Becoming a Dragon (34 page)

"What's wrong with everyone today?" Crystal asked. She was walking home with John, ready to start their first lesson. "Not just Daniel. And no, I'm not going to continue to pester you to find out what happened to him. No, everyone was acting very strangely. Even your little Daisy has been behaving oddly. She couldn't keep her hands off you at lunch. I thought you were trying to keep your relationship a secret."

"It's that time of year," John replied. "It'll only get worse, I'm afraid."

Crystal looked at him strangely. "What are you talking about? What time of year?"

"It's the lead up to spring," John replied. "I have no idea why it happens, but everyone gets a little crazy this time of year. Did you know most wars start in spring?"

Crystal shook her head. "No, I didn't know that. But I've never noticed this before. None of my friends acted strangely this time of year last year. Are you sure you're not making it up?"

John shook his head. "You wouldn't have noticed it last year. It doesn't really happen until you've transformed. When you've woken the dragon inside of you. After that, well, this is an interesting time of year. Had you noticed most of the birthdays in our class are in the next few months?"

Crystal reflected on this. "I suppose they are. But what's that got to do with anything?"

"Red Dragon pregnancies last eleven months," John replied. "Most of the class were conceived during the months leading up to spring. Watch the class. You'll notice a lot more flirting going on this term."

Crystal paused. "But I don't feel any different."

"No, well, that's because you're…"

"Don't say it!" Crystal snapped. "I'm not special."

John nodded. "Well, let's just say it's a bit like the situation with the alcohol. You're a little different. That's all. In that case, you're affected much more than normal. In this case, you're hardly affected at all."

Crystal frowned. "So, how does it affect everyone else? What else can I expect this term in addition to more fights and flirting? And why doesn't it affect people till they've transformed?"

John paused to consider his answer. "I guess it makes everyone a bit more dragon-like. Everyone wants to be a dragon more. You'll probably notice people spending more time as dragons and less as people. Which is a good thing of course, as when they're a dragon the urge to fight goes down, and obviously, as a dragon, they can't mate."

Crystal let this sink in. "So, what does this mean for me? Am I less of a dragon than everyone else? Is that why I take longer transforming?"

John shook his head. "No. The opposite, really. You're more of a dragon, so you feel the urge less as you don't need it so much, and if anything, you should be faster at transforming. This is a little hard to explain, really."

Crystal nodded. "Well, you are doing a terrible job. Anyway, what do you mean; Red Dragon pregnancies? Is it different for other dragons?"

John nodded. "Of course. Generally, the larger the dragon, the longer the pregnancy. Rhino Dragons take about thirteen months, and the Sea Dragons take about fifteen. There's one extinct dragon, the Teradon, which was said to take almost two years."

"Wow!" Crystal replied. "That doesn't sound fun. So all the smaller dragons have shorter pregnancies?"

John nodded. "The Blues are almost the same as the Reds, but all the smaller ones have significantly shorter pregnancies. All but one."

Crystal looked at him expectantly. "Well, which one? Aren't you going to tell me?"

John looked back at her. "This is your house isn't it? We should start the lesson now, if we want to make some progress. Shall we sit outside here, by the ponds?"

Crystal nodded, and the two of them walked to a bench beside one of the ponds on the edge of the grounds of her house. John winced as he sat down.

"What's wrong?" Crystal asked. "Have you hurt yourself?"

John shook his head. "Just some lingering aches from our camping trip."

"Still? That was ages ago. Does it hurt much?"

John shook his head. "Not really. I've almost recovered completely now, but I still get some pains in my chest. They go very quickly though and I feel fine now. Please, forget I mentioned it."

Crystal nodded, glad to change the subject as she still felt a little guilty over the whole incident. "So, where do we start? Are we working through these in any particular order?"

John shook his head. "Not really, and you have learnt some things already. As your flying teacher, I've already tailored the classes' lessons to cover most of what I need to teach you at this stage. There's still transformation—"

"I'm not transforming in front of you. Let's make that clear right now. I doubt Daisy would be too impressed if you suggested it either."

John nodded. "We can come back to that later. For now I will just give you a few tips and you can practice on your own. It is a very important topic though—possibly the most important—and I think you'll regret not asking me to cover this one earlier."

"Whatever. But I'm not changing my mind on this one."

"You may be eating your words soon, but let's move on as time is precious. We've talked about politics and history, which you've seemed to have little interest in, so perhaps we could move onto war?"

"Fine with me," Crystal replied, glad to move away from those rather dry topics.

"Good. Now I know that previously I've said that the only thing I ask is for you to accept this gift of knowledge, and to wait until the last lesson to understand why I'm teaching you this, but I have one more request: that you don't share what I tell you with anyone, and that you don't ask how I know what I know. This is very important."

"Well, surely it is all from reading all those books in the library, isn't it?"

"No, it is not," John replied firmly, "and much that I tell you won't be found in any books that you'll find in any library in this Kingdom. However, it is, I assure you, all completely true. Do I have your agreement?"

"Sure, why not," Crystal replied indifferently. "You'll be telling me everything at the end though, won't you?"

"Of course. The last lesson will make everything clear. On to war. Our methods of war are a little unsophisticated, which is a good thing, as too many die violently as it is, and further sophistication could only make it worse. The methods for killing each other have remained the same for a very long time, fought just using the tools that we have as dragons: our claws, teeth and fire. Other weapons are generally frowned upon, and other than the giant crossbows you will find in almost every city, they aren't really used. Races have toyed with other ways of fighting, and the use of poisons—such as that herb I introduced you all to in our flying lesson—have been deployed, but never for any length of time. Fighting against dragons that can't fly, many flying dragons have employed the ability to drop heavy objects on their enemies, but sadly there are very few non-flying dragons left alive. As for fighting at night as humans, well that happens very rarely, fortunately, as few races feel comfortable doing so. It would be a devastating tactic if any race were to adopt it. Many races train with hand held weapons, but they do so only for competitions without any serious application. Wars themselves are almost always fought between two different races, occasionally three races, with only a couple of civil wars recorded."

"Civil wars?" Crystal interrupted. "What are they?"

"Internal wars where two groups in a race fight. If, for example, one Principality were to fight another that would be a civil war."

"That's never happened! Surely I'd have heard of it!"

"Given your interest in history, probably not, but you are correct, there are no recorded civil wars in Red Dragon history. Although given your current situation, it's far from impossible. Do you know the history of the formation of the principalities?"

Crystal shook her head. "I know I should, but I've never paid much attention to it. My father has always been a little saddened by it so we don't talk about it."

John nodded. "King Micah the Weak was the last King who held total power. He led a disastrous campaign against the Rhino Dragons, which led to untold deaths and not a single victory. Of course, many Rhino Dragons died as well, but many more Reds. His younger brothers demanded that their sons ruled their cities after them rather than King Micah's sons, as was the tradition. They used his guilt to extract this agreement from him, which he did in a moment of foolishness that he lived to regret. With immediate effect, the Kingdom was divided into the Principalities as we know them, and King Micah allowed considerable power to be transferred to his brothers and their sons. Of course, a number of the more powerful Lords were involved in this, hoping to be able to manipulate the princes. In all cases they have been disappointed, the princes and their heirs proving to be very independent minded. They have had more luck with the King and his descendants. Since then, there have been continuous calls for more responsibilities to be given to the Principalities, and although it hasn't happened yet, one day, it's possible that one of the Principalities might seek to become independent. That could only lead to civil war."

Crystal was shocked by this suggestion. "No! Civil war could never happen! There are too many people like my father who would stop it."

"It could, and it did almost happen once," John replied. "Long ago, one of the Lords was caught plotting against the King. At the time, his family was the most powerful family other than the King, and had the plot not been uncovered, it might have been successful."

"No!" Crystal exclaimed, finding this very hard to believe. "How could that happen?"

"Well," John replied. "Bear in mind that you haven't always been a Kingdom. Originally, your royal family was just one of several powerful families, and theirs was simply the most powerful and wealthy. The other families grudgingly accepted Cornelius I as their leader, and as soon as that happened he decided to name himself King. It could easily have been one of several other families, the most powerful of which has now disappeared from this land in entirety. King Lancelot II—who you'll probably have heard referred to as King Lancelot the defender, as he successfully repelled many invasions from your neighbours—also had to contend with an internal plot against him. He's not remembered for being a harsh ruler, but faced with this plot, he was ruthless."

"What was the name of the family?" Crystal asked.

John shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I don't remember. This was one that my father taught me. It's not in your books. Anyway, in other races, civil war has actually happened.  In both occasions, it was their last war; weakened after fighting amongst themselves, their neighbours, who in both cases were Blue Dragons, finished them off quickly once the civil war ended."

"If it's not in our history, how could you know this? How would your father know?"

"Remember our agreement?" John said. "Don't ask that question, and very importantly, don't share this knowledge, or you'll be asked the same question."

Crystal paused for a moment, glancing around the grounds to see if anyone was nearby. The only creatures she could see were ducks in the pond. "Could I get in trouble for having this conversation?"

"You? Yes, although not a lot at this stage," John replied. "Me, well it would be a lot worse for me. But in the long run, you will be safer armed with this knowledge."

Crystal frowned, but agreed to continue.

"As I was saying, wars are usually between two races," John continued. "The last Great War involving the Red Dragons was against two enemies, the Greens and the Blues, but they were as much against each other as against the Reds and there were no treaties between any of the three sides. However, this has not always been the case. There have been alliances, and where they have been struck, smaller, weaker races have successfully fought off invasions from larger, aggressive neighbours."

"Wait a minute," Crystal interrupted, feeling a little confused. "What races? I don't know anything about these other races. I just know of seven races: Red, Blue, Green, Rhino, Brown, Sea and Worm Dragons."

John shook his head irritably. "Those are the just the ones taught by that idiot. Even Red Dragon history shows many more races than that, which itself is very limited."

"Red Dragon history? What other sources do we have?"

"Every race keeps records, Crystal; Red Dragons do a better job than many, but it's very poor when you consider the size of the population. But we are crossing into final lesson territory here, so let's get back to races. Right, first of all, forget Professor Halfbrain's seven. Let's divide them up into the groups of races. You have flying dragons, like us, then there are three other big groups: those that walk, those that tunnel and those that swim.

Then within each of these groups, there are sub groups. Looking first at the flying dragons, you can divide them into large, medium and small; with the tunnelling dragons, divide them into large and small, the walking into giant, large and small, and well, we refer to the swimming ones as sea dragons, although some lived in lakes as well, but there aren't any real sub groups as there are too few of them."

"We? Who's we?" Crystal asked.

"In the case of Sea Dragons, that's what everyone calls them, but what you're really asking is a final lesson subject."