Dragon Brides

Andraous (Discontinued)    Culture    Legends/Myths      Dragon Brides

There is a story that is often told to the children in Orc tribes that is called The Dragon Brides.

Summary

The story begins with a young Orc who is in his traveling years. He is passing through some mountains, on the lookout for mighty prey when a massive shadow passes overhead. Realizing that it was a Regal Dragon the Orc gives chase, of surely if he can best such a powerful beast he would be ready to challenge a clan male for the right to a clan. He chases the shadow for several hours, before spotting the dragon land near a beautiful mountain lake. The Orc carefully approaches the lake, hoping to catch the dragon off guard, but to his surprise, he hears several orcish voices instead.
Surprised he glances around the large boulder and sees two naked Orc women playing in waist deep water, while the golden Regal Dragon standing on the shore. Seeing a chance to impress the women, the Orc readies his weapon, but before he can rush out, the dragon removes it's skin, revealing a beautiful, muscular Orc woman. She then deposits the golden scales next to two similar skins and hurries to the other waiting Orcs. Seeing an opportunity to get the clan he always wanted, the Male Orc manages to grab all three skins without the women noticing and hurries them to a small shallow cave he had passed while originally chasing the first dragon. He deposits the skins inside and pulls a large boulder over the entrance.
Confident that nothing and no one would find the skins the Orc then makes camp, and waits for morning. When the sun begins to creep back into the sky he makes his way back to the lake and finds the three women naked, cold, and miserable. Pretending to be out on an early morning hunt, he offers to help the women. Having been unable to find their skins and unable to turn back into dragons they agree.
As time passes their skins don't reappear, so the three women eventually agree to become the male's clan, and each bear him a child, two sons, and a daughter. One day, while the man Orc is out on a hunt, one of the women is out gathering medicinal plants when she come across a large boulder sitting against a cliff wall. Watching critter crawl through an eroded opening near the base of the cliff, she begins to widen the opening, hoping for some rare medicinal fungus. Eventually she manages to squeeze her way in and to her surprise she finds her and her sisters dragon skins.
Putting two and two together, the orc roars. Enraged, she throws on her skin, turning back into a dragon and bursting out of the blocked cave. Grabbing her sisters skins, she flies back to the clan's camp, and tells her sisters what she found. The three sisters agree that the male Orc must pay for what he has done, so the remaining two sisters put on their skins, and the three of them gather their children. They then bring the children to a near by safe place, before returning to the camp to wait for the male Orc.
He returns several hours later, bear over his shoulder, and is confused when no one comes to greet him, until a great shadow passes overhead. He stood no chance, the sisters burned the camp to the ground, and reduced the male to ash. The dragons would then return to the children, who would grow up to be the most well known Orc heroes in history.