View source for Book the One (Dragons of Histh)

[[Category:Dragons of Histh]] [[Category:Loathsomedragon]] [[Category:Story]]
{{title|name=The Dragons of Histh<br/>Book The one|author=Harethe|user=Loathsomedragon}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Dragons of Histh, Book the 1}}
<span style="font-weight: 132%;">Copyright &copy; 2001 by [[User:Loathsomedragon|Harethe]]</span>

Aurelio King is a bit of a recluse.The residents of Cultus Creek,
Ontario usually gossip about why that foreigner would pay good $ to 
lease thousands of square miles of useless sand. He never ever seems to
stay in town as dawn approaches, but goes off in a blaze of burning
rubber tires as he heads back into the desert he calls home.

Although the locals regard him as a foreigner,he is anything
but. Some of the oldtimers recall their great-grandparents talking
about the arrival of Aurelio Brown's pioneer forefather who arrived 
in the 1950's. It's a funny thing about the Brown clan, they all spoke
in a  version of the english language which was well spiced
with dutch and a bit of german. Those King's were definitely
foreigners.

But they were also extremely thrifty. They had always paid in
silver, gold and precious stones. Most people were content to leave
them be, why look a gift horse in the mouth. Of those who would not 
leave well enough alone, some simply vanished in the desert wastes
and others came back '''different''', and soon left the town, never discussing
what happened to them out in the desert. Once they left town they
very rarely made contact with the ones they left behind. Thus, although
many a legend or rumor circulated around town about what Aurelio 
Brown did out in the desert wastes, his gold, silver and jewels were
pretty effective at sealing loose lips and prying eyes.

One winter night as Aurelio roared back into his desert 
wilderness, a group of reckless youth decided to follow him and
pry his secret from him. They kept a discreet distance back from him 
and when they approached the road leading into the canyon, they 
started dreaming of the secrets they would soon uncover.

In his big heavy cube van, Aurelio looked over at the blinking
warning light which told him he was being tailed. Soon he would
enter his own domain where all sorts of sensing devices would keep
track of any human intruder who strayed in. One thing Aurelio had
learned was that it was not wise for humans to catch him by
surprise, as this invariably caused him to revert to the more primal
being who dwelt within him. Surprises were definitely not welcomed
by Aurelio, and his desert wilderness was well equipped with ground 
radar, motion detectors, infrared cameras which his precious metals and
jewels purchased.

For Aurelio was not alone in this wilderness, other creatures 
called this desert their home, and if they had been detected, the world
religious and scientific communities would be shattered. Some secrets
were not meant to be discovered by the human race.

Aurelia floored the gas and quickly the van leapt forward with a
speed one would not expect of it. After many twists and turns, Aurelio
shook off his pursuers. Just to make certain, at one point he stepped
out of his van and placed his hands on the rock walls of the canyon
he had passed through. The walls cracked and flowed, and the canyon was
no more.

He drove on for several more miles, checking that his charges were
snug on their shelters, and then he drove to his own lair. Beside him 
lay the electronic voicebox that he used to reproduce human speech,
because Aurelio himself was incapable of breathing, let alone speaking.
Aurelio was the Master Castle Builder, a living statue who had once
been a human artist and scholar, but who now was anything but human.

He drove the van up to a cliff face beside a large rocky hill
where he got out and placed his hands against the rock and willed
the rock to flow. It flowed outwards, revealing a tunnel leading down
into the earth. After driving in and resealing the entrance he drove
a few miles down the tunnel into a large chamber where he parked the
van and strode over to a wall covered with video monitors and alarm
systems. A quick check of the screens showed that the inquisitive
teens had given up and were heading back towards town. A check of the
other monitors showed that his charges were coiled up asleep in their
lairs. An alarm now went off and a light started flashing. In 15 minutes
the sun would go up and Aurelio knew where he had to be when that
event occurred. Thus he stripped out of his human clothes while his form
still resembled that of a human and started to enter the tunnel 
leading to the communal and ceremonial caverns. As he took his first
step in, his clay like stone flesh started to darken and ripple and
swell.

What emerges from the other side of the tunnel is a living
statue of the dragon goddess Histh. The statue is life size, and walks
like a dragon and thinks like a dragon. For when Aurelio transforms
into an idol of Histh at nightfall, a bond is formed between Histh
and the transformed Aurelio where he becomes a focus of her celestial
power. Histh herself may be too busy saving an inquisitive rat down
in New Zealand, but her idol is much more than several tons of rapidly
hardening basaltic rock. To the dragon worshipers who will pay homage 
to it, Aurelio is Histh.

Unfortunately mobility isn't part of the package for Aurelio
during the day, and as he shuffles along a stone ramp to his pedestal
of honor, his gait slows as his body hardens and becomes less fluid.
After perching himself on the jewelled globe, he tries to pose himself
in an dignified manner appropriate to an idol of a dragon goddess.
He extends out his wings, raises one clawed foot with outstretched
talons and just before he freezes solid,turns his head slightly to
stare at the witch dragoness Maegrethe. He opens his maw in a silent
dragon roar of greeting and then solidifies. Only the flickering glow
in the rubies which make up his eyes indicate that he still lives and
sees what is before him.

Like any good dragon Maegrethe utters a quick but loud roar in
response and then makes preparations for the Serpent Dragon Dance
and the Initiation Ceremony.

There are a total of 6 ceremonial chambers in the world, and the
one in Canada is devoted to the descendants of the dragon goddess 
Histh. 

To understand the purpose of these gathering places for dragonkind, one
must understand that there are 600 races of dragons in the 
world. Histh is actually a pretty recent deity in the dragonic religious order. Four
other tribes of dragons have their own deity, which they alone worship.

What all draconic creatures have in common is the protoserpent
from which all draconic races sprang. Dragon mythology states that this
Great Serpent was born out of a volcano back in the time when 
king lizards stalked the earth and the human race was represented by
proto-mammalian ratlike things. It was said that the Great Serpent 
spawned offspring which ate everything in their path and would have
destroyed the world if a fiery comet had not plunged out of the sky
and driven the race to near extinction. It is believed by the dragons
that many a long low hill could be the fossilized remains of a 
Great Serpent. Since this cataclysm occurred 10's of millions of
years ago, no living dragon actually met a Great Serpent, and until
a few years ago most doubted that the creatures were any more than a
myth. The old myths also state 2 more things. The proto-dragons known
as serpents were descended from the Great Serpents. When seven
Great Serpents have been reborn, the end of the world will come.

The Serpent Dragon dance is a ritual dance performed by dragons
all over the world. It is in honor the the Great Serpent from which 
the 600 dragon races sprang. The Great Serpent is one deity all the
differing tribes commonly worship. Every six years the dance is held
at the Canada caverns, and it is an occasion for dragons around the
world to come together and celebrate what they are. In other years 
the other 5 chambers are the site of gathering dragons.

In years past the ceremonial caverns devoted to the tribe of the
Serpente had fallen into disuse.It,s a liitle difficult to maintain a
ceremonial cavern to a dragon deity when young ones start to question 
the very existence of a Serpente Deity.The dragons were straying from
the path of the Great Serpente.

As Maegrethe turns away from Aurelio's frozen greeting,she notes
that all the tribes are present in the caverns,as well as creatures
with no tribe to call their own.Over in one corner some witch 
dragonesses are discussing the latest in spell casting.In a 
pool fed by the salt waters of the gulf she sees several sea serpents
playing and splashing water on an annoyed French Skye dragon who is
setting up a 500 gallon drum to use to beat a rythm.Over in another
gallery a were dragon is trying to coax his terrified twin sister to
transform into her proper shape.In her human form his sister has no
memories of being a weredragon,and is terrified of the reptillian 
which won't eat her,but is definitely roaring and displaying his 
sharp teeth .Unfortunately for the two of them.she just can.t seem to
get out of her human mode.There are huge crows with the heads of a
dragon and dragons with the head of crows.There are serpentes with
3 heads,dragons with two tails .Off in one corner a visiting 
kothoga sits all by himself.He pushed himself too far and transformed
into the pure demon form of his race,a huge skull attached to a
rotting skeleton with a healthy beating heart in his ribcage
pumping nonexistent blood.The dragons avoid his smelly living dead
carcass and no doubt he's hoping that a witch dragoness can reverse
his transformation.Off on a stone shelf specially reserved for her,
an ancient bipedal carniverous dragon named Margaret sleeps off a
good nights hunt.her wings spread at her sides,ready to strike at
any foolish dragonet who should venture too close.

All around the cavern slide and crawl serpentes.This tribe of
primitive dragon is not very well developed.Serpentes have a intellect
somewhat higher than a toad but no more than that of a dog.The smarter
ones can be trained to do tricks and the feeble minded ones are left
to wander about as they will.Up till a few years ago they were 
regarded by dragons at best as pets and at worst as vermin.This last
classification is what brought the plight of serpentes to Histh;s
attention.If the rest of the dragon race would turn up their snouts
at them,than she'd do just the opposite.Her first divine form was as
a serpente and she adopted them into her family of servants and 
followers.Being an adopted runt herself,one could say she became
soulmates with this primitive dragon race.In doing so she infused 
in herself a bit of the heritage the Great Serpentes left to their
descendants.Thus any dragon decscended from Histh has a more 
primtive and primeaval aspect to their nature than some of the most
advanced dragon races.

Having probably descended from the Great Serpentes through the
serpente race,there is one aspect that dragons will never ever escape
from,that heealthy roar.Serpentes bellow all the time and the 
ceremonial cavern was no doubt filled with their roars and hisses.
A dragon likes to get out a window pane shattering bellow ,but they
are smart enough to know to keep quiet if humans are passing by.

Being primitive creatures,the life of a serpente boils down to
eating,sleeping,mating and roaring away,activities they occassionally
do all at the same time.They are serpentes after all.Thus one might
wonder why all the other dragons and creatures in the cavern 
tolerated serpentes slithering all over the place and poking their
snouts where they ought not to be..There were heraldic dragons leading
pet wyverns by the leash in that crowd,but even the dimmest lowliest
serpente was treated as if it were royalty.It didn't have anything to
do with a long dead Great Serpente.It had everything to do with a
sweet young French Skye dragoness named Ida.

The cavern in which this communal gathering occurs in is 
thousands of feet wide and hundreds of feet high.In the centre
is a 150 foot diameter saucer shaped depression with a stone ramp
leading from the edge to a pedestal in the center.On this mount is
perched the black statue of Histh.The depression is 15 feet deep and
is filled with a yellowish liquid.Susoended high from the ceilings are
two cages filled with a screaming human boy in one and a senseless 
girl in the other.They are about to become unwilling participants in
the Initiation Ceremony.Had they been a little more willing,a set
of stone steps leads down from the pedastel on which Aurelio is
perched into the pool below his claws.Surrounding the edge of the 
depression is a bank of stone along it's rim,raised 6 feet off the 
ground.This barrier to entrance to the pool is a recent addition.
There are 16 tunnels leading into the ceremonial cavern,and a
space in the rock face where a 17th tunnel used to be.The 16 tunnels
are filled with much roaring ,hissing and dragons and dragoness,s
looking for a secluded dark damp spot away from prying eyes,but from
the former 17th tunnel only a faint crackling can be heard.

Finally the ceremonies begin.Maegrethe is assisted by her fellow
witch dragonessws and by their 5 aids.Maegrethe herself does not have
an assistant,unlike the other 5 witches.Their assistants are young
french skye dragonesses,and someday they themselves will practice the
craft of dragon witchery.

Maegrethe speaks in a common dragon language which is a
combination of roars,hisses and body movements.She repeats the old 
Great Serpente prophesies,and when she mentions the part about the end of the world
coming upons the rebirth of six Great Serpentes,the five skye 
dragonesses start to tremble and glance at tunnel 17,as does most
everyone else in the cavern.

After having tuned up his 500 gallon oil drum the French Skye
dragon by the sea serpent pool starts to pound out a rythm
"tappetytap tap '''boom''',tappetytap tap '''boom''',tappetytap tap '''boom''',tappety
tap tap '''boom'''&hellip;".Soon the weredragon standing by his terrified human 
sister gives up on her and concentrates on the beat.Every time he 
hears that BOOM he lets out a lusty roar,soon accompanied by other
dragons.

At this point the 5 skye dragonesses glance at tunnel 17,hoping
it will stay silent,but it is not to be.Feom the other side of the 
sealed entrance comes a muffled roar,which follows the beat of the 
booming drum.This is shortly followed by a pounding of a different
sort as a heavy mass inside the tunnel crashes against it;s stony 
prison with such force that the cavern shakes as if hit by an
earthquake and chips of stone fall from the ceiling.

Maegrethe is also glancing at tunnel 17,but then she returns
her gaze to the 5 skye dragonesses.They have evey reason to tremble,
because the creature sealed forever in tunnel 17 was once their sister
Ida,now she is a Great Serpente.


Ida had been a superior kind of dragon.She was one of a clutch
of six eggs laid by a bipedal carniverous dragon after a successful
mating with a French Skye dragon.Her mother was a descendant of
Margaret the Dragon and her father had the blood of a divine feathered
serpente in him.Thus in Ida flowed the heritage of some of the best
dragon races in existence.

Being a mere carnivorous bipedal dragon,her mother did not 
respond in a motherly fashion when the six eggs hatched.Her young
did not look or smell like bipedal carnivorous dragons,so she 
quickly abondoned the nest and left the weak squirmy little things
to their fate.

At this stage Maegrethe became aware of their plight.Since their
other was of the race of Histh,the witch dragoness was attuned to the
needs of followers of Histh and rescued them from a quick death in the
Sahara desrt.She took them back to England for safekeeping.After
some enquiries she discovered that the hatchlings most resembled 
newborn French Skye dragons.Thus five of the six were quickly
adopted into the clan of French Skye dragons and had a happy
dragonhood.The sixth dragoness Maegrethe kept for herself and named
Ida in honour of a long dead human relative.

Over the next few years Maegrethe discovered that her young
charge was not just any Skye dragon.Although she had the superior
intellect of her father,she also had a bit of humour,rare in 
natural born dragons.But at the same time she had all her mothers
carnivore and migratory instincts,as well as a more complex biology
than a mere Skye dragon.She was a fusion of the worlds ultimate
dragonic killing machine and ultimate dragon intellect..Maegrethe
knew that this hatchling was destined for some higher purpose.

Maegrethe thus taught Ida all which she had learned after 9
centuries of existence.When she had taught her everything she knew,
Ida demanded more.With the instincts of a migratory carnivore,Ida
quite happily left the english isles and went with Maegrethe on
dragon gatherings and explorations.Fear was not in her nature.
Any opponent who attacked this diminutive dragoness discovered 
that Ida had all the fangs and claws and venom stingers of a
bipedal carnivorous dragon retracted and hidden in the folds of 
her scaly flesh and tail.With strong jumping muscles in her hind
legs and hollow bones reinforced internally.she was lightning fast
and agile in the attack.Unlike her Skye dragon brethren who soared
in the sky all day to avoid being attacked on the ground,Ida was
equally at ease on the ground,in the air and in the ocean.She was.
simply put,the most superior dragoness that dragonkind ever created.

As it dawned on Maegrethe that her charge was a new saviour for
dragonkind,she quickly contacted the French Skye clan to check on
the fate of the other 5 adopted dragonesses.Yes,they were very much
alive and running circles around their kinfolk,showing all the same
potential that Ida showed.

Maegrethe quickly convened a gathering of the witch dragonesses
from the 6 races of dragonkind.Maegrethe kept Ida,and 4 witches from
the 4 other tribes adopted 4 of the dragonesses and promised to 
mentor them and teach their pupils about their new adopted tribe.
The thought of a dragoness being adopted by the serpente clan was
offensive to all concerned except Maegrethe.Maegrethe had once been
a serpente herself,and being a servant of Histh,did not turn her
snout up at this primitive dragon race.In the end a reluctant witch
dragoness agreed to take the last remaining young one to live with
the serpentes on condition that food be supplied by the other tribes
and that she be allowed to teach the young dragoness the ways of the
witches dragon tribe as well as that of the serpente tribe.This was
quickly agreed to.

In 1993 another gathering of the dragon clans was to be held
at the Canadian ceremonial caverns.By this time Ida had grown into a
fetching young dragoness.Standing on her hind limbs with snout 
reaching for the sky,she measured 15 feet tall from the ground to
the tip of her beak hook.Measured from the tip of her tail to
the tip of her beak hook she was much longer.
She was just approaching mating age.Many a young
French Skye dragon glided over the English Channel in hopes of
fetching her to his lair,but she would have none of it.An dragon
archeological dig had discovered sacred tablets on a ritual
called the Serpente Dragon dance,and it's first performance in
countless millennia was to be held in Ontario,Canada

Thus while countless lovestruck Skye dragons sailed above the
Cheviot hills of Northumberland,Ida was down in the caves of Maegrethe
prancing and leaping and looping and coiling,hoping that she would be
chosen to participate in the ancient dragon dance.With her superior
dragon body she was capable of performing undulations and movements
that other dragon dancers could only dream off.

There was only one problem which disturbed her,the old tablets
said that the Serpente Dragon dance was a celebration of serpentehood.
Ida loved the dance ,but not serpentes.They were such primitive 
creatures.Whilst Ida had fine feathered wings,they had none.Where
she had light but strong bones,they were big boned and clumsy.Where
she had a fine pointed snout ending in a beak hook,they had wide blunt
nosed skulls only suitable for crushing and tearing prey apart.Her
talons were retractible and protected whereas theirs were fixed and
extended.Throw in the fact that the only vocalization they were 
capable of was never ending roars and hisses,there was no way around
the fact that whereas she was a supeior kind of dragon,they barely
deserved to be honoured with the title of dragon.So WHY had some
ancient dragon tribe created such a wickedly exotic ritual in honour
of mindless stupid serpentes.

This question dwelled on Ida,s mind as she and Maegrethe flew in 
over the Texas coast to the ceremonial cavern.Once inside Ida rushed
off to practise on her Serpente Dragon routine in one of the unused
side chambers.Imagine her surprise when she found her 5 sisters there
as well,all writhing and coiling and eager to be one of the six dragon
dancers required for the dance..Being superior dragonesses,the six 
sisters quickly taught one another their moves and discoveredthat
individually their dancing was good but as a team ,they were 
unbeatable

In the meantime Maegrethe had set of down one of the tunnels to 
the ossuary.Here in alcoves clawed into the walls lay dragon skeletons
and skulls and other skeletons of creatures not of dragonkind,but 
still honoured by the 6 tribes.If one were to look closely at the 
dear departed one would notice that there were a lot more skulls than other
body parts.Although dragons honour their dead,they are still ravenous
practical beasts.The reason no dead dragons have been found is because
other dragons eat the body,bone,guts tissue and everything.All they
leave is the head,and this  much lighter burden is carried to the 
nearest ossuary.Eat the big bulky and hard to transport dragon body
and honour the skull.Nobody said dragons were wimps.

Around this time the elder dragons who would decide which dragons
would take part in the Serpente Dragon dance came upon Ida and her 
sisters cavorting about the side chamber.To make a long story short,
it was agreed that the six dragonesses would perform the ceremony.Ida
was overjoyed,it was going to be her big day,dragonkind would worship
the ground she ran on.

By 1993 the fortunes of the serpente tribe were at the lowest
point they,d been at for thousands of years.Although the tribe
itself traced it's beginnings to an event which had occurred 10's
of millions of years ago,they had definitely not advanced in 
social standing.

Although the Serpente Dragon dance was supposedly being held
in their honor,the reality was far different.In one cavern was held
pens of mooing,baaing and oinking cattle,sheep and pigs whilst in
the other side were pens holding roaring hissing serpentes.Dragons 
would wander around herding stray serpentes back to the pens whilst
at the royal feeding trough the nominal head of the serpente clan
was leashed and kept sticking his smelly snout in the middle of a
communication between the leaders of two tribes and mindlessly
roaring away.As much as the two dragonesses would have loved to
sink their jagged teeth into his throat,they had to settle for
savage hisses and nips in order to shut him up.Basically nobody
wanted these stupid creatures crashing through their party,so it was
much easier to lead them on leashes or pen them up.

The Serpente Dragon dance itself was a complex affair.and many
dragons seriously doubted whether it could be pulled off.It required
six concentric circles of serpentes to coil around a centre 
point,with each band travelling in the opposite direction to it's 
adjacent band of slithering serpentes.Thus the serpentes travelling in the inner
circle travelled counter clockwise,the next circle travelled clockwise
the 3rd circle travelled clockwise,etc.The serpentes had to move to a 
rythm :slide slide slide and then they had to rear their heads off the
ground ,unsheath their fangs and spit venom in front of them.At this
point they lowered their heads to the ground again and slide along to
that rythm.after 6 revolutions around the circle they coiled over 
their head and tail and sank the tip of their tail into their maw
and convulsed their bodies before straightening out again and resuming
the dance.It was very primal and no doubt many a dragon and dragoness
got hot under the scales just thinking about it.

The problem obviously was,were the serpentes up to the task.Could
they pull off such a complex routine.Many years of training serpentes
were envisaged but the trainers were in for a pleasant surprise.
Serpentes from the tribe of Histh are the more advanced form of
srrpente,with the intelligence of cats and dogs.After much hard
training these serpentes could only partially get the routines
right.Yet the more primitive serpentes,with longer and thinner 
bodies,non retractible fangs and the brains of a toad,took to the 
routine like a fish takes to water.They didn't need any training
and just needed that beat of the rythm to get them going.

As the preparations for the dance began dragon handlers led
the serpentes out of their pens and set them up along the 
6 circles set in grooves around the pool of Histh with its
frozen statue perched in it's place of honour.All the serpentes
chosen for the dance were of the original serpente race.The 
serpentes of Histh were allowed to finsh off the scraps of
flesh,blood and offal in the feeding troughs.Being serpentes,both 
kinds were happily roaring and hissing away and no doubt would
have engaged in other activities if not restrained by their handlers.

Down in the side chamber,Ida and her 5 sisters had finshed
perfecting the dance and were running on all fours to the ossuary
in search of serpente skulls to use as masks.Down in the boneyard they
discovered that of the two kinds of serpente skull they found there,
the more ancient skulls made a more comfortable fit,The skulls from
Histh serpentes had higher foreheads,forward slanting eyes,a more
triangular appearance and retractible fangs.These skulls were more
dragonlike ,more shaped like the skulls of Ida and her sisters.
Unfortuneately they were not as roomy on the inside and Ida found
she couldn't slide her snout into the space between the jawbones.

The more ancient serpente skulls however,were a different story.
Their venom fangs were fixed in a strike position,they had low 
foreheads and the eye sockets were sideways oriented.They were also
blunt nosed and broader,not refined and delicate by any means.They
were also heavy,and no normal French Skye dragonesses neck could have
carried that weight.Being a superior sort of dragon however,Ida and
her sisters discovered that their neck muscles were just strong enough
to do the job.Thus Ida slid her snout and head into the ancient
serpente skull she was holding and engaged in a little play,slashing
at her sisters with those wickedly long venom fangs of the long dead
serpente.After play was done,she and her sisters bounded and leaped 
down the tunnel back to the ceremonial cavern,necks held high,skulls
bouncing up aand down on their heads.

As the six dragonesses bound into the ceremonial cavern,the Skye 
dragon by the sea serpent pool starts tapping out the rythm of the
Serpente Dragon dance on an old 500 gallon oil drum"tappetytap
tap BOOM...".This gets the attention of all the dragons and the 17
tunnels quickly empty as the crowd of dragons gathered round the 6
serpente circles grows larger.The serpentes themselves grow restless
and a few break their leashes and stray away from their handlers.Down
in the feeding troughs,the leader of the serpente tribe removes his 
snout from the gutted carcass of a cow and slithers over the edge
intent on going where the action is.As he reaches the edge of his 
leash he rears up on his hind legs,lunges his long torso forward and
snaps the restraint holding him back.He pushes his way through and 
heads toward the pounding beat of that dragon drummer.

Ida and her sisters take their places between the space between
the circles.Ida takes a middle space between the 3rd and 4rth circle 
lies down on her belly.Not being a serpente she can't flex her torso
as easily as a much longer and sinuous serpent,but she can more easily
use her more muscular legs to drag herself along the ground.She lays
her head,nestled in the serpente skull,flat along the ground ,along 
with the rest of her body.Her body is tense and oily with anticipation

Having got the rythm the drummer cranks up the volume,the
handlers release their serpente charges and the dance begins.The
serpentes slide to the tap,and rear up and spit out venom to the BOOM.
Ida herself does likewise,and is surprised that she had that much 
venom in her.She feels her heart pounding and her venom glands
throbbing to the beat of the drum.The beat seems to be rousing the 
carnivore within her and all about her body dormant venom quills and
stingers unfold and slide out of their resting places,dripping with
venom.Out of her paws slide her talons of their own free will and her
torso wiggles a little more loosely than before.as her serpente 
heritage slowly awakens.After 6 complete revolutions the serpentes 
change the routine slightly.Up to that point they'd simply spat out
venom as they reared up.but now they utter lusty roars as they rear
up their heads.The mood is infectious and soon the dragon crowds are
flickering out their forked tongues and bellowing out every time they
hear that BOOM.Ida herself has exhausted her venom system by this time
but the quills and stingers all over her body stay poised in position.
She's no scholarly little dragoness in this state.Needless to say.her
sisters are in a similar state of excitement.

In a long sinuous hill near Emmen,Holland.a tremor in the 
ground begins"rattlerattily rattle thump"a beat in perfect harmony
with the drumbeat in Canada.The snow begins to melt from the surface 
of the hill and waves of heat start to pulse from the core of the hill.
The stones begin to rattle and rise and fall to the beat of the
throbbing ground.Then cracks appear along the surface of the ground,
revealing the glowing interior of the ground.A flash of light and
red hot rock erupts from the hill and vanishes and dissipates into
the air.The hill cools and is silent once more.

In the air,the reawakened spirit of an Great Serpentess wends
her way towards the drumbeat of a Canadian cavern.

Back in the ceremonial caverns,Ida and her sisters add a new 
dimension to the Serpente Dragon dance.Leaping and bounding on all
four legs,they hop over the undulating coiling slithering serpentes
beneath them.As they land on the other side of a band of serpentes,
they stand up tall on their hind legs,take a few steps forward,throw
out their wings  and roar louder than they've ever roared before in 
their life.They then spin on one taloned foot and coil over their
neck and coil into a tight a spiral as they can force their bodies
into.They then collapse back onto the floor where they straighten 
out again.The dance slides forward and on the next BOOM the serpente
coil up on themselves and try to swallow their tails.Ida and her
sisters try likewise,and sink their jaws over fully extended tail
stingers.Their tails convulse and try to pump nonexistent venom 
out of the stinger.Although they no doubt tore flesh,they're too
caught up in the dance to notice.

At this time the frozen statue of Histh,Aurelio in actuality
senses that a POWER is present in the cavern.Being bonded to Histh,
he is attuned to the existence of deities,and this POWER is throbbing
through the very atoms that make up his stone.The deity he senses is 
both alien and familiar,and she's not Histh.She's much more
powerful than Histh.He wants to roar out a warning to the dragon 
crowds,but is just a frozen mute statue.Thus all he can do is wait.

The Great Derpente spirit was not THE Great Serpente,but she was
one of his first six descendants.Although she represented raw primal
power,the knowledge of how to use that power was not hers.Thus as her
invisible coils looped about the cavern,she searched for the means to 
bring back her own tribe.Coiling over to the statue of Histh,she
learned the arts of metamorphosis and transformation of that deity.
Being an ancient deity,this Great Serpente spirit was more powerful
then Histh,and the other 4 dragon gods and goddesses.She learned,and
she bided her time.

At the same time the statue of Histh started to warm and
throb to the beat of that drum.It eyes started to glow brighter
as the ancient Great Serpente spirit channeled all the powers of 
Histh and the other 4 dragon deities into herself.Under normal
circumstances the crowds of dragons and serpentes and other creatures
may have sensed her existence,but in the fever of the dance they were
too busy writhing and coiling on the floor to notice.Only Aurelio the
statue knew ,and he probably was stunned senseless with all the divine
powers that were being channeled through him.

Had the dragons quit the dance right there and then,probably
nothing more would have happened.The spiri would have gone back to 
her fossilized body in Russia and gone back to sleep for another 
10 million years.But Ida had to spoil things.

As she and her sisters continued to bound over the serpente 
circles,she swung out her wings as she bounded over the innermost
band of serpentes and this caused her to overshoot and glide and
slide towards the edge of the sacred pool.She was coming in fast
and slid right over the low protective barrier set at the rim of the
pool.Her tail and torso slid over the edge and as her forelims clawed
for purchase on the barrier,her neck and head snapped forward.This
caused the ancient serpente skull to fly off her head and tumble into
the yellow liquid below her.Her tail was only a few feet from the 
surface of the liquid and drops of yellow goo spattered onto her tip.
At this point the crowd of dragons all froze and stared at her and at
the liquid below her.Slowly the skull sank into the liquid and 
dissolved.The pool began to boil and the yellow liquid turned reddish
black.At the same time the yellow pus on Ida's tail turned red black
and sank into the surface of her skin.

All present knew what that meant,one of the dragon deities had 
awakened and was about to grant a favour of the dragoness who had just
awakened it.Since this was the sacred pool of Histh,it probably meant
that the vermin goddess was about to reform the dragoness into a shape
appropriate for the favour.Since a serpente skull had been tossed into
the pool,it probably meant that Histh would interpret this as a 
request by Ida to be turned into a serpente.With Histh though,you 
could never tell.If Histh misinterpreted the favour requested,she
could just as easily transform Ida into a mosquito or cockroach.

Ida clawed her way back out over the edge and fled to a remote
corner of the ceremonial cavern,in shame and in terror.If she was
about to change into a serpente or Histh forbid,a mosquito,she didn't
need hundreds of dragons looking on as it happened.She was a superior
form of dragon,and the thought of transforming into a stupid serpente 
filled her with terror and revulsion.This was supposed to be her big
day,she wanted to be the centre of attention.Now it looked like
everything was going down the drain.Thus Ida curled up in a ball 
near tunnel 17 and hoped desperately that the dragon deities would
pass her by.

Ida was not the centre of attention.Dragonkind can be merciless,
and frankly most of them could care less what happened to Ida.Even 
Maegrethe soon forgot about her pupil as all the celebrants headed 
back to the feeding trough.Even Ida's embarassed sisters forgot about
her as they crunched down on lamb and calfs and piglets.It was time 
for tidbits.At the same time the sacred pool returned to it's yellow
colour.

Whilst the crowds munched away at the feeding troughs,the deity
who had been called up was searching for the supplicant who had
sacrificed the serpente skull into the pool.This deity was of course
the Great Serpente spirit,and as she scented the crowds for the scent
of the dragon or serpente whose scent she picked up off the skull,she
came upon the 5 young dragonesses who had so recently partaken in the
Serpente Dragon dance.The dance is much more than just a dance,and
these 5 dragonesses would have attracted her attention.They had 
symbollically tweaked a slumbering spirit awake,and as she caressed
them in her spirit paws,their scent changed.Their scents became that 
of Great Serpentes,and they would have trembled at this rather minor
metamorphosis.But they did not have the wanted scent,and so the spirit
headed for a remote corner of the cavern,where a terrified Ida lay
waiting.

There was still a few hours before nightfall,so the dragon crowds
decided to resume that new ritual dance that had really got their
venom flowing.They all lay in circles on the ground and started 
coiling and slithering to the beat of the drum"tappetytap tap '''boom'''&hellip;"
For once the serpentes weren't herded back to their pens or leashed,
but were allowed to participate in one social activity they excelled 
at.The cavern was a scene of venom spray and roars and hisses from all
directions.Those serpentes were real party animals.Pretty soon the
throbbing of all those pounding bodies seemed to deafen out the sound
of the beating drum.But by that time the rythmic beat was in their
blood .They didn't need the drum to get in the mood.

Down by the remote corner of the cavern the first hint that Ida
had that something was happening to her was when the dim beat of the
drum got louder and louder in her ears.Except to her it sounded more
like Thumpitythump thump '''boom''' thumpitythump thump '''boom'''.The Great 
Serpentess had found an heir.

Ida metamorphosizes to the beat of that pounding drum.First
her breathing rythm changes.Three quick intakes of breath are 
followed by one deep rumbling exhalation.Then her heartbeat
changes to match the pattern of the drumbeat.

Then things get serious.It feels to her that her blood is
pounding too and fro along the length of her body.First it slams
into the tip of her tail and then it rushes into the other 
direction and slams into her beakhook.Her tail and torso and 
neck start stretching from this pounding.She digs her talons into
her red dragon hide and tries to resist the process ,but as her 
body continues to lengthen her talons tear through red dragon flesh
and into the silver serpente hide forming underneath.

She stands tall and erect on her hind legs and utters a howl
of terror and despair.Her serpentehood will not be denied and that
howl quickly turns to a roar of joy and anticipation.Her torso
and tail double in length,and beneath the torn dragon skin is 
revealed a lean and slender serpente body.At this point she 
topples to the floor as her thinning legs collapse under the weight
of her body.Her wings fall limp to the floor and there is a gush
of blood and venom as her flight muscles and quills tear free from
her body.

The pounding in her skull increases and it splits in half from
her beak to between her eyes.New bone and tissue quickly form between
the split and as her skull becomes broader and blunter,her eyes
oriente to the side.Her forehead sinks into her snout and wipes out
much of her intelligence at the same time.Her fangs unsheath and 
fuse in a fixed position.Her venom fangs lengthen,her teeth lengthen
and her swelling talons bulge out of her feet.

Ida is now a brainless serpente,and is angered at being clothed
in a limp sac of bloody dragon meat.She tears at her dragon hide and
soon starts consuming those meaty feathered wings.Other serpentes
soon slither over and help cleanse her of the dead dragon flesh.

Once freed of her dragonhood her overriding urge is to make a 
kill and she coils over to the feeding troughs.By this time the
serpente dragon dance has finished and Maegrethe is squatting in a 
trough,feasting on a calf she decapitated mere minutes ago.Ida 
pushes her aside and sinks her jaws over a stiffening calf leg and 
starts to tear it off the carcass.Maegrethe gives a warning growl
when she doesn't recognize the scent of this interloping primal
serpente.Ida doesn't waste time with a warning.With a roar and
a loud snap of her jaws,she bites empty air where Maegrethe's
neck was a second ago.Her bite would have decapitated Maegrethe 
and the witch dragoness wisely backs away from this bloodthirsty
brutal beast.

Inside that serpente body Ida is undergoing a further devolution
and she is ravenously hungry as her internal transformation demands
fuel.There is a sound of tearing flesh inside her,and she jerks up
her head and utters a roar of pain before she collapsed lifeless into 
the trough.

The skull starts to split open just between the eyes and a bony
beak pokes it's way out.After the beak emerges a thin long body
9 inches wide and 100 feet long flows out of the crack.It is slimy
and looks like a segmented earthworm.It has no legs or teeth and 
the only visible appendages are a pair of weaving bobbing tendrils
and a mucous and saliva laden set of tendrils where it's mouth is.
As it plops down onto the floor and oozes away from the troughs,the
dragons stop feeding and stare open mawed at this sickly alien 
creature in their midst.They are looking at the most ancient 
biological ancestor of dragonkind,and it looks like prey.

It is prey.Although Ida retains her serpente brain and mind,the 
only visible means of defense she has is that bony beak of a skull 
protecting her head.The original dragonkind were little more than
big earthworms,with no skeleton but that bony head.The only senses 
she possesses are her photosensitive tendrils and her sense of touch
from her mouth tendrils.Newly emerging instincts tell her to ooze 
towards the dark,where she can burrow into the earth and safety.
Located in the first segment of her body is a cloaca which secretes 
a slime and mucous trail beneath her,on which her long body slides.
Her slime glands are very productive,and secrete hundreds of hormones
into the slime trail.Protoserpentes were an easy meal for carnivores,
and the slime trail was their first means of defense.As the dragons
and serpentes in the cavern scent Ida,s slime ,it elicts different
reactions.A serpente smells the scent of a rutting serpentess,a
sea serpente is reminded of a catch of rotting fish on the beach,a
Skye dragon can smell the pine scented air of his mountain aerie,
and Maegrethe smells the yolk covering 6 newly hatched dragonets.

There is confusion in the cavern and Ida is briefly ignored 
by the crowd as they fight amongst themselves over possession of
none existent mates,food and lairs that the slime reminds them of.
Ida makes it halfway across the cavern floor when a young serpentess
leaps upon her worm tail.Although Ida has thin silver skin and the
hormones of serpente and dragon inside her,to the serpentess the
slimy thing oozing across the floor is just another meal.Soon others
leap and bound in for a kill and a easy meal.

Ida's second defense mechanism comes into play at this time.With
a sickly tearing sound,the last 20 feet of her body tears off at the
segment diaphragm and goes wiggling off in an other direction.After
repeated attacks several portions of her body are wiggling about the 
cavern,being pursue by dragons and serpentes alike.The remaining
portion of her body with that bony beak head is just about to enter
tunnel 17.The crowd is too busy pursuing the other mindlessly
wiggling segments of her body to notice.

The head and the first segment with it's slime glands are the
important parts of the protoserpente body.If Ida were allowed to 
burrow into earth and live her life as a protoserpente,eventually 
she would regrow the rest of her body.However her reproductive
organs and brain are in the head and 1rst segment,and were 
irreplaceable.

Somewhere in dragonkind's racial memory are repressed memories
of a life as a weak defenseless wormlike creature which made easy 
prey for any two bit carnivore which came along.Their response to 
this existence was to do a u turn in the evolutionary path and
be 6 times the carnivore of anything else on the planet.Behind that
blustering roaring venom dripping claw slashing exterior is a
terrified worm seeking safety and shelter.

Ida slid deep into the interior of tunnel 17 and when her 
photoreceptors could no longer detect light,she ceased fleeing.
Although she may not have been able to detect her attackers during 
her flight to safety,her serpente brain was well aware of the damage
caused to her body.Fear,a emotion dragonkind refuse to acknowledge
exists,was a prime emotion in this protoserpente.

Ida's body began to contract and flow back into her skull.At the same
time her weaving tendrils lengthened and grafted onto the rocky 
sides,floor and ceiling of the tunnel.Her head began to pound and 
swell to the rythm "thumpitythump thump BOOM ...".Where the tendrils
had touched the tunnel the rock began to glow and pulse to that 
self same rythm.As the last of her body entered her now spherical 
head,the bony surface flowed over and sealed the hole which her body 
had slid through.

The walls around the pulsating sphere began to move and flow
over the metamorphosizing remains of the protoserpente.Millions
of new tendrils erupted from the sphere and inched and branched 
along the tunnel.Where they fused,the rocky surface glowed and 
flowed together to form an ever lengthening,widening and deepening
Greate Serpente body.

Once the transformation was complete,Ida's mind was housed
inside a rocky hill of a body.She was 2800 feet long,60 feet wide
and deep and had a skull 120 feet long with 15 foot rocky fangs
jutting from her jaw.Her legs were crouched right beside her body
like a dogs and from a distance blended right in with her 
surface contours.Where her eyes would be were deep dark lifeless
pits.Her talons were of black basalt and she had canines of 
copper.Sprinkled throughout her rocky scales were veins of silver.

Except for some leftover erupting geysers and lava pools on
her surface,she appeared as lifeless as that long sinuous hill in
Emmen.It would take either a miracle or a supreme sacrifice to
bring this volcano to life.

The Great Serpente spirit which had created her descended like
a phoenix into Ida's magma heart chamber.In the centre lay a 
lifeless caldera.The spirit curled herself up into this depression,
took one last scent of the world she was about to leave,and then
with a decisive squeeze of her coils ,contracted into a pinpoint
of infinite nothingness and burst into a wave of heat and energy 
which washed over the heart chamber.Slowly at first,a faint trickle
of magma swirled out of the caldera "swishtyswish swish" and then
with a woosh it retreated back into the caldera.It repeated this
process again and again.Each time a little more magma crept out
of the caldera,and the pulsing of her magma heart grew louder and
stronger.Soon her vents and pipes and veins were coursing with
her lifeblood as it raged and roared through her.Her rock scales
began to rise and fall as she started to breathe,as they rose,the
red hot magma just coursing beneath her surface could be seen 
glowing.The dark eye pits in her skull lit up and her maw slowly
creaked open.The Great Serpentes lived again.

Ida started to dig her talons into the floor and push herself
forward.Her sapphire scutes on her underside found purchase and
she slid back to the entrance of the tunnel.

Her organic brain had undergone a transformation at the same
time.The ancient gods who had originally created the Great Serpente
knew that such a creature was built for show,for theatrics.They were
not built for survival,but for display,Thus although her body
may have appeared like a mobile hill of dull glowing rock,her brain
was built for the ritual.She was all instinct,and her brain was 
telling her to perform the Serpente Dragon dance.What had taken
months of hard practice to learn as a dragoness now came without
thought or effort as a Great Serpente.This time dragonkind would
learn what the Serpente Dragon ritual dance really was.

At the same time that Ida was coming charging up the tunnel for 
the first performance of a Great Serpente in 60 million years another
dragon and his mate had a grouping of sea serpents gathered around a
45 gallon drum and were tossing fish to the young converts whilst the
dragon and dragoness explained how the Goddess Histh could make their
lifes more bountiful.

The young sea serpents were eager to eat the fish,and completely
ignored the combination of roars,hisses and body movements that the
two ancient French Skye dragons uttered and displayed as they tried
to impart what they had learned to the young converts.

This type of social interaction is extremely rare amongst 
dragons and was thousands of years in the making.The two ancient
Skye dragons were just common dragons like 66.7 % of dragonkind
and for them to have clawed their way to this level of thought would
have taken them practically all of their 10,000 years of existence.

In the dragon intellectual hierarchy there are three classes of
dragon thought.

There are the metamorphosized servants of Histh,humans have been
transformed into dragons with most of their human thoughts and brain
intact.Maegrethe the Witch dragoness is one of these.She thinks like
a human but must deal with the dragon instincts and urges of her
body.For a dragoness like Maegrethe life is a constant struggle to
not give in to the primal serpente drives coursing through her blood
and which would reduce her to a savage bloodthirsty lusting beast.

The second class of dragon is a freak of nature.Ida the
dragoness was one of these,as are most of the witch dragonesses which
lead dragonkind.These dragons possess a brain with superior memory
retention and are quick learners.There is not a shred of humanity in
them ,they are intelligent carnivores.

Then there is the third class,to which all the other dragons,
serpents,sea serpentes,wyverns,wyrms,etc belong to.With the gift of
a lifespan ranging from hundreds to 10 s of thousands of years comes
a heavy price.99.99 % of dragonkind is cursed with a poor memory.
Dragons short term memory only extends back one day while serpentes
can't even remember the meal they had one hour ago.They possess good
long term memory,but it takes decades to centuries for a thought to
be registered in long term memory.Their instincts are long term
memories and dragons are very good at recalling how to kill,eat,sleep
mate and roar.What they can't do is recall where they hid their kill
the day before or the dragon communal gathering they left briefly and
then forgot all about.The witch dragonesses have to expend quite a 
bit of energy rounding up confused stray dragons who wake up in the
evening and wonder what they're doing in a strange lair with strange
dragons.

The common dragon has no speech beyond roaring and hissing.What
they have are body display instincts leftover from the days of the
Great Serpentes.They communicate with their bodies.Warnings are
given by low growls,hunger may be indicates by tapping the tail
on the ground while the tongue flickers in and out of the wide open
jaws.Pride is displayed by standing up on the hind legs and 
stretching the wings or forelimbs out wide and roaring whilst rage
is shown by a quick forward thrust of the neck and a loud closing
snap of the jaws.Dragons are not dumb animals and have learned to 
link together these body movements into a language all dragonkind 
can understand to some extent.

A hungry dragonet might thus greet his returning mother with the
body movements for "pride,pride,hunger,hunger,hunger,rage ".In human
terms what he's saying is "mother i like you,i really like you,now
feed me,please please feed me,i'm not getting fed fast enough,hurry 
it up ".

Many centuries ago,after Princess Margarets transformation into
Maegrethe,the servant of Histh,the new born dragoness spent time
studying the customs,languages and teachings of the other five
dragon tribes.Being a born again dragoness,she no doubt intended to
gain some converts.Using her dragon body language,she could convey
hunger,lust,rage,terror,pride and satisfaction.What she couldn't do
is express more complex concepts.She could not for example,tell a sea 
serpent that crossing over to Histh would give him life everlasting,
or that he was a sinful beast for worshipping the wrong deity.She was
expressing human concepts in a language never designed for the human
race.The dragon language is a language of the pulse of venom glands
pumping venom through the fangs into a captured prey animal,it was 
the scent of spurting blood gushing into the jaws of the
predator,it was the hormones released by a rutting serpentess
or the scent of the piney dew in a mountaintop aerie.Maegrethe's
attempts to bond with the other dragons was a complete failure.

She was losing faith in her Goddess and felt like an outcast,
neither human nor dragon.Thus she went back to her cave in the 
Cheviot hills and turned her back on the dragons.One day a 
visiting Skye dragon invited her to a reading of a dragon saga at his
lair.She came and found that the dragons and serpentes were passing
around some sacred tablets.From a distance the scratches on the
tablets looked like stick figures of sea serpents wiggling and
coiling and she recognized the poses the figures they were displaying
as the common language "pride,danger,danger ,danger,rage and 
finally satisfaction".The problem was her scholarly human mind
couldn.t interpret the tablets.It was only when her neighbouring
dragon friend handed over one of the tablets to her that she 
saw the light.Her human brain went out the window.In her mind
she felt the sensation of her huge sea serpent body as she
coiled through the waves.She could feel the sun shining on her
dorsal fins and smelt the scents of her 3 hatchlings.Suddenly 
a pack of killer whales was heading for her hatchlings,intent on
a kill.With a savage thrust of her tail she coiled over and
defended her young with savage snaps of her jaws.She felt her
fangs sink into the hide of one careless whale and the hot
pumping venom being aqueezed out of her venom glands.She then 
felt the satisfaction of knowing that there would be good 
eating tonight.When she came to her senses,she found herself writhing
in the dirt,fangs and claws unsheathed and pools of venom lying all
around her.Her first reading of a sacred tablet was an eye opener.

The tablets were the key to Maegrethes mission ,and she sought
out the lairs of the witch dragonesses who knew how to make them in
order to learn their secrets.The respnse was unpleasant.Many a
dragoness met her with unsheathed claws.She was not a dragon.They
could detect a near human mind behind those slitted eyes,and were
not about to share secrets which had taken millions of years to
discover with an interloper who to them was just a big scaly human.

Thus Maegrethe went back to her caves and tried to write her
own tablets.These she tried in various combinations of the body
language script.Being a dragoness,she didn't have to worry about
pen and paper.She'd just grab a lump of rock,unsheath her talons 
and start scratching away.To her human mind,she had written the gospel
of Histh.Yet the tablets elicted no emotional visceral response from
her.Unlike the Saga of the Sea Serpentess,she felt no bonding to
these tablets.They were just educated scratches on rock.

The big break came in 1515 Ad.For centuries she had been 
visiting the great great&hellip;great grand dam and grandsire of her
Skye dragon friend.She showed them countless versions of her
writings and eagerly awaited a sign that they grasped the concept.
No such response came.To them,she had just handed over a rock with
meaningless scratches on it.Since her tablets appeared the same as 
the sacred saga tablets,she was one frustrated dragoness.The elderly
dragons had no time for her tomfoolery,and only tolerated her for
the fresh killed sheep and lamb she brought with her.

The old dragon and his mate would fall asleep and by the time
they reawakened usually had forgotten all about Maegrethe,sacred 
tablets and Histh.What slowly percolated into their memory after
centuries was thoughts of the scent of mutton and visions of rocks
with scratches on them.There were times when the elderly dragons
solved the puzzle,but by the time they reawakened the solution had 
vanished from their minds and was just a ghost of a memory.But slowly
afrer after enough repetitions of the solution it wiggled it's way
into their long term memories.

One fine evening they reawoke and '''''eureka''''',they realized that
Maegrethe was trying to create a sacred tablet.Yet the tablet had
no scent.All sacred tablets scent of the story they are trying to
tell.Maegrethes tablets were sterile and lifeless.

When dragonkind communicate through their body language,they
do more than just wiggle their tails and snap their jaws.The listener
can also scent the blood ,the venom and the hormones being released
by the communicator.Not being an expert in dragon biology,Maegrethe
had failed to realize that when she communicated with other dragons,
her body was releasing a whole smorgasboard of scents that her
listener was picking up and interpreting without concious thought.
Since she thought like a human and repressed her dragon instincts,
she'd missed out on most of what her dragon instincts were trying to
tell her.

The sacred tablets were scented with the venom ,blood and other
fluids of dragons.It was only when Maegrethe mastered the art of 
scenting the tablet that she could bond to her listener.

Her first tablets would no doubt have elicited strange 
behaviours from her listeners.She handed over trial versions of
her scented writings to the aged dragon which he interpreted as 
a dragoness who wanted to mate,a dragoness who viewed the grand dam 
as a suitable meal and as a dragoness who wished to seize his lair
for herself.No doubt Maegrethe learned to keep a large supply of
fresh killed prey nearby to pacify the quickly shocked and raging
ancient Skye dragon pair after they read her tablets.

By 1655AD Maegrethe had advanced enough in the art of
tablet writing that she had made the ancient Skye dragon couple 
aware of the existence of a powerful Skye dragon named Histh who
would provide his followers with freshly killed lamb outside of
their lair each morning.This wasn't exactly what Maegrethe was trying
to say about Histh,but after centuries of failure,Maegrethe was
happy to have gotten to this stage.Maegrethe had gotten her first
converts after four centuries of effort.

By this time the aging Skye dragon pair were about 9000 years
old and were not as sleek and oiled as they used to be.Their winged
feathers were getting tattered and their paws and talons weren't
quite as firm and sharp as they used to be.Thus around 1755 Maegrethe
convinced them that Histh would provide them with many sheep and 
cattle if they crossed the ocean to the new land.

The pair tagged behind Maegrethe as she winged across the 
Atlantic and brought them to the promised land.No doubt they
strayed from the true path many a time,but Maegrethe slowly
herded them towards the Canadian coast.

In the Gulf of St Lawrence live colonies of sea serpentes and
serpentes,and is to these dragon tribes that the ancient Skye
dragon pair preached the message of the bountiful Skye dragon Histh.

It is this pair that laid the foundations for the coming of
dragonkind to North America.Whilst Maegrethe winged her way back to 
England,they stayed behind and searched for a lair to call their own
in the Texas dessert.This would one day be the location of the tribe 
of Histh's ceremonial caverns.

Ida came charging out of the tunnel like a locomotive with 
it's boilers ready to burst.The crowd barely had time to finsh eating
the last fragments of the protoserpente before the cavern stated
shaking to a rythmic "boomityboom boom BOOM...".A few seconds later 
the Great Serpente came out and charged in a straight line for the
feeding troughs.Her skull crashed into the walls behind the troughs 
and her whole mountainous bulk hurled forward and crashed against the
wall.Geysers of steam and magma jetted out from her loosened scales.
After a few seconds pause she coiled over back to the centre of
the cavern and formed a circular loop with her body around the statue
of Histh and the pool.The ancient Skye dragon pair and the young
sea serpente converts had been caught by her hurtling body as it 
slammed into the wall and were killed instantly.There were dozens of 
other killed and maimed dragonkind scattered near the feeding troughs.

Ida had swiftly encircled a crowd of dragons near the centre of 
the cavern and proceeded to give them a performance of the true and 
proper Serpente Dragon dance.She began by moving in a circle six 
times around her chosen prey.She then looped back her body and 
circled around in the opposite direction 6 times.The dragons and
serpentes she had ensnared noticed that she wasn't moving in for a
quick kill and the more sensible ones merely flew out or tried to
claw up her rocky sides to freedom.The great Serpente ignored their
escape.Killing prey for a Great Serpente was a ritual,and the ritual
was more important than the prey.At this stage all of the crowd 
within her coils could have fled and she still would have
continued with the ritual.

She then coiled up her body into a spiral with six bands.The
space she had encircled was diminished in area and serpentes clawing
up her sides felt the waves of heat her body was pumping into
the diminishing circle.Few of her prey succeeded in escaping the
furnace they now crouched in.Many of the serpentes near the top of
her torso went limp and fell back senseless to the circle 60 feet
below.

With the booming of her massive heart ida coiled in a clockwise
movement.On every '''boom''' she raised her neck and head hundreds of feet
in the air,her sapphire scutes flashing in the light.She was staring
at the prey she encircled and ignored the crowds fleeing through
the tunnels.She opened her jaws wide and a shrieking blast of 
superheated air erupted from her gullet.Although she didn't
roar,witnesses present knew a roar when they saw one.She lowered 
her head and performed the ritual 5 more times.

She then ceased and swung over her tail and began sucking on
it.Her tail throbbed and pulsed as it emptied magma into her magma
chambers,and hot dripping magma spilt out of the sides of her mouth
onto the floor far far below.

Having filled herself with the lifefluids that fueled her,she
swung her head over one last time and bathed her prey in a fountain
of magma.After a few seconds to allow the prey to vaporize and 
dissolve in her digestive fluids,she lapped up the pool of blazing
fluid she encircled.After checking that no magma or charred and burnt
carcasses remained on the floor,she uncoiled herself and slid back
into tunnel 17 and the huge cavern which had been created with her 
birth.Once inside she coiled up to conserve heat.Her eye pits dimmed
her breathing became more shallow and her heartbeat slowed.She went
dormant.

[[BooktheOne commentary|Book One Commentary]]