Chapter 3

Tales of Deltora

The Land of Dragons

Once, when the world was young, the sea was alive with monsters and all the lands were islands. The islands were many, but most were far apart. To birds flying high, they looked like jewelled eggs, cupped in nests of foam and scattered on the broad blue plain.

Some of the islands were small, and some were large, but all were prisoners of the sea. For the sea was vast and deadly – an endless waste of cruel water, seething with teeth, spines, cold black eyes and tentacles that coiled like hungry tongues.

One of the largest and strangest of the islands was called by the people the Land of Dragons, for dragons ruled the skies. The people were divided into seven tribes, and each tribe kept to its own territory. Even between neighbouring tribes there was little trade, marriage or friendship. Instead there was suspicion and, all too often, war, for food and fresh water were not equally divided among the territories, and life was hard for many.

But if the people pf the Land of Dragons knew little about their neighbours, they knew nothing at all of the world beyond their shores. For all they knew, indeed, they were alone beneath the vast dome of the sky.

To their north was another island, richly green and ringed with pure sand. At dawn, at noon and at sunset, a faint sound drifted from this island like a beckoning call. But no dragon soared in its skies, and no living thing was ever seen walking on its white shore.

Imprisoned by the perilous sea that surrounded them, the people of the Land of Dragons could only gaze at the misty green island from afar. They wondered about it, and many tales and legends grew about it.

Old folk said that it was their own island's twin, but a twin that was perfectly good, lacking the evils and dangers of the Land of Dragons. It was said that The Twin was a magic place. It was said that hidden deep within the green were crystal palaces, lush gardens and pools of sweet water that mirrored the sky.It was said that within this paradise lived wondrous beings who were wise and good.

There were those who laughed, and did not believe the tales. There were others who longed to see the wonders of The Twin for themselves, without hoping that they ever would. But now and then a brave soul – or a fool – should make a boat and set out to discover the truth.

Not one of these adventurers was ever seen again. The Twin was further away than it seemed. No matter how early a craft set out, darkness always overtook it while it was still in open sea, so it was lost to sight. When watchers in the Land of Dragons looked again at dawn, the sea was always empty.

Some people clung to the hope that the lost ones had reached the magic isle and the night and now were safe in bliss among the crystal palaces and the flowers. But most suspected that the sea had claimed them, and in their dreams they saw bones lying gnawed and white in deep, cloudy water amid the splinters of wood, a rusting anchor and the rotting rags of sails.

For the beasts of the sea sere fearful. They writhed and fought without ceasing. They were savage, and always hungry. Only the dragons sis not fear them. Only the dragons dared to fish far from shore, changing the churning water to steam with their fiery breath.

Some of the sea monsters hunted the fish that swarmed beneath the surface of the waves, birds that swooped too near, and humans who strayed too far from the Land of Dragons – Sea Serpent, Sea Wolf, Mirodan, Strangler, Vulture Fish, Bird Bane and Dead-eye were just a few of the names that struck dread in every heart.

Some monsters invaded the land to seek prey, swimming up rivers, lurking in caves or crawling onto rocks and sandy shores. These beast's, too, were names, Kobb, Kreel, Stinger, Bubbler, Blood Creeper and Death Spinner or Glus.

But the largest and most ghastly of all the monsters of the sea skulked in the depths, carving grottos and palaces in the darkness. No human ever saw them and lived, so they remained nameless.

And so it was, when the world was young. The monsters of the sea ruled, and thought their reign would never end. The dragons were the glittering masters of the sky. The people lived in fear, and clung to the land. And the land waited, biding its time.

Fire and Water

For countless ages the sea seemed unchanging to the people of the Land Of Dragons.

That was because they saw only its surface, gleaming in the sun by day., and heaving black beneath the stars at night.

They could not see that, far below, the nameless monsters, blind, jealous and bloated, were burrowing deeper into the sea bed. They did not know that in places not far from their island the rock of the sea bed had grown thin as an egg shell, and that the fiery core of the earth below, hotter than a dragon's breath, was preparing to belch its fury forth.

The tribe of the west, a grave, black-haired people wise in the ways of magic, sensed that a great terror was coming. In their meeting house of woven branches, the leaders scattered fortune telling stones. They saw that the stones meaning fire, water, death and marriage fell together time after time. But they did not know what to think of it.

The dragons, too, sensed that change was coming. They felt the land quiver with the knowledge. They smelled it in the air. But they did not wonder what it meant. They merely watched, and waited.

And there came a morning- a beautiful, still morning when the sky was like a perfect blue bowl set over a sea as smooth as glass- when the birds and insects of the island fell silent, and the beasts in the fields raised their heads.

The dragons knew it was time. In a great, glittering rush, they took to the air. They rose from every corner of the island, from the rocks and dunes of the west and east, from the sandy shores of the south, the forests, plains and hills of the centre and the cliffs of the north. There were thousands of them- thousands upon thousands. There were so many that their great, leathering wings, glimmering with all the colours of the rainbow, blocked out the sun.

The people of the seven tribes gaped in terror. The earth trembled beneath their feet. The sky was dark with dragons. There was a low sound from the north, as if the sea itself was growling. And then those who that day were near the northern shores saw the sun turn white. The beasts of the sea were whipping the water to foam as they struggled to flee.

But it was too late to flee. With a mighty roar, the sea bed split, and fire belched upward.

The Land of Dragons quaked. Great cracks opened in the earth. The hills fell to rubble and new hills grew. The air was thick with steam, and pale, slimy dead things fell from the sky like rain. And still the fire and water met and raged beneath the sea, each battling to quench the other.

The people howled like beasts and fell to the ground, clapping their hands over their ears. The sound was frightful. The sights were sights of terror. They heard a thunderous, crashing groan of rock, and the island shuddered. They thought the end of their world had come.

But their world had not ended. It had merely changed. And when those who were left alive crawled to their feet in the exhausted silence that fell upon the land at last, they saw how it was- at least in part.

The sands and bays of the northern coast were gone- buried beneath towering mountains of rock torn from the sea bed. The high, rugged headland of the north-west had become one peak among many which now stretched in a grim, unbroken line from west to east.

And what was behind those mountains, only the dragons knew, on the first day. Only the dragons, flying high above, had seen the space between the Land of Dragons and the green island to its north disappear as the cracked sea bed collapse and folded in on itself, and the water turn to steam. Only they saw the two islands collide, their coasts forever sealed together by melted rock and the weight of the new mountain range.

The twin islands had become one. Fire, water and death had brought about a marriage, just as the stones of the west had foretold.

But the seven tribes of the Land of Dragons knew none of this on that first day, and if they had known, they would not have cared. Morning their dead, mourning the destruction of their homes and villages, they wandered their changed territories like lost souls.

Nothing was as it had been. For seven days and seven nights the sun was masked by cloud, and salt water fell like fine rain. The think air stank of death. And the dragons did not come to land.

But on the eighth day, the rain stopped. A light breeze came, and blew away the clouds and the stink of death. The sun shone again, and people raising their faces gratefully to tits light and warmth saw the dazzle of rainbow colours as dragons swooped to earth.

And on that day, one by one, each tribe made a discovery. The great cracks that had opened in the earth had created hills and valleys, caves and rivers where none had existed before. But they had done more than that. In every territory, the splitting rock had given up a great secret- wondrous gem from deep within the earth.

The people of each tribe marvelled as they felt the power of the gift the land had given them- a talisman born of its own suffering, promising protection and a new beginning.

Ad that day did indeed mark a new beginning for the Land of Dragons. New rivers ran now, from the mountains to the sea. The earth grew rich and fertile. The land blossomed, beasts fattened and fruit hung heavy on vines. The people of the coast went out in boats and caught fish, for vast numbers of the sea monsters had died in the battle of fire and water, and their reign of terror had ended.

The green land on the other side of the mountains that separated them were as fearsome a barrier as the sea had once been. Monsters torn from the deep survived in dripping lairs deep within the rocks. In the cold, wet darkness they grew strong, bred, and changed. So the mountains became a place of terror, the refuge of scoundrels, bandits and murderers who needed to hide where no-one dared to follow.

Some of the curious from the Land of Dragons went around the mountain barrier by sea. They drew their boats up on the shores of the beautiful green land they knew as The Twin. They smelled its sweet air, and stepped onto its white sand. But try as they might, they could move no further. Powerful magic held them back, and at last they ere forced to leave with their curiosity unsatisfied and their gifts of friendship ungiven.

The beings of The Twin had no wish to trade, tell tales or know their neighbours, it seemed. They did not desire company.

So after a time the people of the Land of Dragons almost forgot that another land existed behind the mountains of he north. They look outward for their pleasure. They sailed the ocean far and wide. They found other lands and brought back treasures, ideas, strange foods, and beasts and birds from far away. But at home they rarely stayed beyond their borders. At home, each tribe stayed in its own place.

And each tribe jealously guarded its talisman, the gem of power that had been the land's gift after the time of trial. Each tribe thought itself especially rich and favoured, for it did not know the other talismans existed.

The dragons knew, but each dragon drew strength only from the gem of its own territory, and cared nothing for the rest. And the land knew, but it could not speak to those who would not hear. So again it waited, biding it time.

The Four Sisters

Long ago, on a beautiful island set in a silver sea, there lived four sisters whose voices were as sweet as their hearts were pure. Their names were Flora, Viva, Aqua and Terra, and they had lived on the island so long that they had forgotten the number of the years.

The sisters loved to sing together, and their voices flowed over the island like soft, warm breezes by night and by day. Now and then a ship passed by, but to most of the sailors the sisters' song was like whispering leaves, lapping water, drifting sand, and the soft, secret rustling of small animals in the grass. The few who claimed to hear sweet voices were mocked by their fellows. But they knew what they had heard, and never forgot it until their dying days.

It so happened that a sorcerer came to the island, searching for a place to call his own. He heard the singing and hated it, as he hated all things good and beautiful, for although he was still young in years, he was old in wickedness.

He seised the four sisters and imprisoned each on a separate corner of the island. But the sisters still sang to one another from afar, and their song continued to bathe the island in peace and beauty by night and by day.

Maddened with rage, the sorcerer drew his cloak of shadows around him, nad took up his magic staff. Hr stormed to each of he island's corners in turn and struck the sisters down, one by one.

First Flora's voice ceased. The Viva's. The Aqua's. For a time Terra sang on alone. But when her voice, too, was stopped, the island was silent.

And only then did the sorcerer realise what he had done. For in the very centre of the island, hidden deep within the earth, was a vile and hideous beast. Soothed by the singing of the four sisters, the beast had slept for centuries.

Now it awoke, in all its fury.

It rose, roaring, from its bed beneath the earth. It tore down the trees, crushed the small beast, fouled the spring (An: what I thought of when I copied this was of the beast destroying everything, then when he saw the spring dropping everything and took a potty brake.. lol I dano... I just couldn't stop from laughing roflmao) and smashed the mountains. It cracked the very rock on which the island rested, and the island began to sink.

In terror the sorcerer leaped into the silver sea. He conjured up a boat with a grey sail marked with red, and sailed away into the east, to find new lands to conquer.

The waves closed over the island and it has never been seen by human eye from that day to this. A few of the sailors who pass that way still claim to hear the sweet voices singing beneath the water. They are mocked by their fellows, who hear only the sound of wind and waves.

But the few know what they heard, and they never forget it, until their dying days.

AN: TAKE HEED MY READERS THIS CHAPTER IS NOT COMPLETE! I just can't be bothered to type up 175 pages or something around that at this time. I'm just posting this because it may take some time and a lot of effort on my part to type it all... I also think you might be daunted from reading a 175 page chapter this is just 4 and a bit pages so enjoy the part I've given you...

I may update this and if I do I'll say so in a chapter after this when I finish another chapter and post it. or if I haven't finished another chapter I'll post a 'review reply' chapter with a chapter update like which chapter was updated and when.

Well if you read all that then I hope you'll understand everything :)

Review my lovely readers please :) I just love your comments :)