The Tale of the Dragon Egg, Part 1

The Elves of The Emerald Dragon stared into the Portal, mysteriously conjured by the dangerous Wizards of the Cypher Guild from a mere pool of water. The Battle of Ellendore was at an end — at least, in this world. The world on the other side of the Portal, to which the Wizards had escaped, remained a mystery to the Elves. The 50,000 $AXI soldiers that had been summoned for battle by the Elves were now following their leader’s call to arms, and set forth to join the Sorcerer Leaf’s twin into the Portal in pursuit of the Wizards. But as the Sorcerer’s eyes glowed green — the very same green as the mystical energies in the Magic Cube to which the Wizards had succumbed — the Elves wondered what adventures lay beyond the film of water separating their two worlds. As the Elves pondered these and other complex questions of life and death… Far across the land of Ethereum, over the great plains in the Kingdom of Axioms, just beyond the edge of the jagged-edged Stone Mountains, a young girl named Hash was playing outside her cottage.

It had been a long, cold winter, and Hash was determined to find something to entertain herself. She climbed to the tallest snow-covered hill by her cottage, when suddenly, she slipped.

She yelled out as she slid down the hill, the wind slapping at her cheeks. Hash finally landed in a pile of snow as tall as she was. She wiped her face and looked around for her hat. She spotted it lying next to what looked like a large smooth round stone. No… it was an egg.

“A dragon egg!” Hash breathed with excitement. She had never seen one before. Nobody had in ages. But she was sure this was one. It had… an aura about it, just like the pictures in her storybooks! Hash tucked the egg under one arm and raced home.

Luckily, Hash’s mother, father, and sister were out at the local bazaar selling spiced peaches, preserved from last summer. They had left the fire roaring in the hearth to keep the house warm. Hash set the egg in front of the crackling flames. Hash stared at the egg, waiting for it to move. But nothing happened. It was too cold for the little dragling to have survived, she knew that logically. But Hash was determined.

“Hang on just a while longer!” she called to the egg as she stepped up onto a wooden ladder at her father’s bookshelf. She wasn’t allowed to climb the ladder by herself, but this was a matter of life and death. Hash ran her little fingers across the leather-bound tomes, finally finding the red book she was looking for: The Tale of Mystical Winged Beasts. She pulled the heavy book out, and balancing it on her shoulder, made her way back down to the hearth.

The book was filled with every manner of fantastical creature — the Manticore, the Harpy, the Gryffin, and even the Owlbear (although the latter was of questionable flying skill). And there, on page seventy-seven, Hash found a long passage on dragons: “The ancient Dragon is a curious creature that is said to hail from a region of the old lands filled with jagged stone mountains and sharp treacherous cliffs. Dragons are known for hording vast treasures and accumulating great stores of wealth, always watchfully guarded by the creatures’ fearsome magical breath that contains unimaginable power. Some say a great battle between Dragon tribes in which powerful, Dark Magic…”

“I’ve never heard of these strange places!” Hash whispered to herself excitedly, and carried on: “Dragons have been hunted to near extinction in this part of the world for their value: one dragon is worth its weight in gold. But none is so valuable as the king of dragons, Ladon. He is said to be immortal, fiercely aggressive, fueled evermore by Dark Magic, which endlessly multiplies its many heads…”

Hash skipped the next few paragraphs, because the thought of a dragon with a thousand heads frightened her. She turned instead to the part about dragon eggs:

“A dragon egg looks like a petrified fossil, or a giant pearl if collected during the full moon. There has been no recorded history of a dragon egg being cracked by Elf, Dwarf, Human, Ogre, Orc or any creature walking on two or more legs. Dragon eggs can only be broken by the small magical creatures within. Not by force or fire, nor deity or man can change the shell of a dragon egg, and, because of this, the shards of dragon eggs can be worth more than their size in gold. Many consider them to be tokens of vast, unbreakable, and, in the parlance of the money changers, a “non-fungible” form of wealth”.

Hash grimaced at all the egg shell talk and continued on… “Draglings can withstand enormous temperatures, and rely on the fiery breath of their mothers to tell them when it is time to hatch.”

“Of course!” cried Hash. She closed the book and rolled the egg straight into the heart of the fire.

“Hash, we’re home!” her mother’s voice came calling from outside. Hash quickly hid the egg with a couple spare logs, and threw a blanket over the book, just as her father walked into the room, calling her to supper.

That night, Hash had troubling dreams: She walked upon the Dragon tome as magical energy emanated from its bindings, while words drifted from the pages. Suddenly, she was swept inside and the scenario changed: She was riding on the back of a giant dragon, flanked by Elves, chasing a group of glowing eyed Wizards…” She awoke with a start in her dark room. The house was quiet. Her parents and sister were fast asleep, and she knew the fire would be dying down by now. Quietly, Hash climbed out of her bed and tiptoed back to the hearth.

The fire was now little more than glowing embers, exposing the egg Hash had hidden. The egg was covered in soot, but aside from that, unchanged.

Saddened, and just as she was finishing her thought “It didn’t work”…. the egg began to split in two. Hash rushed to its side, eyes wide in amazement. The shell was cracking, until…

A dragling head poked out through the egg! Hash clapped her hand over her mouth to stifle a yell. The rest of the dragling’s body cracked through the shell. It wriggled its little body and spread its spindly wings. The dragling looked at Hash, blinking its glowing green eyes.

“Hello little one,” Hash whispered, reaching to pet it. But the dragling squawked, hopped out of the hearth and onto the window sill, knocking his sharp nose against the closed window.

“Shh!” Hash hissed, running to open the window before the dragon awakened her family. But when she pushed the window open, the dragling flew out into the night.

“No, wait!” she called, stuffing her feet into her boots and wrapping a coat over her night dress. Hash ran outside, the snow crunching under her tiny booted feet. She spotted the small dragon, half-flying, half-running up the large hill where she found its egg, its eyes glowing in the night. Hash followed.

She climbed the steep, slippery hill, using her hands for support, cursing herself for forgetting her mittens. She emerged at the top of the hill breathing hard, staring at the edge of the dark forest. The dragling’s wing gleamed in the moonlight before disappearing into the trees.

Hash was not supposed to enter the forest alone, let alone in the middle of the night; but she wanted to ensure the safety of the newborn dragon. She paused for just a moment, gathered up all her courage, took the biggest breath her small size could manage and darted into the forest.

It was darker in the forest, where the trees shut out the pale light of the moon. But Hash could hear the rustling of the little dragon ahead, and followed along. The dragling led her over fallen rotting trees, past boulders, and under mossy canopies of leaves. Hash was just beginning to wonder if she had gone too far, when she spotted the dragon crawling through a collection of large jagged stones.

Hash climbed in after the dragling, barely fitting through the stone wall. If she hadn’t been so small, she wouldn’t have succeeded. The stones were covered in soft moss, and the frost made them feel brittle and thistle-like. As she pushed through the rocks, grunting against the cold, Hash blinked in a sudden green glow. It reminded Hash of the dragling’s glowing green eyes, so she pushed on, until… she vanished.

The rocks through which she was climbing collapsed in after her, breaking apart the wall, revealing a pathway to a large glowing green Portal.

The next morning, Hash’s family awoke to her empty bed. Her mother searched the room for clues… nothing. Her father searched the main room of the house, and under a blanket, found the concealed book, open to the passage on dragon eggs.

None of it made sense. With Hash’s sister Sats in tow, her parents raised an alarm in the village. Sats found the little footsteps leading up the giant hill. The villagers followed the footsteps, up the hill, to the edge of the forest.

“Surely not…” Hash’s mother said to her husband. But they both knew it had to be so. They pushed on into the forest, calling out Hash’s name, to no avail. And just as they were about to give up and turn back, they saw the shimmering green light…

The Portal beckoned. Hash’s father did not hesitate. He marched right up to it and… vanished. Sats began to cry. Her mother sent her back to the village to ask for help. An hour later, Sats returned with a local farmer. He examined the Portal carefully, leaning in to touch the green ether and… disappeared.

Sats and her mother ran to the village Constable, who was said to have an alliance with brave knights, and even Paladins of lore. Alarmed at the news of the glowing green Portal and the missing village girl, the Constable sent four winter doves in four different directions, calling for help from the bravest fighters of the kingdom, invoking his allegiance to the great armies of the Axioms.

The brave-hearted heard the plea of the Constable and Hash’s mother, and within a fortnight, at least 50,000 strong were galloping toward the mysterious green Portal, ready to aid in the rescue of the curious little girl and the others gone missing.

But one particular knight, a noble Paladin named LairTu, from the far side of the Axioms Kingdom, and known for his deep literary studies of lore, knew he must make haste for the Constable’s manor instead of the Portal.

Before he left, the Paladin took it upon himself to send a raven past the armies, now on guard, and fly straight into the Portal with a message calling for aid. LairTu knew from studying The Great Dragon Wars of Yore, that an alliance was forged ending a great battle that had raged on the other side of the Portal. The tales spoke about many heroes of The Order, from the lands of Rothbard, rumored to live deep in the caverns of the Beholder mountains. Many stories speak of The Order being well known for their dungeon mastery, their networks of guilds, and a particular expertise, in which they take great pride, in the hiding of vast treasures away from the ever searching and ever hording Dragons. LairTu knew many dangers could be waiting on the other side of the Portal. If the tales of The Order were true, they would be a valuable ally in any battles that could lie ahead.

Traveling to the Constable’s manor, LairTu had with him a large green book, a tome entitled Chains, Gateways, and Other Maps to the Beyond. He rushed into the Constable’s receiving room and he let the heavy book fall onto the Constable’s table with a resounding thud.

“What is the meaning of this!” the Constable peered at the book with apprehension.

“A record of the adventures between this and other worlds,” LairTu responded solemnly.

“Other worlds?” the Constable’s voice trembled with fear… but also curiosity. “The glowing green doorway, then, is…”

“A lost Gateway, yes. To another world.”

“And what world might that be?” the Constable said, his voice barely a whisper now.

“The Homeland of the great dragons: Polygon.” said the Paladin to the Constable, just as 50,000 knights gathered outside the green Portal — the Gateway — ready for the adventure, and unaware of the great battles, the mystical beasts and the vast treasures that lay beyond.

Come to the Telegram: https://t.me/defimagic and meet those readying themselves for the Land of Dragons, filled with Dark Magic and adventure. For there are dungeons full of vast treasures, glorious battles of unfathomable depths, and so much more.

The dragons are coming…. Dark Magic abound….

The kingdom of Axioms is ready, and the call to arms with the alliance of The Order has been sent.

You’ve readied yourself for giving chase to the Wizards in the Smartlands of Binance from the Tales of the Battle of Ellendore.

Now you must prepare for the Dark Magic of the Dragons of Polygon.

And yet, there is one more mystery afoot. What are the secrets of The Order? Who are they? And what treasures await those daring enough to seek them?

This is just the beginning.

Magic ($MAGIC) 💫 Dark Magic ($DMAGIC)
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Axioms ($AXI) 🧩
Website: https://axioms.app/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AxiomsApp
Telegram: https://t.me/axiomsapp
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