But during the great feud, the people the god’s put on earth to resist Imbroloth’s influence actually began to think of the Angel of Lies as an ally. Both sides. There was no more unity in the peoples of the world, only chaos and war. So that’s when the gods’s sent down a savior. The Man, who they christened the Father, was sent by the gods to unite the peoples of Falacia. But they rejected him, and war began. The Elwren and the Ienile, the Faith of the Wild Continent, beleived that this was a spy. When The Father went to the Ienile, they nearly killed him. The Elwren believed he was a Ienile convert, sent to spy on their plans.  And so, The Father, fell into the annals of history and was never heard from again. But from the shadows of the Father’s legacy, came a new religion: the Sybeal, who made their capital the subcontinent of Pathis Glend. They were a tribe of holy warriors from every race, including the most cherished Annumreale, joined to fight for the Savior of Falacia. But it was too late. The Great War had begun. Ienile attacked the home and capitol of the Nullroth people first , Oythangore. The Elwren attacked Lernalaban, the home of the dragon race, but were over run: the Nullroth had grown slothful and gluttonous, with their precious machines to do all their work for them. But the Ienile had grown sharper than ever. They had forbade the use of heathen worshiped machines, and had spent time rationing food and training. When the Nullroth attacked Lernalaban, Iennile had evacuated the populous o the caverns of their mountains, leaving the soldiers to deal with the oncoming threat.

                                                                 - excerpt from the book of Yivyne

 When we landed, we realized that while they were not speciesists, it had been a while since they had seen anything else besides humans. We got strange looks as we walked down the cobble stone street. I was by no means scared, I had six dragons (I counted, including James) and a Mah’rhi behind me. We were a large and strange looking group, and I didn’t blame them for staring. But eventually, I heard whispers and scared gasps. We weren’t baing a disturbance, or anything. In fact, we were almost silent, not even our footsteps being audible. I think it was because we were all bare foot (probably another reason for staring), and walking slowly. I said through clenched teeth, “I don’t think this was a good idea.”  James simply said, don’t worry. It’s only for one night.”  He lead us into a smoky, dusty bar called ‘The Burning Hog.’

 That’s a strange name for a bar, I thought. When we entered, I realized why. All they served was pork and pork products. The smell overwhelmed me. Apparently, Naru felt the same way. He hissed, and coughed. James’ eyes watered, but he was cooler about it. The dragons held their noses and coughed. “What’s with them? It smells bad, but-” “no, it’s not the smell. The Ienile faith is forbidden from consuming any meat they did not hunt themselves. And besides, they’re not used to the smell. Can ya blame ‘em?”  I honestly couldn’t I normally liked pork, but ugh, this was repulsive. James said that the barkeep, a surly bald man with a lot of tattoos, wouldn’t respond well to Ienile. He told me what to say. I walked up to the bar, and the man looked down on me with beady black eyes. “What?” he said angrily. I had done nothing wrong, and I almost told him so, but Naru stopped me. I cleared my throat and said: “Um... uh... My...”  “Comrades! Say comrades!”   He whispered. “My, um, comrades and I...” James burst out in an uncontrolled fit of laughing. He tried to stop himself by holding his jaws shut, but a loud chuckling echoed through the bar. I noticed that he too had a tail, with a mean looking red tip. It was whipping around, and I didn’t want to get in it’s way. I turned around and snapped,  “What are you doing?!?”  He whispered, through fits of laughter, “comrades, heh heh, you s-said comrades... hah!” I turned to the barkeep. “Look, my friends back there, are,” I told him to come closer, and I whispered in his ear, “a little special. Can you give us the biggest room here? We’ll pay, and we don’t need food. C’mon, it’s hard enough babysitting my dad’s friends, can ya help me out?” the barkeep looked back at James’ fit, and whispered, “I can see what ya mean. Sure, you get the suite. Half off. Need some water?” I refused politely, fearing that it, too, was pork flavored. I walked them into the room, Naru and the others going along with the plan, looking around and rambling on helplessly. James was still getting over me saying “comrades.” When we got to the room, which was in truth the huge attic of the inn, Naru congratulated me. “Good work, kid.”  The other dragons, who I didn’t think spoke the Men’s language, patted me on the back. When James got over the comrade thing, he said,  “Yeah, good work. Waitaminute, ‘special?!’”  “It’s not personal, don’t worry. It got us the room, didn’t it? And why was comrade so funny?” he began to laugh again. “It’s just such a stupid  word! Think about it: comrade. It’s so stupid!” I had never met anyone as happy about life as James. That was way before I knew about his real past, and where he came from. He wasn’t always so happy. Quite the contrary. Once I asked Naru about why he was so happy. I thought that he had a good childhood with the humans, but Naru only stared and told me quietly where James was really from. And why he was so happy. But long before that, we slept and got ready to leave early the next morning. I was oblivious to the trouble my new friend was in. My new and only friend, if they really destroyed my village. The next morning, we left. The sun was a deep red, and the field we flew over was barren. It was a quieter flight than the last, and no one spoke. James, who was normally loud and inquisitive, was silent. When I looked up at him, he had a scowl on his face. “What?!” he snapped loudly. I said nothing from then on. Even Naru, who was normally as fast as us, slowed down when he looked at James from way down there. Eventually, we came to what I thought was a giant white mountain. But as we neared, I realized that it wasn’t a mountain: it was a city. It’s white, almost ivory shape was contrasted by black, obsidian pillars, and stained glass windows more elaborate than I had ever seen. There were no poor people or beggars on the top side, but on the bottom, they seemed to populate it. As we flew closer, I saw soldiers patrolling the streets. They were clad in silver armor, and held spears. When we landed on the streets (which I thought were so shiny they were polished), they watched us maliciously. I almost slipped on the ground, no, it wasn’t a ground: it was a floor. When the poor started begging, James looked pained. Naru put his hand on James’ shoulder and said,  “It’s okay, man. It’s okay.” we walked, ignoring the people. “Why can’t we help them?” I whispered. Naru said,   “Because a lot of them are just actors taking money from visitors and giving them to the Lord Mennrek, the ruler of the city. Don’t ask James about it.” but when a little crying boy pulled on James’ cloak, he turned. There were other boys, but they all cowered in fear when they saw him. “P-please mister, please,” he cried, tears streaming down his dirty face. “Just a little money. A copper  piece, if not two. Please... please...” he sobbed. I could tell that this was no actor. He would want more than a copper. James kneeled down and took the little boy’s hand. He reached behind his cloak, and pulled out a bag of coins quietly. He placed the bag in the boy’s palm, and closed the boy’s fingers around it. He quietly said, in the little boys ear,  “Use it well, big guy.”  He patted the boys shoulder, and the boy looked as if he were looking at a god. “Th-thank you... so much...” the boy sniffed. James stood up, and continued walking. He tried to hide it, but I could see a tear slide down his face. He saw me looking, and wiped it away. He didn’t do that because he felt sorry for the kid. He did that because, I could tell, he could relate to the boy. His ears twitched, and he swallowed. From then on, I knew two things: that he had lied to me about his past, and that I had the utmost respect for him. As we walked away over a hill in the road, James’ long ears  perked up. His eyes narrowed, and he stopped walking. Naru turned and said,  “What is it?” James said nothing, just  walked back to where he had given the boy money. He walked to the top of the hill, and whispered,  “No. No, no no.” he ran down the other side of the hill. “Oh no...” Naru said. “yetreire nou niofien James elbm nofre.” he said to the dragons, and they kept walking. “Go with them! Go!”  He, too, ran over the side of the hill. I ran to the top, and saw what James had seen. The boy was on the ground. And he wasn’t moving. I ran to James who was staring in disbelief. One of the guards had the pouch of coins in his hand. The butt of his spear was dark red with blood. “NO!” James ran at the guard, who looked alarmed. He lowered his spear, but James, never slowing down, ripped it from the guard’s hand and snapped it between his fingers. He kicked the guard in his chest, and sent him flying into a wall. James took a deep breath and blew. A huge pillar of flame consumed the guard, who screamed and writhed. James jumped on him, and repeatedly punched the guard in the face with hard-knuckled fingers. Every time his hand struck, a sickening crunch echoed. “You... Filthy... bastard!!!” James roared between punches. The man’s armor was still red from heat, but it didn’t bother James. Naru pried James from the man, who was now limp. James struggled and yelled, “Why?! Why, why, why?! He did NOTHING to you!! NOTHING!!” his fevered  breath fell from a  roar to choppy sobs. James fell to his knees, and sobbed. Naru said quietly, “it wasn’t your fault, man. It wasn’t.” “But why, man? Why... if I didn’t give him the damn money, maybe...” Naru helped him up, and they walked down the road. James looked back at the boy many times while walking. They walked past me. And I said nothing. I took one last look at the boy’s body, and then met up with them.