Discovery of the Boys
Gin & Meade were discovered as newborns by the blacksmith from a village on the east coast of
Ithaki. He found them in a heart-shaped depression in the grass, filled with sand and ringed with pink-white quartz stones. Not knowing who they were, but thinking they had been abandoned because of some prophecy, he could not bear to see them die of exposure and so took them in and raised him as his sons.
"The Mother of Dragons"
Three months after their sixth birthday, the boys were playing in the hills and valleys surrounding the village when they heard singing - a strange, ululating song they could not place. Running up the hill, they crested it and looked down into the next valley - sitting there with her back to them was a beautiful woman, dressed in strange clothes that could have been a dress or armor or scales, or perhaps all three. She was seated in a heart-shaped sandy depression ringed with pink-white quartz stones and cradling something in her hands. Meade, more cautious than his brother, wanted to fetch their father but Gin, more outgoing, pretended to agree but then grappled his brother and the two them rolled down the hill, coming to rest at the feet of the beautiful woman.
She knew their names and histories, and said she was "mother of all, most importantly for you, mother of dragons" and handed each one of them a
dragon "egg". She then made a heart shape with her hands and a bright glowing pink-white light spread from it - so bright they could not see. When the light faded, she was gone and the sandy depression was all overgrown and could scarcely be seen.
The boys did not know what the "eggs" were but they soon hatched, revealing young
dragons, which the boys found they were bonded with. Frightened someone would see the dragons, they resolved to hide them and sneaked home, trying to get past their father. But he spotted them and - after firmly questioning them - discovered their secret. Surprising the boys, he seemed to be sad but resigned to fate, and helped them feed the dragons. He then put them to bed and told them a story about the dragonriders and how they were purged from the world, but then how the
goddess of Love gave two children who a man raised on his own and who later became dragonriders and went on adventures and fought for good in the world. Meade asked if they took their father with them, and their father said no - that adventures are for young people. Meade promised to take his father with him if he ever went on an adventure.
Chun and Ulixes
Three years later, the dragons had grown and assumed their adult coloring. Their father was taking more and more custom blacksmithing work, earning money to build a stable for the dragons at the rear of the house. Merchants would stop in the village to have swords or armor made.
One day a merchant ship stopped at the dock - a merchant had come wanting a sword made for his son who was taking the rite of manhood soon. The merchant's bodyguard, an
Uruk named
Chun, also needed her armor repaired. The boys led Chun at a run to their house, where their father began to repair her armor. The merchant arrived soon after and requested the sword.
During negotiations, a servant of King Ulixes of Ithaki arrived, saying that the King would like to dine with the merchant in the village that evening - there was a flurry of activity as the villagers got everything ready for a feast. That evening, the King and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus together with their court arrived and a joyful feast was had. Gin and Meade grew tired as the sun set and settled down to sleep in a pile of hay.
They were woken some hours later - the party was still going on but they were separated from it by distance. The king was shaking their shoulders. "Show me the dragons, boys," he asked. The boys were surprised and tried to pretend they didn't know anything about dragons, but Ulixes was insistent. Meade asked him how he knew about them and he said someone had told him. Meade then said
no-one knew about the dragons and Ulixes said "their mother does".
Ulixes said he wanted the boys and their father to come to the palace and live there, where the boys could be trained in the arts of the warrior and other things they would need to become dragonriders. He spoke to them about the importance of sacrifice, of having a duty to do. The boys were blinded by the ease and luxury of living in the palace, but Ulixes told them it would be hard but sometimes men have to do hard things to do the right thing.
They were too excited to sleep, but eventually fell asleep and woke late the next morning. Their father spoke with them, telling them the King had spoken to him but it would be their choice whether they went to the palace. He seemed sad and regretful - as if something he had hoped wouldn't happen was coming to pass. Their father went away to pray to the goddess of Love and the boys decided they would become dragonriders.
The family went to the palace, where they were welcomed by the King and his family. The boys and dragons were given rooms off the athletic courtyard, where they began their training under Chun, who had been hired as their trainer in the ways of warriors.
For the next three years, this was their life - learning the arts of the warrior but also being educated in philosophy, history and more. They and their dragons grew and became more skilled.
The Rite of Manhood
When the boys turned 12, it was time for them to undergo the
rite of passage into manhood. In
Pelopon, the rite had become mostly ceremonial in nature - boys were kidnapped, but there was no real violence and the transition was marked by feasting and talk in a place separated from the womenfolk.
However, when the men of the city came for Gin and Meade in the middle of the night their fear summoned their dragons who fought the men. Fortunately, no serious harm was done - and once the misunderstanding had been explained the boys were taken to a hidden cave where they feasted, drank alcohol, and were initiated into the mysteries of manhood.
Returning to the womenfolk, they were greeted with water for the ritual washing and welcomed back into the society with a ritualized kiss - Queen Penelope went to greet them, but then from out of the crowd of the womenfolk the same Mother of Dragons as before appeared and kissed the boys and their father to welcome them back. Their father seemed saddened to see her.
The Attack of Al-Djinn
When the boys were fifteen, an army from
Al-Djinn attacked Ithaki and burned the villages and killed the people. King Ulixes led his own army against them and Gin and Meade fought from the back of their dragons. The dragonriders managed to snatch up the leader of the Al-Djinn forces and drop him to his death, but not before he summoned a mighty Djinn spirit which invoked a powerful hurricane which knocked the dragonriders unconscious.
When they came to, they found the city had been burned and the King killed. The Queen had been captured and taken off, and Chun was missing. They found their father, dying, who revealed the truth of their origin - he had not found them on the hillside. Rather, when he was a young man he had lain with a beautiful woman who - nine months later - brought two infants to him. This, it was clear, was the goddess of Love and she had wanted to restore the dragonriders to the world. He bid them farewell and told them he was sorry he could not go on their adventures with them, and then died.
