The Dragon and the Bard

Once upon a time, there was a dragon with scales that had the color of the darkest black. While most dragons prefer to live in the mountains south of the Dwarven kingdom, this one preferred to live in the mountains above Oidao, spending his days in the way dragon do. Until one day a group of Zrephian mages visited him.

Their intentions were not pure, for they sought to enslave him. They came to him when he was asleep, cast their spells on him to hold him in place, and then they performed a sin most great. They had him transformed into a human. When the transformation spell had ended, the dragon went mad. As a dragon, he was supposed to fly, but how can he do so without wings? He was supposed to have scales and breathe fire, but how can these things be if he was no longer dragon?

The mages took him back to Zrephia and, since their experiment was not sanctioned by the state, they hid him in a dungeon outside the city. For many weeks, the dragon demanded to be turned back, but the mages ignored him and continued their experiments, until eventually the dragon went into a major depression and stopped eating. If it had been up to these mages, they would have left him to die and find themselves a new specimen. But the dragon was lucky, as the Zrephian Royal Guard had discovered about these illegal experiments. They entered the dungeon and arrested the mages, then set the dragon free. Though the dragon no longer had an interest to be free. At this point, all he wanted to do is die.

The leader of the Royal Guard, Layla Imrisblood, had no interest in giving up on him. She felt it was a sin to ruin a majestic dragon such as him and vowed to redeem her people by returning the dragon to his natural shape. Though for that to happen, the dragon first needs to regain his will to live.

Princess Layla had the dragon brought to the royal castle and had her servants take care of him. It was hard to feed him as he still had no desire to eat. Special magics were required to **** the dragon into a better condition, but nothing seemed to truly help, for they focused on healing his body, not his mind.

The servants tried multiple different ways to bring the dragon out of his depression. Eventually, one of the servants got to idea to bring in her sister, who was a bard. When the musician arrived, she suggested to be left alone with the dragon, still bonded to a human shape. She played him song after song. Sad and mournful ones to reflect the state he was in. She bothered not to gradually change her music to something happy and change his mood that way. She simply accepted his sadness and gave it her attention.

As the days go by, the dragon started to look forward to the bard’s arrival. Dragons do not have such instruments like lute’s and violins. So every time the bard visited, he was witness to the beauty of human culture. He developed a desire to hear more of humanity’s music. Which he quickly realized he would not be able to do if he died. And so, he desired to stay alive again.

Once the dragon was healthy enough to speak, he asked the bard if she could tell him more about human culture. She started by taking a tapestry from the wall and splayed it onto his bed. She described how the strings were crafted, how they were put together and then what the images on the tapestry depicted. Since then she wore different clothes each day, to express how vast humanity’s fashion could be. She brought him books that she could read for him and shared with him the fairytales humans of the ancient past had come up with. She thought him how to read, how to write and even how to paint. As time progressed, the dragon forgot about his desire to be turned back into a dragon and felt that, as long as his beloved bard was with him, he could spend the rest of his life as a human.

Having been fully healed, princess Layla allowed the dragon to remain in the castle, now as a guest. She had many conversations with him, mostly about what life as a dragon is like and how different it is from life in human society. It is from these discussions that the two of them became friends.

While it is true that the dragon had made friends with the bard and the princess, there were still many humans who distrusted him. They knew that the mages who originally captured the dragon had wronged him, and they worried he might eventually seek **** for what was done to him. Eventually, the dragon felt the only way he could make that happen is by becoming an adventurer and help the humans by keeping their nation safe. Many people were suspicious and worried that the dragon just wanted more power for the day of his inevitable ****, but princess Layla insisted the dragon was allowed his awakening ceremony.

While the awakening ceremony is usually a private matter between the hopeful adventurer and the goddess, in this case, several people were in the room with the dragon, witnessing the event. It was to their great surprise and fear that he revealed to have become an S-rank. Though their fears were quickly assuaged when he revealed his goddess gift. In normal cases, S-ranks keep that gift hidden, so people would not be able to turn that ability against them. But since the dragon had to win over the trust of the humans, he revealed to them the skill he requested from the Goddess. That he would be unable to speak a lie.

With this kind of goddess gift, the dragon could swear loyalty to Zrephia and it’s royal house and nobody would question his sincerity. So, when the dragon suggested to not join any guild but the royal guard, no body objected. And when a year later, when the Zrephian court mage discovered a way for the dragon to turn back into his original way and back into a human at will, everyone at court approved of it. Since then, the Zrephian royal house had a powerful new enforcer who was colloquially known as “Zrephia’s Dark Dragon.”

“Oh wow.” Amelia says. “So our guild is named after this dragon, right?”

“I think so.” I say. “It would make sense. The guild is pretty old, so it was probably created when the memory of the dragon was still fresh enough that people remembered it.”

“It’s an interesting story, alright.” Amelia continues. “I mean, it started all bad with a dragon being enslaved. But then the princess came and saved him.”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure this is a good thing.” I say hesitantly. “Remember the book called ‘The princess of Calamity’? That’s a book which said that the princess became mad. This dragon had sworn to be loyal to her, shouldn’t it have turned against the Zrephians with her?” I read the passage in the book again and notice, “Oh no, it swore allegiance to both the princess AND Zrephia.”

“Hmm, strange that the other book never mentioned the dragon.” Amelia remarks. “You think maybe something happened to the dragon before Zrephia got destroyed?”

“Maybe it’s in the next part.” I say.

For a couple of years, the dragon and the bard lived the best years of their lives. Growing closer and even getting married. But eventually, everyone’s life was thrown into chaos when the Demon King, Akon, was assassinated. There is much speculation as to who assassinated him. What matters is that the demons were convinced it was a Zrephian plot and they wanted ****. So, the legions gathered and prepared to march onto Zrephia.

While the dragon was a capable **** and could delay the demonic legions by destroying their supply routes, he would not be able to stop them this way. And fighting the legions head on would merely result in his ****. As such, the dragon suggested to fly to the other dragons and call in their aid. Some people were skeptical and feared he was just trying to escape. Even when he promised he would return, a promise made true due to the gift of the goddess he had received, they still didn’t trust him. So they made certain to keep the bard, his wife, in the castle, so he would have a reason to return in time. And with that, the dragon transformed into his original draconic form and flew towards the dragon lands, far to the south, below the kingdom of the dwarves.

The dragon had a hard time getting his fellows to understand the importance of human culture. His description of human architecture and songs was not adequate enough to convince the other dragons it was worth saving. As a last resort, he suggested to explore human society by walking amongst them in disguise. They mocked his suggestion, believing it impossible for a dragon to disguise itself as a human. But when he use the Zrephian transformation spell and turned his body into that of the human, rather than surprised, the other dragons were appalled. The dragons saw their bodies as majestic and superior to those of humans. For the Zrephians to have discovered a way to turn a dragon into a human was a an insult. A sign that they had figured out a way to weaken dragons and drag them to the level of a human. So, the dragons cast their spells and **** ‘the Dark Dragon of Zrephia’ in a prison.

Unable to change back into his draconic form, the dragon was stuck in a human body, like he was before. Except this time it were not wicked human mages, but his fellow dragons that kept him in this state. Meanwhile, the demon legions crept closer to Zrephia. Threatening his beloved city and wife while he was unable to go back and defend it, even though he made a promise to do so.

The only dragon whose sympathy he could count on was that of his brother, who wondered why his sibling could possibly want to save his enslavers. The dragon told his brother the bad humans were not only few, but had already been apprehended and punished. And the good humans had thought him how to turn back into a dragon. They had given him back his life and they far outnumber the bad ones that took it from him.

In the end, the sibling still couldn’t understand the beauty of human art, but he understood that for his brother, it had great value. So he decided to set his brother free. None of the dragons would join him back to Zrephia, but at least he could go alone and perhaps make a difference.

The dragon hurried to Zrephia as quickly as he could, but he was too late. When he arrived there, the city was already in ruins. The bodies of both human and demon lay throughout the city. He hurried towards the ruins of the castle and searched for his wife. After several hours, he eventually found her body in the rubble. So again, the dragon fell into a depression, and all he wanted to do is die.

In his final hours, the dragon was found by a Zrephian survivor. An S-rank necromancer who blamed the fall of Zrephia on him. He had made the promise to return with help, and do so on time. He not only failed to get the promised help, but also wasn’t present at the time the city needed him most. He had betrayed the princess. Betrayed Zrephia. And for this betrayal he deserved to be punished.

_The dragon, still in his draconic form while weeping over his beloved, told the necromancer he was right. That he deserved the punishment. And he allowed the necromancer to cast his judgement.- - - - - -

_

“Wow. Kindof a bittersweet ending there.” Amelia mentions.

“Yeah, we kindof already knew Zrephia would fall.” I say. “But I never knew there was a dragon involved with the whole thing.”

“Actually. It’s the opposite” Amelia quips. “The dragon was prevented from being there, so he wasn’t involved.”

I was rather referring to the stuff before he asked the dragons for help, but I will let it slide.

“Well, I guess we finally know where our guild got its name from.” I say. “It is totally a reference to this dragon here.”

Amelia then moves closer to me and rests her head on my shoulder. “I think that makes it kinda special. My previous guild was named ‘The Celestial Unicorns’. There was nothing historic about that name. It was just something pretty the woman who founded it came up with. But the Dark Dragons are actually named after a real dragon.”

Suddenly, the door opens and Kiara comes into the room.

“Hey now.” She says in a joking tone. “I thought we agreed on only doing threesomes from now on.”

I can’t help but snicker at her comment. Meanwhile, Amelia starts blushing and tries to explain it’s not what Kiara thinks. We then start telling her about the book we just read and tell her all about the story.

“Hmm, interesting.” Kiara mentions. “I heard that some dragons do have the ability to turn into humans whenever they feel like. Maybe they changed their mind in the 500 years between then and now?”

“Could be.” I say. “500 years is a long time.” I want to say something more, but I suddenly get taken over by exhaustion and make a huge yawn.

“Oww, poor darxy. You look tired.” Kiara jokes.

“Well yeah.” Amelia replies. “Both of us just spe …” and then she gets taken over by a yawn as well.

“Aww, and Amiwy as well.” Kiara jokes again. “Well, I guess you two better go to bed then.”

And so, we do as Kiara says and get some shut-eye.