The Feathered Dragons STORY

I want to introduce to you a story I've written, or I haven't actually written it down, but my story that I'm telling, called "The Feathered Dragons."

Once upon a time, there lived a species called blue feather dragons. They were splendid and beautiful. They were proud and persistent. They were koi and determined. They descended from a more powerful species who kept them in oppression, so they decided to branch off to themselves. As they kept breeding, they now identified themselves as the blue feathered dragons in this new region on their planet. They lived, they partied, they had fun. They took care of each other's kids. They shared with one another. And just like other species on the planet, they would have their little wars and tiffs here and there, but after all of that, they were still one big family.

The female blue dragons would fly high into the air and put on a show for the rest of the villages. They would craft glorious nests to compete for a male with the biggest man. The males would have chest puffing competitions to see who had the best plumage. The females loved looking pretty, and the males loved looking strong.

On top of a rock, watching the celebrations, was a very young dragon called Delani. Her parents were doing the celebratory dance again. Any day now, she'd have a little brother or sister to look after, and she looked forward to it. For once, she wanted to be the oldest. Just like the other female dragons, she wanted to teach them how to be pretty and to be strong. It was magnificent because even from that young age, she noticed that the females could be both pretty and strong, and males could also be strong and handsome.

As Elani was playing in the forest only yards away from her parents, she overheard something in the depths of the shadows of the foliage in front of her. She crept as quietly as possible, being resourceful, always hiding from her parents and being the best at playing hide-and-seek with the other blue offspring. She crept through the bushes very silently, her four legs barely holding up her very wobbly body, as her wings, not yet able to fly, were pasted to the side of her flanks. She curled up under a bush, raised her head only an inch, and then quickly, but as quietly as she could, ducked back down into the bushes when she saw a whole group of male dragons huddle together with one of the females. She started to back away, thinking that maybe she shouldn't be here, until she heard what they were talking about.

The largest male was saying that they had to cultivate the land. It is possible that the purple dragons would come back and try to attack them and take away their freedom. The only way to ensure their survival is to make sure that they had more numbers than their ancestors, the purple dragons, the ones they won their freedom and independence from. To do that, they would have to explore all the regions as much as possible and gather as much land as possible, possibly allies.

Delani was intrigued. But why were they hiding in the bushes talking about this? Did not the other villages agree? Everyone always agreed that even though they were responsible for raising their own homes, that when it came to matters of the general populace, that they would all make decisions like this together.

A few days later, Deli's father, along with those dragons that she saw in the forest, gathered together and said they were going out to explore. Delani begged her father to let her come, but he smiled and nudged his daughter, telling her that she was too young. She couldn't even fly yet. When she was older, then she could handle matters that the adults did. One of the very young males, who was the bigger brother of one of Deli's friends, winked at Delani and said that he would rather come along. He's of the age now, for he's a strong flyer and able to do the mail work. Deli's father and this group of explorers agreed, and off they went.

It was several weeks before they came back, and when they came back, they weren't alone. When the blue explorers came back in tow, wrapped up in vines, were these Red Feather dragons. They were beautiful, taller, darker, and more robust than any of the dragons that Delani had seen in her kind. Her father greeted her, and the others were shaking with how tired they were. Delani didn't understand, but the red dragons looked aggressive, not aggressive, upset, like they didn't want to be here.

Milani's mother was outraged. As a matter of fact, most of the village of blue feather dragons were outraged at this, and all called a meeting immediately. The young male, the brother of deli's friend, told her everything that happened. "We were surprised to see that there were Red Feather dragons there, and they seemed very hostile at first. Understandably, it was their territory, and they didn't know who we were. We asked them if we could have some of their resources, and they said the only way they'd agree to it is if we got rid of one of their enemies, a neighboring tribe they claimed had fought them any time and taken some of their females." Young male dragon hung his head in shame. He knew it felt wrong. He knew that it was wrong, but the older male said it was for survival. And after they took out a lot of the tribe members, they captured these Red Feather dragons and took them home.

Delani watched as the years passed by, and the Red Dragons spread, but were always under the control of the blue feather dragons. For the most part, the blue feather dragons saw the Red Feather dragons as hardworking, but anyone who showed kindness to them would be met with an aggressive hostility from the explorers. There were cases where blue females would breed with the red males and vice versa. When the eggs hatched and they brought forth purple offspring, this enraged the explorers, who had now become the enforcers of the village. No longer was a free homestead, suddenly the once carefree society had become split. With all the resources they were getting from the Red Feather dragons' territory, they could build better weapons and armor for their wings, their tails, and for their talents, and they used this as an intimidation tactic against the rest of their village.

Delani was a young adult now. Her wings were beautiful and expansive. Whenever she would go to her father and asked why they couldn't treat the Red Dragons respectfully, the father, unfortunately, replied saying that it was the cost of business. The Red Feather dragons belonged to them now, and it was a means of the rest of the blue feather dragons to survive. Delani and her friends did not feel okay with this. And as time went by, even though her friends would still treat the Red Feather dragons with respect, they grew to accept that this was just the way of life, but the Red Feather Dragons were always beneath them, and the blue feather Dragons were meant to own them.

What Delani didn't know is that this was a natural occurrence across the entire planet with species. Every other species or intelligent species that conquered another, even if it's the same as its mind, different colors and breeds, would always take control over the ones that they had victory over. It was a showcase of power, and it made Delani sick.

Delani had become somewhat of an explorer herself, and she decided to go over the red region to see if she could help with gathering resources. If her father knew she was here, he would flip. Her mother, of course, has known that she's always been doing this, but she knew also that they need to branch out.

Suddenly, Delani was attacked from the sky and brought down so quickly she didn't even see that the ground had come up to meet her. Within seconds, she scratched at her assailant, she bit his face, and he clawed her neck. "Don't move," she heard him growl. When she looked up, it was a red feathered dragon with beautiful golden horns, something she's never seen before. Apparently, when the Red Feather dragons were brought into captivity and conquered by their enemies, their horns were cut off. If their horns are cut off in adulthood, they would never grow back. She also learned through this dragon that in their society, other enemy Red Feather dragons would keep captives from their enemy Red Feather dragons. In so doing, they would selectively breed them so that they could end up having shorter horns with each generation. This Golden Horn Dragon was named King. He blamed the red feathered dragons with the black horns for selling his family to the blue feathered Dragons, who were just as responsible for taking the word of his enemies without even going to them first.

King welcomed Delani into a civilization. Her family was weary about her at first, but then they accepted her, and she let them know that the rest of her Village was not okay with this. King's mother told her that she was to go home because they didn't want any trouble. The best thing they could do was to educate the rest of the village and help give them the bravery to stand up for what was right. And that's exactly what happened.

Over the years gone by, Delani taught the younger blue feather Dragons, who, not surprisingly, naturally had an attraction to the Red plumed Dragons, that it was okay to play with them, that they were no different with the exception of the color of their feather, and when mixed together, they could make an assortment of colors. Of course, the explorers, who were now the enforcers, had a problem with interbreeding. There was a big disagreement. Many of the blue dragons said that this wasn't right, that it was immoral for us to own each other. Lani's mother had spoke up against them as well and even chided her husband for being part of the group. She said, "Just because it was the practice of the Red Dragons to keep each other captive didn't mean that they had to do the same thing. After all, it wasn't their culture; it's not what they were founded on."

A war waged within the blue dragons of Dani's community, and after many years, the Red Dragons in the blue region were declared free. Their horns were able to grow once again, but because of all the breeding, they didn't grow as strong and as large as the ones in the red region. Delani had many children of her own, and one day she flew away to the red region and never returned. Her family always suspected that maybe she went to be with King.

After all, many generations of Del's family passed, and six generations later, a young blue dragon with purple wings named Maruna fell in love with a red dragon named Calb. Everything was peaceful for a while. There were some blue dragons that descended from the enforcers who still didn't believe that the Red Dragons belonged any freedom in their region, and in fact, they were supposed to go back to the red region where they could be free there. But Delani and so many other Blue Dragons were against this, believing that the planet was meant to be United. Of course, the Red Dragons were free to go back if they wished, but that the blue region was just as much their region since they also helped build up the society that they've all been taken advantage of from many, many years.

With all of that tough history, the blue and red dragons were able to move forward. Of course, more different color dragons would come into the region. Some would stay, some would go. There would still be some prejudices, but on a whole, most of the Dragons lived in peace. There were some grumpy old blue dragons who hated Red Dragons, and then once they saw that the Red Dragons were actually not only different than they were, with the exception of their color, they grew to accept them. While some were still very heady in their stance, Maruna, Deli's ascendant, and Calb decided to fly away somewhere they've never been before, an explorer off-grid for a while. They flew away for years. They weren't ready to have offspring, though. They wanted to enjoy all that they could. They saw a slew of different creatures and had really gnarly adventures where they were chased by a huge black serpentine monster with 17 legs, one of those legs being on his head, under the night sky with the stars twinkling one by one, as if competing for luminosity.

Calb turned to Maruna and asked her if she ever wanted to have offspring. Aruna smiled and nuzzled in closer to his neck feathers. She said if she was going to have offspring, she would want to go back to her nesting grounds where her ancestors had offspring all those generations. He agreed, and they slept there one last time until they made their long journey back home.

The journey took several months, of course. They made many stops along the way. People were going to look different. "Oh my gosh, what have they missed?" Finally, when Maruna and Calb set their talons on the fresh dirt, what they saw before them was a familiar sight of home. Something was different. The air was not as sweet as it once was. No matter, Maruna and Calb made a nesting site for themselves. They saw some blue feathered Dragons who greeted them. They ran up to Maruna and Callum and hugged them. "Oh my gosh, you guys are home! Wow, we've heard all of those stories on the winds about your adventures, that's so cool!" One of the blue feathered females looked at Calb and smiled. "Wow, Calb, you look so different. Your horns, they're beautiful, and you have four horns." Aruna was so proud to be standing by her side, although she was a bit jealous of this female seemed to be a little bit too forward with her admiration of her male. Aruna flapped her wings in a gesture for everyone to make space. "Calb and I are tired, thanks for greeting us, guys." Females kept looking at Calb. Maruna knew that she was going to have an issue with these females if she didn't lay down the law. Calb smiled kindly at them, trying to keep his head high. "Are you done staring at them?" she said. Calb looked at her confused at first. "Uh, are you jealous?" "No, of course not," she replied. "Why would I be jealous? I mean, I don't have a reason to be, do I?" "Of course not." "Well, I don't know, maybe," said Calb. "Those females were pretty." Wow, Aruna laughed and slapped him playfully with one of her feathers. "You better behave, or I'm going to find me a beautiful red feathered hunk bigger horns than yours."

They spent a while picking out a lot and then building their nest on that lot. All seemed well until the coming weeks came upon them. One late evening, when Calb and Maruna left with a group of friends to go and hunt, they came back home to an uous commotion. Their beautiful nest they had built together that they'd spend so much time putting together just right was on fire. As a matter of fact, most of their little community was on fire. Calb was heartbroken. He flew high into the sky after taking up foots of sand to dump onto the nest, but nothing he did would put out the fire. Maruna was crying. She told Calb not to bother because it wouldn't make a difference. Some of the red and blue dragons were out together, and the yellow dragons as well, that had come recently. "Who did this?" said Maruna with tears in her eyes. Some of the blue and red dragons pointed across the sky. It was a group of Red Dragons. Maruna flew up to go and talk to them. Calb was right behind her, begging her to not go, that it was a bad idea, but Baruna wanted peace. But to have peace, she had to understand the most motivations of why these dragons did this. There had to have been a reason. She stopped short, flapping in the air. "Brothers, why have you done this? What was the reason?" "That was my nest, my Calib and I built it." "We don't care whose nest it was. All those years ago, your ancestors took what was ours. Now it's time to take back what is owed to us." Maruna was surprised to hear this. "Why don't we go to the ground and talk about this together?" Calb caught up to her and agreed. "Look at you," one of the Red Dragons said. "How could you sleep with her? How could you mate with the enemy? Have you forgotten your roots? We are Red Dragons, proud warriors. All that is happening now is that we are diluting our genes with these weaklings who needed us to prop up their civilization 'cause they couldn't do it themselves." Calb growled and bowed his head forward, ready to skewer the dragon before him who barely had any horns. Maruna flapped into the way. "Calb, don't! Please, let's talk." "My friend," replied one of the other Red Dragons, and they flew away and kept setting fire to everything, including the homes of other Red Dragons. Calb caught up to one of the Red Dragons setting the homes on fire and rustled him into a wall. They both fell to the floor. Calb fell on his back, his horns momentarily stuck in the sand underneath him. Calb tried to reason with him, knocking him off and telling him that it didn't make any sense that if they were mad at the blue dragons, for them to also be hurting the Red Dragons. "That's for being complacent instead of remembering who they were. They decided to be assimilated into the stupid culture of you dumb blue dragons." "Then why didn't you just go back? Why burn down what we've built here? I'm happy we've moved past this. Furthermore, none of the Dragons here are responsible for what happened to you a long time ago. Look at my horns, look at what I'm able to accomplish. The chieftain is a red dragon of this region by law. He owns it. You holding on to this bitterness, brother, is going to rein sight the past. Blue dragons love us. We are one of them now. Do you want that to change? I know there's a lot of anger in you, I understand, but you weren't even alive back then." "That's not the point," the red dragon said, leaping into the air and then charging at CB's neck. Calb dodged to the side, his horns at the ready. "We didn't give what was owed to us. We want riches, soft, easy expression," bathed CB's face, but you can have it now. You're free. Setting fire to our tribes and our nests is not the way to do it. Look at what I've accomplished. Look at all the Red Dragons, what they've accomplished. Some of them having the most magnificent nests. It's not about what we look like, brother, it's about who we are inside." But no matter what he said, the Red Dragons refused to listen. Instead, they all charged him and started plucking his feathers and tried to break his horns. By the time Aruna caught up to him, his horns were gone, and Caled was bleeding profusely from his head. "Caleb!" she cried and sheltered him with her wings until she realized that the Red Dragons had been waiting for her. They charged her as well, plucking at her feathers, tearing skin off with their beaks. Two of the blue female dragons stepped in to try and save her, begging the males to stop. They called out saying that she was against Red Dragons. They held their wings up in the air, saying that they were against violence, no matter what anyone looked like. As Maruna was making her get away, she flew into the air wobbly, looked back, and what she saw made her cry. Those two females who were trying so hard to disengage stood there as both blue dragons and Red Dragons came upon them and started ripping them limb from limb, just because they tried to stop a fight.

Many years passed by. Maruna went to another region. The blue dragons, at least most of them, had no longer become peaceful but hateful. When any of the blue or red dragons tried to reason with the aggressive ones, saying that we were about peace and it didn't matter how we looked, and that we have a horrible history, but we have a better present and future, they were immediately put to death. Many Red Dragons took advantage of the opportunity and assaulted blue dragons just to get even. Maruna knew this is not what her family line stood for, nor Calb. She mourned him for days. It still didn't feel real that he was gone. She couldn't stay here. As a matter of fact, many dragons left the area due to the increase and violence from the Red Dragons. Unfortunately, there was no satisfying them.

Maruna looked over the valley of her new home. She had been quiet for months after Cal's murder. Something landed behind her, and she whipped her head around, ready for an attack. Ever since that unfortunate night filled with hatred, rage, and warranted revenge, Maruna has been on edge and mistrusting of other dragons and creatures. Behind her stood a tall green feathered Dragon who bowed non-threateningly at her. "Maruna, I remember you well." "I don't know you, please leave me alone." "I wish I could, but there's so many of the dragons in our old village you still need your help. They stand for peace and they're stuck there and held against their will, being forced to turn against each other. And I look, I know that's not what you, nor your family or ancestors stood for. No one there will stand up and say anything because they're afraid." Aruna turned around and unfurled her wings. "Then what good can I do?" "You can help us. Tell me, are you really certain that you can sit here in peace and quiet and be okay while everyone there at your old village is still being held in captivity?" "I lost Calib," she replied. To that, the tall green dragon said, "I'm so sorry, but he would want this, and my Nessie is still there." Luna shrugged and waved her tail indecisively. She flapped overhead in the direction to her old home and then shouted back at the green dragon, "You should have led with that."

As Maruna, the green dragon, and a small group of red and blue dragons met up and arrived at the Old Village, they witnessed four Red Dragons at top a big rock commanding all the blue dragons to kneel before them, announcing that the blue dragons were now under their control. "See how it feels to be owned," they yelled out. Some of the Red Dragons on the ground were crying, having friends and family amongst the blue dragons. Peruna flew overhead and roared loudly. "Now is the time to take control!" She landed bravely, or maybe stupidly, in front of the Red Dragons. She turned to face the four Red Dragons, away from the crowd, who was now intrigued to know what was going to happen next. "If you want your land," she said, "you can have it. You're right, our ancestors were horrible to your ancestors. Everyone was moving on peacefully, and you've decided to hold on to your hatred, which makes you no better than my ancestors who held on to theirs. If you want to perpetuate the cycle of hatred, then that's your prerogative, but since the rest of us want peace and you just want revenge and recompense, it seems like we're at an impasse." One of the Red Dragons on the Rock charged after Maruna, who ducked out of the way and leapt into the air over the crowd. "Blue and red dragons of the Nord Village, we have a very horrible history, but we are not our past. We now have the ability to make things right by giving the Red Dragons this region and the blue dragons who are in agreement with them. With us out of the way, there will be no reason for you to be upset, and you can make this land as you always wanted it, and you can rule it as you see fit." Maruna continued, looking at the four red dragons on the rock. "You owe us more than that," said the first red dragon. Maruna flew above the primary red dragon who lunged at her and missed again. He prepped the others to fly. "We owe you nothing, but for the sake of peace and to move on, we will give you our land. It can't get better than that." "Let our people go." "Red Dragons are not your people," the Chief Red retorted. "All dragons who stand for Unity and progress and acceptance for who we are despite our lineage are My People. Those of you with us, come. Those of you who believe this land is yours by right because of the injust a done to you by my ancestors or only a few blue dragons in the past, you can have it." The blue dragons who were kneeling before with their wings spayed on the ground looked amongst themselves and then back at Maruna, wanting badly to leave. A few of the blue dragons called out, "Drop dead." "Of course, you want to fly away, you cowards. You have to help give back what you took." Marina heard enough. The red dragon on top of the Rock had enough too and charged after Maruna and her friends.

This is where everything changed. Many years ago, there was a war amongst blue dragons to fight for the freedom of the Red Dragons. Many blue dragons lost their lives at the jaws and claws of the other blue dragons, family members, partners, best friends. Now, ironically, red and blue dragons were fighting against red and blue dragons for the freedom for red and blue dragons to continue living peacefully. Before Maruna could think, she was smothered in a heap of dragons, clawing her neck, and others fighting back spikes on their tails, teeth, claws, wings. It was all a chaotic mess. Everything happened so fast, and the battle raged on quite some time. Aruna thought for sure she'd lose. What she didn't count on, and neither did the hateful dragons, were the many quiet blue and red dragons who had just had enough of this bitter mess. 80% of the village inhabitants were against the dragons who wanted payback for what ancestors did a long time ago. Maruna and her backers won and left the land to the bitter dragons. They flew to the valley and made sure they weren't being followed so the bitter dragons would not find them and ruin their new way of life.

Many years went by, and Maruna and some of her friends oversaw what she now called Acceptance Valley. All dragons, no matter the color of their feathers, were welcome. They could speak freely and be themselves. They were free to offend each other. They were given creative freedoms, and they were free to disagree or agree with each other. This is how life had always been intended. Everyone had a new start and loved each other, no matter what.

Maruna fell in love again with a dark blue dragon, and with him, she had a clutch of four eggs. On a cold night, she offered to bring home some food. Her dark blue mate cuddled her under his massive wings and insisted that he go out instead. She needed to get away, however, so she smiled and kissed him and flew expertly into the sky and up and away. For some reason, that night, Moruna just had this nagging feeling she had to see. She flew over to her old n Village, the blue region, or what was known as the blue region a long time ago, and it was horrible. All the trees were felled, there were skeletons of dragons all over the place, and the mud crushed under what she could assume to be many battles and spars. The place smelled like death and rot. Something told her not to land, but she decided to do it anyway, against her better judgment. As soon as she did, she almost instantly regretted it. She heard a very odd gait approaching, something on the ground, and out from a corner, two rocks, a dragon so bald and emaciated that she didn't even know whether it was red or blue initially walked up to her. "You're still alive, figures," it said. She recognized his voice, even after all this time. It was the chief red dragon that had been forcing the blue dragons to bow before him and his friends. He looked awful. Aruna said nothing. "My brothers are gone. I should have listened to you." Aruna was livid. What did he expect her pity? She sighed and then responded, "You pressured us, shamed us, attacked us, bullied us into feeling sorry for something that we had no control over, and then then we gave you what you wanted, and then you drove it into the ground. I guess revenge isn't so sweet, especially when you pay it to the wrong person, is it? You let this happen." He looked up at her. "Your one eye," the other eye looking as though it had been badly beaten out of his head. "You didn't prepare us. There's so much we didn't know because of you." Aruna smiled sarcastically. "And after all this time, you still cast blame and refuse to take responsibility. Wow. No one was here except you and your followers. You don't get to blame me this time." As maroon on her four elegant legs with her wings furled started to walk past him, preparing to fly off again, she stopped right beside him and looked back without looking at him full on and said, "I just want to let you know that where we are, we are living peacefully and thriving. Every color of the rainbow dragon you can think of, because we don't judge each other based on our feather color, but who we are inside, and we work together despite of it. We don't act like children and get hung up on past grudges that we're not responsible for. They're always pressing forward to make life better for our children. That's the secret." The red dragon, who seemed to have difficulty breathing, fell at her feet, not out of respect, but more out of exhaustion. "Please take us with you." Maruna smiled. "Sorry, but there's no room for hatred where we are. We gave you the gigantic nest you forced us to hand over. Now lie in it." The decrepit red dragon, who used to be breathtaking to behold, withered to the ground, starving and too weak to fly or lift his head, and he lay there listless as Maruna took to the sky in a proud show of victory.

When Maruna got back home, it was many hours later. She had two fresh kills in each of her hind legs. Her dark blue mate had been so worried, but he knew exactly where she went. He waited for her to speak. What those bitter dragons got wrong with not understanding that their resentment was like drinking poison and waiting for their so-called enemies to die. In the night sky, some distance away, a party raged on. Red males with blue females, green males with red females, Reds with light Reds, dark Blues with purples, beautiful spectral oddity of unity to behold. Aruna had no idea that her actions and that of the other dragons who chose to move forward would give rise to a species much later, many eons later, with such genetic fortitude they would become the strongest, most intelligent, and most beautiful species of dragons to ever rule a place, planet, and leave the planet in search of more colors to vibe with. The end.