by Eric Vall
“Snakes, my dear? No, dragons are of no relation to snakes, my, my, I would have thought you would have learned this a long time ago.” Adrian shook his head in disappointment, and Haruhi sighed and covered her face with her paws.
“Pappa, we bought you the ear trumpet for a reason! Use it!” the sage shouted as she leaned over the table at her father, and he cupped a paw to his ear to listen intently.
“Ah, my apologies.” Haruhi’s father chuckled as he patted his pockets then finally found the instrument in his front pants pocket and held it up to his ear.
“Can you remember if there were any lapses in fighting between the two clans within the last seven hundred years?” Haruhi asked in a loud voice as her father squinted one eye and listened hard.
“Well, no, the fighting was almost constant, and hundreds of dragons from both clans died, but there was a dispute over Mauntenraion about…eight or nine hundred years ago,” Adrian told us as he tapped his chin. “But it was over something silly, childish stuff.”
“It’s important, Pappa, what was it about?” Haruhi pressed, and her father pushed out his lips and nodded once.
“Well, we all know that Mauntenraion was used as the breeding ground and for the hatching of eggs during the dragons’ time. The younglings were sneaking out to the smallest island ‘for fun’ as most children would do, mainly teenagers out to have some fun.” Adrian said nonchalantly, and the sage sat back in her chair, astounded.
Haruhi stayed silent for a moment as she chewed on the inside of her cheek, and we all patiently waited for the sage to speak again, but Carmedy sat up in her chair. The alchemist’s emerald eyes went wide as she looked directly across the table at the librarian. Haruhi raised an eyebrow in question, and Carmedy slammed her paws on the tabletop.
“Star-crossed lovers!” the black-haired feline shouted, and even Adrian jumped in surprise from beside her.
“What?” the sage asked incredulously as she batted a few stray hairs out of her eyes. “What do you mean by that, Carmedy?”
“Maybe one of the Akalong and one of the Qianlong fell in love!” the alchemist cried dramatically then her voice took on a more dramatic tone as if she were telling a tale over a campfire. “But, the constant fighting between their two clans kept them apart! They’d run away together to my home island to see each other and hold each other in their arms. What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”
We all stared at her, even Rana’s mouth dropped open either in surprise or disbelief. I stopped and thought about what the feline said for a moment, it was possible, it’s happened in other societies before even in the heavens but did real, full-blooded dragons feel such emotions as love? They surely felt hate because of the wars between the two clans, but it made me wonder, were they capable of such an emotion? I loved my minions, and a select few of the gods believed that our kind wasn’t capable of such a feeling. I’d proved that wrong time and time again, first with Isolda and second with my minions. I looked around the table, and it seemed as if no one was going to say anything but their faces heavily implied that they disagreed.
“I think it’s possible,” I uttered as I folded my hands on top of the table and Carmedy sat up a little straighter. “It’s not unheard of; it could be entirely possible. I don’t think we should rule it out.”
“Okay, I mean I can go off both of those clues and piece together which families they came from.” Haruhi nodded as she adjusted her glasses and went back to the books laid out in front of her.
Carmedy caught my attention out of the corner of my eye and gave me an appreciative look and a wink. I smiled softly to her, and a loud purr escaped her lips that made her cover her mouth in embarrassment. Annalise scooted closer to the sage and looked over her shoulder at the pages of the books. A few times, the high queen pointed out a few lines and whispered in Haruhi’s ear. The librarian nodded and murmured back as she tapped a certain line.
Out of curiosity, I grabbed the largest forgotten book in the middle of the table and brought it closer to me. The cover was worn leather like the rest of the books, but this one was painstakingly taken care of with oil rubbed into the material to keep it shiny and pristine. I ran my finger over the intricately pressed cover and the myriad of flowers and vines someone carved there so many years ago.
For some reason, the book called to me, not like the coin from the Kitsune but in a different way. It wasn’t an ethereal power at work or anything like that, but something within my body was pulling me towards that volume in particular. I opened the cover, and it squeaked slightly from age as I flipped to a random page, not knowing what I was looking for or what I’d find.
The first thing I noticed about this particular book was the beautifully hand-painted drawings every few pages. Each of them was of a different dragon of different colors but always in the same shades of blues or reds. The Qianlongs looked exactly as Morrigan described from her dream, long ribbon-like creatures with mighty manes that waved up and out from the backs of their heads. They looked peaceful, agile, and gentle even though I knew for a fact that they were not. I’d seen a few dragons before they died off and heard many stories about them from the elders in the god’s realm. A few of the beasts attempted an attack on the heavens once and nearly made it to the sanctum before they were slaughtered by the gods, but these Qianlong’s looked nothing like those beasts. Most of the paintings and drawings depicting the blue and white beasts showed them with their young, regally flying through the sky or on the grassy knolls of the island of Nekoka. They looked peaceful and beautiful as they looked off into the distance with their piercing eyes.
The Akalongs were completely different from their more peaceful counterparts. Each drawing of them showed them in stages of the battle, their mouths wide open and breathing fire onto humans and other dragons as they destroyed cities. Each one showed death and destruction that I assumed came with dragons, unlike the ones I’d seen of the Qianlongs. The Akalongs were the epitome of everything I’d heard about dragons, hateful beasts that destroyed everyone and everything in their paths. In a way, the great hulking red beasts reminded me of some gods I’d known in the heavens.
I stared down at pictures of the crimson creatures tearing humans and catpeople into pieces calmly and felt for a moment an affinity to them. I understood their desire to kill because, in another time, I felt that same unbearable amount of rage towards everything. I turned a page and stopped for a moment, lifted my eyes, and looked directly into the probing face of Adrian. An understanding passed between us, he and his daughter knew exactly who I was and what I’d been through. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell from his expression that he knew. We left it at that as I glanced down at the page in front of me, then stopped at the painting depicted there.
The painting portrayed a man and a woman; each of them had a dragon standing behind them. The man on the left side of the drawing was clothed in robes of blue and white, obviously from the Qianlong clan, but the dragon that stood behind him was an Akalong with glowing yellow eyes and its teeth bared. The woman stood tall with elaborate hair decorations and heavy red and black makeup. The robes she wore were tight fitting but also the same yellows and reds that were associated with the Akalong clan but behind her stood one of the peaceful looking Qianlong’s. I stared down at it in confusion then glanced up at Adrian, he stared at the picture for a long moment with his lips parted then our gazes connected.
“What is this?” I asked as I tapped the page with my pointer finger. “Who are these people?”
“I completely forgot about them…you know, Carmedy may have been right,” Haruhi’s father whispered as he carefully took the book and slid it in front of him. “The legend of Anteng and Guoshe, two young dragons from opposing sides and a tragic end to a long line of creatures…”
“Really?” the alchemist asked excitedly as she clasped her paws to her chest. “I was right?”
“Maybe not one hundred percent right but the star-crossed lovers... yes. When cat-peop
le came to Canarta, times were difficult for the clans. The islands were overrun with people, and there was no place for them to go. The Qianlong’s had no problem living in peace with the humans as long as they were allowed to keep the mountains, the cat-people and humans agreed to a treaty, and they lived together in harmony. The Akalong, as you can tell from the paintings, weren’t as amiable with the people who intruded on their land. They killed all those who dared to step foot on the beaches of Kegawa and soon…decided that they didn’t like that the Qianlong stayed on good terms with the people who moved onto Nekoka. They didn’t understand that it wasn’t in the Qianlong nature to kill and maim; they only wanted to live peacefully.”
“What happened then?” I inquired as I glanced down at the painting that Adrian stared down at sadly.
“The only safe place between the two islands was still Mauntenraion, the nesting ground that’d been a peaceful place for thousands of years under the agreement of both clans. It became a warzone but in another sense. The Akalongs attacked Nekoka relentlessly but were never able to land on the ground. The Qianlong’s may have been peaceful, but they weren’t pacifists, they fought, and they fought hard. The Qianlong’s killed hundreds of the Akalong clan without much effort, so the Akalongs devised another plan.”
“On Mauntenraion, the only place of equal footing,” I stated, and Adrian pressed his lips into a hard line.
“At first, all they did was destroy nests. They’d smash all the eggs and slaughter the hatchlings there and leave them for the Qianlong’s to find when they returned to the island, but the Qianlong simply moved their nests to different sections of the island, but the Akalongs resorted to something else much worse.” Adrian said as he lifted his eyes and looked over at his daughter, and his thoughts turned darker to the idea of losing her.
“Why did they do that to the Qianlongs? I can’t imagine anything worse than their nests being destroyed or their newborns being murdered and left in the nest to be found.” I stated in a firm voice as I looked evenly at the older man.
“They switched out eggs,” Adrian uttered in a sad tone, and I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. “Generally when a dragon is born, or at least with the dragons here on Canarta, their scales are colorless. They didn’t change to their inherited colors until they were in adolescence, the Qianlong’s had no idea what happened when they brought their ‘children’ home. It’s in the nature of the Akalong to destroy all things in its path, and no amount of training could change it. The Akalong clan thought that if they couldn’t invade Nekoka from the air, they’d send in a wave of a child army to destroy the Qianlong’s.”
“And what of these Anteng and Guoshe dragons you spoke of? How do they come into play?” I asked as I leaned my elbows against the grain of the table and pressed a thumb to my lip thoughtfully.
“Anteng,” Adrian said as he pointed to the dark-haired man on the right who wore the colors of the Qianlong. “Was from the Akalong clan and was one of the transplanted eggs. This is Guoshe, she was one of the eggs stolen. Two enemies, displaced into the other territory…but that’s only the beginning. It’s quite a long story, I doubt--”
“No, I want to hear it.” I cut him off with a raised hand and Adrian chuckled softly as he shifted in his seat and began the story of Anteng and Guoshe.
“The eggs were switched, and once the babies hatched, they were taken home to their respective islands. Time went on, and people started to notice that something was wrong with the children. Guoshe lived with the Akalongs, and they knew what she was, of course, because they’d switched the eggs. Guoshe and Anteng were both raised by the leaders of their opposing clans. Anteng was raised by the Qianlong’s leader and his wife, and he was a terror. They had no idea what was wrong with him; he was aggressive and violent at all times. The boy destroyed parts of the Qianlong palace multiple times, to the joy of his Akalong parents,” Adrian told me.
“And then?” I asked.
“Then, two of the strangest things happened,” he continued. “Firstly, the Akalong leader who raised Guoshe kept her and loved her as if she were his own flesh and blood. He decreed her as the Royal Princess of the Akalong Clan despite her lineage. The hateful and vengeful overlord of the most feared dragon clan pardoned a Qianlong and allowed her into his family despite their difference in temperaments and beliefs. The second thing, Anteng never developed his colors; he stayed as a white dragon his entire life. No one questioned his lineage, only accepted his coloration as something he couldn’t change and left it at that.”
“What happened after that? Did they ever meet? Their destinies were so intertwined it feels as if they should have.” I chuckled as I watched Adrian rub his eyes and laughed too.
“You’re going too fast; I’ll get to it. Guoshe’s father died, I’m sorry, not her father but the leader of Akalong died, and she stepped into his place as the only child of the clan’s leader.” The librarian went on, and I hastily interrupted him.
“Was she a good leader? It’s strange to think that a Qianlong would lead the Akalong clan.” I asked as I leaned closer to Adrian.
“Yes, she brought the Akalong clan into a new dawn. They prospered and thrived for many years under her guidance. She wasn’t just the leader; she was the head of the army too, she led them into battle hundreds of time against her own people.” The older man stated, and my eyebrows shot up.
“Was she like her people in battle? I can only assume since it was her nature as a Qianlong.” I hastily questioned, and Adrian shook his head gravely.
“No, Guoshe was Akalong through and through. She was vicious and bloodthirsty. I’ve read many stories about battles she won, and they all spoke of her tearing out the hearts of her Qianlong people and devouring them on the battlefield.” The older librarian sighed as he shook his head.
“And Anteng? What was he doing all of this time?” I questioned, fully engrossed in the tale of the two dragons.
“As to be expecting, taking over for the Qianlong’s leader when he also passed away, killed by none other than Guoshe in battle.” Haruhi’s father muttered as he stroked the painted woman’s face on the paper.
“What did Anteng do? That was practically his father or at least the only father that he knew.” I grunted as I leaned even closer on the table.
“This is where things get complicated,” Adrian said in a dramatic voice, and I felt like a street gossip listening in on a juicy story. “Dragons were dying off, humans and cat-people lived on both islands as the clans were engrossed in battle. The people who lived there were no longer amiable and also started attacking dragons. Their numbers were dwindling quickly, and their species was on the brink of extinction, both the Akalong and the Qianlong. A treaty was written up between the nations in a last-ditch effort to save their kind.”
“What kind of treaty?” I asked as I leaned back in my chair.
“Anteng from the Qianlong Clan and Guoshe from the Akalong clan would unify and become one clan,” Adrian said finally as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked to me with unwavering eyes.
“You can’t be serious? These two people, stolen from their rightful clans and forced to battle against each other…were arranged to be married?” I asked in an incredulous voice. “What happened next?”
“No record shows what happened. Guoshe and her dowry were brought over in the summer of Year 625, and nothing was heard from her again. Dragons died off one hundred years later, and that was the end of the fated Guoshe and Anteng.”
“What are you talking about, Poppa?” Haruhi asked as she lifted her head from the book she shared with Annalise and adjusted her round glasses.
“Oh, the Legend of Anteng and Guoshe. Master had never heard of them, and it’s a very sad... and fun story to tell.” Adrian chuckled as he crossed his knees and rested his hands on them.
“Guoshe?” the high queen asked as she went back to the book. “That name is right here.”
“Oh my god…” Haruhi whispered as she launched herself out of the
chair and held the book out in front of her.
“What?” Carmedy jumped and nearly knocked her empty teacup off the table.
“What is it? What’d you find?” Rana asked in quick succession, and Morrigan merely raised her eyebrows in question.
“I-I didn’t think of it …it’s so obvious…” the sage whispered as she brought down the book and stared at me over its pages with a pale face. “It’s listed right here, right before my very eyes…Guoshe had a daughter…”
Chapter Thirteen
“Guoshe had a daughter?” I asked as I stood too, and the second feline held out the book to me.
Haruhi pointed towards the line on the Akalong family tree, and there it was, right below Guoshe’s name was another, Heijing. Below Guoshe’s daughter’s name, all of her traits and powers were listed along with her description.
“This is it, oh my god, here’s her description and everything!” Haruhi cried out as she lifted her head and looked into Morrigan’s eyes. “She was real, it wasn’t a legend or just a tall tale, Guoshe and Anteng were real…and they had a daughter. This is it, the last of the Qianlong.”
“And Akalong!” Carmedy cried excitedly then her emerald eyes widened as realization washed over her, and she looked to me. “We’re gonna meet her…”
“That’s the plan, yes,” I smiled to the cat, and she wriggled in her seat excitedly as I looked to the sage. “Do you have any idea where the Qianlong city is?”
“Well, there’s no exact known location, but it’s in the mountains,” the sage told us then she tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment. “But there is a god on the island that might know. I could take you there?”
“How soon can we leave?” I asked as I leaned over the table, and the librarian gave me an excited smile.
“Tomorrow morning at the earliest.” Haruhi grinned as she slammed the books closed and placed her closed fists on her shapely hips.
“Then we must go to dinner!” Adrian interjected.
