Gatekeepers Book 1: Darkness

The Dragon Council

The now-waning full moon hung low in the sky. The night was still early as the weak moonlight shined through the ornate glass windows of a massive, chapel-like room of the dragon king's castle. At the end of the room, right at the edge of the moonlight pouring through the windows behind him, sat Theravor, sitting half in the shadows in a massive marble throne with gold plated highlights. In front of him stood a long table made of the same marble of his throne, and twelve stone and metal thrones, identical to the one Theravor sat in during Draycos' trial, were positioned around the table, six to each side. The twelve dragons who sat in these stone thrones all made up the highest governing group of officials in the known world: The Dragon Council.

The Dragon Council is made up of the heads of each of the four royal dragon families, and each head had the heads their branch families in attendance with them. The four royal families were the Stormfangs, the Managuards, the Killwings, and the Vizards. Every ten years, the head of each family or their heirs competed in a collection of competitions to determine which family would lead the world as king for the next ten years. For the last century, Theravor Stormfang and his family had held possession of the crown without interruption, earning the hate of many opposing dragons.

Each family had different characteristics and responsibilities. The Stormfang family are strong in terms of both physical and magical strengths and have a good head for battle and strategy. They are the ideal battle soldiers and were usually in charge of ending the battles that occasionally broke out between different races and enforcing the laws of this world.

The Killwings are physically strong but lacked the magical power of the Stormfangs. They were placed in charge of expanded upon the territory discovered upon a new leygate being claimed and controlled.

The Managuards are exceptionally adept at magic, and always oversaw the magic-related events in society and developing new spells, as well as magical research.

The Vizards are also gifted in magic, but they used their gifts for research and developing new technology to assist the expanding world. Almost all monumental inventions and everyday magic theories studied were developed by this family.

Since Theravor was currently the Dragon King, he could not occupy the Stormfang family's spot at the table, so after his father passed away in the middle of the ten year term twenty-eight years ago and he was forced to take up the throne, Theravor's son, Drax, occupied the seat he once held. Drax may have been young then, but he had a good head on his shoulders and was a quick study, and things remained that way for fifty years now.

On each side of the table sat two royal families and their branch families, and behind them, stationed between the pillars holding the high ceiling above, were royal dragon guardsmen, decked out in royal blue plate armor from head to toe. Two more were stationed behind Theravor on either side of the throne and another pair positioned at the door, guarding the entrance.

Theravor sat at the head of the table in the king's position, cool as a cucumber as nine set of sharp eyes furiously attempted to bore holes in him. They had just reached the topic on the theft of the Orb of the First King, and all present were waiting for the king's summary on what had been discovered thus far.

The head of the Killwing family, a slightly aged dragon with nearly black gray scales and pale red underbelly scales and wing skin, tapped loudly on the marble tabletop with a claw as he glared at Theravor with intense red eyes. A gold band set with large rubies was fitting around his tail just before the tip, which was shaped much like that of a harpoon head. Scars covered his entire body from head to toe, results from clashes between him and the Dragon King during their time in the games. Out of all the families, the rivalry between the Stormfangs and Killwings was by far the strongest and deep-rooted. They've come close to winning the games for the crown on more than one occasion, but the Stormfangs always managed to come out on top the last one hundred years, ever since Theravor first started to participate in the games for the title of king.