.
.
Chapter 1
.
"Darkness has fallen on the land.
The blood of the Dragons will revive once again…
...and the Ancient Pact will be kept.
When the Five Dragons are gathered…
…the Sword and Shield which will protect the King shall awaken…
...and the Red Dragon shall restore the Dawn at last."
There's a short pause before Ik-Soo slumps over, looking winded and like someone had punched him in the solar plexus. "C-Conveying…" He says, with a wheeze, "the voice of the Gods really takes a lot out of me…"
Yona doesn't know much about prophecies and priests. But Ik-Soo looking like he had gotten the breath taken out of him makes her believe that it must be very draining.
Yoon walks over to the collapsed priest and crouches in front of him, "What a bothersome old man," He says, poking Ik-Soo repeatedly. His voice is annoyed, but the way he hovers over the older man lets Yona know he's slightly worried.
Cute, Yona thinks.
"This thing about Dragons and the Gods…" Hak says suddenly, almost surprising Yona. She looks over her shoulder at him, turning slightly to better face the taller male. He's wearing a serious expression on his face, almost a glare actually; one he wears when he thinks money is going to be taken from him, "I don't understand it at all. I'm not buying anything this crackpot dishes out, no matter what it is."
Crackpot?
"He's not selling any." Yoon snaps, face surprisingly neutral.
"That prophecy just now…" Yona says, trying to bring the conversation back to topic, "was it referring to the Red Dragon which appears in the legend about the King?"
The First King.
Because Ik-Soo had mentioned the Five Dragons. And the Red Dragon King.
And the only correlation Yona can think of is—
"Do you know about the legend of how this country was created?" Ik-Soo says. He lets Yoon pull him up, and doesn't say anything as the younger male starts dusting him off with harsh slaps.
"Yes." Yona says, remembering… Her father… "It's the story about the Red Dragon God that took on a human form and descended from the Heavens. He fell to the Earth in order to rule a country. That was Kōka Kingdom's first King… King Hiryū. My father often told me about it in the past…"
She had been so young then. In that time before he had become King.
He had placed her in his lap and read to her so animatedly. In that time before he had become King and would read to her every night... He had put his all into changing his voice for the characters and had enunciated every little word so carefully…
Her father...
She missed him. She missed him!
But he's gone now.
"However," She says, and she doesn't think about how she's getting used to the ache in her chest, "in the end... even King Hiryū, who had obtained the form of a human, started fighting against humans."
Ik-Soo presses the tips of his fingers together, in an almost prayer. He takes over the tale, and as he does Yona can't help but remember the voice of her father—
"Because the hearts of the people began to grow wicked, and because they forgot the Gods, the country began to decline. King Hiryū was also captured by those who desired his power of authority. At that time, it seemed as if everything was destroyed at once.
"'Hiryū!' The Five Dragons flew down from the Heavens. 'Hiryū! We have come for you. Return to the Heavens and destroy the humans who have forgotten to cherish and heed the Gods.'
"Hiryū rejected that. 'No. I am already human. Even if I am despised and betrayed by humans… I still love humans.'
"The Dragons still loved Hiryū as well and didn't want to lose him. So, in order to protect Hiryū, the Blue, Green, Black, Yellow, and White Dragons, gave their blood to Human Warriors, and gave them their powers.
"One was given sharp claws that could tear anything apart. One was given eyes that could see far off into the distance. Once was given lungs that could breathe fire. One was given a body that could never be injured. The last one was given legs that could jump high into the skies.
"'From now on, you are our other halves. With Hiryū as your Master, protect, cherish and never betray him for as long as you live!'
"The Warriors that obtained the power of the Dragons each led their tribes… protected Hiryū… and quelled the country's chaos.
"It wasn't long before… the Red Dragon went to sleep, weary from all the battling. As for the Five Dragon Warriors, their mission had ended.
"The Five Dragon Warriors thought of their King who would no longer move and mourned. They didn't know whether they were grieving because they had lost someone special…
"Or if the blood of the Dragons within them mourned the death of Hiryū.
"After that, the Five Dragon Warriors saw that their powers far exceeded what humans possessed. It's said they each left their tribes… went their separate ways… and disappeared."
i don't like blurting things out like this, but also, i felt like this would have made a pretty good prologue to the story TAT (so here we are...)
i do want to mention that breathing fire isn't something that eastern dragons do. breathing fire is a very western dragon thing. eastern dragons are associated with water and rain. if an eastern dragon breathes fire or is associated with fire, that dragon fell and was abandoned by the heavens.
(it's somehow suitable in this case but i wanted the black dragon to have a part of the dragon inside of their body like shin-ah does and i really really liked this idea and couldn't let it go *sob*)
anyways! i should have the meeting chapter next!
thank you for reading! please review
—prince