Remnants - The Dragons of Dragonvale - Book One

Chapter 8

Years passed. The small village, officially named the City of Remnants, slowly grew, but only from within. A hierarchy was formed first, but quickly evolved into a monarchy, and Hae Won was unanimously installed as Queen.

Dragonvale had been all but erased from all maps, making it almost invisible. No new settlers or travelers had come to the island with the intent to make it their home. Ships of all sorts docked at her port, one by one, lured in by her beautiful lights and foggy cliffs. It was a harbor for the weary, but a pit of death to those who stepped foot on her shores.

As the men from the ships took their fill of food, liquor, and women, others tasked with the job of making the sailors' stay endless, did their work. Ships were quickly ravaged and sank, taking the bodies of the few sailors left to tend it, down into the frigid depths.

The large inn, set prominently at the front edge of the city, was a house of passion and death. Men would be lured into the arms of the women, not knowing their night would be beautiful and deadly. No sailor, or pirate, who walked into the inn ever walked out. They were carried, and then unceremoniously thrown over a cliff, into the rocky crags and waves below, washed out to sea with the tides.

Babies born from these unholy unions had clear paths laid out for them before they breathed their first breath. Doomed to a life of service, boys were cared for, but never allowed authority or power.  Girls were elevated to heights resembling that of royalty, never having to know a life of burden under the authority of a man.

A seething hatred and distrust of men was a fast moving and always present undercurrent amongst the residents. Men were seen only as a means to an end. Not only because of a promise made, but as a means for survival in a place where the women could be free and have a society all their own, catered to their needs and desires.

Kotai and Tezza watched this new society form with wary eyes. They mostly kept their distance from the residents of the small city, choosing to remain amongst the shadows of the Dragonback Mountains far to the north of the city.

Hae Won would make a yearly pilgrimage to the dragons' home, bringing with her all of the children who had turned eight years of age that year, hoping to fulfill her promise of birthing a hatcher to Tezza.

But it was not to be.

Long after Hae Won was deceased, the promise of a hatcher was left unfulfilled. Her daughter, Jin Hee continued in the yearly pilgrimage tradition, but she also never saw the promise kept.

Tezza grew despondent with each passing year. Each decade brought a new egg to her nest, and a heavier sorrow to her heart. 

Kotai watched her as she frequently rotated the eggs, dusting them, making sure they were kept warm with new furs. He watched the hope die out in her eyes every year when the last child passed by the nest and not one crack was to be seen on any of the eggs. He listened to her sob in her sleep as she often dreamt of her draglets that were yet to be hatched.

It was a problem he could not fix. A dream he could no more make happen than making the sea stop beating on the shores. It frustrated him and filled him with bitter anger. They had waited for so very long and now seven eggs rested in the nest his mate had made so long ago.

Thankfully, the island had remained peaceful. No more battles were fought on its beaches and meadows, and the island flora and fauna prospered. Though their intentions with the opposite sex were quite sinister, the women of the City of Remnants had become quite adept at managing the land and all it contained.

Farming, mining, lumber, and herd management were all well handled. The women did everything themselves, only bothering Kotai and Tezza for help with some of the more heavier jobs that naturally arose.