Dragon Tales 01: Beginnings

Dragon Tales -- The Beginning

To those who are reading this history, welcome. As I age, I have taken more time in my busy life to contemplate the past -- to reminisce on certain topics and even research some with which I am less familiar. As I have done this, it has occurred to me that some of my research, memories and recollections may be of interest to others, thus this epistle.

As another great tale began, In the Beginning God created heaven and earth. He created earth and the seas; and he created life within the seas and on the earth.

Well, not having been there, I can't say exactly how it happened, but it did. Creatures have grown and evolved on this earth over a long time period (although it may have seemed merely a day to God).

It was during the time of the dinosaurs that my tale begins. This was 230 million years ago (give or take) in the middle of what humanity now calls the Triassic Period. Somewhere in this era, a small meat-eating, scavenging dinosaur (a type of archosaur) came into existence and developed through the Jurassic Period into what we now know as dragons.

We weren't the biggest beastie around, the fastest or the most ferocious. We only averaged about 100 -- 150 pounds. Like many other meat-eating dinosaurs (predators), we came to stand on two feet to better see prey. We developed eyes towards the front of our skull for better distance vision. And, we became warm-blooded.

As a species, we developed a familial social grouping that grew to claim a hunting area large enough to feed the group. Our social groups made nests for the eggs of our young and cared for them, incorporating them into the group and training them as they grew old enough to help with the hunting and scavenging. We consciously observed life around us, communicated, and used rudimentary tools.

Somewhere in this time period, for whatever reason, we, as a species began more and more to live along what are now known as ley lines -- those strong magnetic currents that encompass the earth. We became more and more sensitive to the energies along these lines (and we also found better food and water along the lines). Eventually, we found ways to tap into the energy found in the ley lines.

The first time a dragon realized that she (yes, it was a female) had the ability to do more than what most folks would consider normal was when she was under threat of being discovered by a rather large predator with little hope of escape. Like any sensible being, she tried to hide. She also thought really hard about how nice it would be if she could blend in a bit more with her surroundings -- like changing her skin color to match those surroundings. At that time, we dragons had various pigment colors in patterns on our skin -- some that were quite bright. Somehow, she tapped into something within herself that allowed her to change this skin pigmentation to blend in with her surroundings.

At the time, she had no idea how she had done what she had done. However, she survived, returned to her family group and recounted her near misadventure. As would be expected, they were all rather skeptical about her skin changing color. I mean, we all know about turning red -- blushing -- when we're embarrassed or aroused, but consciously turning colors --this was a big step.

Needless to say, a demonstration was in order. The change was not easy to reproduce when the only stressor was the expectations of her family, but she kept working at it -- thinking of her situation when she was threatened and what she had done at the time. Eventually, she was able to consciously make her skin change a bit. Unknowingly, she had tapped into the energy of the ley lines.

This ability was a huge development for the family. The girl worked to teach her family how to do it -- and believe me, they worked hard to grasp the concept. When they finally learned, it was a tremendous boost to the group. They were better able to hide themselves, which benefitted their hunting and their ability to escape other hunters.

It was a skill that they taught their young and it brought some changes within the group. Primarily, the group survived better. They were more successful at hunting and escaping. With better food and fewer deaths, the group grew and expanded their territory. In fact, it became a game within the group to see who could come up with the best color changes (beyond just hiding). In fact, many of the young males would strut around in front of the young females displaying their fanciful colors just like a peacock does today.

With the ability to change colors, the young were constantly experimenting with what they could do. The first thing that people noticed changing were some frills around the neck area that some of the young males began to develop. As part of their prancing around, they would spread the neck frills, which they colored, and try to look more impressive to the young females.

While some of the younger generation thought the neck frills were pretty cool, it triggered some serious thought among the older folks. No, they weren't worried about colored neck frills. What they were thinking was -- if we can change our appearance like this, at our whim, what else can we change. Pretty soon there was some conscious effort to change body parts -- and the results were amazing.

We began seeing some of the hunters with longer, sharper, harder claws and teeth. Some of the group experimented with not just the shape of their claws, but the shape of their forefeet, and we saw longer digits that could grasp, and the first opposable digits -- what we now call fingers and thumbs. With fingers developing, retractable claws developed. And of course, being a very sexually oriented group, someone came up with the idea of increasing the size of their penis (a development that the females definitely enjoyed).

And, as we came into periodic contact with other dragon groups, they picked up what we'd been doing and kept taking it even further. Oh, yeah, it didn't just happen overnight, but over multiple generations -- we just kept tinkering with our bodies and our minds to see what we could do. Evolution kept on moving, other species around us also changed. We saw feathers develop and tried that. We saw wings developed and jumped on that -- how cool to be able to soar over the land -- hunting areas opened up hugely. The competition with our other family groups caused us to do some serious thinking. We came up with some basic rules for our society so we would have good, beneficial interactions and not fight over things like prey and territory.

We began to develop science, or the scientific method, a more systematic approach to the many experiments that the young and old had been doing. We finally realized the potential of the ley lines and what it meant to us -- that we could consciously reach out and manipulate that energy.

It took generations, but we kept evolving and changing as we, as individuals, thought was best. Let me tell you, there were some fanciful looking dragons. Then it happened. I'm not sure which group, or where it was, but someone (again under a great deal of duress from eminent fear of being eaten by a large predator) actually moved themselves out of harm's way. It took a bit to realize what she (why is always the females?) had done, but when she did, she was beside herself (and across the clearing, and back where she started -- you get the idea).

Upon her return to her family, she immediately told them of the occurrence. This, as with the initial changing skin color was greeted with a degree of skepticism until she was able to reproduce the results, eventually at will.

As news of this new talent spread, we had all sorts of experiments with all sorts of results, some of which were rather messy -- it is not real good to teleport oneself into a rock, well, you get the idea. After some of those messy accidents, we figured out some basic guidelines which spread through the dragon communities.

Gradually, the ability to change oneself became the ability to change oneself at will. From a nice, moderate-sized bi-pedal dinosaur, one could add wings and feathers (or no feathers, depending upon the appearance desired) and take to the air as what we now know as birds. Or, we could pull our arms and legs inside our bodies and make ourselves more slender -- become a snake so we could wiggle into tiny crevasses for safety or to chase prey. One of the more inventive of our folk decided to become a poisonous snake (that was another nice idea that took a bit of playing around with before it became practical). And we even got the hang of spitting our poison, like a spitting cobra does now.

I tell you, dragons were sitting pretty in our world. We could escape almost anything. If we could not escape it, we could change color to hide, harden our skin like rock or spit poison on our attacker. Some dragons became adept at adding outside material to their body to enhance their mass -- instant growth.

Then came the next big step in dragon evolution. Somebody decided that if they could move here or there, maybe they could move through time -- it would just take some sort of reference to know where one was going. Some bright minds got together and started experimenting. Small jumps were attempted first, like a few minutes, then an hour or so. As it seemed to be working, some of the more adventurous young folk decided that they wanted to look into the future. We had quite a few folks just disappear. Whether they went somewhere dangerous, or couldn't figure out how to return, who knows. But gradually, it became an almost common occurrence for folk to disappear for a while, then to reappear seemingly out of nowhere.

One of the interesting uses for this skill became the vacation. If an individual was in the middle of a task and needed a break, they would just disappear. They would then reappear a minute or so later all refreshed. What they did is teleport themselves to a nice relaxing spot -- like a beach or fresh water stream -- where they would spent an hour or even a day or two (sometime with friends). They would then come back to their task totally refreshed.

As our skills developed and the energy of the ley lines became easier to manipulate, we began exploring our world even more. We would fly long distances, soaring in the thermals. We would change into a flying shape and transport ourselves somewhere (didn't want to appear inside a rock or tree), look around and then head home. Many of us found places we liked so much that we would travel there repeatedly -- especially warm, sandy beaches.

Sometime in all of this fun, someone got the idea of talking to another individual mind-to-mind. Oh wow. The thought and discussion that went into this development was literally mind-boggling. We had developed and trained scientists and researchers who studied all sorts of things, including how we tapped into the energies of the ley lines. Mental communication became an immediate area of interest to a large number of dragons.

It took a long time to develop -- again, multiple generations. And, as with humans and their attempts at mental communication, the first breakthroughs came from twins, who seem naturally to be more in touch with each other. Many human twins seem to be connected to their sibling, even in the womb. Sometimes this manifests as an emotional connection, picking up depression, excitement or fear from their twin. Sometimes it manifests as a physical connection where feelings of hunger, pain or illness may be felt. And sometimes it manifests as a mental connection where communication and visualization occur. Well, it happens with dragons too.

In the earliest forms, it seemed to be instinctive. But of course, our scientists worked to improve the skill until they were able to figure out how it was done. It turns out that not every dragon could mentally communicate with every other dragon. It was much more common along direct family lines (with similar genetic/structural mental development). The key was actually believing that it could be done. Then it took a lot of practice. We found that a calm mind facilitated the communication, as well as tapping into the energy of the ley lines.

As we explored and discovered out mental abilities, many of our researchers and young took more and more to meditation to achieve the mental state of calm that facilitates mental communication or mental telepathy. We developed entire communities that specialized in mental research. Other groups devoted themselves more and more to a hedonistic lifestyle, enjoying the pleasures of the flesh.

And our society continued to develop. With the interconnections we had, individual rights and responsibilities came more and more to the forefront. Let's just say that the discussions went on and on (and you know how dragons enjoy a good discussion).

And then it happened. What truly changed the world as we knew it.