Awakening of the Beasts

Offered setting for Tale Foundry's Forging Worlds Challenge

A historic event in Dra'cora's distant past.

Three millennia ago from modern day...
150 years have passed since Earth's mythical creatures fled by magic portal to escape The Black Death. Believing humans to be the source of this incurable illness--with humans in turn blaming them for it--and with the flying creatures spreading the magical strain to all corners of the globe, their only choice was to seek a new home where humans would never again threaten them.
Using their power over Breath, what humans call magic, a portal was opened to a new world--a frozen wasteland. Any who entered died within minutes, froze to death, suffocated, or else drained of magic--their lifeforce burned away from the effect of maintaining an atmosphere bubble. With the plague culling so many, none had the power to open a new portal and try for a different world. All would have been lost, were it not for the Pearl Egg of Creation and its miraculous terraforming spell.
They named the colony Dra'cora, and over time these Dra'corians founded a vast forest city, Heartholt. Using magically enhanced agriculture and animal husbandry, these creatures were able to thrive in their new home. Several changes occurred during the founding years, such as Spirits which had accompanied them, shifting forms from the humans they had served, to match those of their new magical families without explanation. Many even became purely elemental in their appearances. Insects that had been brought grew to larger sizes then even the livestock and crops, reaching gigantic proportions in some cases.

"Our new brownie looks weird. Mama says they look like tiny humans, but this one has wings and a beak. He's only been here a month, and this is the first time I've seen him. I asked why he looks so funny. He doesn't know. Maybe mama knows..." ~ Griffin chick

But now another, more drastic change is happening. The animals which they brought from Earth as a food source have been acting strangely over the past five decades, seeming to grow smarter. At first, the herdsman and hunters of the grounds around Heartholt paid the odd behavior little mind. But the oddities continue to grow at an alarming rate for the slow-to-change Dra'corians. Some are even beginning to suggest that the animals are gaining human-or even Dra'corian-like intelligence, but that can't possibly be true. These are mere beasts, not people, right...?

A centaur came in today with a swollen hip. Said it was a bee sting. I asked if he was allergic. He replied, "No, but that bee was the size of a rabbit." I, of course, said that was ridiculous. He pulled the dead bee from a saddlebag. "Does this look ridiculous to you?" I'm still shocked at how large it was. ~ Feathered serpent, physician's log

Dra'cora's name is pronounced [drah'koh-rah] and means "dragon's dawn". It was chosen to honor the sacrifice of the two dragons who created the Pearl Egg, which gave the colony new hope and a chance for survival.