The Book of Dragons - Jade Dragons

Summary

"The Book of Dragons" is an original piece of literature from the nation of Jade, extended: Jade Dragons. This book covers the humble beginnings of the nation as it is founded by Blue and Liv, the coming leaders.

Book

Humble Beginnings

Jade Dragons. A nation somewhere within the Forgotten Lands, standing high and proud, providing for its people through its wealth and community ties. The people of this nation believe in working hard together to achieve greatness, always committing deeply to their given tasks in order to self-sustain and consistently improve their fruitful way of life. However, within the great stone walls of Jade and buried deep beneath the earth the very nation resides on, lays a secret far larger than anyone could theorise. The story of the nation is simple. As simple as two great minds meeting each other via a chance encounter. Blue, a man who fled their home to escape the grasp of a terrorising war in search of their destiny. And Liv, a once wandering spirit who suddenly found themselves taking on a body through the touch of a lemon found under a mythical tree, living long enough to search for a purpose and find it. Once fate had caused these two people to cross paths, they would both look towards a mountain far off in the distance. It was this very place, on the top of that mountain, that Jade Dragons sprouted into existence. But something was off. There was a feeling. A feeling pitted deep in the stomachs of both Liv and Blue. A feeling that enveloped the two of them and refused to subside. Feeling became superstition, and superstition became obsession…

It was supposed to be an expedition to a discovered spider-spawner beneath the lands. Blue and Liv wanted to inspect it in order to transform it into a spider farm. That was the plan, until a strange voice started to whisper throughout the caves in a distant echo. This startled both Blue and Liv, but they decided to follow it. They couldn’t understand why they trusted this calling, but they went with it anyway. Something in their minds had pieced together, and it told them that this whispering presence held some sort of key to the nagging feeling kept inside their head. It got progressively darker as they wandered deeper, they had to start using torches just to see. The voice started to sound more like a low rumble, a low growl. You could describe it as dragon-like.

Pulling out their pickaxes they began to hack away at the ground, each swing creating a new crack that inched them closer to whatever demanded their presence. It took a while, but they eventually reached the source. B: "What is it..?" L: "I, well- uhhh…I can’t tell?" Seated firmly within bedrock laid a crystal of some sort, shaded in a rich green, aqua-ish colour. Something reminiscent of Emerald, but not quite. Unlike other gemstones, this one seemed to pulsate with a light, seeping an energy out around it that seemed to want to escape. As Blue went to pull the stone out of the bedrock in order to bring it to the surface and study further, his mind suddenly flashed through a variety of quick-shot images and sounds.

The Ender-Dragon, Endermen... A village- No, multiple villages, villages with fire- smoke- then Dragon's breath and Chorus fruit... Death... Villagers running wildly, some with weapons... Terrorism among lands, far and wide... A need for domination, taking over the overworld... Chaos and destruction.

He couldn't let go of the stone

Another dragon... Green, glowing, large and scaley... Peace, justice... Fight for what was right... Resilience... Resistance against the Ender-Dragon, an opposing force…

Suddenly, Liv had pulled him back and away from the stone, shaking him and urgently asking if he was alright. He said he was, collecting himself in a cold sweat. Then before he could forget, he began relaying what he had seen to Liv. She listened intently, scrawling all this information down into her handy notebook. After a brief discussion and moment to calm down, they both turned back to look towards the gemstone. With every tick that passed, the gem seemed to pulsate brighter, just a touch each time. It was almost… calling for something. Perhaps someone, perhaps a different living thing that wasn't the two of them. Liv and Blue exchanged a quick glance, sharing a mutual agreement within their minds. They both pulled out their excavated blocks and began covering their tracks. Building up took quite a while, they wanted to ensure nobody else would surface their discovery. Returning to their original goals, they both got to work on building the nation they had originally been inspired on. The days that passed turned to weeks, then weeks to months. Even though they had been zoned in on developing their nation and its newcomers, a burning curiosity still remained alight in their consciousness

In his sleep, Blue was restless. The visions never truly left him, sticking to him with every moment of shut-eye. He began drawing them in his residence, spending hours in his study just drawing over and over. It was only when the nation needed a symbol that he pulled out one of his drawings to show in the eye of the public, proceeding to print it out into banners. A dragon, jade in colour, reminiscent of the one in his mental episodes. Liv had problems of her own. She couldn’t shake off how that gemstone had begun to glow brighter and brighter in a consistent pattern before they left it alone, especially after they had not only dug into it, but touched it too. This internal struggle caused her to go back into her notes, re-reading what Blue had frantically spilled out to her. She spent countless days searching libraries around the Forgotten Lands, speaking to people, and exploring new lands. Then, she stumbled upon the ruins of an old old civilization. Charred wood, bent trees, overwhelming signs of struggle and war. There were strange symbols everywhere, almost similar to the enchantment table gurgle, but… different. And there it sat. A note made of old paper. Left undisturbed, sitting beneath a black banner. One with a dragon on it the colour of jade, torn at all its edges. Exactly like the one that Blue had coincidentally picked as the symbol for their nation. Liv slipped the note between the pages of her notebook, hopping back on her horse and riding back to mainland Jade. While she rode, her mind raced, thinking nonstop about what it all could mean. She had to tell Blue upon arriving back.

L: “...It had all that stuff about your visions, but something more as well. Er, yeah, something about worship and praise. To, y’know, that dragon you’ve been going on and on about in your visions and such. The walls themselves had hymns written on them, though I couldn’t read the rest because it was in some weird and ancient gibberish language. There was also a church…”

B: “Huh, Interesting. Do you think it has something to do with the gem we found?”

L: “Probably. It all seems interlinked, does it not?”

B: “True…”

L+B: “...”

L: “Oh- Yeah, one more thing. The back seemed to mention the Ender-Dragon a whole bunch. Which is weird, you know, I’ve only ever heard about it in myths. That among other things, like ‘end portals,’ which I'm pretty sure is all a hoax. I mean, have you ever seen one? Ender-eyes are literally useless- sorry, going off track… Everything seemed so broken and war-torn, and all this mention of dragons has me in my doubts. Though, the charring of the rooftops came in at an angle facing the sky…”

A period of time had gone by since this discovery. Blue would continue to create illustrations and write about his visions whilst Liv would continue to study her findings and the note she found in an attempt to decipher a greater meaning. But unfortunately, like most things in this world, it came at a cost. Blue and Liv both gradually had their focus shifting more and more onto this mystery. Everything began to add up in amount, it was almost an obsession. Drawings, studying, writing, it all started and never stopped coming. They both knew of each other's struggles, sharing the same growing desperation to pry themselves from whatever had them grasped. Only one idea came to mind, originating from the texts and studies of Liv’s work. Remember how the idea of “worship” was mentioned?

They both worked to keep all of this a well-kept secret. They told nobody outside of the two of them and they refused to do so. What would people think? What if others caught whatever they had, or what if they- It’s best not to think too much about it. They feigned their personalities like a mask and kept all information concealed, letting nothing out of arms reach, keeping things close to their chest. Nobody could know. Nobody but them. What is inevitable is inevitable. Things may start to leak, they already have. It started off as banners. Now a church is in order. A place for worship. Only fate, once again, knows what the future holds…