The Last Dragon Lord

Intermezzo I

INTERMEZZO I

In the beginning, all existence was an egg. Time, space, and feeling swelled inside of it like a raging ocean. The ocean roared against the inside of the shell, around and around until it formed into the body of a great Crafter dragon who was wise and full-grown the moment it opened its eyes.

The dragon’s name was Andor.

As Andor floated in the egg, he dreamt of nothing.

Andor simply was. His body was a storm in a void.

When Andor opened his eyes, he knew the egg would not hold him and he did not want to be held. Using his long claws, he poked holes in the egg’s shell, breaking free.

The gush of fluid from the egg escaped, and Andor flew into the void.

Time stuck to him like embryonic fluid, but the sudden rush separated it from him and it filled the space in the nothingness, like a great loud and mighty river.

Suddenly Andor became very aware of time in a way that he hadn’t before. It made an incessant ticking sound that he could not silence.

At first he smashed the river with his tail.

He tried to chew it in his mouth.

He ripped at it with his claws.

But the river kept ticking.

The sound drove the dragon insane; no matter what he tried, the river kept ticking, and it kept flowing into the void until he was awash in its sparkling brilliance. Fear overswept him when he saw that the river ended in a great waterfall.

Andor swam against the current, but it picked up speed and he lost his way.

He drowned in the river of time.

His body fell over the waterfall and became a great, glowing husk as it drifted downward. The force of the waves broke his body into four pieces.

The magical energy in those four pieces flourished and became continents.

Time flowed around the continents, and millions of years passed as the dragon’s body lost its luster and decomposed into what we now call the living world.

From the dragon’s eyes, the dragon race was born. The Crafter dragons shaped the land. Keeper dragons protected it.

From the dragon’s ears, humanity was born. They evolved in tandem with the earth, tending to it after the Crafters manipulated it into beautiful peaks, fields and rivers, cultivating it so that it reached its full potential.

From the dragon’s heart, the elven race was born. Just as Andor’s blood was magical, so was theirs. And they had an affinity to water, setting up their civilization on river banks and ocean shores.

All around the world, time flowed. Below, the quiet undercurrents of the aquifer, the pink river that used to be Andor’s blood.

And so began ancient history—the beginning of the beginning, the beginning of the middle, and the beginning of the end.

If you listen closely, you can still hear the ceaseless ticking....

ACT II