(Birth of Dragons)
Sat on his brown horse was a great girthy man known as King Sigismund Luxembourg. What he is king of is hotly debated within his own kingdom. The man held a soft red beard and a pillbox hat on his head to cover more of his red hair. His bitter fingers raised a cold chalice so he could drink the last of a mean beer from the Czech city of Budweis. The air was very still in this forest despite the dark clouds above. There is something great here, he decided. Undoubtedly stupid, he stalled at the bottom of a hill. A strong wind blast had knocked him away from the rest of his army. Trvtko was a formidable enemy. And sitting behind him on the horse was his pupil, Prince Vlad of Wallachia. He was just about 14. His hair was cut short and he always kept a solemn face. Unlike his mentor, he wore a dark cloak which he used to further suppress himself. Now across which hill was the battle taking place?
His first liege, best friend, and the Palatine came up to him on his own horse. It was the handsome Miklos Garai. “Sire, they are not to the south of us or the east.”
His other liege and fighting partner Voyk the Vlach came up to him on foot. “There is no one to the north of us or the west.”
Sigismund smiled calmly, “so we’re completely lost!” This smile was so gentle and comforting that his men could never not feel satisfied even in the worst situation.
All except for Vlad who stated, “there’s nothing regal in being lost. Are we to end up like the Crusader Barbarossa?”
“Thank you, my boy. Well, there is a great creature in the cave over there. Let us venture and then simply luck our way into battle before they have realized I’m gone. All morale would be lost.” They started to head toward the cave, their armor and weapons clattering all about.
Miklos said, “I must argue with you. All is not lost. My brother Janos is there. Hermann Celje is there, one with great confidence. And at the least, the Lazarevic brothers are there and their troops can cover any loss of your presence.”
A sweat bead fell off Sigimund’s face, “but I think Trvtko is stronger than me!”
Miklos and Voyk were both shocked. Miklos almost fell off his horse! “You must find a confessional for lying. And if you feel like he can challenge you, the Vlach is here with his great vitality.”
“Just throw me into the Danube already,” Voyk responded.
“It was a compliment, don’t morbidly jest at me!”
The cave darkened their surroundings but they only quieted because something was heard crying within. Using the spell Eclairer, Miklos lit up the cave. There was a great drop before them and within the drop was a whimpering dragon. “A great Carpathian,” Sigismund exclaimed. The dragon was still a bit long but had limbs, two large leafy wings, and two horns jutting back from the head. Carpathian dragon scales range from green to grey in color, this was more green and thus more young. It seemed to have its tail tied around its neck despite being awake. “The Magyars had mostly run them extinct. All except this one.”
“And Carpathians live a good 75 years so this was born quite recently. But a dragon appearance would’ve been an alarm to anyone,” Miklos added.
“My King, add this beast to the roster. With its flight, we will reach the battlefield from anywhere,” Voyk suggested.
“Too true but how long does it take to tame a dragon? Especially in a cramped space like this? We will be practically reinventing agriculture.”
Vlad could not see from his position so he slid off the horse and crawled over to the ledge. Wind blasted his face and then he opened his eyes locked into a stare with the dragon. Voyk then jumped down, cloaking himself with Bloquer, and landed in front of the dragon safely. The dragon’s tail unraveled and his head rose. Unfortunately for him, the head would smash back into the ground after getting tossed by Voyk. His super strength allowed him to wrestle the dragon in the cramped hole and his speed kept him loose from any of the dragon’s assaults. In just two hours, much to everyone’s surprise, they flew out of the cave on the dragon’s back.
High above all the hills of the Bosna River, Miklos looked down for the battlefield. “Our troops seem to be resting where we left them. Sir, they look harshly defeated! And where is that Antiking Trvtko?”
Down at the castle of Dobor, Antiking Trvtko II Kotromanic stepped down onto the balcony as he just flew over. “Haha, now I’ve rightly devastated the Hungarians and Serbs. And that was already after tossing Sigismund way beyond the bounds of battle.” He then floated into the castle and made the way to a great stage. Decorations were already put up, food was served, and there was a large peanut gallery of nobles chattering about. Trvtko touched down and boomed with his voice. “Welcome! To the passing of King Sigismund. The King of the Dead for God did favor him some but not more than me. My fellow Bosniaks, I have gathered all of us nobility in recognition of me as true king. I alone have defeated the unruly neighbor of the Serbs, the superpower of Hungry, and all without the support of evil Turks!” The nobles cheered and clapped. A standing ovation of several minutes. “Soon I will make my way over to the land of Brankovics, the mountain of Zeta, the great city of Kosovo, and the city of Sofia. This ambition will create the great Bosnian Empire. Of course, there is only one Christian Emperor so on that day, I’ve decided my title will be ‘kralj kraljeva’…” and they kept cheering. The Antiking is of course, just a pretender to the throne with only the support of secessionist nobles within the Bosian realm.
Flying high above Dobor, “strange, Trvtko returned inside the castle. We had not even begun to siege yet and our forces are not dead. Is he retarded? He gave us all this space to begin a siege.”
“Miklos, we are already besieging,” Sigismund said. He cuddled the dragon’s neck, which was the way to command dragons. But-
“But sire, Carpathians don’t breathe fire. Only Britannic dragons breathe fire.”
“Full body siege,” Voyk said with a stern smile.
“No…” Miklos said, looking over at his lord. Sigismund looked back with his kind smile.
“All of you gathered here today will be great princes in this great kingdom. Your sons will have the honor of wiping out the Ottoman dynasty and your daughters will be the envy of Polish, German, and even French nobles! I may even go so far as to mend the Eastern Schism when we capture Constantinople. ‘Trvtko’ will be etched in stone as unbreakable as ‘Aleksander’.”
CRASH, the dragon burst through the ceiling of the castle. Trvtko fell on all fours in great shock. The nobles fell into loud crisis, “DRAGON!!!”
“Why is there a dragon running amok? My spies didn’t warn me of this,” Trvtko thought out loud. Then he looked up to see Sigismund and his followers sitting on the dragon. “He returned!? With a dragon??”
The Bosniak nobles noticed at the same time and rose to fire spells to slay the dragon and Sigismund himself. Men, women, and children alike attacked the zigzaging dragon. Sigismund said, “oh thank God, he gathered all of the nobles for us. The loss of their life would free up their lands which I can give to Ostoja and my own nobles. Everyone, fire.”
So the four leapt off the dragon and skated across the sky. A black, white, red, and blue aura surrounded Voyk who immediately spotted Trvtko. Voyk brought his right fist back and the four colored auras swirled into that arm. Trvtko shouted, “WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING!?” Voyk punched, sending a shockwave that blasted Tvrtko and demolished the north side of the castle. Voyk then fell among the crowd of nobles and started brawling.
Miklos made himself invisible before taking out a diamond. One of a kind, he fired Bruler at it. It scattered the flaming spell everywhere and so everyone in his vicinity burst into flames. Miklos flew over and then flew back and sprinkled the burning nobles with Gresillar which has a higher intensity of flames. He flew with Flottar, of course.
Vlad descended on a cadre of nobles with “taia” spells that he rapidly fired from his hands willy-nilly. The heads, arms or whatever body parts would just separate with blood spilling everywhere. Once he landed on a table, he kept jumping between them and fired the spells quicker than the nobles could respond.
“Oi, Voyk, now I have to go find him.” Sigismund complained.
Voyk ripped off one guy’s head, punted it into another noble’s balls and then body slammed a princess into that noble breaking both of their bodies. Then he threw a thumbs up at the king.
Of course, being the king, he knew the ultimate spell at which he fired in the middle of the room. “You guys wear lots of metal, something the lightning likes. Tempete!”. A column of lightning rained down from the sky and struck the nobles in the center. The electricity then conducted between the armors and jewelry thus passing through every noble and electrocuting them to death. The gang returned to the dragon which hovered stationary on one end of the room. At the behest of Sigismund, the dragon then used it’s wings to blow all 200 noble family corpses out of the castle and onto the streets and fields of Dobor. This fiasco was known as the Noble Massacre of Dobor later on. The dragon then flew out and headed to River Bosna near the town. There was Trvtko running on foot toward the water. The dragon snatched him in his mouth and flew off.
Sigismund placed Prince Ostoja in Visoki as the rightful king of Bosnia. With so many noble families dead, Ostoja would actually only rule over his capital region while his loose ally, the Kosaca family, cooped much of the land in the south. Sigismund returned back to Pest with his whole cadre of allies and lieges. He invited a couple other nobles for a feast.
So it would be there, in Pest, in the royal castle of Hungary, that Sigismund founded a great Order. A layer of the dragon’s scales would be shed for the feast but the dragon received much food in gratitude for bringing Christian justice to Bosnia. Sigismund gathered his friends in a deep chamber of the castle, where the dragon was kept. These were his most close friends and so their families did not follow them down. A long table was arranged with plates down the length. Each plate held a single scale which was about the size of a face. The scales were grilled but dragon scales are nearly inedible. So his friends looked upon the plates in great confusion if not disgust. Vlad was well annoyed. But he was near the front where Sigismund stood and the dragon stood behind the king.
“For a burst of fortitude, we will eat this scale from the dragon that changed my life. I had trouble succeeding in Hungary, as you all know. And each of you has helped me gain sovereignty here, in God’s greatest nation. You see, the west has Castile ready to strike down the heathen Moors. But in the east, Hungary is the strongest and most capable nation to take out the divided Ottoman lands. So I ask, if you eat the scale, that you pledge allegiance to me and my future Crusades. We will help each other not serve ransom to the Turks, help each other inherit our rightful lands, and never turn to heresy ourselves. We will thusly be guided by the power of the dragon and the spirit of Sactus Georgius, the Dragon Slayer. And this will be the Society of Dragonists.” Sigismund ate his scale and swallowed it after one bite. “Once you are ready, come to me to be knighted.”
The first to be knighted was Despot Stefan Lazarevic of Serbia. Then came Prince Vlad who suddenly shivered uncontrollably upon eating the scale so they nicknamed him “Draco”. Next would be the Second-in-command, Stibor Stiboricz. Next was Palatine Miklos II Garai and his brother Janos Garai. There was the king’s strategist Filippo Spanno from Italy. Then was the great benefactor Count Hermann II Celje. The king’s court knight Voyk the Vlach. The Despot’s brother, Vuk Lazarevic. The Master Cupbearer Janos Alsani, with the role of protecting the king from posions.The Horse Master Peter Cseh de Leva who took care of the calvary and logistics. The state diplomat Emeric Perenyi. Then the other Hungarian nobles; Ban Janos Tamasi, Ban James Laczk, Count Janos Maroti, Ban Miklos II Szecsi, Count Karolus and his brother Janos Kurjakovic, Baron Simon Szecsenyi, Miklos Csaki, Ban Paul Besenyo, Count Michael Nadashi of Szekelys, Count Peter Perenyi, and Tsar Fruzhin Shishman of Bulgaria. Each was an admirable general and true friend of Sigismund. In order to keep the society a bit vague, Sigismund moved the headquarters to a castle in Transylvania, specifically in the Hunyad castle where Voyk could watch over the dragon.
Besides all of these men, who did Sigismund rule over? It must be understood that a country at this point was people owned to a land which was owned to a lord. That is the heart of feudalism. So Sigismund was not just a king in Hungary but King of Hungary which extends over the region of Nitra, suzerain to the Voivodeship of Translyvannia, lord of Temes County among others, Ban of Slovevne, Croatia, and Dalmatia, overlord of Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Wallachia. This was all his empire and yet there was still Bohemia, Brandenburg, and Germany as potential inherentens. Hopefully the last dragon of the Carpathians can restore Christian supremacy to the Balkans…
tdwriter 