But soon, mistrust grew between the races. It began with the Nullroth and the Mah’rhi. When the races had no knowledge of each other, the Nullroth, with their innovative and industrious machines, began to colonize the world. When they found a way to The Wild Continent, they began to domesticate some of the many animals who took up residence there. When the Mah’rhi discovered this, they asked the Nullroth, “why do you treat your brothers in life like slaves?” but the Nullroth believed that the Mah’rhi were an uncivilized people, and answered, “because we are their superiors in intelligence.” “How?”, asked the Mah’rhi. The Nullroth answered, “because we are smarter.” the Mah’rhi became enraged and exclaimed, “just because you build these atrocities, and they live with the land given to them?”  The Nullroth, not wanting to start a war, retreated to their mountain holds. When the word reached the dragons, as the Mah’rhi and the dragons are close allies, they too came to hate the Nullroth simply because of their conflicting ideals. Man took the side of the Nullroth, believing in expanding and making the world mold to their convenience, and so a great bond began between them. The Annumreale, most cherished and treasured among all the god’s creations, took no sides. In truth, they actually served as peacekeepers in the great rivalry. If one from a rival species befriended another from a rival species, they would be exiled, their mothers considered virgins, their marriages null, and all memory of them forgotten. But the gods created their own species of their own design, and, like te Annumreale, they stayed neutral. But the main rivalry rages and raged and will rage And that rivalry continues to even this day.

                                                               -excerpt from the book of Yivyne

  As we walked through the field, I was furious at the Mah’rhi. He had insulted my father. Who was probably back there fighting like a hero for our town. Whenever I even looked back at the path back to my town, he would threaten me with the pike. After a few hours of walking, we came to a huge chasm. I was about a hundred meters away, and I could hear grunting and the groaning of metal under stress. He knocked me down, and he stuck his pike in the ground. He got on all fours, the way is body seemed to be built to run. I then noticed he had a tail. It was about four feet long, as thick as your arm, and had an area of hair like a lions on it’s tip. But like his hair, it was black and white. He must use it as a rudder, I thought. “Don’t move. Don’t make a sound, or I’ll kill you before they do.” “What? What did y-” Then, in a moment he ran like lightening, leaving a cloud of dust that stung my eyes. “Aaggh! What did you-” but he was gone. He ran like a cheetah, and my eyes could barely keep up. He stopped at the edge of the chasm, and got up to his knees. He looked into the chasm, and then crawled into the chasm and out of sight. “Hey!” I got up. I didn’t want to say anything, but I was mad at him. I tried to pull the pike out of the ground, but it was like it was welded into it. I ran noisily, part out of spite, part out of stupidity. I ran to the edge and looked down. “Wow.”   A camp, at the bottom of the chasm. A few fires lit the darkness, and the smoke was floating up slowly. There were tents, and a couple strange figures walking around. The had faces like apes, with two tusks jutting out of their lower jaw. They looked by no means stupid, they looked around and walked woth a certain dignity, but they had a certain absence about them. I looked around for the Mah’rhi, but he wasn’t on the ground. He was on the wall. He moved silently, spread out on the wall, and waiting for the guards to turn around before he moved. The Mah’rhi looked up, and saw me. Then I heard yelling and shouting on the ground. The strange creatures had seen me. The Mah’rhi jumped from where he was, and jumped the three hundred feet to where I was. His aim was dead on, and he grabbed the ledge only a few inches from my feet. He pulled himself up easily, and then pulled me down. “Are you stupid!?!?  These Nullroth want to kill you, you fool!” I was oblivious. “Why do they want to kill me?” the Mah’rhi punched me in the face, and I fell down, clutching my nose. “Oww! Why the hell’d you do that?!” “Just shut up, and follow me. They still think we’re over here. He got on all fours again, and crept through the wheat. “I got a great idea! I’ll ride you!”  He once again punched me in the face. “Oww! Quit it!” I could barely see over the edge the strange creatures loading arrows. Arrows on fire. “Uh, excuse me,” “yeah.” “Um, they have arrows.” “Yeah? What’s yer point?” “Um, they’re kinda, um, on fire.” “WHAT?!”  I got on my feet, and started running. I could hear the whistle of arrows being flying, and then the WOOSH of fire spreading. Soon the night was alight with flame’s yellow light. I ran as fast as I could, but the Mah’rhi could have run three laps around even the fastest human runner and still be ahead. He grabbed my shirt collar and jumped off of the edge of the chasm. All was silent. I hadshut my eyes, and I felt like I was swinging. I opened my eyes, and realized I was. I was hanging by the collar of my shirt, and the Mah’rhi’s hand was curled into a fist around it. He was clinging to the side of the rock with all three unused limbs. I could hear the sparks and snapping of the fire, and the only sound was of my breath. “What do we do now?” I whispered. “We? Your gonna have to climb.”  Before I could question, he threw me back onto the ledge. I could just barely hear the skittering of his claws scraping the rock. “Um... Uh...” I was trying to remember his name. I was spread eagle on the grass, with the flaming wheat only a few inches from my bare feet. Behind the roaring fire, everything was pitch black. But I could see shapes moving. Then, from out of the woods. A man, I thought it was a man, was striding out of the woods, black, burnt armor clinking with every step.  He walked through the fire as if it weren’t there. I began to see the details of his face, and I could see this wasn’t a man. It was one of the creatures that were down in the chasm. It had the head of a dragon, or a reptile, but it had the body of a man. It’s skin was deep green, with a spike on it’s nose and four more on it’s neck. He wore green armor, and a red cloak over it. It’s hand reached toward me...

And helped me up. I saw that in it’s other hand, it had a jagged sword, covered in blood. When it saw me staring at it, it hid it in it’s elaborate sheath. After it helped me up, it looked around, and asked, “drijaya nifrard emayanaga. Tyi efrert?”  I had no idea what it said, and then it rolled it’s eyes and sighed. “We have killed the ones who were attacking you. Do you have a name?” “Uh, yeah. It’s Beldas. Who are you?” “No one. Where is the Mah’rhi that was with you?” “Um, I don’t know. He threw me here and then left.” then I saw the blade of a pike rise from behind the creature’s left shoulder. And from behind the creature, a black and whit tail curled and writhed.”“NO! He’s a friend!” I shouted, but it was too late. The pike had risen above the creatures head. But as quick as the Mah’rhi struck, the creature in front of me parried with the sword, fast as lightening.. The creature and the Mah’rhi stood locked in a parry, neither of them moving an inch. “Naru?” “James?”  They put their weapons away and greeted each other. “Hey, what’s going on? I thought you were one of them for a minute.” “Eh, nothin’. Just protecting the savior of the world. Nothin’ big. You?” “Eh, we heard that something happened around here. When we saw the fire, we just stopped to look.” “You know each other?” I asked. The Mah’rhi, who I now remembered name’s was Naru, hissed, “did I tell you that you could speak?”  “Ahh, c’mon, Naru. Give the kid a break. You were young once too.” I noticed something strange about them.  “You two talk strangly.” I was not used to the slang with which they spoke to each other. It was if they were too lazy to speak properly. “We do?” James asked. “Where are you two going?” he asked. “We were supposed to be on our way to Orathenamene, but then we got attacked. Why did you just happen to be around here?” James shrugged. “I dunno. Luck, I guess? But you wanna come with us? It’ll be faster...” Naru quickly objected. “No, no, we don’t wanna be a burden. Literally.” I spoke up. “Speak for yourself! Let’s go with them.” James laughed loudly. “Yeah, it’s fine if you come with us. We were just going over Orathenamene on our way back to Lernalaban.” I was confused about these names, of cities I had never heard of. I as I had said, I was really sheltered in Entheen. I only knew of the these creatures, the Mah’rhi and dragons, out of the old truist’s holy book, the book of Yivyne. “How are we gonna get to Orathenamene? It sounds far from here.”  Naru and James looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing. “Y-you don’t know that much ‘bout the world, do ya? Ah haha! Oh. Hehe, I’m sorry,” James said, wiping a tear from his eye. “I’m sorry, but we can fly, hehe...” I was alarmed by this. “what? How?”  In a moment, from under the red cloak, two huge reptilian  wings stretched themselves out with a whoosh. They boney parts were the same color as his skin, and the membrane was light yellow. From the light of the fire, I could see tiny veins. They were each about twice as long as him if you laid him out on the ground. He turned to the shapes in the darkness of the woods. They were piling the bodies. “Revt sune skidearn noi vrie graepitia.”  The shaped in the woods slowly walked out, and then I saw that they were dragons, too. They unfolded their wings. “Yeah, but, you’re not gonna carry us, are you? Cause if you are, I don’t think I could-WHOAH!”  Before I could finish, the other dragons flew by me. They were as fast as Naru was on the ground. The wind from their speed was enough to knock me over, but before I fell, James grabbed my arms and began flying. I had never flew before, ever, and the first reaction is fear. Not knowing whether you were gonna fall, the rising speed and height, the feeling that the ground was falling apart (or at least shrinking), among other things. One of them being, it wasn’t natural for a human to fly. But after the initial fear, it became a sense of unrealism. Like, this isn’t real. I hallucinated, and almost fainted when I first flew. Then, uncontrollable laughter, at the feeling that this was the coolest, most real/ unreal dream you have ever had. Then comes the feeling of common sense. But in all, it was one of the most frightening/ coolest experiences of my life so far. The view was amazing. The moon looked so close you could touch it, and, most suprising of all, it was silent. The only sound was the repetitive WHOOSH of James and the other dragon’s wings. I looked around on the ground, remembering something. “Hey, where’s Naru?” James said, “look down.”  We were moving extremely fast, but when I looked down, I saw a black and white shape moving soundlessly, but as fast as us, along the ground.  “Wow. Does he ever get tired?” “Nope. It can really hurt your pride when you first fly, feeling like you’re the fastest thing in the world, but then one of your friends, who doesn’t even have wings, goes just as fast on the ground. Yeah, I was so depressed after that. But I got over it.” I thought for a moment. “How old were you when you first learned to fly?” “Thought and said, “I was, about eleven years old, I think.” my jaw dropped. “You knew each other that long? How old are you now?”  “About ninety three.”  Again I was amazed. “How old is he?” “Um, I think about ninety eight, but I’m not sure.” “How do you look so young?” “What are you talking about, look?  Oh, my bad. You don’t know the dragon life span. See, we live until something kills us. Same with the Mah’rhi. In our life spans compared to yours, we’re probably around twenty one and twenty six years old. And if you are who he says you are, you have the same life span as us. Welcome to the club.” I decided to not ask any questions about the biological makeup of dragons or Mah’rhi. “How can you stand him? I’ve been with him one night, and he’s already a jerk-off in my book.” James laughed again. “Finally, you’re not so uptight! Well, it takes a while, but once you get him talking about something he likes, he never shuts up. And he’s okay. Not normally like this, though. He’s having some family issues, or something, I guess.” “What kind of issues? What’d he do?” “Well he’d kill me if he knew I told you, but the Mah’rhi are very old-fashioned on marriages. The father’s supposed to choose a husband, and the mother’s supposed to choose a wife. But, see, Naru and I agree that the Mah’rhi he was supposed to marry, Muindia, is, well,” he thought for a minute. “Well, she’s kinda fugly. Actually, I vomit when I look at her, and I’m not even a Mah’rhi. Big, crotchety old thing, never shuts up. But Naru is with this other Mah’rhi girl , Keelai, but their parents hate each other, like a big feud... Kinda like something out of some boring play, right?” I nodded. “Well, Naru was kinda banished. For a year.” I was surprised at this. “Banished? why?” “Don’t worry, it’s not as serious as you think. Mah’rhi get banished all the time. If it were permanent, they have so many strict rules, that there would be no Mah’rhi allowed back in Dashona!” I laughed. I noticed that the other dragons didn’t talk as much as James. “Why are the others so quiet?” I asked. “They’re not, normally. See, if you weren’t the Son, I wouldn’t be allowed to be seen with you, you know, the big grudge thing, and all. They just don’t wanna get in trouble with the elders. And besides that, I was raised among humans, so I’m more used to your kind than they are.” “You were? How?” I asked. “What, about me being raised by humans? Well, my parents got killed when they flew over The Great Mountains alone, and I was barely a year old. The villagers decided that the small ones ‘weren’t as bad,’ so they raised me. The language of Men, the one we are speaking now, is my native tongue but I left when they told me what really happened.” he said quietly. “I’m so sorry,” I said. There was an awkward silence, one that didn’t seem to fit James’s personality. “It’s okay. Not your fault. You didn’t know.”  I stared at the ground, and Naru was tirelessly running effortlessly. “Wow, he doesn’t get tired, after all.”  This seemed to cheer James up a little. “See? I told ya.”  In the distance, I could see tiny pinpoints of light. “What’s that?” I asked. “That’s our rest stop. It’s called Brookmere, and it’s run by dragon-friendly humans. It’s pretty nice there.” I was getting tired, and I wasn’t even the one flying. “That reminds me, why were you flying over here, anyway?”  “Well, I just wanted to see what the birds (we use them as scouts) were so frightened about. Turns out, the Nullroth were eating them.” “Do you hate Nullroth, if not humans?” He rolled his eyes, and sighed. “Just because some old book says we used to hate them, doesn’t mean we are required by law to. Besides, we don’t all follow the Truist faiths, either of them. We have our own religion, and it’s much more flexible. The elders don’t wanna admit it, but we took a page from the Nullroth and made our rules similar to theirs. If you didn’t believe in Ienille, our faith, we wouldn’t beat it into ya.” “What’s Lernalaban like? I want to go there some day.” “Don’t sound so dreamy about it. After you go to Orathenamene, you’re coming with us for protection from the disciples of Imbroloth. It’s the only place they don’t have influence, and never  will. We’re also the only race with no converts,” said James, sounding rather proud and patriotic.  “If they try to cross the sea onto our continent, their hard work will be greeted by our army. They’ll never stand a chance.” I wasn’t used to the way James spoke, with strange mannerisms and references. But there was something laid back about it that I enjoyed. In Entheen, children spoke properly and adults made sure of it. But this was a refreshing change of pace. It almost made me forget that my town had most likely been destroyed. But Naru did have a point. When you reached the age of sixteen, you went on a year long journey to learn how to defend yourself. And we outnumbered them. I hope.