It was perfect, the flames flickered straight, reaching skyward, trying to tickle the ceiling, apple wood, smoke rising from the fire was faint with little to no smoke giving them away.
Bending, looking across the flames Levi looked towards younger brother, atop his swag, reclined against the cabin wall, knees curled up beneath his chin, a blanket pulled tight around his shoulders coughing. Levi waited, the coughing would pass.
‘Brother, tell me of the Progenitor Dragons.’ He asked.
‘You know it’s a fable, don’t you? It’s the way the people try to explain away the folly of man?’
‘I do Oscar, but still, it makes for a good story, a good way to while away our evening.’ To himself in his mind Levi added, ‘And to distract you, to stop you thinking, to get you out of your head.’.
Touching the side of the billy with his hand Levi, happy with the heat, lifted it off, filling their two cups, the salt evaporating, jerky floating to the surface. He walked Over passing it to his brother.
Oscar watched his brother take his seat on his own Swag on the far wall of the cabin, sipping the broth, it was perfect, not too hot, yet hot enough to give him some relief, the warm liquid passing over his tongue down his throat. He began.
‘The Progenitor, the dragons are known as the creators of everything we know, and even more. They created everything around us the dirt we walk upon, the plants and animals that provide for us, one absorbing carbons to generate oxygen, providing food to the animals and humanoids of the planet. The sky, the stars the rivers and oceans that reflect them, everything, even the creatures of the dark.
Their even said to have created other worlds, parallel universes to our own, some count, no swear there are 13 such worlds. This is unproven by all but the insane, those who speak most adamantly of the 13.
It’s said that each of these 13 has a dominant aspect, be it fire, water, earth, ether or otherwise. This dominance causes a distortion, an imbalance in these other worlds. It’s said by some it was the Dragons’ thirteenth attempt that resulted in this world, a world where they got all things balanced correctly.
They’d finally made a world where there could be balance, and order, where the pendulum of life could be put into motion, a world where all ideas could, would become a reality, where chaos and order could co-exist.
The dragons, there were three of them, Syberis the silver, his scales are said to be every shade of the sky, from the blue reflecting the oceans below, the white whisper of clouds, the grey of storms, even the gold and sparkle of the stars and as radiant as the moon.
Then there was Eberron, the eldest of the three was known as many things from Mother to Gaia, Ge, Magna Mater, great mother and more. She was all the colours of the earth, the greens of the grasses, auburn of autumn leaves and more, brown of bark and soil, the colours of all the flowers of the earth at once.
And, finally, there was Khyber, the third of the siblings, the youngest, darkest of the three, the opposite of her brother Syberis, was about shadows and night; about a form of relief for both her siblings, creating a space for Mother to rest and sleep, and for her brother to shine.
When the three had created the material plane, they’d thought they’d found their place, their balance, their success. This the material plane, after 13 attempts was the right balance of all the parts and more of the previous attempts.
This though, was not to last. Khyber grew jealous of her siblings, at night she watched her brother shine, whilst her sister slept. At first, she experimented and extended upon her siblings’ creations playing one against the other. Taking cats and equipping them for the night, their vision and litheness allowing them to play in the shadows she created.
Dolphins swam through the night, bursting from the ocean, water spraying reflecting the light of the night sky, diving back into the water generating phosphorous, its luminescence, green blue and other colours again reflecting the light.
The thrill of these things though, over time started to wane, to lose their appeal as Khyber realised she was playing at the edges, she was simply building upon, or reflecting upon the creations of her siblings, she wanted more, she wanted what they had, the power to create to inspire. She lost sight of herself, her purpose and what she brought to the world, thinking only jealously of her sibling’s creations.
Over time she started to think and plot until she was ready, then one random evening as Mother Earth started to doze and finally fall asleep, khyber let the darkness grow, clouding out Syberis’s light. Syberis looked to the waters, hoping to see his reflection to see the light he was so proud of, to see his stars reflected at him.
It was at this time that Khyber struck, the black dragon dropping from the sky above Syberis as he sat looking into the ocean from a clifftop, bewildered at the absence of his reflection. He didn’t have a chance, she tore him to pieces flinging his limbs and entrails out into the ocean, and into the sky.
The screams of Syberis woke his sister Eberron, Mother Earth joined the fray, engulfing her sister, wrapping arms and wings around her, imprisoning her within. Khyber struck and clawed at her sister to no avail, as Eberron simply tightened her grip enveloping her young sibling entirely within her wings. The two fall from the cliff top, plummeting as a ball into nothingness.
Not into the ocean, nor the sky, but the plane between. The elder encapsulates, imprisoning the other for an eternity, absorbing all that the two had created in the material plane into themselves, becoming one, becoming the plane that they had created. Eberron the earth, and Khyber the under dark.’
Oscar stopped, his broth gone, only the swollen jerky remained, he hooked it out, pinching it between his index and middle finger before quickly popping it into his mouth and gesturing to his brother for more water from the billy.
Levi, walked over and bent to fill Oscar’s cup. ‘So what is the real story, if that Is but a fable?’
‘That my brother is for the daylight hours, let me tell that story on travel north tomorrow, it’ll help the Kilometres roll by.’
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