History of Lataria
Page 5
Chapter 6: Concerning Dwarves and Dragons
The god, Tonnelus, devoted long years to creating the dwarves. He took them from stones so at first the dwarves were nothing but stone statues. After Tonnelus had created and perfected the ten statues, he gave them fire to work by and the darkness of the underground, at which combination the dwarves took life. The dwarves hastily honed their craft by sculpting cities under the mountains and forging such beautiful pieces of silver, gold, and jewel that anyone had ever seen.
Fires constantly burned since they used fire mostly for creating their treasures. The flames, when put to certain materials turned into different shapes. The dwarves not only worked on perfecting their crafts, but also making more efficient fire. Fire took wood and coal and a large amount of time consumed in retrieving these materials just so they could constantly keep fires. To remedy this, they used their strongest tools to shape the flames of fire. Many dwarves believed it impossible to create an object out of fire, therefore only several dwarves continued working. After months of shaping the flames, a definite form took shape, and was so expertly designed that it moved on its own. Its body was made of fire. It was long, like a flame, with what appeared to be wings or another long flame set crossways over the other flame. The dwarves called their best creation a dragon and used it to heat the metals instead of the wood or coal burning fires.
One day, months later, one of the dragons escaped into the open on the mountainside where the sun shone hotly. The dwarves feared that it would die and that they would lose one of their precious creations. Other dwarves feared that the dragon would take on an immense shape and burn the mountainside until there would be nothing left to burn. The dwarves swarmed the entrance where the dragon escaped and watched in horror as the fiery bird grew and grew. Then to their surprise, the dragon appeared to burn, and the fire seemed to crust over black and burnt. When the dragon’s entire body was covered in a fiery blister, it landed on the ground in front of them. Even though its tail and wings had touched several trees, the dwarves felt relieved to see that they did not burn at the dragon’s touch. The dwarf nearest the dragon put a hand on its leg and felt that it was hot, but the skin did not burn him like the fire would have. At this new discovery, the dwarves took the dragon back into their city and enjoyed its array of abilities. They liked this transformed dragon so much that they took their other fiery birds into the sunlight where the same happened to them.
One day, a dwarf saw men riding horses and decided to try to ride one of the dragons. Once they discovered that their dragons were so tame that they would ride them, some dwarves visited kingdoms of men and elves to show them the pride of the dwarves. Since most of the people of Lataria had seen the dragons of the dwarves but not the ice-dragons from the north, the dwarves’ creations first gained the name of dragon even though the ice-dragons had been around for even longer than the dwarves.