One Last Knight. A Series of Short Stories.

As far back as human history can tell us.

A billion and one years ago.

There were four Dragons.

They lived in balance.

Harmony.

Nameless, yet powerful beyond title.

The one that sounded as Thunder did: Danced among the clouds, never once touching the ground.

It spoke but never got between.

The one that looked as Earth did: Rolled and rumbled, ever climbing, ever dipping.

It sought only to be the grandest.

The one that moved as Water did: Pushed endlessly against the shores, flowing, and crashing.

It maneuvered to find its place.

The one that soothed as Wind did: Rushing always to only where it will ever be.

It kept the balance. Subtly encompassing all.

This world knew no Fire.

Nor Ice.

All was well.

The land flourished, and life was to be found in abundance.

There was no "Sun"

There was no "Moon"

The Wind rushing over the Earth generated magical warmth. Warmth that helped life along its course.

The Thunder would circle the world endlessly.

Glowing and growling softly.

Its growls would incite the Water to rise, lifted by magical vibrations.

And on the Wind the droplets would be carried, to fall across the land in great and shallow torrents.

The glow of Thunder's belly would inspire the plants that grew in the wake of Earth's shifts and stirs to open and drink deeply of the rain.

The natural cycle was born.

Over millions of years, the four great Dragons shed their scales, and firs, and fangs.

The scales took shape into all forms and species of lizards (lesser dragons) and fish alike.

With more time, from these species came the dinosaurs.

Massive and mindless, they were Dragonoids: Detached from the elements that birth them, and mostly wingless. The dinosaurs were dominant across the land, second only to the four greats.

And from among them came feathered variants.

Birds were born.

For millennia the planet bloomed and withered.

The Four kept balance over nature and the seasons.

After nearly 200 million years, there was a sudden and devastating change.

From the darkness that is the unknown of space came two new and vicious Dragons.

They were the final two elements that this planet needed in order to evolve to the next phase of its existence.

They were the Eternal Twins.

They were Fire and Ice.

But at the time, the Four that rose to oppose these new arrivals could not know this, for their strength was in nature, not knowledge.

Across the vast reaches of space, the two chased and battled one another in a never-ending dance of balance.

One could never win.

The other could never lose.

The Fire of Light.

The Ice of Darkness.

At the turn of the millennia, Fire had lost the advantage.

It was shifted between the two every one million years. And every one million years, the chase and battle would start anew.

Ice chased Fire across the stars, relentlessly nipping and clawing at its tail.

Fire did its best to flee. Just as moments ago Ice had done.

But this time around would be different.

Fire, ever impulsive and impatient, grew tired of the infinite chase, and it very suddenly and swiftly turned on the fast-approaching Ice in a flurry of swipes and bites of its own.

Ice, ever calculated and reserved, had seen this time coming and had thus known to duck and dodge.

The Universe shifted to pay attention.

Fire reared its head back and inhaled deeply the empty space around it. Its chest swelled and was aglow with blazing, ethereal energy.

Ice readied itself.

Fire let loose a blast. A great ball of both elegance and rage so massive,

so immeasurably hot, that if it were to make contact with Ice, it would surely be the end of It.

In response, Ice recoiled from the encroaching heat and summoned forth a shier and looming glacial wall.

As the projectile made contact, great blooms of gasses burst forth into life.

The resulting blast created the stars themselves.

But the great ball of flame and anger continued to burn.

Ice saw even this coming, knowing well and intimately the tricks of Fire, just as Fire knew its opposite sense of structure and stability.

The wall of ice collapsed in on itself and very nearly smothered the ball of flame.

But its heat was just too great. It ate away at the cold barrier and the icy prison flickered out of existence.

The projectile stopped and was where it was forever more.

The pair of colossal Dragons closed in on one another.

The force of their impact sent waves of the purest, Aetheral waves rippling across space, and in those waves, the world was bathed.

Fire and Ice crashed into the planet in a tangle of tails, talons, and fangs.

And the land was gouged. Torn asunder.

And the forest burned.

And the oceans froze over.

The initial impact had been so fierce that many a large mountain was broken off at their base and hurled up and away, into space.

Over time, those mountains would slam together in orbit and solidify into the very moon itself.

A celestial body birthed from fury.

Red scales scattered and became the bases for the first volcano.

White scales scattered and became the first of the icebergs.

Earth.

Water.

Wind.

Thunder.

All could do nothing but bear witness as the entirety of the world that they had meticulously created and balanced, was irreversibly changed and terraformed.

For seven days they raged.

And on the seventh night, both Fire and Ice had managed to wear the opposing force out to the point of ending.

In the last second,

Of the last minute,

In the last hour,

Of that last day,

Both Fire and Ice came to an advantageous angle, and both in unison.

In that moment, they clamped their massive mauls down, both on the end of the other tail.

Flame and heat surged up and through the tail of Ice and into its core, simultaneously Fire was filled with frost and cold.

Both were sealed in an instant.

And as they lay in their newfound, near-dormant state, they both enacted one last powerful spell.

Both in hopes of outdoing the other one last time.

Both in hopes of freeing themselves once they had rested thoroughly.

Fire's spell would have the planet that they were now stuck on, rotate around the great ball of flame that it had launched into space earlier. In time, it would charge its core and warm its bones again. It would be free. It would win.

The "Sun" (as it would come to be called) would blaze for as long as Fire lived.

And as long as Fire lived, the great flame would burn.

This would come to be called "Day"

Ice's spell would have the planet itself rotate constantly so that Fire was nearly always on the dark side of the planet, facing as far away from the ball of flame as often as the rotation would have it. The cold shadows would not keep Fire from warming itself indefinitely, yet they would slow its awakening enough so that Ice could rest and grow in strength at a very nearly equal pace.

The "Moon" (created from the great mountains) would filter and redirect some of the heat from the ball of flame, casting it down to the planet's side as not heat, but a pure, soft light.

This would come to be called "Night"

As the dust settled across the drastically affected world,

Earth.

Wind.

Water,

And Thunder

Did their best to bring a new balance to the world.

But.

Earth had no power over the crass and violent Volcanic eruptions.

Water could not shift the Icebergs that soon collected at the coldest points and became plates.

The Wind was constantly battling with random drafts of heat and cold, thus Tornado tore and rent the land.

Thunder's growl was amplified by the heat and cold as well, thus Lightning was born.

As Thunder was loud and proud, Lightning was only half the size of its "twin"

and over twice as bright.

Lightning could touch the ground, whereas Thunder could not.

This world was new and bold.

Loud and bright.

But this too would come to pass.

As time went on the waters began to freeze and the sky began to darken.

The great flaming ball in the sky was now a new source of warmth and light.

Thus these abilities were lost to Thunder.

The now Five Dragons: Earth, Water, Wind, Thunder, and Little Lightning came together at the core of the world in one deep, dark cave.

And they slept.

Maybe with enough time passing, the two new Dragons would awaken and leave, just as they had come.

quickly and without a warning.

The Five would wait.

Bide.

Rest.

It would be a two-million-year slumber.

An age of ice.

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