The Dark Bride

Prologue

When the world was new and the gods created creatures to inhabit the lands, each god brought forth their ideas. One god created elves, creatures of elegance and beauty that lived long lives and could use small amounts of magic gifted to them by the gods. The next created dwarves, beings of the earth that could craft whatever the heart desired. The youngest of the gods then created their creatures called humans. Simple creatures with much shorter life spans than the other two, and yet the potential they held was limitless. The final god, one of the two oldest, then brought forth their creation of dragons. Large creatures that were proud and noble, were able to use magic and adapt to any land they chose to live. Highly impressed with the creatures, the gods decided that the dragons would be the ruling creation of their world.

The lands and even the waters were divided up into different kingdoms that the dragons would rule. To the East, the Kingdom of Light where the dragons with the power of the sun reined. Towards the South, the hardy Kingdom of Earth where the lands were at the mercy of the dragons’ control. In the North, the Kingdom of Water made its home among the series of islands. In the center, both the Kingdom of Fire and the Kingdom of Wind shared the continent. The Kingdom of Wind protected the Kingdom of Fire from Water, and the Kingdom of Fire protected the Kingdom of Wind from Earth. The two kingdoms had another job as well, to be a two-part buffer between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness that lay in the West. As much as Wind and Earth didn’t like each other, and as much as Fire and Water fought, it was nothing compared to Light and Darkness. Their worlds were as polar opposites as they could be and it resulted in many clashes over the years. To help keep the peace, it was decided that once every generation one child from each of the royal dragon lines would fight. The winner would be the ruler over all the dragons, living in the very heart of the world in an area called Bengolarrea.

However, it soon came to pass that the dragons were boastful and full of pride to the extent that they belittled the other beings for being lesser than them. The gods, not liking how the dragons were behaving, decided to teach them a lesson. And so it was decided that the only way for dragons to reproduce with strong children was to breed with one of the other beings that were believed to be beneath them. The dwarves and elves, having longer lives and could remember the terrible things that the dragons had done to them, refused to work with the dragons. It was a human, their true reason being unknown, that stepped up and decided that they would be the first to marry a dragon. And so, the dragon king Sammael married the human, Eva. The god that created the humans, decided to bless his creations for doing such a brave act. They decided to bestow on a select few the power of magic, with the intent that they would use those powers to not only better themselves but to also select the best of their kind to marry the dragons. If the god foresaw all the ways the humans would use that gift is still unknown.

The union of dragons with humans brought new changes to the world, the first being that the royal families of each kingdom built a temple on their lands where humans with magical abilities would find them the most suited mate so that they could bear strong offspring. Only the humans being married into the royal families would go through the special union ceremony where the dragon would mark their human. The mark would magically bind the human to the dragon, theoretically extending the human’s life so that they lived for as long as the dragon was alive. It also allowed the dragons to share some of their powers with the humans as a means to protect themselves and their children. Which led to the change of the battle for the royal thrones of Bengolarrea. Both dragons and humans would fight together to rule supreme over all the lands.