Panzer Dragoon Legende

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Panzer Dragoon is <tm> SEGA, 1995, 1996.
All original material is (c) Michael White, August, 1996
This fan-work is not intended to infringe on the rights of SEGA Enterprises,
Ltd., and is intended for *free* distribution.
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Thanks to SEGA and Team Andromeda for creating these incredible games
Direct all comments, criticisms, etc. to mikew@atcon.com, or failing that
aj331@ccn.cs.dal.ca
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	"The Kouriheat are creatures of great potential; they are the balancers of
our world. All evils are met by them with good - all good, countered with
evil. Beware the winged Kouriheat, the dragon, for such creatures possess
strong magic, and should that magic be black, darkness will befall all
mankind..."	- from The Book of Prophecy by the Tussuk Monks

	My story has a simple beginning; son of a woodsmith and windmill tender, I
was born into the tiny village of Thuth on the edge of the Great Western
Sea, near where the battles between the Empire and the remnants of Mechania
still raged. Many a young man and woman from our village had gone off to
join the conflict, fighting for whichever side they deemed just. 
It mattered little; the Empire would pillage our town, whilst Mechanian
airships desired only the destruction of those who refused to join them.
Despite the threat, our tiny settlement struggled to remain neutral; should
we ally with one or the other, whomsoever became our enemy would surely kill
us all.
	Life in such a desolate outpost was not easy, even discounting the war.
Desert surrounded us to all sides, except the west which held the great
expanse of the sea. Most of the town's airships had been destroyed or
seized, our crops burned, irrigation ravaged... our K'saa trees - mystical
plants whose sap, when processed, could render any object lighter than air -
were slowly dying, and with them would die our village, for without them we
would have no airships and no way of trading with other settlements. So dire
was the predicament that fishers had stopped using airships to harvest, and
had constructed boats like those used in the primitive settlements of the
Northern Continent.
	Still, in spite of the hardship I grew up happy. As a very young boy I
would aid my mother as she maintained one of the countless windmills in the
town, helping her mend the cloth or repair the structure after a storm. At
times, I would also assist my father as he carved out airship hulls for the
local fishers and merchants. I never ceased to fascinated by the process of
applying K'saa sap to the hull; seeing a massive pile of lumber float about
a room lighter than a feather always filled me with a sense of wonderment
and awe.
	However, despite the hard labor of my parents, we were an impoverished
family; our home constucted of lumber, mud, and brick only had two rooms and
a rooftop shack where we kept the family Yuffa - a sturdy biped riding
animal that had served us for a long time. Perhaps too long; our Yuffa often
got exhausted on relatively short trips and could no longer carry our entire
family. The fact that we could barely afford to feed it was, I am sure, no
help. Waning crops and an increasingly poor fish harvest did not bode well
for our community. The only animal that abounded in these parts was the
worthless Kouriheat...

	I was only 15 years old when I was taken on my first Kouriheat hunt.
Kouriheat were worse than useless; not only was their meat poisonous and
skin too tough for garments, they would sneak into the town at night and
devour our crops. That, and the town elders would tell us that Kouriheats
could be creatures of great evil, and to harbor one would bring poor luck
upon a family. As a result, Kouriheat hunting had become a popular passtime,
even though it served no real purpose.
	I caught my first glimpse of a Kouriheat from the back of Palo's Yuffa; it
was an unimpressive creature, resembling a tiny Yuffa with a tadpole-like
tail. Also, its head was rounded, with a large, human-like mouth filled with
many tiny sharp teeth. The most pronounced feature of the Kouriheat was its
eyes; almost human-like, they glimmered with the faintest trace of...
intelligence? The idea was absurd. Most Kouriheat didn't even know enough to
run from humans.
	I quickly roused myself from my musings as Palo took aim at the Kouriheat
with his crossbow. The hairless grey creature was just standing there as we
charged at it, waving its odd little tail as we approached. Palo fired, the
K'saa vine of the crossbow giving an elastic-sounding 'thwa!' as it
propelled the arrow forward, the pointed tip of the projectile burying
itself deep in the unsuspecting creature's throat. The Kouriheat let out a
mangled cry of pain, then collapsed to the ground, dark red blood seeping
from the wound and soaking into the sand.
	Palo was elated, but for some reason I felt saddened. This was hardly the
type of animal I had expected; the legends spoke of them as beings of
potentially great evil, but upon looking at the Kouriheat's body and
reflecting on its actions, I would almost classify them as *friendly*...

	After technically becoming a man at 17 years and recieving a crossbow of my
own I still found excuses not to go Kouriheat hunting. Some were suspicious
of me, but thanks to the fact that I largely kept to myself, they didn't
press the issue. Besides, there was a larger, more real threat to focus our
efforts on now: the Vind.
	At first glance, the insectile Vind resembled a monstrous scorpion half the
size of a man. In reality they were much more lethal. Capable of rapidly
burrowing through the ground and launching themselves high into the air,
Vind had killed many townspeople with their acidic venom. Disinterested in
our crops, Vind seemed to feed only on the flesh of humans and our animals.
Hunters were hired weekly to voyage out into the wastes to kill as many Vind
as they could in an effort to stem the tide of their influx. Lacking the
talent for any other trade, I spent all my money on a new Yuffa and signed
up. Unfortunately, my first sojurn into the desert proved less than
profitable... but certainly memorable...

	Being a novice hunter meant no-one else would hunt with me; I had to prove
myself by killing at least a few Vind before the seasoned hunters would even
pay attention to me. And so, head full of ideas of glory and feeling
generally invincible, I unwittingly trotted my new Yuffa straight into a
Vind nesting area.
	It was when I heard sand shifting that I brought the animal to a halt.
Warily eyeing the desert around me, I edged out my crossbow and loaded six
bolts into its magazine. Most crossbows only held four bolts, or even two,
but my father had built this one especially for me.
	As I watched, an area of sand shifted. I fired, and an insectile scream
pierced the desert air. Reddish-black blood could be seen welling up from
where the arrow had penetrated the sand; I had just killed my first Vind.
	Suddenly, I caught another flicker of movement out of the corner of my eye.
I pivoted and shot, killing a second creature. On a hunch, I fired a bolt
into the sand ahead of me, slaying a third. It was then that I realized that
I wasn't an exceptional marksman; the Vind had completely surrounded me.
	At that moment, three Vind launched themselves stinger-first out of the
sand dunes surrounding me. One I shot out of the air, but the other two
drove their venomous needles deep into my Yuffa's hide. It screamed, and I
could smell flesh burning from where the acidic poison ate at the animal's
skin. My Yuffa collapsed and died, and I flung myself clear as several more
Vind appeared and began feeding on its carcass.
	I turned and ran, ran as fast as I could. It did me no good; I could hear
several Vind burrowing through the sand behind me. I could run fast, but
they could dig faster. Ultimately, I stumbled down a sand dune and fell,
turning in time to see six of the disgusting insects leap out of the dune
and come flying towards me, blotting out the sun with their grotesque forms.
I felt certain that was the last thing I would see.
	Closing my eyes, I felt the Vind land on me heavily. Then... nothing? No
sting, no venom? Now that I thought about it, it didn't even feel like a
whole Vind lying on top of me. As I opened my eyes, I saw that indeed the
lower half of the insect was missing. The other Vind were also scattered
around me in pieces, looking char-broiled and smelling like cooked meat. I
frantically looked around for my saviour, found no-one, and then looked up
as I realized something was still blotting out the sun...

	Hovering over me was a creature I can even now only describe as awesome. It
was an almost lizard-like creature, covered in vaguely reptilian blue
scales. Its massive talons resembled those of a falcon magnified a dozen
times over. It had an elongated tail which filled out into a rather slender
body, tapering down to an equally long neck. Aside from its talons, no horns
or other protrusions jutted from its body or head; its skin was completely
smooth. The beast's leathery wings beat slowly at the air, effortlessly
keeping the mighty creature aloft. Its elongated head housed countless
sharp, smallish teeth, but those eyes... those eyes that as I stared at them
stared right back at me... they conveyed something... intelligence, yes, but
also... compassion? Hope?
	Trust?
	It was at that moment I realized what I was staring at. Illustrations in
the Book of Prophecy I had seen so long ago came flooding back to me now.
What I was staring at was a fully mature winged Kouriheat.
	A dragon...

	Panic vyed desperately to convince me to run from this creature of dark
legend, but my sheer fascination kept me rooted where I stood. Mutant
dragons had been known to be bred in Mechania to serve as mounts for their
elite soldiers, but what I was staring at was no mutant, but rather the
*real thing*. Unaware that I had even gotten up, I took a step towards the
mammoth beast. It cocked its head as I approached, letting out a shrill but
soft cry. Slightly startled, I stopped, waiting uncertainly for it to make
the next move. Then as I watched, mesmerized, it drifted slowly to the
ground and landed softly, talons crunching against the golden sands of the
desert. My mind still refused to process fully what my eyes were seeing; a
dragon, a real *dragon* with a wingspan wider than our house sat before me,
waiting. Unsure of what else to do, I reached out tentatively...
	The dragon gave a ferocious roar, opening its mouth wide and giving me a
closeup view of its many flesh-rending teeth. I saw a blue light of some
sort emenating from deep within the dragon's throat and threw myself to the
ground, convinced it was going to kill me after all. Fatalistically
fascinated at my own demise, I watched as a brilliant azure beam leapt from
the dragon's mouth, curved upwards, and blew an airborne Vind to smithereens.
	For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, I was totally shocked.
The dragon had saved my life. Again. It purred softly at me and beat its
wings once, showering me with sand. Slowly, I got to my feet again. It
stared at me intently, chirping now and again but otherwise not doing much
of anything. Glancing over my shoulder to ensure no Vind were sneaking up on
me, I reached out once more. As I laid my hand on the cool reptilian surface
of the adult Kouriheat's snout, the entire world dissolved around me...

	I was instantly far, far away from the deserts near Thuth, and yet at the
same time I was still there. Here, time was a suggestion. It was not a law
that needed to be followed, and could be traversed at will. My mind
rationalized what I was experiencing as a purple-white tunnel, and I was
flying through it, weightless. I emerged from the tunnel, hovering over a
vast purple-white plain. The sky... the sky was so black. What was...?
	At that moment I was bombarded with images, sounds, smells, feelings... a
whole lifetimes worth. *Many* lifetimes worth. I saw a great city of
gleaming towers, I saw a huge airship made of, of *metal* sailing impossibly
high above the clouds, sailing up into the night. I saw a tremendous
catacylsm as that same night sky was torn asunder. I saw the same city in
ruins, abandoned. I saw many things, many people... another huge airship
destroyed a village not unlike my own... another *dragon* with a boy on its
back soared after that airship. An explosion... the airship plummeted... the
dying heartbeats of the dragon as its rider cried beside it. Just when I
thought my head would explode from the torrent of images, of *emotions* that
flooded it, the deluge stopped, and I was in the desert once more.

	Reflexively, I jerked my hand away from the dragon's snout, gasping as if I
had just awakened from some dark nightmare. My mind still swam with the
images I had witnessed, the emotions I had felt, the meaning of them just as
incomprehensible as the method the dragon had used to convey them to me.
After a moment I regained control of my heart and lungs and looked up; the
dragon was still waiting patiently, obviously expecting me to do something.
Relunctantly, I touched it again, and again I recieved scenes in my mind,
albeit on a much smaller scale. I was still aware of my location as I once
again bore witness to events that had occured long ago and far from where I
stood.
	Once more I saw the airship that had destroyed that village; it was leaking
smoke and flying uncertainly. I saw a massive... *something*... fly out from
underneath the dying airship. It climbed up into view, and it was then that
I realized I was staring at a gigantic black dragon.
	The black dragon seemed to stare straight at me, its red eyes boring
straight through my skull, seemingly peering into my soul. This grotesque
creature who was longer than my village filled me with an unprecendented
sense of foreboding and dread; for all appearances it was Evil Incarnate...
	I watched as the black dragon confronted the same red dragon I had seen in
my earlier vision. I watched as the rider of the red dragon, a boy no older
than myself, resolutely pointed a weapon of some sort at the immense
monstrosity. The red and black dragons came snout to snout and hovered for a
moment, the latter dwarfing the former. The moment of tranquility did not
last long; the black dragon swung its massive tail at the red dragon, who
dodged as its rider fired his beam weapon at it. Mesmerized, I watched the
two dragons dance their deadly ariel ballet, the seemingly overmatched red
dragon dodging the endless volleys of energy from its mammoth foe, using
speed and precision to place its shots. After what seemed like an eternity,
my heart leapt as a final blast from the red dragon's rider struck home. The
black dragon gave the young man a look of pure hatred fueled by pain, and
then literally disintegrated and fell into the ocean.
	As the link ended, I distinctly heard five words. "The black dragon lives
again..."

	I stared deep into the blue dragon's eyes, uncertain. "What does this have
to do with me?" I asked it, not really expecting a reply. I had yet to
accept that this dragon was a least as intelligent as myself, and quite
possibly more so. A final image came into my mind; a vision of myself,
riding atop this blue dragon into a veritable firestorm from Empire and
Mechanian airships and flitters, chasing the black dragon to the ends of the
earth...

	I pulled my hand away in shock, stumbling backwards and falling to the
desert floor. "What?" I hissed. "Wh... why *me*?" The dragon simply
screeched in response, wagging its head.
	"No," I responded as I scrambled to my feet, full of fear. "No, I'm just a
simple hunter! I... I can't fight in a war!! It's crazy!!! I..." I stopped.
The dragon had also ceased moving and was scrutinizing me once more,
pleading in its eyes. Fear and uncertainty raced through my mind but also
something else, the beginnings of some sort of bond with this magnificant
creature. The notion of battle on the scale it was implying still made me
queasy, but the idea of flying atop such a wonderous beast, of the two of us
defeating such an evil, began to eat away at my doubts.
	That, and deep down I felt a debt to the Kouriheat for not trying to stop
the hunts, although I doubt I would have succeeded. I stared at the dragon
for a good long time, desert wind howling around me. I found myself edging
towards acceptance, but my rational side cried out 'This is madness! You are
no warrior! Let this dragon find someone else; if this supposed black dragon
is as great a threat as it says, then having a trained soldier fight it
would be better for us all!' Ultimately, reluctantly, I walked away. Then
dragon let out such a heart-wrenching cry that I was forced to look back. It
had lowered its head to the sand and was staring up at me, a very clear
indication that it wanted me to ride it. With a long treacherous walk back
to Thuth should I decline, I hesitantly strode over to the dragon and
mounted its slender neck...

	I quickly came to the conclusion that flying atop a dragon was absolutely
nothing like flying in an airship. Sitting just forward of where the
dragon's wings met its body, legs wrapped around the joint, I clung to its
cool skin for dear life as we rocketed through the sky high above the
desert. I could feel the dragon's powerful muscles with my legs as it pumped
its wings, propelling us faster and faster. Although the wind was ferocious
and my purchase on the dragon's back was iffy at best, I was estatic. The
dragon had absolute mastery over the sky, a mastery it now shared with me as
I urged it through several banks and dives. It largely flew its own course,
but would respond to my urgings far more readily than any Yuffa I had
ridden. For several hours we gallavanted across the sky, stopping only when
I realized that mid-day had come and gone, and it was well into the
afternoon. My parents would be worried. Getting my bearings I nudged the
dragon towards Thuth.
	I should have anticipated the reception we would receive...


	As we approached the village, I could sense something was wrong. Everyone
was scrambling around the village, and I could see several people fleeing
the town. Concerned, I prompted the dragon to set down in center of town. I
had expected the townspeople to be overawed as I was when confronted with a
real live dragon. I underestimated the influence the Prophecies had on the
populace...
	My second mistake.
	I watched, horrified, as all around me townspeople raised their crossbows
or other edged weapons and began eyeing the two of us hostilely. The blue
dragon was also aware of this, and began shifting uneasily on its talons. I
wondered what these people were thinking.
	"Yara!!" one of the men cried out. "What, are you mad?! You bring this
creature of evil into our midst!"
	"He is not a creature of evil!" I replied to the crowd. "He saved my life!"
	"No doubt to trick you into bringing it here!" One of the others retorted.
"We will have none of it!"
	I could do nothing except scream for them to stop as they began their
attack. The dragon cried out in agony as some of the arrows pierced its
thick hide, and then frantically tried to take off. I lost my grip and
crashed to the ground, watching in despair as the wounded Kouriheat soared
off into the sky...

	"Yara, what do you say in your defense?"
	I looked down the stand at the stern faces of the elder council, each of
them in turn scrutinizing me. Much of the village had turned out for this
council meeting, and I could feel many more hot gazes boring into the back
of my skull.
	"The dragon would not have harmed anyone," I answered quietly. "He saved my
life..."
	"He has associated with a creature of evil legacy!" one of the townspeople
shouted out. "He must be put to death!"
	"SILENCE!" councilman Elor thundered, cutting off the numerous sentiments
of agreement that had ensued. "That is a rule from the Book of Prophecy, it
is not our law! We cannot execute him based on a rule from the Book alone!"
	My heart skipped a beat.
	"However," Elor continued, staring straight at me, "nor can we *protect*
him under the law. May I take this opportunity to remind the assemblage that
the penalties for vigilantism, if caught, are quite severe."
	Elor's tone of voice filled me with dread. He had basically told the
villagers that they could do as they wished with me, with little fear of
retribution or punishment.
	I made a decision; tonight, under the cover of darkness, I would flee the
village.

	My parents were greatly saddened by this turn of events. My mother cried on
my shoulder, while my father simply disappeared. What he was doing I would
not find out until much later...
	"Oh Yara," my mother sobbed, "I feared this day would come..."
	I tried to comfort her, but her words confused me. She feared this day
would come? What did that mean?
	Glancing outside, one could easily see several people trying to hide in the
shadows, no doubt waiting for me to show myself. I despaired against ever
being able to make it beyond the village gates, much less to another
settlement. I also wondered about the enigmatic blue dragon; would I ever
see him again?

									- MW
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|            sits in the middle and knows." - Robert Frost               |
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