck didn't think I'd get it."
"That means that your family has some colony relation to our family in one of your parents. Do you know which one it could be?" She asked.
"I'd like to say it was my mom because she was the only parent I knew. Her parents died in a plane crash and other than that I don't know very much about my mom's side of the family. I don't know my dad's side at all. He left before I was born." I told her. It wasn't much, but it was all the information I could give her.
"Then I will check the records for any mention of a possible rouge family or perhaps your mother's family had only recently migrated here and didn't know about us being here too. Or maybe she did. Who knows. Was Jackson her maiden name?" I nodded "Okay well get some sleep, you've had a rough day and you need time to fully understand and take in all this information I've just thrown at you. Good night, Percy." The lights turned off and even though my mind was going so fast I didn't think I'd be able to go to sleep for hours I nodded off quite fast. Instantly I had a dream, something I hadn't done in years. My mom was there and so was this odd symbol above her head. There was also a man with another symbol above his head that kind of looked like a three-pronged fork. Mom's was swirly and seemed almost thinner than the man's whose symbol was partly swirly and partly still and stiff. Both symbols kept changing shape but the patterns were the same. Then there was a voice that was neither male nor female that said "This is your legacy. Know that, and you can overcome all." And with that I was conscious no more.
AN So that is the end of this chapter and it has come out really early because it's Fall Break for me and my family is gone to visit my grandparents but I'm sick so I couldn't go and I had nothing better to do with my time. Shout out to The Arrowess for being the first one to review my story and to PurplePirateofProcrastination, AdamantlyAmiable and SunPraiser31 for their advice that I will take gladly. Thank you for supporting me and until next time have stupendous days! ~FictionGirl11
P.S. This has also been revised quite a bit, if anything doesn't line up completely in the future that I don't catch please tell me!