A Dragon's Tear - A Dragon Era

A Dragon Era

Dragons weren't always associated with fire. In fact, there was a time when dragons did not have fire. Once a very long time ago, dragons fell. And in this fall they lost their fire very much how angels lost their wings in their fall. In this era, dragons were born without fire. Once a dragon came of a certain age a ritual was done, and fire was given to them by the ancient keepers of the flame. Through an extremely painful ritual, they placed the flame in their heart where it had once been. The place in their hearts for fire still existed but the fire was gone. Fire rituals were not done for all dragons due to its extreme nature, so some dragons had fire and others did not. This created an imbalance and greed, jealousy, and envy grew dark in the heart space of those dragons. And this is how it was for a very very long time.

Until one day a rare white dragon was born with its own fire. The youngling had what all dragons had been missing for eons. This created quite the stir and many conspired to take what was not theirs. Among them was a great black dragon with gold eyes. This dragon was well known and respected among the dragon clan, a leader of sorts. Dragons did not live in a hierarchical system, so everyone was a leader unto themselves. But there were some dragons that were more respected among them and this black dragon was one of them. Few dragons were born with golden eyes, and this gave him special sight. And even though he had special sight, he still was empty inside because he lacked his own flame. His heart space remained empty. He wanted the white dragon's flame so he could be the source for all future dragon's flame. For in his empty heart space, he secretly desired to rule the unrulable.

The black dragon befriended the white dragon hoping to gain her trust. At that time, it was unheard of to take another dragon's life. Dragons believed they were all an important part of the whole. With even one missing the whole could not operate for the benefit of all. It was this belief that kept greed, envy and jealousy in check within the clan. Taking from another was simply not done.

The black dragon was also a great wizard. For centuries he had studied the ancient texts hidden deep within crystal caves where dragons kept their most sacred knowledge. While other dragons spent their time in communion with the stars or tending to the elements of their territories, he searched obsessively for any mention of flame transfer. It took him many ages, but eventually he discovered fragments of a forbidden spell - one that had been used during the great fall, when dragons first lost their fire. The spell was incomplete, written in a language so old even he could barely decipher it. But with his golden eyes, he could see patterns others couldn't, could read between the lines of reality itself. For three hundred years he worked in secret, piecing together the missing elements, testing small flames, learning how fire could be drawn from one being into another. For this knowledge was secretly and tightly held by only a handful of dragons known as the ancient keepers of the flame.

The white youngling dragon grew into a magnificent beauty that was beyond compare in the clan. Her scales held an iridescent sheen that reflected all colors of light, though their base remained pure white as fresh snow. Her dragon's flame was neither red nor orange like the others but white - a fire so pure it could burn away darkness itself. She had begun learning how to use the white flame to purify the karma this clan had carried since their fall and was assisting in raising the evolution of the entire dragon clan. Her hope was that all dragons would have their own heart flames just as she had been gifted. So, from a young age she worked tirelessly to find the source of the fall and correct it.

The black dragon watched her for years, becoming her shadow, her confidant, her closest friend. He learned her habits, her dreams, her fears. His golden eyes would soften when she spoke of her hopes for their kind, and he would share in her joy when she made breakthroughs in understanding the nature of their lost fire. But behind those golden eyes, calculations were always running, measuring her power, gauging the right moment to strike. He built her trust through small truths and carefully crafted lies, each one drawing her closer to her doom.

What the white dragon never suspected was that every time she demonstrated her power, the black dragon was studying her, learning the unique signature of her white flame. His golden eyes could see the patterns of power that flowed through her heart space - patterns he would need to understand to complete his spell. She trusted him so completely that she would often let him observe her most powerful workings, never realizing she was teaching him exactly how to destroy her.

One day the black dragon lured the white dragon away into a far-off place in the galaxy. He claimed to have found ancient texts describing the source of their fall - texts that might hold the key to restoring fire to all dragons. He spoke of a place where the energies of creation still flowed pure and untamed. It was there, he said, that they might find the truth of their loss and perhaps even the means to undo it. The white dragon, ever hopeful and trusting, agreed to journey with him to this distant place.

As they flew through the star-scattered darkness of space, the black dragon led her further and further from any who might witness his deed. The white dragon was so focused on their destination, so filled with hope, that she didn't notice how his golden eyes had begun to gleam with a hungry light. When they reached a place between stars, where the darkness was almost complete, he turned to her with the spell ready in his throat.

She recognized too late what was happening. The betrayal in his eyes struck her heart before his spell ever could. As his magic wrapped around her, she didn't fight - not because she couldn't, but because the pain of his betrayal had paralyzed her more completely than any spell. She watched with devastating clarity as her own white flame began to pull free from her heart space.

The black dragon drew in her flame with tremendous force, his golden eyes blazing with triumph as the white fire poured into his empty heart space. His chest expanded with power, scales crackling with energy as he grew larger, more magnificent. What he didn't understand was that the white flame wasn't just fire - it was pure truth, pure love, pure light. As it filled his heart space, it began to illuminate every dark corner of his being, every shadowed motivation, every twisted justification.

He had not intended to kill her - in his mind, she would simply become like the other flameless dragons. But as the last of her flame left her body, something unexpected happened. The white dragon began to transform. Her scales lost their iridescent sheen, turning gray as starless space. Her form began to dissolve, breaking apart like stardust. As she disintegrated, she fixed him with eyes that held no hatred, only a deep and terrible sorrow. A single tear formed, catching the light of distant stars before breaking free to float eternally in the cosmos.

The black dragon hung alone in space, his heart space burning with stolen fire, watching that tear drift away into the darkness. He was now greater and more powerful than he had ever been. But the root of his dark deed took hold deep in his heart. No amount of white flame would extinguish the truth that all that power was not even his. The black dragon concocted a story about how the white dragon gifted her flame to him before she died. It was all very suspect but there was only his word. And things just continued on as they had always been.

What the black dragon did not know was the white dragon did not die but transformed into that single tear floating in the cosmos. Dragons can take many forms and so she traveled for a time in the form of water. Unfortunately, the water contained within it the pattern of betrayal so no matter how many lives she lived in whatever form betrayal hounded her relentlessly. Betrayal was the sum total of her life experience.

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