The Jorid

Epic of the Yellow Princess and Lola the Dragon Rider

The Banquet

Once upon a time, in the peaceful Kingdom of Landgurdy, lived the Yellow Princess Atiara with her father, the Yellow King, in the Subtle Palace of Adam Ardun. Her family was known to possess the rare magic of colors, they could do many things like controlling the elements and manipulate the matter if they could focus long enough on the energy of a particular color. And because of that, even though the times were troubled, as the King of Cromash Tur had begun his conquest of his neighbors, they were living with the certainty that their Kingdom was safe. One day, she would inherite the throne and she would have to defend her people too.

The day of her fifteenth birthday was a very special day. She was to be tested by the King to be sure she could rightfully be the Heir. There was no doubt about that as she had already demonstrated her affinity for the magic of colors, and it was merely a formality, but it was no less expected by the people of Landgurdy who wanted to see the magic for themselves. When she demonstrated to everyone that she could get rid of the clouds her father had summoned above the palace, the people were exultant with joy and the festivities began. Three full days of dances and amusements; banquets had been organized throughout all the country for the people. On the third day, as wanted by the tradition, the King gave a banquet to which he had invited the neighboring Kingdoms. It was meant as a peaceful gesture and also a subtle way to signify that they were confident enough in their power to invite their ennemies.

No one really know what happened at that banquet and many versions exist; some would say that the King of Cromash Tur had a new weapon that even the magic of the Yellow King could not match, and others would suggest that Cromash Tur had introduce one of their famous assassins among the guests. But everyone agreed that the Yellow King was dead at the end of the day and that the King of Cromash Tur made the Nobles swear him alliegance. You wonder what happened to the Princess? She was nowhere to be found after that. She had vanished during the confusion, and at first, some hoped that she managed to escape, but most certainly her life was a means to make sure the Nobles wouldn’t rebel against their new master.

The years of captivity

Indeed, Atiara was held captive in a dark place of the Marshes of Doom¹; she had been drugged by the Shamans² so she wouldn’t be able to use her magic, and every day she was being interrogated more than her turn.

At that time, the Shamans were keeping the thirst of conquest of the King of Cromash Tur away from their land and their people by giving him what he wanted: magic and prophecies. Not so long ago, one of them revealed during a trance ceremony that the Princess knew something about a secret key that would allow anyone to move at the speed of thought throughout the Lan’ork territories. Surely it would grant him a strong advantage against his opponents and a quick way to conquer the rest of the land. The Shamans had thus persuaded the King to let them question the Princess by magic means since she wasn’t aware of the key yet…

He accepted, but of course he wasn’t fully trusting of them and he sent a battalion of his most trusted Death Guards³ to keep an eye on them all. Every cloth, every dish, every book that was given to her was meticulously checked. Nothing was to bear the slightest trace of color, and it was strictly forbidden to talk to her lest she would use her magic against them.

Atiara endured several years of these bad treatments and examinations which she wouldn’t understand as she had no means to know what they wanted from her. They rendered her almost lifeless, and the most fearful threat to her sanity was the shadow coming at night; a most fearsome creature conjured by the Shamans to feed upon her desires and her joy.

One day, a new guard was posted at her door. Some said he was the Messenger⁴ himself, others that he was only full with compassion and guided by Blohmrik. I’ll let you decide after I tell you what happened next. For a few weeks, during the hours of the day when the creature of the shadow was away, he would speak of his life, more for himself than for anybody in particular, before being enrolled by the Death Guards, of his village and his family waiting for his return. But she wasn’t really listening to what he was saying, she was too tired and maybe she thought it was a new trick of her jailers. But something in the tone of voice of the man was making her feel stronger each day. Slowly she was regaining her forces, and eventually one night the creature didn’t show up. And that very night, she had a dream.

The Dragon Rider

But before I tell you about the dream, let me tell you about Lola, the one who became the first Dragon Rider. In those times, the Dragons, children of Blohmrik and Mævel, had disappeared off the surface of the Duane. They had been hunted to extinction many generations ago out of fear and misunderstanding of their connection with the Elder Guardians. Then, it was not well understood that the balance of the worlds was depending of their presence. It was at just a few years before Atiara was imprisonned that the Gods decided it was time for their return, and Blohmrik cunningly put one egg in the place that was then known as the Marshes of Doom, to be found by a little girl.

That little girl was called Lola and she was no more than eight. She was wandering in the marshes alone, as her people do, when she found the egg. It was just in the middle of a pond, surrounded by little fröhgs. It was gently glowing and vibrating, it was the time of the hatching. She didn’t knew it, of course, and she didn’t have a clue of what it could be. She was guided by the inner sounds emanating from the egg, indeed guided by the Messenger. When it hatched, her eyes were full of wonder and she thought it was the most beautiful little frog. You know of course that a baby dragon is not very big when they are born and they must be protected and nourrished with love. Her heart was full of love and she took it with her, singing along with the inner song of the dragon.

If you are touched by a dragon’s mind one day, I can tell you that it is an unforgettable experience… yes of course I met a dragon once, and he spoke to me… but let’s continue the story. I’ll tell you more about it later if you’re quiet. So she came back to her house with her little frog and she asked her parents if she could keep it with her. But of course, she was young and could have mistaken a dragon for a frog, but her parents knew very well that it was not a frog. But even if they knew what it was not, they couldn’t tell what kind of creature it was. The dragons had been long forgotten by the population, and only the Shamans could have told. So they brought their little girl and the frog to the Shamans who recognized the creature for what it was. And in their hearts they were full of fear as were the previous generations, and even more frightened for their second sight had not foreseen the rebirth of the dragons. They decided it had to be sacrificed to appease the Gods.

Blohmrik wouldn’t let one of his children being killed so easily, and he hadn’t put its fate in the hands of any child. Lola could hear the invisible world, and even being eight, she knew that it was wrong and that the little frog had to survive. Inspired by Blohmrik and Mævel, she managed to retrieve the dragon, unnoticed. But she was alone now, she had no one to trust, and in order to survive, she had to flee her village and hide in the Marshes. Guided by the Gods, she began her quest to the fabled city of Mesrá Kælis. For the few who believed in its existence, it was said to be abandoned, but apparently not by everyone. That’s where she found her invisible teachers. They taught her all she had to know about the dragons and her destiny.

But that is not the tale of Lola, so let’s come back to our captive Princess.

The First Symbol — The Waters

You remember that I told you Atiara had a dream? In that dream, she was taught the symbols of Barath’Dum by Lejüs, the god of the forgotten. Of course, a dream given by Lejüs is a forgotten dream, and when she woke up, she had no memories at all of the symbols and what he had told her about them.

But let me ask you, don’t you think it it time for us to set her free? The Messenger had been busy again, he went to Injë, god of rememberance, and ask him for a small bag of his sand. The sand of remembrance is very powerful and it is not something to play with. It was strictly forbidden to give it to any men or women. So when Injë asked him what he wanted to do with it, the playful Blohmrik beguiled him with sweet words and told him it was for Mævel who had been visited by Lejüs again.

Granted a small bag of the brown sand, Blohmrik went back to the Marshes of Doom and gave it to the Princess, telling her that it was quite powerful and that she had to be cautious and use it wisely because it could well grant her some of her innermost wishes.

When she opened the bag, she first thought it was some cinnamon from Landgurdy, her cherished land, and she began to cry. And with her cries the dam blocking her dearest memories of her childhood broke. Her tears were falling into the sand, and along with them so were her sorrows and sadness. But it was not the time to grieve her father, and she noticed that her tears had drawn something in the sand. She looked closer and realized suddenly that it was the first symbol of the water element. The memory of the symbol and the knowledge of how to use it came at once, with the water of her tears and the sand of remembrance she drew the symbol on her palms and placed her hands on one of the wall of her cell. The power of remembrance filled her mind and the solidity of the wall seemed to waver. When she tried to push through it, she surprised herself in actually going through the wall, and with excitement she went through completely. When she arrived on the other side, it was night time.

The only light was the soft beaming of the Mesr’n Moons. She was somewhere in the middle of a meadow. The magic she used was a god’s magic, and she was not a god. It had demanded her almost all of her energy and she was completely exhausted. She had no strength left to worry or feel frightened, she only knew she was not in the Marshes of Doom anymore, and she fell asleep, watched over by the Moons’ beams.

In her dream, the three wise men of Mesrá⁵ were talking over and over, trying to decide if they were going to help her. And each time she was trying to talk to them, she found herself unable to speak a word and she couldn’t tell them how much she needed their help. Just before she woke up, the youngest of the Moons winked at her and told her not to worry.

The Meeting

The first thing she noticed when she woke up was the yellow tint of the sky. She thought they probably already were in the fall season; she’d lost track of time in the jails of the Shamans. After that, she suddenly recalled what happened before she fell asleep. She looked at her hands and saw that there was no trace of the symbol. She then realized that she was not alone anymore. A fire had been made and a breakfast was waiting for her. Still engrossed by her dream, she deeply wanted to trust the last words of the youngest of the Moons. But wasn’t it a trick of the Shamans? There was a girl standing by the fire, beautiful but austere, with a poney tail. She had a fröhg⁶ on her left shoulder.

The Princess asked with a faint voice “Who are you?”

“Ah! You are awake.” said the stranger in a rather crisp voice. “You must be starving. I prepared something for you, come near the fire and eat that.” she said holding a steaming bowl out to her guest. “It does not taste very good, but it should give you back your strength. We have a long road ahead of us…”

“Croaaaak!” interrupted the fröhg with a seemingly reproachful tone reinforced by a small release of its breath of fire.

“You’re right, as always”, sighed the girl as if she was talking back to the fröhg.

“Croooak!” said the fröhg without fire this time.

“Oh! Yes…” She tried to smile, but didn’t manage it very well, “you asked me a question”, she told her. “My name is Lola, and this one here is Asiir, my dragon.”

I must make a pause here, because I already hear you asking me “Asiir!? The little fröhg is the dragon?..” And if you don’t know it yet, you shall know that dragons are great shapeshifters, and that it is quite rare to see one in its true dragon form. That time, he had decided to adopt the shape of a fröhg in order not to frighten the Princess. And he knew she would relate well to a small creature. And in effect, Atiara found the presence of the little animal appeasing and comforting, and furthermore, as a child of Landgurdy she hadn’t the slightest idea what a dragon was. She thought maybe that it was the name of that species of fröhgs.

But let’s go back to our story. After that odd encounter, Lola explained to the Princess what had happened to her land since the murder of her father, and that some other countries had decided to follow the same path as Cromash Tur and to conquer their neighboring lands. She let the princess grieve her loved ones for a moment, and wonder whether she’d be able to see her land again. Lola had told her that her destiny was to ask the help of the Clans of Dam Adbor to free her land, and that’s why the Messenger had led her here, so far from it. At the moment she was safe, but they had to hurry for a lot was at stake, and the King of Cromash certainly had already noticed her disappearance.

The Princess was not sure she could face what Lola had called her “destiny”; she was drained of all her powers and couldn’t feel the colors anymore, and even if she could have, she hadn’t been trained properly before the tragic events. The least to say is that she wasn’t well disposed towards fighting, all she wanted to do was rest and hide, and the meadow of Dam Adbor was rather quiet and seemed rather safe to her. In actuality she was quite frightened by the idea of meeting new people, especially plenty of them. Asiir suggested in his fröhgish language and with a few bursts of fire to allow her a few days to recover and that all would settle down in time.

During the next few days, Lola often asked Atiara to take care of the little creature for a reason or another. For one thing, she had to keep on with her training. And it was also a request of Asiir, who had told her that Atiara needed his healing powers. She had to regain her strength and her magic, but she had to be willing to do so herself.

The Princess observed her new companion during her training and her other activities, and she found her very strange. She was often speaking out loud to people who were not there, and even more bizarre was that she was also fighting the airs, as if she was really fighting against someone. At first, the Princess didn’t say a word, lest she’d upset Lola. But after a few days, she couldn’t help herself but ask the question “Who are you talking to?”

Lola feigned to be surprised that Atiara couldn’t see them. They were so bigmouthed. They were her masters, accompanying her everywhere and coming out when she needed training or when she needed guidance about the path she was following. They were a very useful bunch of folks. Her tone almost shocked the Princess who would have thought that invisible masters were to be revered or respected, at least. But Lola teased her saying that she might be able to see them if she were trained enough, and that maybe she could see Atiara’s own masters. That was enough to trigger a spark of curiosity in the Princess’ mind. She thought that maybe invisible masters would be great and that they could protect her and tell her where to hide…

So from that day on, she started her training under the supervision of Lola and the invisible masters. It was quite difficult at the beginning as she was unsure that they were real and thought more than once that Lola was playing tricks with her. But after a few days she began to see and feel the colors once more. Was it the constant nurturing vibration emanating from the little fröhg? She was beginning to feel confident again.

Until one morning when Lola found the little bag of sand and asked Atiara what it was. 

·:tags:· myth, dragon, legend