Chapter 1: In the Beginning
The world was in a new age, led by the secret society of the High Order of Monks. All the world leaders were members and appointed by the society itself. A process that took a week with the 5th Decree locked up in a secret room deciding who would take up the task of being the leader of the most powerful country in the world. It was mere politics.
Democracy and freedom of the common folk was almost forgotten. The new power was the only body in charge of the entire world.
They were the government, the police, the health department and the friendly next door neighbor. Even the most basic resources were controlled by them. The world of the common folk however, was kept in the dark about it all. To them, the world had not changed. The rumors of a growing powerful secret society taking over the world were no more than stories that crazy freedom fighters told them to frighten them.
Day in and day out on the side of the roads with banners and placards warning of a looming danger, they shouted and chanted and danced on the streets. They were on the news; they were always on the news. It got violent every time the police stepped in, teargas and spraying them with water. The crowds would disperse just to gather somewhere else again the very next day without the slightest show of discourage.
A nuisance they were, some said. The world was always troubled, and there was always someone out there with a scary story to tell. It had been done before, Y2K, the Mayans' 2012, this was no different. Yet in the heart of the Ryusendo cave in Japan, only The Oracle knew the truth about where the world was headed, and how it all began...
Darkness had existed even before the First Men walked the earth. Soon after a rain of fire descended from the sky, the earth had changed. Some lands flourished and were rediscovered, whilst others faded into the background and seized to exist. They were not shown in any maps; there were no songs sung about them, nor any voyages made to explore them. A new world was formed and was oblivious to the parts of the earth that had existed before.
A few however, in time had discovered this secret and kept it from the rest of the world. Whether their intentions of keeping it to protect the world were true or not were yet to be seen. The High Order of the Monks had been formed by the first civilized world to protect the ordinary men and women or common folk, from the truth of what existed beyond their lands. The brotherhood comprised of powerful leaders from all over the world.
They secretly travelled around every corner of the world for years collecting large stores of knowledge and bringing it back to the Ryusendo Caves in Japan, where their headquarters were located. A large library existed in the caves and held books, artifacts and some say even ancient creatures that were not known or considered myths by the common folk. The library was supervised by the Keeper of Scrolls who was chosen according to their great affinity for books and mental strength especially in memory.
It was unclear just how old the High Order was, but the oldest member, The Oracle, Taisei was very, very old. His existence was somewhat an enigma. He had been alive when creatures no one could dream of had roamed the earth. Although his age gave him the most experience, he was not necessarily the most powerful. Therefore he was never positioned as the High Priest who was the leader of the entire brotherhood.
The Oracle's experience allowed him to be an administrator, while the High Priest made all the most important decisions that affected the brotherhood. The High Priest was chosen by the vote of the 5th Decree, who were five powerful members of the brotherhood and entrusted with most of the secrets and also served as advisors to the High Priest. The 5th Decree was chosen on specific skill sets mainly; combat, knowledge and spiritual strength.
The High Order of Monks was not a religious sect. Their duties were outlined on the sacred vow that each member made when joining the brotherhood. They vowed to protect the earth with the sword, word and soul. Members of the brotherhood were allowed to marry, but were advised against revealing their membership to their families.
A monk had to take the vow of absolute silence, which forbade them from ever discussing the nature of the brotherhood to another soul. No women were allowed to join the brotherhood, although the change of this rule had been reviewed every once in a while but with no actual consequence. The first members of the brotherhood had believed women incapable of keeping secrets, and were always gathering to indulge in gossip and plot against each other.
However, the world had changed and had bore witness to the most powerful women the brotherhood had ever seen rise. Nonetheless, most members of the brotherhood were old and did not take to liberal ideas. A few young members were added every three years and trained to become strong members of the High Order.
After taking the sacred vow, they drank wine from the same chalice to symbolize their unity and that they were joined till death. There was no other way to leave the brotherhood. Any crime including deserting was punishable by execution, unless circumstances forced a hearing which was decided by the 5th Decree.
Upon membership, each new entrant was assigned a code name in Japanese which they used to hide their identities if their messages were ever intercepted. All the brothers however, retained their real names in the world in order to blend in, though this tradition was starting to fade as some retained nicknames derived from their own names.
Taisei had seen brothers come and go, had lost friends and watched as rivalries formed and died in the brotherhood. Thinking back, he could not remember his early days as The Oracle, that part of his mind was shrouded in darkness. All attempts of medication and meditation had failed.
His mind had simply refused to remember. .yet, it had had an easy grasp on everything else. He had watched four High Priests die and several Keepers of the Scrolls too. The 5th Decree was the tenth and The Gatekeeper the eighth. Time and time again, he had flashes in his sleep, memories of sorts. It was as if his subconscious was trying to tell him something. But it never came out as a conceivable concept. In it he saw a golden throne, a forest and a face of a woman he could not remember and then it would fade into the distance and a foggy presence blocked it all and woke him up.
He had gotten used to it. After each waking moment he would meditate, pushing away the nagging feeling that there was something his mind was trying to tell him. He was a man with no identity in the world. He spent all his time in the caves. His existence to the world would raise eyebrows and stir unwanted attention to the brotherhood. All he needed was provided. Over the years, the High Order had embedded itself in the world.
From world leaders to the man driving the milk truck in the neighborhood, they waited and watched for any signs of trouble that might steer the world into discovering that the earth was not at all how it seemed. Some of the common folk would have frowned on this of course if they knew, insisting the world was ready to handle such things and it was just the High Order's way to gain control. There were already such protests from a group called The Panel who had made themselves known to the world as freedom fighters and liberals.
They did not know who exactly they were liberating the world from, but they knew a secret organization or two was involved. The High Order had taken care to gain more ground in the world and eventually set up an organization within the police departments around the world disguised as profilers in order to arrest and detain these activists. This meant hiring unsuspecting people as well to do their dirty deeds.
Although they were nowhere near to getting close to comprehending what they were up against, they did pose as a nuisance at times when secrecy and undercover work had to be done. It was not always innocent work to protect the world, but it had to be done nonetheless. And many of the evil that the High Order had fought had been sent into the underworld domain known as Purgatory, which was a prison for the deadliest creatures known to the High Order.
Clawing their way back to this world, they had created a transition world which lay between Purgatory and the world. It was a gateway to a hell that any of the common folk if not aware, could happen upon at any time. It was then that the first Gatekeeper had been made in the mountains of Mela in Turkey by an earlier High Order. A desperate man seeking to do a good deed agreed to relinquish his soul to protect the world from evil.
But eventually he could no longer do it and was tricked by ancient spirit to end his life, then on creating the only blade that would kill a Gatekeeper. The ancient spirit had been sent back to Purgatory only to claw its way back in the previous year upon the death of the last Gatekeeper. The new Gatekeeper , a former detective in London though inexperienced had managed to fight Aurora, the evil spirit of a woman scorned and sent her through a portal to a land of isolation where she would spend eternal solitude.
It was with the help of Kiyohime, an ancient dragon spirit who had once been a girl and was now a prisoner of the High Order that the Gatekeeper had reached his potential, though in the end he never got to use the sword that Kiyohime was meant to bring to him to defeat Aurora. Kiyohime had been working at the time with a Detective Coleske, who was South African and had been investigating the string of murders that Aurora had left in her wake while possessing a girl.
The girl had died, at the hands of Kiyohime who was trying to protect the detective. The two detectives never met, one took his duties as The Gatekeeper, and the other though unaware was on his way to fulfilling his destiny and an ancient prophecy.
. . . . .
The Dragon Clan lived a slow paced life. Everything was a process that went through a sort of social hierarchy. There was the Royal Ménage which was the highest and ruling order under the leadership of The Aurum King Urg. He was a mild mannered man, but fierce beast when he transformed. All cowered in his presence.
He was tall and lean, with a head full of grey hair. His face was cleanly shaved and he had a quirky smile and beady brown eyes that made him look arrogant. Perhaps he was but he was clear headed and had a cool temper. From what Coleske could gather, this was his balance with the beast. A calm human resulted in a fierce creature, whereas a hotheaded human yielded a more withdrawn dragon that dwelled in the caves hogging gold.
The stories of how the first of their people came to existence were passed from generation to generation orally. Once the land was too harsh to inhabit and relish in it. Then from the skies came balls of fire that destroyed all of the land and most of the life in it. However from the survivors of the tragic disaster came an ability to shift at will into dragons that roamed the land freely.
They were majestic and powerful and could breathe the very fire that fell from the skies. Not all those who lived were given this gift and thus out of fear from the ones without the ability the first Dragon Clan retreated to the mountains to live in solitude. Some every few years gave birth to children with the ability, and so they lived close at the base of the mountain to send any of the carriers up so they could learn a new way of life. However transforming back to a human was never complete as some still had scales, dragon eyes or even claws while in human form.
Nonetheless with this newly found power, came great complications. The beasts battled throughout the day until they transformed back to humans and some died of injury. They also had a sudden desire for gold and they dug through the mountains and raided many lands hoarding the gold into their caves. It kept them calm and they could sleep for years completely surrounded by it.
It was only after a few decades they had managed to understand what was going on inside them that they became a true and solid community. Their leadership, the Golden Throne or Aurum Throne, came from a lineage of a powerful man known as Azdro who battled a true dragon and won. After their transformations, they were attacked by other dragons that were wild and had not been humans at all. These were the original creatures and were searching for new territory.
Numerous people perished, both with the ability and without. One night, the fiercest dragon of all, Namzuru as they called it came to claim the mountain's caves. It is said that Azdro saw the beast flying towards their home and transformed into a beast himself and charged towards Namzuru. The battle took place in the skies, dark and powerful clouds had gathered with flashes of lightning and rolling thunder that made the very mountain moan.
One day and one night they battled and when it seemed the battle was all but won, Namzuru clamped his claws into Azdro and breathed hellish fire on him. Azdro fell from the sky and on his way down a lightning bolt struck him.
Namzuru came charging after him in the fall and bit, clawed and burnt on the way down. It was then that Azdro's son Iko turned into a dragon for the first time in the decade he had been alive and flew out of the safety of the mountains and flew to where his father had fallen. It had never happened before, usually the process took a while before they could even fly let alone breathe out fire.
But human emotions where what the beast fed on most, and with that, he had enough fear in him to make the transformation at once. He came from the sky and clawed Namzuru's eyes out, and as the beast howled in pain, the little dragon bit out Namzuru's tongue and burnt it to ashes. He ran over to where his father lay dying and wept over him slowly transforming into a young boy.
Although injured and blind, the scent of a human was a strong stench on Namzuru's nose and he breathed out hellish fire onto the boy. Azdro had slowly turned back into a man, weak and very faint. He screamed out in pain as he saw his little boy whimper in pain, his body completely covered in burns. His cry rang through the mountain, and his people felt his pain. There came out of the mountain some as dragons, some were transforming along the way and carrying spears to kill the beast.
However, Namzuru was no match for them and soon there were pieces of flesh and scales scattered everywhere on the lands. Those who had survived had retreated behind what was left of the burnt forests at the base of the mountain. The smell of sweat, blood and burnt human flesh hung in the air. It is then that Azdro the man, with his last effort took a spear that lay near him and ran towards Namzuru at the back and pierced him through the heart till the end stuck out at the front. Down the beast went and the battle was won.
Azdro and his son were taken to the healing temple, another cave in the mountain and were nursed to health. Iko was permanently disfigured as a human, but as a dragon his scars were hardly recognizable. It is said, since that day, he never allowed himself to change back to a human. The people chose Azdro to lead them into the new world as they saw it. Where they could better defend themselves and learn to balance the man and the beast inside. Azdro taught them not to rely on the strength of the beast; after all, it was Azdro the man not the beast that had slain Namzuru.
He worried for his son and tried to let him see that even as a human he was just as strong. But he never managed to get him to see the man that he saw. After his death, Iko took over as the Aurum king. Although never willing himself to change back to a human, he continued his father's legacy to teach his people to embrace the man as much as they embraced the dragon.
It was him that built the clan to what it was today, creating customs for the men, women and children to live by, traditions that would stand as part of their heritage. As time passed, the royal lineage became known as the Royal Aurum Ménage or the Royal House of Gold, until present day, the Urgian reign; the reign of King Urg.
The second Ménage was that of health workers. These tended to the wounded or sick. Normally in the creature's form, the clan was never susceptible to sickness. But the human form was weaker and when one fell ill it was almost impossible for them to turn into a dragon. It was a painful and gruesome torture to watch. Even the common cold could be a very serious case.
The healers and their assistants had to help them change into dragons. In that form they were stronger and healed quicker. Their fevers were easily broken. But to turn took a while and was dangerous. When the fever kicked in and they turned, they became delusional. They could hurt or even kill their caregivers, who had to stay in human form to care for them. Although through generations they had managed to invent and use protective material that covered the attendant from head to toe and was very difficult to burn.
Tending to the wounded dragons was even harder. They had to stay in that form or the wound would surely kill them as humans. Dragons are territorial creatures by nature. When wounded this instinct was on its highest from and made it difficult to get near them. The doctors first had to change form to gain trust from them. The sooner that happened, the sooner they could heal the dragon.
The third Ménage was the scholars. They used knowledge to assist daily life in the mountains. They taught each other skill sets to help improve tasks and made new discoveries. Under this ménage were the academics who taught and gathered knowledge, the guards who were taught the art of war, the farmers who gathered food for the clan and the miners whose sole duty was to search and collect large stores of gold. This ménage also included people from the tribes at the base of the mountain who had an alliance with the Aurum king.
The families and relations in the Dragon Clan were a bit hard to follow. As a human the male, they could fall in love and have just one spouse and children. However, the dragon could have as many as ten mates, or more during mating season. In terms of paternity, it was difficult to determine who fathered the child, lest they were born as a human.
It was of course clear it could be one of only two males. A female in the Dragon Clan could have as many as two mates. One being the husband she married as a human, and the other being her mate as a dragon. There were some special instances where a female's human husband was still her dragon mate. Nonetheless, this was hardly seen as a problem in the Dragon Clan.
Ralath was the saying they used for such matters, which meant "We take care of our own". This meant both males took care of a female's offspring equally. Family names were therefore not used by the Dragon Clan, but the child would know both males as fathers.
This was the way of the Dragon Clan. Barbaric to the common folk perhaps, but it kept the peace in the hollow caves of the Kyoto Mountains.
Of course one would ponder on the thought of how the Dragon Clan brought their children into the world. Were they laid as eggs and hatched as human babies or dragon babies? Or did the female give birth to a baby or laid an egg as a human? These were the questions the Dragon Clan found absurd yet amusing when Coleske had asked.
The men laughed out loud as they smoked their tobacco pipes, some shaking their heads.
Kortu was happy to explain to him," Just as the beast cannot lay with the human female, and the human male cannot lay with the female beast, neither can one give birth to the other. They do however; all have the same mood swings in the first signs of pregnancy. There is no escaping that." He smiled at the other men and raised his pipe.
The other men laughed and nodded in agreement. "Two long years," some muttered.