The old man who calls himself Katsuhito Masaki, the caretaker of the shrine and the last guardian left alive after the clerics her were destroyed, tells this story:

Many centuries ago this continent was ravaged by a great dragon. This dragon was unlike any other, bluish silver in color, its scales were like dull metal with bright gems glinting here and there and it breathed fire and lightning. If it chose to it could speak the language of men and it could use powerful magic spells. It was more nimble in flight than any dragon ever seen, it could hover in mid air and with a flap of its wings it could disappear in a clap of thunder. Some said she was a daughter of Tiamat, others that she was demon in dragon form or a dragon from the realm of demons. In truth she was the daughter and the creation of a goddess who had been compelled to grant a wish to a mortal man, a great warrior who rode her as his dragon steed across the sky in ages past. How long ago that was, in what other land, or in what other world, or who had

been her master, even the dragon no longer remembered.

In that time there was a kingdom of elves called Jurai. This kingdom of Jurai was many leagues to the east of these lands which we now live in. The cities of Jurai were built in huge trees. These trees were always green for the magic of the forests kept winter away. The trees were always green; but the leaves of some trees shown with outlines of gold and silver and ruby in the sunlight. The cities were of polished wood; white, brown, grey, mahogany, marbled with intricate lines of grain and decorated with gems and gold and silver filigree. The people of Jurai were skillful artisans and knowledgeable in the ways of magic and brave fighters. Their king was very powerful and honorable, for the people of Jurai loved honor. The princes of Jurai were great warriors and skilled in weapons and in the magic arts. The princesses of Jurai were beautiful, graceful, ever young and also skillful in the use of weapons. Their sword play was a dance of grace and precision.

The dragon found this rich kingdom raided and plundered it until it was almost destroyed. The magic of Jurai was the magic of wood and the bane of wood is fire. The king’s son, a noble prince, swore that he would destroy this dragon and set out on a quest. The prince was given one of the magic boats made for the royal family, a living tree that could sail through the air and magical wooden guardians to fight alongside of him. Despite all this, when the prince found the dragon and they fought, he escaped with only his life.

The prince sought the aid of a powerful wizard. This wizard had gained much power through the use of three wishes granted him by a powerful Jinn. The wizard agreed to give the prince the Jinn’s bottle in exchange for 1,000 years of his life, for the wizard had used up all of his wishes to gain power and had not wished for eternal youth.

The prince first wished for an enchanted sword, a sword more powerful than any in the land, one capable of defeating the dragon. The prince was engaged to a princess, a mere child at the time but heir to the throne, so thinking of his future kingdom and to ensure that this sword would remain to him and his royal lineage, he added that the sword might only be used by him and his descendents. The Jinn, or Jennie for the Jinn appeared as a young girl with red hair and green eyes, granted the wish, but strictly followed the wording so that the sword would be capable of defeating the dragon but did not ensure victory. It put them on even terms at best.

The sword was a fabulous sword, however, shielding its master from the breath of the dragon and even preventing physical contact. Anyone who touched it, or it touched, other than the prince was struck down by its powerful magic. Powerful as it was, it couldn’t strike dead the dragon with a single blow nor could it launch itself at an aerial opponent nor enable it’s wield to fly as fast as a dragon. Time and time again the prince found and fought the dragon and they came to know each other by sight. As they fought they hurled insults and challenges and later taunts and questions. They learned each other’s names and what drove them, the prince to avenge and protect his future kingdom and the dragon to plunder.

One day the prince found the dragon’s lair, an immense cavern in the side of a desolate mountain. The dragon was gone but the prince took the most precious and powerful items in the hoarded treasures and left a token to show who had plundered this plunderer. Now the prince found he didn’t have to hunt the dragon for the dragon hunted him, but still it was a stalemate.

The prince spent a fortnight at the castle of a noble in a land not far from here who knew of Jurai and was willing to honor its prince with his hospitality. While there, a mysterious young woman of stunning beauty came to the court saying that she was the daughter of a baron in a nearby kingdom whose father and mother had been murdered and their lands taken. She asked for sanctuary as a lady in distress who had been robbed of title, lands and holdings which she should have inherited. She had some jewelry, quite valuable, which she humbly offered in exchange for being allowed to stay.

The prince could hardly stop thinking of this girl his entire time at the castle and she, for her part, sought his company almost every day, wherever he went. Many thought she was trying to get the prince to recover her lands for her, others that she desired to marry this prince. He tried to prevent himself from being alone with her and told her plainly of his engagement to the child princess, now maybe an elvin teenager (for elves do not age as men do, but more slowly). Yet the prince having sold half his lifetime for three wishes was no longer a young man. In his heart he loved this woman for some reason beyond her beauty, it was like she was something he had sought for all his life. To elves, humans often seem a bit course and unrefined, but in her it was a zest for life, a quest to see and do things, whether they were considered proper or improper, right or wrong. She could drink, dance, laugh, fight and hold her own against any man in the castle.

One day, he did find himself alone with her. She was talking of following him on his quest, or if would he return to see her or if he might one day take her to Jurai. He had his back to her, steeling himself while love and duty and honor pulled his insides in opposite directions and maybe, just maybe, he might have to give in. Then she struck. She had taken up a sword from somewhere and now she tried to plunge it into his back. She wounded him badly. Maybe it was her words, “… for defiling my lair and stealing my treasure …” Maybe it was her eyes glowing with golden light in her anger, or her teeth, sharp and pointy, bared at him, but he recognized her as the dragon he had hunted so long turned into human form.

His sword flew out and they fought, closer to each other than they had ever fought before, hedged in by what would have been a ridiculously small room for a dragon. He beat her down with the flat of his blade. She in her anger forgot the sword and tried to bite and scratch as a wild beast, but was held off by the swords protection. He might have killed her, might have run her through but he didn’t. She saw that too and cried in frustration and defeat, then disappeared, a great shadow appearing overhead and winging away.

Wounded and mad with conflicting emotions, he formed a plan. Though he waited until his mind and his wound were better before he put it into effect, still, plans formed in physical and emotional agony lead to destruction. He would have this woman and he would tame her. He called forth the Jennie of the bottle and wished the dragon to be human always as he had seen her. Then he set out to find her.

He found her in her lair. She was human as he had seen her and weeping in despair, or so it seemed. She turned on him suddenly and transformed into a dragon. Surprise and confusion slowed his reactions. She smashed rocks down on him and tried to stab him with sharp stalagmites. He managed to roll into a crevasse. He used his last wish then and there to control her. In his haste he must have said , “… by the power of the sword …” though he could never recall all the words of this wish made in desperate circumstances. It worked though. By holding the sword and speaking a command word given him by the Jennie he could force her to do his bidding.

Forced obedience through magic, however, is less than the bond that exists even between a man and his tamed dog or his tamed horse. It is not a partnership or even mutual respect, not even voluntary cooperation. And so this prince had lost everything. He had sworn an oath to complete a quest which he could never fulfill. He had wasted three wishes and 1,000 years of his life in exchange for control over a woman with the soul and the powers of a dragon, who hated him. He had dishonored his betrothal and thus his families honor.

Regret and despair and hopelessness are like strong drink, they drive a man to do things he would not do otherwise. The dragon would not become a woman so the prince became a dragon. Not physically, but commanding her to remain in human form they raided and pillaged and hoarded like human dragons. He became a king of sorts and she sat by his side as a queen and fought by his side as a warrior and . ruling with an iron fist, taxing his subjects into penniless serfs tilling the land as slaves. They plundering the surrounding lands till other kingdoms paid tribute taxes to him.

This life sapped the strength of the prince in the few centuries remaining to him. He lived with constant regret gnawing his soul. In the end when he saw that he must die he tried to atone somewhat for the things that he had done and to prevent the decisions he had made from continuing on and on. He arranged for the queen to be sealed away

forever and he gave the lands to a clerical sect with orders to give back the stolen treasures to the people who had suffered the most from his greed.

The end of the story is yet unwritten. Although the prince’s body lies in a sarcophagus deep below this castle, and beside his body lies the body of the queen and below them both, in a cavern, is a stone dragon, they are not really dead. The dragon will rise again and the sword will be found by an heir of the prince, the kingdom of Jurai lies in wait, wasting without a ruler and without power for a prince of the royal blood to return, and the Jennie’s bottle, though lost, will surface again in another’s hands.

Shrine Level -5: