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Hello everyone, this is Asclepius, with the next instalment of this wonderful story by Draxenath. It is entitled “Interview with the Dragon Goddess”.
Background music by Smartsound

Part 1 : The Beginning

I was so thrilled and nervous my mind went completely blank. I had so many questions before meeting her, but all of them had escaped me at the moment, so I proceded with a very basic question. – Please tell me about yourself, if you may introduce, and tell me how you came to be. There is no written information I could find about you in the world, but you are talked about in whispers. We are told Amaxis is the only God of our world so I would like to hear your side of the story.

She looked back at me with some skepticism. – The Creator made me at the same time he made Amaxis and gave me the name Draxenath. We were the last of the Gods to be made in The Creator’s original plan. We were meant to be the pinnacle of his creative process, our purpose was to inspire the other Gods, to be the ideal they would strive towards in order to achieve their greatest potential. Stronger than the Giant Gods, fiercer than the Beast Gods, more diligent than the Insect Gods, and more patient than the Sea Gods. – She smirked with a hint of irony. – The Creator was not expecting we would bring out the worst in all of them instead.

There it was, a confirmation of the existence of Gods for the giants, beasts, insects and sea life, and not just that, a “Creator”, a sort of Supergod! – Tell me more about The Creator! How is he like?

The Dragon Goddess looked sad after my question. – He loves all of his creation, he knows it’s not what he originally expected it to be, but won’t interfere anymore. He intends to let things settle down by themselves, however long that takes, and whatever it takes. He has the belief that we will do the right thing and whatever happens, in the end, will be the best outcome that could have been. – The smirk of irony returned to her face. – I can’t deny, the conflict that arose pushed every one of us to make our best effort.

The conflict, the confrontation among the Gods, the one in which we are told Amaxis emerged victoriously! What a great opportunity to know the details of the conflict! – We are told Amaxis defeated some Great Demons and that is how peace and unity were finally achieved. You are mentioning a conflict, which I assume is the same and the so-called Great Demons were actually the other Gods. I am very interested in knowing how the conflict started, and all the important details on it.

– That is a very long story, but I can tell you the most important events. It all started the day we were made. The Creator presented us to the other Gods. “These are the Dragon Gods, greatest of my creation. All of you must look up to them, admire their splendor and learn from them, for they are to be your masters and guides. You are to serve and assist them in their task of leading the World on the road of constant improvement towards perfection.”, he said to them. Those words filled my heart with fear, it was such a great responsibility. Amaxis noticed it and comforted me with a reassuring smile.

– Wait a minute! – I interrupted. – Was Amaxis originally a Dragon God? How did he… alright, I guess we will get to that eventually. Sorry, please go ahead.

– Every one of the male Gods wanted to measure against Amaxis, – she continued, – and he literally humiliated them in their own games. They didn’t take that very well at all. He got addicted to the feeling of besting others, of proving he was better than anyone else. With time, he got bored of them and looked for a stronger opponent to compete against. Unfortunately, I was the only one worthy of such an “honor”.

She paused, her sadness returned for a moment, then turned into anger. – I was not trying to compete against him in any way, yet he turned everything we did together into a competition, followed by discouraging, humiliating comments. I grew tired of his constant abuse. One day, we were watching the sunset. Despite all of our quarrels, he was so good at making up for them with that kind of moments, but that time something turned out different. “The beauty of the sunset is like the two of us together.”, he said. “My red scales are like the red sky, quite a sight to admire, while your golden scales are like the sun, they hurt the eyes!” That was so cruel, it hurt my feelings. We were meant to be a couple! I could endure no more, so I took flight and abandoned him, I didn’t want to spend my life with him anymore!

Her voice was breaking as she spoke the last few sentences. She remained silent for a moment, arms crossed, eyes getting watery. I decided not to press her and waited until she decided to continue.

Part 2: The origins of humans

After a couple minutes of silence, she spoke again. – He didn’t accept my decision to leave him, so he chased after me. He demanded me to come back, but I refused. He kept insisting until he got tired of it and tried to force me. – She smiled with satisfaction. – I had never really competed against him in anything, but this time I decided to fight back with all my strength. We fought in the skies for a while, until I hit him on the head, a very solid and heavy blow. He fell, and I followed him. As he hit the ground, I landed with my knees on his forearms, and my paws on his face, thumb claws ready to pluck his eyes out if he decided to continue fighting. He remained still, savoring defeat for the first time. Then The Creator interfered.

She sighed, returning to her bored expression. – He tried to help us reconcile, but I was not willing to. I was not the only deity who disliked his company, so I was evidently not the one at fault. I made it very clear I wanted to be left alone and free, while Amaxis still wanted me back, but was unwilling to apologize or admit his wrongdoing. The creator decided to make him another bride, one that would love him unconditionally, and would not abandon him no matter how he treated her. Her name was Humenalia. The Creator put one condition for creating her: Amaxis would be the one to instruct her in the ways of the world, just as The Creator had instructed us when we were created. Amaxis was to be Humenalia’s master and guardian.

– Humenalia…- I said as she went silent for a moment, – that name sounds like “human”, I assume we are getting closer to that part, right?

The Goddess nodded. – Amaxis thought her too stupid to be instructed, and he was too lazy to dedicate the time necessary to do it properly, so he decided to oversimplify things. The laws of Cause and Effect, taking responsibility for one’s own actions and other important concepts like thinking before taking action were not properly taught to her. Instead, Amaxis created “Sins” and “Taboos” and Rules she should follow without question, and threatened her with horrible punishment that would immediately befall upon her if she broke them. He used fear to educate and control her. She was not stupid at all, and soon she questioned the rules that were imposed on her.

– That is exactly like the current state of things between Amaxis and the mortals. – I added. She continued talking. – It didn’t take long before she broke a rule accidentally. She caused a forest fire, which burned thousands of trees and forest creatures, and didn’t receive any horrible punishment. Seeing the expected consequences didn’t happen, she deliberately set another forest in fire. No punishment either. Then she continued to test the other rules, laying waste as she did. It was catastrophic.

– Didn’t she receive any punishment? – I wondered. – She did! – responded Draxenath – The creator called her out and questioned her actions. She explained about the prohibitions placed by Amaxis and how none of the consequences he mentioned were the truth. The Creator called Amaxis and questioned him. Amaxis put the whole blame on Humenalia for disobeying him. He said whether his explanations were true or not, following his instructions without question would have prevented the chaos she unleashed.

– The Creator was sad, Amaxis was his favorite and he had so high expectations of him, but it was time to give him a proper punishment. “You didn’t want to reconcile with your original mate, so I made you a new one just the way you wanted her. And still, you don’t love her and blame her for the consequences of your own mistakes. Your pride has blinded you, I will take everything from you as punishment.” He took away Amaxis’ ability to transform into a dragon, leaving him in his Divine Form, which is how we call the form I am in right now. His scales, horns, claws, wings, and tail fell off. His fire breath extinguished. Most of his teeth lost their sharpness. He was reduced to a small, helpless creature. Humenalia contemplated her mate for a moment, then petitioned to The Creator. “Do the same to me… I want to share his burden because we are mates, we are meant to support each other both in good and bad times.”

– The Creator nodded at Humenalia’s noble gesture and did the same to her. “As part of the punishment, the children you give birth to will be as helpless as you are, and will not inherit your immortality. You shall be doomed to live forever and see your descendants fade.”

– Amaxis remained calm and replied to The Creator. “Even under this punishment, my descendants will inherit my greatness, they shall be as cunning and rule the world one day.” That is the origin of the human race.

Echoes From the Caverns