by Fiachra Rottinghaus
A note on the legends of the Dracotauri-
The Dracotaur legends are divided into seven cycles, Verza, Tankil,
Daerid, Fire, Stone, Air, and The End of Days. Each cycle is told in short
segments, one to be recited every night. The Verza cycle and the End of Days
are the shortest, at two nights each, and the Daerid is the longest at five or
six.
This is the Verza cycle, or the Creation Cycle. -Hweyat, Scrollkeeper
of the Gwentori
First Night
Once there was
nothing. The sun flew alone in the heart of the Void, and she was lonely, for
she was in herself the entirety of the universe.
She was the
Verza, the sun-spirit, and she had been born out of the darkstorms of the Deep
Void. As she dreamed of light, the stars appeared above and below her, until
she swam in a vast sea of jewels. But the stars were cold and distant and
unknowing, even as they gave light to the universe.
So the Verza
created a planet, from the winds of the Void and the light of the stars and the
marrow of her bones and the breath of her body. She was wounded, but she
rejoiced, for she had made Delverzasson, Land born of the Verza. It was barren,
and so she warmed it with the heat of her body and watered it with her golden
tears, and from the tears of her eyes and the marrow of her bones sprang the
grassy plains and the rugged mountains.
But the Verza was
still alone, although her heart knew joy. She wished to give another the joy of
the stars and the grass and the lightning, but she waited. She waited for many
ages of the world, until the time was right.
Second Night
The Verza watered
the young earth with the blood of her body, and from the blood clay she created
all the small things that fly and run. Where her talons scraped the clay from
the ground there was desert, and the desert, too, was good, like the mountains
and the grasslands and the great northern rivers.
From the last of
the blood clay she made the Dracotauri, and she gave them strong wings to fly
among the stars and strong legs to run across the plains. But their hides, like
the hides of the small ones, were weak.
So the Verza shed
her scales, which fell like rain upon the weak Dracotauri to strengthen their
hides and horns, and she became a being of light, and her wings were the wind
and her breath was the fire rivers.
As she ascended
high into the sky, a few last tears of sunlight fell, and landed on a few of
the newborn Dracotauri. Verza Maerix was one of these, a firstborn
spiritdaughter of the true Verza.
