A voice droned on, telling a story Glaucia had heard many times before.  "Before the first age the world had no form.  Strange and ancient forces existed. Little is known of most of them for they are formless and hostile to beings of creation. The four elemental lords were born from this chaos.  Their very presence forcing form on the world around them, they tore the world into being and with that action shattered themselves and shackled what remained to their creation." 

"This began the first age.  The elemental lords did not rule, for it was not their nature.  As the age passed, life began to spread and became more complex.  The fist age was long.  Eventually the Mother was born, leading to the second age."

"The Golden Age began with Her birth, and The Queen in turn birthed the craft of magic and the race of Dragons who are it's embodyment.  Civilization flowered under Her rule as She spread the First Tougne to the lesser races, and taught them spellcraft that they may better serve Her and Her children.  A gift returned in fire and blood after a scant few hundred millenia."

"The rise of the gods shook the world.  Claiming to be as old as the world itself, they told the Queen that She was meant to be mortal.  They claimed they were the rightful rulers of the world, and they turned many of the Queen's subjects against Her in exchange for their gifts of power.  The Queen ruled by right and by strength but Her power was not absolute and the Dragons were never numerous.  The cities of the traitors burned, but their fields were watered with the blood of Dragons."

"In rage at the loss of Her children the Queen struck out at the moon goddess.  Weakest of the three gods, she was shattered as was the moon.  The sun god swore a terrible oath of vengence, swearing on his power that he would not rest on his throne until the last Dragon died.  He wove the oath of power into a curse that he hurled at the bloodline of dragons, wasting them away.  He struck the Queen down with a terrible spear of light and while She hid to heal, he sent the traitor races to hunt down any who remained loyal to the Queen, and especially any who shared the faintest trace of Her blood."

"That is why we hide, here in the dark.  We hide from his armies of traitors, and we hide from his sight.  We watched each generation as those with even the faintest trace of Dragon's blood died to the wasting sickness.  And we remember who we were before we were driven from the light, and our mission.  She told us to wait here for Her return."  The elder looked out on the classroom at bored looking hatchlings, then sighed.  "Okay, you're all dismissed.  Go do your chores."

Glaucia woke from his daze with a start and waved at elder Livius as he dashed out the door.  He was close to his last childhood molting, and could feel the tightness of his skin making him jumpy.  He was long past ready for the feedom of adulthood and the right to leave the village cavern to hunt.  Dashing through the village he grabbed a basket and fishing spear at the docks.  A swim would bring relief from the endless itch of too tight skin.

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The village that had made his home for all of his life was in a cavern with a narrow, fortified mouth.  Half of the cavern was land, and half was a freshwater lake fed by an underground river far below the waterline.  Some of the village's protein came from the sightless fish and crustaceans living in it's cool clear waters, and the rest of their diet from mushrooms grown on the land and beasts caught in the wild fungal forest outside their home cavern. Food was always welcome.

He'd traded for the fishing chore because he loved the water normally, and even more so now that he was so close to shedding.  Running to the end of the dock, he dropped his basket on the end and dove straight in, swimming down into the depths.  Hunting around the cracks and crevices near the edge of the village, he slowly caught half a dozen large pink crayfish who were attracted by the small amount of detrius from the village that wasn't turned into compost for the fields.  Dropping his last catch in the basket, he heard a whisper of moving water just a hair too late to react.

With a brief splash he was pulled under.  Flashing scales and biting teeth flailed underwater until with a cloud of bubbles 2 scaled heads popped out of the water. "I got you good that time" Blandus said with a laugh, the water sheeting off her pebble grey scales.  "You're sneaky enough all right", Glaucia replied with a grin "But you know nobody can beat me underwater".  He waved his pale blue scaled hand at her in a rude gesture as they hoisted themselves onto the dock.  "Did Cneaus manage to sneak free too?" he asked glancing around the docks just in time to spot a small green scaled figure dart between two huts carying two large tightly woven baskets and a bale of rope.

Glaucia, Blandus, and Cneaus were nestmates, the three of them were the chosen eggs to be hatched 11 years ago.  Food is always a concern in the village and the population tightly managed, though it's been getting better since they managed to trade for a book on mushroom farming kobolds can breed very quickly.  The elders say the village supports more than it has since the founding but they still leave most eggs unhatched.  Being the only 3 thier age, they were thick as thieves, and these baskets were part of a plan they'd been working on for weeks.

Glaucia always loved the water, and loved diving as deep as he could.  Deeper than he was supposed to, too.  It was fun, and there were more fish in the deeps.  And last month while trying for a depth record he'd seen something sparkling on the lake bottom tantilizingly out of reach.  He'd tried again but just couldn't get that far down before he ran out of air.  So they were going to fill the baskets full of rocks, tie them to the smallest rowboat, and sink it upside down.  It didn't need to be all the way into the deeps, just halfway down would be plenty.  And the rope would let him haul himself straight down from the surface in record time too.  It was a perfect plan.