The Awakening

Dragon legend was believed to be a myth and that was all it was expected to be. Maybe sometime in the past it had been real, there had been dragons and lords and mages that could control and manipulate the elements but there wasn't now and all that remained were stories told to children in the dark because the high king forbids anything that has to do with dragons and lords and mages and the mere mention of any of those words would result in your losing a head. Soldiers patrolled the city, eyes out for anything or anyone related to the f*******n; there would make a nice scape goat for the high king. But this didn't stop most people, who took solitude in the darkness to plan rebellion against the high king and preach that a time will come where the dragons would arise again and lords and mages would take their place in the world just like the old times. 'Just like the old times', villagers whispered among themselves, no one knew of the old times or how it was. But they knew one thing; the legend of the dragon and lords and mages spoke of peace, justice, truth and freedom. Something that was very rare now, so the people found hope where no hope was and the rebellion grew and the high king became ecstatic in finding these men who were a threat to his throne but no one knew them for they only worked in the shadows and the shadows were their greatest ally. And soon words started spreading that there was a lord amongst them, a lord who was also a mage and who could manipulate all the elements and if there was a lord, then there would be a dragon for lords would never exist without their dragons and dragons without their lords. This only made the high king madder and after much combing and searching, the leader of the rebellion was found and hanged to serve as an example to any one planning to start anything close to a rebellion. The rebels scattered and hopes were squashed and the king was happy once again. In the far tribe of morfield, a woman screamed and tore at the air in pain, her brother beside her for comfort and a midwife at the foot of her bed aiding her to deliver a child whom after delivered was found to be a wonder. The woman raised her child to her eyes and smiled lovingly, her brother smiled too and stroked the child's head. "Aeris", she breathed, her voice like honey and silk, the child giggled and stock a thumb in his mouth, grey eyes gleaming with excitement. "He likes the name", her brother enunciated. The woman handed the child to him and laid back down - a contented smile on her face - submitting to the darkness that called her. Wendell Tarsis watched his sister lay back down on the bed gently, watched her breath become shallow and knew that it wouldn't be long before she would leave them - him and the wonder she gave birth to. He gave the giggling child a long look, sniffed into his cloth, placed the child beside his dead mother and walked away, tears pouring uncontrollably from his eyes.