Chapter 1

            ‘There are many versions of the creation myth, but this is how the Dragons tell it. Before the Universe, there was nothing: no light or darkness. Things very rarely stay empty for long. From the nothingness came two primordial beings whose names and visages have been lost to even the oldest of Gods. They were beings of contrast, of Light and Darkness, Order and Chaos, Good and Evil, Equals and Opposites. The moment they spawned into being, each fought to destroy the other, but they were at a stalemate for they were equal in power. To break this stalemate,both brought forth soldiers to fight the other. The being of Light created angels; beautiful, powerful, ordered. The being of Darkness created demons; fierce, elegant, chaotic. The war between the two beings and their armies was so fierce, it created the Astral Sea. The endless realm of blazing stars and beautiful cosmos. After uncounted eons of battle, the two contrasting beings disappeared, shattered into pieces. Their armies continued to fight, not recalling why they still battled, not knowing that their creators had been destroyed.’

            ‘From the pieces of Order and Chaos came two Gods; Bahamut and Tiamat—the first of the dragons. Bahamut was unmatched in wisdom, patience, mercy, and compassion. Tiamat was unmatched in intelligence, honor, fury, and cunning. When they first came into being, they were disturbed by the endless fighting of the angels and the demons. Tiamat’s anger boiled over and she let loose a torrent of fire from her maw that caused the battle to stop. Angels and demons recoiled from the shock and terror of the sudden, blazing inferno. Before Tiamat could tear the angels and demons apart, Bahamut quelled her temper and then spoke to the angels and demons, asking them why they fought. When they did not know the answer, Bahamut asked them why they continued fighting as the bloodshed was nonsensical and destructive. And so the angels and demons lay their weapons down, humbled by the wisdom of the God, and the ones who were not swayed required just one furious look from the Goddess to be cowed. Tiamat was also humbled by Bahamut’s words; she decided that she would follow Bahamut wherever he went. Bahamut also saw something in Tiamat, he saw that when words failed then action was called. Understanding the wisdom of action, he decided that he would stay with her as well. The Gods told the  masterless angels and demons that their destinies were now up to them, only they could choose which paths to follow. Many angels chose to follow the orderly and peaceful Bahamut, while many of the demons chose to follow the wild and chaotic Tiamat.’

            ‘The pair of Gods chose to explore the Astral Sea, searching for a lair to call home. When they could not find a place to reside, they decided to make one. Forging an endless cavern from the stars, they built a home. The pair listened to the singing of the angels and watched the dancing of the demons. After a time, the pair heard a loud crashing clatter over their songs. Unbeknownst to them, the angels and demons had brought into being many worlds with their song and dance. But that was not the noise they heard, the source was other Gods who were fighting over the worlds and the worship of potential creatures in those worlds. Some of the Gods were noble and honorable, others were bloodthirsty and cruel, some cared little for whatever they claimed was theirs and only for the endless games they could play with them, and yet others deeply loved whatever they decided that they had dominion over. At first, Bahamut told Tiamat to ignore the endless din of shields and swords clashing against each other while they investigated the worlds they had inadvertently created. Each world the pair visited was teeming with life, but not intelligence. Bahamut and Tiamat decided to remedy that. They forged creatures resembling themselves, with large talons, armored scales, lashing tails, elegant horns, colorful feathers, and glistening teeth. Bahamut decided to give some of these creations wings to ride on the wind while Tiamat gave some of these new creatures the ability to swim in the endless waters. Bahamut and Tiamat gave many of their children the ability of breath weapons and a natural aptitude for magic so they could pursue the knowledge of the universe just as they did. After creating dragons on many worlds, they decided to take new titles fitting for this endeavor. They were now Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat.’

            ‘During this time, Gods came and vanished into the firmament while others took root and grew in power. Eventually, the pair could no longer take the endless noise of the petty battles of the Gods. Could these new Gods not see there were better things to do? Could they not see the beauty of the worlds they fought for? Father Bahamut let out a roar that rang out through the cosmos and rattled the stars themselves, causing the Gods to stop fighting. He admonished the petty Gods for their destructive behavior. Some of the Gods were not impressed by Father Bahamut and others were furious at this intrusion, resenting being scolded like children. Mother Tiamat joined her partner, lashing her tail and spitting fire at the despondent Gods, swatting at them as though they were obnoxious flies. The angry Gods were cowed by the sudden fury of Mother Tiamat while Father Bahamut’s words calmed the more agreeable ones. After stopping the battles, Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat returned to their lair and curled up with their angels and demons. Occasionally, the Gods would resume their petty wars, then Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat would intervene when the battles became too destructive or the clash of weapons became too obnoxious. Beyond that, Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat saw no reason to intervene. If these petulant children in Gods’ clothing wanted to spend eternity fighting, they could do so until the last star in the sky was snuffed out. Many of the angels and demons who did not join the pair in their lair had chosen what their destinies were. Many of the angels chose to follow Gods of Order while many of the demons chose to follow Gods of Chaos. They took up the symbols of these Gods and became Marked, serving their new leaders loyally. Many angels and demons choose to live unaligned to a God, these were the Unmarked. These angels and demons spend their time in the Material world among the mortals, just living their lives however they choose.’

            ‘From then, the children of Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat, the Dragons, would emulate their parents’ behavior and actions. Rarely would they involve themselves in the affairs of non-dragons, unless those affairs came to their door. When words of mercy would fail, the Dragons would unleash their fury. Only a fool would challenge a Dragon, and there have been many who deluded themselves into thinking they deserved to have the world bow to them. A Dragon would easily show them they were mistaken. Thankfully, like Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat, Dragons have no desire to conquer. They have better things to do than waste their time on such endeavors.’

-Excerpt from the Book of Alduin of Mu

It was morning, and it was time to be fed. A tuxedo cat decided it was time to rouse her owner by padding into his bedroom and hopping up on the lump under the blanket. A rhythmic rise and fall showed that there was a living creature under it. The cat sniffed around and found her owner’s head, letting out a trill. The rough sandpaper tongue of the cat licked the inside of a pointed ear, which woke the sleeping, blanket-covered owner of said ear.

“Ok, I’m up… I’ll feed you, Sugar,” said Anakin groggily.

Sugar jumped down, meowing at Anakin to get up faster because he clearly could not see that she was starving and hadn’t been fed in 8 hours. Anakin opened his bright blue eyes with reptilian slits, yawned, opened a beak-shaped snout full of sharp teeth, and shook his feathered mane. His ears flapped about as he did. Anakin is a drake. Specifically, a spitfire drake. Drakes can’t fly but can certainly use magic and have the gift of a breath weapon. Spitfire drakes can blast small fireballs like scatter shot at close range. Anakin had beautiful fiery yellow, orange, and bright red feathers ringing his long neck like a vulture. A feathered mohawk-like crest adorned his head. His scales were deep red, his underbelly a golden orange, his talons sharp, and his hind feet were three-toed, with short dew claws. His horns atop his head corkscrewed up like a goat’s or antelope’s.

He got out of bed, slid on a pair of slippers, and put on a pair of gray sweatpants and a shirt with the fire-type Kanto starter lineage from Pokémon. He went to the kitchen in his cave and poured Sugar some dry cat food. Yes, Anakin lived in a cave; lots of dragons do. Where did you expect a dragon to live? Caves are quite peaceful and cool in the summer, and warm in the winter. There was a small kitchen, a couch, a table with chairs, and a TV with a gaming console. His room had his bed, which looked like a giant cat bed, a desk with a computer, and a dresser for his clothes. After feeding his cat, he decided it was time for his breakfast, too, and he poured himself a bowl of Lucky Charms without milk, as dragons can’t process milk. Anakin flopped onto his couch, turned on the TV, opened up YouTube, and picked his favorite channel.

Anakin was fully aware that he had the name of a Star Wars character. But that name was originally Draconic and a very old one at that, much like Ben or Joshua for humans, or Brunor for dwarves. A lot of his peers called him ‘Darth Vader,’ ‘Skywalker,’ or ‘Jedi.’ He didn’t mind; he liked Star Wars. Ironically, his favorite character was not Anakin Skywalker but Captain Rex from the Clone Wars. He admired Rex’s unwavering bravery and unbelievable compassion, wishing more humans were like him. Anakin didn’t have anything against humans; he just wished there weren’t any entitled, whiny, hypocritical Gaxsharrmacs.¹ He found these types of people to be unbelievably irritating, but thankfully, they were few and far between. Anakin decided to watch a Mr. Beast video; he admired this human.

“I’m Mr. Beast and I spent $5,000 to buy this abandoned mall, and we are going to set 100 random subscribers loose in it for a game of ultimate paintball for the prize of $10,000,000,” the boisterous YouTube host said into the camera, pointing to an excited crowd of creatures varying in age, species, and size, all wearing bright blue jumpsuits and holding paintball guns.

The camera panned to some of Mr. Beast’s friends, all jumping up and down with glee and screaming, “Let’s GO!” Anakin was certainly excited; Mr. Beast always knew how to draw in views, and this was certainly going to be entertaining. He didn’t have to go to work today, so he could easily spend the morning watching YouTube until he had to go get groceries.

After finishing his breakfast, Anakin got his smartphone, keys, and wallet and put on his jeans vest, his earrings, and his holy symbol. The holy symbol was a chain necklace with a pair of serpentine dragons coiling around each other, one silver and the other gold. The symbol for Father Bahamut and Mother Tiamat, as you can’t worship one without the other. It was always both, for they were two halves of a whole, equals and opposites, the same coin but different sides. Anakin made sure Sugar did not get out of his apartment by holding her back with his tail. He didn’t want to chase her down the hallway again, so he locked the door. His apartment was part of a complex of caves that were divided up to make dwellings for many dragons. This complex was only a small part of a massive cavern, the city of Hrahshurr Crux. The city was home to dragons of every type and was built underneath Crux Haxbollarn² in Emerald County.³ The humanoids had many different names for both the mountain and the county that Hrahshurr Crux was in, but this is what dragons called it.

Anakin quickly finished his errands and returned home. When he got into the elevator, he heard his phone ding. It was a text message from his older brothers, Grunglao and Fenari.

‘Hey, Anakin. Howzit?’ texted Grunglao, ‘What’s up?’ texted Fenari.

‘Just going home after getting groceries,’ Anakin replied.

‘Get anything good?’ texted Fenari.

‘Just some rats for skewers, a bit of namazu⁴ for sushi, and some other things,’ texted Anakin back.

‘Will we see you at the temple this weekend?’ asked Fenari.

‘Of course, assuming that I’m not called into work,’ Anakin replied.

‘If not, we can game, how about Mario Kart?’ asked Grunglao.

‘Sounds great, how about we game regardless of whether I can make it to the temple,’ Anakin replied.

‘I call DK,’ texted Fenari.

‘You always play as DK! Let us have a turn!’ joked Grunglao.

Anakin smiled; he wished he had more time to spend with his brothers. But that’s the price of being an adult with obligations. Fenari was a manager at Best Buy, and Grunglao was a stay-at-home dad or was going to be when the eggs hatched. Anakin was wondering if the clutch would be all one gender or mixed; there were three eggs after all.

‘Hey, how are the eggs?’ Anakin asked.

‘’Oh, they are moving around in there. I can feel them moving whenever I turn them over. I think they should be hatching soon.’ Grunglao texted a photo of the eggs, which were about the size of ostrich eggs but with fiery patterns on their shells.

‘I think I’ll name one of them after grandma when they come out, assuming one of them is a girl,’ Grunglao texted.

It was just a text, but Anakin knew that Grunglao had that big, toothy grin on his face at that moment. Anakin got back to his apartment and had just put his groceries away when he heard a knock at his door.

Oh no, that usually meant he was needed at work right away, and just a call-in wasn’t enough. Anakin was a cleric, and while a lot of clerics tend to work at churches, temples, and shrines, Anakin was not that kind of cleric. He was an adventurer for the Department of Adventuring. The Department of Adventuring was like the police or FBI, but they dealt with magical crimes and dangers rather than mundane ones. While typical spellcasters could technically be part of the police or FBI, or work in the civilian sector, those who wished to work in law enforcement usually chose work for the DOA.

Anakin sighed and went to the door, opening it to reveal a forest kobold wearing full armor. She was his old friend, a paladin named Hathi. Kobolds are the smallest of dragons; many can’t fly and don’t have breath weapons, but they can still use magic. Hathi was about the size of a small human child. She had emerald green scales mottled with yellow-brown and black, large rabbit-like ears, short, curved horns, a long whip-like tail, small taloned paws, short yellow-brown feathers on her forearms, hindlegs, tail, and neck, and a dog-like muzzle. She wore scale mail, pauldrons with the DOA emblem, a sword crossed with a staff, a short breastplate, and a visored helmet, carrying a shield and a short sword.

“I’m gonna assume that I’m needed somewhere ASAP?” Anakin asked rhetorically.

“Sorry, Anakin. But you need to come with me right now. Something happened in Tacoma, and we are needed there,” Hathi stated authoritatively.

“Alright, give me a moment,” Anakin replied. Anakin went back inside his apartment, and put on his cleric robes. They were royal blue with the silver and gold mark for Bahamut and Tiamat embroidered all over, gold trim, white and blue vestments, and a hooded cowl with holes for his horns and ears. Anakin was ready.