Secret of the Naga

A Legend of Dragoon Fan Fiction Piece

By: Sleepwalking Dreamer

DISCLAIMER:

The Legend of Dragoon © Sony and other affiliates

Chandrakanta and related characters © Sleepwalking Dreamer

NOTES:

As some may have noticed, I have drawn much inspiration from Hindu myth. However, I will not claim that my story is true to the myths and the legends; I am merely inspired by them. Hence, I hope that aficionados of Hindu mythology will not lash at me for whatever inaccuracies and deviations I have incorporated or may have accidentally found their way into this story. I have tried to do as much research as is humanly possible to get everything down accurately, but I must be allowed some room for artistic license and for mistakes as well.

TEASER:

Since the beginning of time, the Naga – a race of half-human, half-serpent beings – have lived on their island of Nagapura in relative peace and security. When Dragons, fleeing from the destruction of their race on the continent of Endiness as the Winglies came into power, came to live amongst them, the Naga prospered as never before. Slowly, the Naga turned Nagapura into a fabulous land of wealth and splendor, where magic – through the interbreeding of Naga and Dragon – has been used to stop death itself, and even to reverse it. Nagapura was whispered throughout the world as a land of beauty and riches, where the people are immortally fair, the dead can breathe again, and the living never feel the dreaded kiss of death.

But all that is left of Nagapura is legend and ruins. In his jealousy and greed, Melbu Frahma rained destruction upon Nagapura, scattering the Naga all across the world, and sending the Dragons back to Endiness. In the end, it was Dragons and Humans who saw to the collapse of Melbu Frahma's plans – the latter to escape Wingly oppression, and the former to avenge the rape of Nagapura. And though it came at the price of their own lives, the Dragons realized that, just as their union with the Naga had given them love, this alliance with Humans would protect those they valued the most.

Now, thousands of years after the Dragon Campaign and two years after the second downfall of Melbu Frahma, darkness once again threatens to create chaos and wreak havoc upon the world. For it seems that Melbu Frahma was cleverer than anyone initially imagined, and his dreams of dominance are about to resume their course once again.

Prologue: The Rape of Nagapura

It had been a night of peace, a night of quiet tranquility that is conducive to deep thoughts and creating new things. She had been taking advantage of the stillness to sit in her meditation room, attempting to weave together threads of magical power to create a powerful spell of protection for her sister Anila. Anila always enjoyed climbing up and down the high mountain crags outside the capital – a dangerous venture, no matter how powerful in magic one might be. So, since it was to be her sister's birthday in a fortnight, she was laying down the foundations for the protection spell, that she would then embed into the jewel of a bracelet she had asked the royal jewelers to make four days ago. In fourteen days, the spell would be completed, and she would present it to Anila with all the pride and happiness that comes with being an elder sister who was watching her youngest sibling step into the world of adulthood.

It was a quiet night, one like many others before, and she thought that it would be the same, that nothing would trouble her world.

But she had been wrong.

She could never have dreamed that it would be so, but now, all that she had feared had come true.

The Winglies had come.

And Nagapura burned.

She raised her eyes to the sky, unable to bear the torture that would come from looking down as her world, the world she had known since her childhood, broke into a million pieces before her. Rank upon rank of Wingly soldiers advanced across a blood-red sky, taking out Naga as easily as the Naga themselves had once hunted fish and birds. Magic blazed all around her as the Winglies first destroyed the city, and then made their way towards the palace.

"Chandra! Chandra, are you still here? Answer me!"

She turned around slowly, and watched as her father emerged from the shadowy interior of the palace. He was currently in the form of a handsome Naga, with jade eyes, hair like spun gold, and emerald green scales glinting over his body. "Father?"

The hand that tightened around her wrist was bloody, the grip strong and insistent, but infinitely tender. "Chandra, you must go from here," he said quietly, pulling her away from the window and leading her out of the room, their scales hissing against the ruined stone beneath their tails. "There are boats at the port, ready to take you to Endiness. You cannot stay here."

She shook her head vigorously. "I cannot leave you here, Father! They will kill you!"

"I must say here," he said quietly, and with his free hand he tightened his grip around the hilt of his sword. "I must do what I can to make sure that the survivors make it out safely."

"Then I will stay with you. I will stay with you and fight. I know how to fight Father, you taught me how yourself."

Jade flared almost to a sunlight green as the words left her mouth. "You will do as I say, Chandra. I will not have you stay here and risk you dying." He gripped her wrist more tightly, and this time, she felt pain bite past the thin gold-and-green scales and through into her flesh. "You are Princess Chandrakanta, heir to the Royal House of Nagapura. Though Nagapura falls, the nation of the Naga shall never be completely defeated, so long as you remain alive."

Chandrakanta shook her head, but more slowly now, a motion borne of sadness and pain. "But I am your child, your own flesh-and-blood. What daughter, what son, would wish to abandon their sire at the hour of their greatest need?"

He smiled at her: that gentle smile that had been there through her victories and her failures – the smile of a father looking one last time upon a daughter he loved. He pulled her into a tight, one-armed embrace. "I know that you would stay if you could, daughter. And I know that you can fight. Soa only knows how useful your skills in arms and in magic would be if we fought together. But I would not have you here. I must shed this form that you see, and I would not have you here to see it."

"But-"

He let her go, and, in a clever move, spun her around so that she was halfway out the door. The look in his eye was serious. "Go, Chandra. I would not have you fall to my poison. Go and find Regole – she will take you and the others back to Endiness. When you get there, I promise, I will find you myself, no matter what happens."

She stared at her father. Could this be true? Was he indeed going to do what he had promised, a long time ago, never to do?

"Go!"

She started upon hearing the roar of her father's voice. At that moment, he was no longer her father: he was Raj Feyrbrand, King of the Naga, and a Dragon. In that capacity, he would do all that he could – no matter how extreme – to spare as many lives of his people as was possible.

She turned around, and made her way as quickly as she could through the palace, passing through numerous hallways and doors, until at last, she reached the small, out-of-the-way port that was used by the Royal Family for boating excursions. It was crowded with ships and boats, many of them filled to just above their capacity.

As she approached, she caught sight of a beautiful Nagini; with hair colored the pale blue of shallow waters, and her eyes a piercing deep blue. Her scales, on the other hand, were a remarkable combination of sky blue with hints of silver. No other Naga had such coloring, and so Chandrakanta recognized her immediately as Regole the Sea Dragon in her Naga form.

Regole turned around then, and smiled with relief when she saw Chandrakanta approaching. "Oh, thank Soa that you are still alive! A lot of us though that you hadn't made it out of the palace!"

Chandrakanta offered a small smile, and bowed her head. "Father came to get me."

Regole nodded, and her face turned grim. "Yes, I know." She waved her hand to the ships. "Come now, we must flee from here. Your father is going to put his plan into action, and it would not be a wise thing to be here when he does so."

Chandrakanta nodded, and mutely followed Regole onto the largest ship. What had once been the royal family's pleasure yacht was now turned into a barge for transporting those of the Naga who still remained alive, along with whatever was left of the royal family.

So many were already dead. That was the first thought that came into Chandrakanta's mind as she looked around at those of her family who were on the ship. She saw her mother, Rani Devika, sitting with her sisters Jaswinder, Kalpana, and Anila. She also saw her two youngest brothers, Anand and Shashi, standing close to the rail, looking on with chillingly blank expressions upon the destruction of Nagapura. Her second brother, Murali, and her third brother, Ashoka, were most likely dead, slaughtered when they attempted to stand up against the force of the Winglies. The others on the boat were mostly servants, and a few of the nobles who happened to be staying in the palace that night.

She immediately went to her mother, who seemed still as a statue in her grief, gazing out as the city she had lived, grown up in, and ruled for nigh on five thousand years, was reduced to ash before her very eyes.

Chandrakanta tried to smile at her mother as she reached out, and squeezed her hand. "It will be all right, Mother," she whispered. "Father will take care of himself."

Rani Devika did not move, but her eyes seemed to turn to molten gold in the moonlight, and a single tear trickled down from her eye, cutting a gleaming streak against her soot-covered face like a shooting star across the vastness of the night.

That tear caused her sisters to crack. Anila hiccupped, her shoulders shaking as she started crying, and a sob tore its way out of Kalpana's throat. Jaswinder did not make a sound, but she had been never one to make a sound when crying. She merely bowed her head, her face screened by the fall of her ebony locks, and the only thing that indicated she was weeping was the steady fall of teardrops on her tightly clenched hands.

Chandrakanta did not give way to her tears, though they constantly stung at her eyes. As the eldest daughter, and hence the next ruler of her people after her mother, she had to be strong – or at least, give off the impression that she was so. If her mother could do it, then so could she.

Regole spoke up then. "Now that everyone is ready, we shall leave for Endiness."

Chandrakanta turned to watch as Regole jumped off the ship, splashing into the dark water. A split-second later, a light glowed from beneath the waves, growing brighter and brighter until finally, a huge spray of water went up into the air, and a blue-and-silver Dragon raised its head above the waves. This was Regole's true form.

Regole cut easily and gracefully through the water, and Chrandrakanta sensed that she was pleased to be back in her own shape, and in her element. Regole picked up the chains that were used to moor the ships to the docks when they were not in use, and swam towards the east, pulling the ships along behind her.

Knowing that there was nothing for her to do now, Chandrakanta looked back to the island that she was leaving – the island that had been her home for as long as she could remember. A deep roar pierced the sky, and she felt hope rise in her heart. But it was faint, as brief as a passing wind through the trees.

Her father had pretended, for her sake, but now she knew the truth. Looking at her family and at the people on the other ships, she knew: Nagapura had fallen, its people sent into exile, and it would be no more.

Chandrakanta sank to her knees on the deck, and uttered a soul-wrenching sob.