A Dragon's Retribution [Book 3 in Rising Dragons]

Chapter 5: Seeryath II

"We don't know the exact dates or anything, but we know the timeline," Andrea said. "I know the end details of the whole thing. Initially, the partnership between dragons and humans was rare, but despite this, those who were partnered became a new authority force with power backing them. The other humans had no way of fighting back and were getting annoyed at the powerful militia."

"That's completely skipping over the first dragons bonding with humans and the formation of the first dragon rider academy – that's like three centuries skipped over," Nkruma pointed out. "Not to mention the origin of humans, which is what we were meant to be explaining."

Nkruma turned to face us. "We only know what our ancestors knew and they only knew what they had been told by their ancestors. Humans arrived after about sixteen months travelling, having left their homeland behind. They were travelling to find a new place where they would be able to live. The humans lived here for something like 500 years before the first fight between dragons and humans occurred."

"Sorry to jump in here Nkruma," Natalia said, "but perhaps we can share what we know about the humans and what they did during this time."

"Go ahead," Nkruma says with a flick of her tail.

"During this time period," Natalia began, "the humans started setting up towns and settling in different areas. From what we know – and can assume – it appears that regions were set up with no real power in place or absolute authority. The first humans separated into smaller group and focussed on working, on making the land theirs, on surviving. We assumed they didn't pass down their history or their stories, their old ways of living. They were too focussed on surviving to preserve what had once been theirs.

"These people lost everything that had once belonged to them and what had connected them to a place they had once lived. Meanwhile, time continued to pass and their population grew. Eventually, along came authority, power, and tools that allowed them to build towns around important locations – such as hunting areas – and more people were sticking around in order to trade. As all of this occurred, some humans turned to crime in order to survive since it was seen as an easier lifestyle since they didn't need to work too much for it."

"This resulted in people calling for help and aid," Bur explained, "and so powerful forces started to rise and fight, forming authorities in different areas. As time passed, places started expanding their trade routes, but wars and battles still occurred over borders and resources, and so militaristic power started to become an important part of human society."

"Now," Nkruma continued, "moving forward by about five hundred years, we know humans had settled and that there was – roughly – eight regions. However, some towns and tribes remained without regions. Within these regions, there tended to be one main military force that controlled the area. Normally, this force demanded levy from the towns that they protected."

"How do you know all of this?" I asked, because how did these dragons know so much about the world they had isolated themselves from?

"Stories past down," Pamphilos said, "by our ancestors, but also stories that were written down. There are artefacts left behind, and we can make assumptions based off of what we can find, based off what we know."

Natalia nodded in agreement and picked up Nkruma's explanation. "We know it started after a battle between two dragons and a group of humans. This was only the first battle of many. The war was bloody, since dragons had the power and the ability to wreak havoc on those who lacked the ability to fight back, such as farmers – and there were many who were unable to fight back.

"From what we have been told, seven months after the start of the war, the first dragon-rider bond occurred. There doesn't appear to be any reason for it. It is quite literally magic happening without a cause. The bond was the first of its kind and assumed to be the only bond ever formed. Two weeks and a day later, though, another bond formed as the dragons stopped warring against the humans. During this time, dov started flying rather than sticking to their own isolated territories and hiding away where they were safe."