Work Text:
Myth from Truth
calikocat
Word count: 494
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My name is Lara. At least that's the name I'm using in this lifetime. I don't actually remember the name my parents gave me, it was so long ago, my birth. More than a thousand years...I think. Maybe I'm getting senile? The years blend together, and when I get tired I tend to hibernate the way my ancestors did. So I could be even older. Its hard to tell.
Over the centuries I have taught many people, to help them in case the time for my kind comes again. My kind? Dragons. The guardians and protectors of mankind, whether the humans remember us or even believe that we exist doesn't matter. Its hardwired into our DNA, we protect, and that's that. The people I have taught are dragon kindred and their human mates. The new generation. My generation.
Once many years ago, before my hatching, dragons were known to be real. Humans feared us, but only because they didn't understand us. They likened us to creatures of a darker cloth. The Chimeras. They didn't differentiate, if one was evil, the other must be as well. Our kind were hunted, and our numbers dwindled, until there was only one thing left to do. Hide.
So the ancestors called upon the most powerful witches and mages, magicians of great standing. We did not however, call upon the shadow men. Any group of sorcerers who would chain a young girl to a rock and force darkness on her just to save themselves...such men are not worth dealing with.
The ones we trusted were our only allies. Together with their magic and the magic of Dragonkind, a new generation was born. By altering their blood the next generation of dragons would be born in human form. So my ancestors changed their blood, mated, and the females laid their eggs. When the eggs hatched all the hatchlings were male, except for me. No one expected any of the offspring to be female. It was theorized that a female in human form could not handle changing to dragon form...and that is true. I am not a true dragon. I am a carrier. My own descendants have been dragons, or dragon kindred, their human mates. I myself have yet to find my mate, and I don't think that I will. For a dragon of the new generation to gain his true form he must change to protect his mate. I have had many lovers, men and women, and I have had many children. But I am defective and this form I have, my human form is the only form I have. I have strength, speed, the ability to call upon fire and longevity. But I cannot change.
Its not something I mind. I've been content to teach our histories, so that the new generations can find their mates. And so that their mates will be ready for the responsibility of keeping their dragons safe, to guide them to their true potential. Their destinies. Because someday our kind will be called on to protect human kind once more as we did in ancient times, the times humans have forgotten about.
I am Lara, keeper of the Dragon Tales...no pun intended...honest.
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