The Secret of the Dragon - The Revelations of the Sacred Papyruses

by Carl Cupper

  The Secret of the Dragon

  The Revelations of the Sacred Papyruses

  Carl Cupper

  Copyright © 2005 Carl Cupper

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  Original title:

  El Secreto del Dragón – La Revelación de los Sacros Papiros

  Translation by: John Alden Boyd, Jr.

  Reviewed by: Fabio Vargas

  Cover illustration, “Golden Dragon” by:

  Ciruelo Cabral

  www.dac-editions.com

  Cover design by: Shane McElveen

  Partial or total reproduction is prohibited without the express

  authorization of the author.

  Special thanks to

  Melanie Everitt-Mak and Wendy Spenard

  for their sharp observations, dedication

  and patience with this author.

  To the young people of the world

  who grasp a weapon without knowing why

  Introduction

  July 1191

  Jerusalem

  Isaiah hurried to pack the large number of documents collected over the last millennium by the school of the Flavius Josephus, a prominent Jewish historian.

  The alarming news from the city of Acre spread all throughout Palestine; making the historian fall prey of a growing fear. The slaughter that Richard the First, the Lion-Heart, had inflicted on that city left no room for delay. Richard’s crusaders had defeated Saladin’s Saracens and would soon be at the doors of Jerusalem, with the objective of recuperating the three times declared sacred city in the name of Jesus Christ. Jacob, a disciple of Isaiah, had tried in vain to convince his teacher not to abandon Jerusalem, but Isaiah was wise to the ways of men, moreover, the cruelty of Richard, and he would not risk his life nor the valuable documents collected by the academy throughout the years.

  Years ago, Isaiah had ventured out on a journey to Qumran where he had hidden several valuable documents, but he still had many more that he needed to protect even if it meant his life. And so, he would make a secret expedition to Egypt, where he thought he could find a safe refuge for his valuable papyri. Only Jacob would be trusted with the knowledge of this risky journey for which he urged him to carefully guard the secret.

  Isaiah then undertook his bold voyage. After crossing the Red Sea, he reached the village of Naj Hammadi, where he hid many more scrolls. From there, he headed south and crossed the Nile, to the city of Tebas, in the Valley of the Kings, where he was surprised by a ferocious and terrifying sand storm.

  Isaiah put up a fierce battle against the forces of nature which he was undoubtedly destined to lose. Feeling that his strength was forsaking him, he made his way to some stairs which looked like the entrance of a tomb. He then hid the last of the scrolls in a vase and threw it inside over threshold, but he dared not to take cover in that shelter, because he was afraid that the hiding place of those precious documents might be compromised.

  Trying to find some refuge, he fought his way through the blistering sand, but the intense thirst defeated him and he perished under the relentless desert heat. Nevertheless he had accomplished his purpose; to keep the documents from the hands of Richard and his crusaders … at least for the following seven centuries.

  1

  The Mystery of the Prophecy

  February 17th, 1923

  Tebas, Egypt

  After several arduous and painstaking days of excavations, the British archeologists, George Edward Stanhope and Howard Carter, opened the tomb of the controversial Pharaoh Tutankhamen[1], which they had discovered less than a year ago, and astonished the entire world. The tomb of the king of the XVIII dynasty was discovered intact. The driven and excited archeologists were so happy about the important find that their hearts almost burst out of their chests. The treasures found in the tomb of the young Pharaoh could were incredible. The magnificent collection of Egyptian art made of gold, pottery, lapis lazuli, precious woods, and other materials filled the mortuary chamber.

  Later, many of those valuable objects were taken to the Ancient Museum of Egypt, in Cairo, and others to the British Museum of London, where papyri with a strange markings, were found inside a vase. According to later carbon 14 testing on the scrolls and the vase, the scrolls were dated in the VII Century Centuryof the Common Era. An incredible story is told on the papyri which had been lost, until our times, in the depths of the museum vault.

  Victim of the terrible curse of the tomb of Tutankhamen, George Edward Stanhope, count of Carnarvon, died two months after his fabulous find.

  March 12th. Present time

  British Museum of London, England

  Years after graduating from the University of Oxford, a prestigious doctor of History, looking for information to complete his studies on the origins of the towns of the British Isles, found himself with those mysterious papyri. After analyzing them, he wrote a rough draft which narrated a fabulous legend which starts with this warning:

  “Many thought that this story never happened in the dark ages of the VII Century of the Common Era or in any other time. Nevertheless, I have reasons to consider it true; therefore, it is my duty to disclose it to warn man of the uncertain destiny he has made for himself and to spread the hope that lies within this history.”

  In the year 306, Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantine, and renamed it Constantinople. In 313 he promulgated the Edict of Milan. In 395, Theodosius I (known as the Great) divided the empire between his two sons; Arcadius received the eastern part and Honorius the west, which he lost control in the year 476; a half of a century after the conversion of the Celtic people to Christianity had begun.[2]

  In the middle of the VI Century, Justinian, the Byzantine emperor of the east, and his troops, conquered the Kingdom of Theodoric the Ostrogoth. Most of Italy was turned into a colony with its capital in Ravenna.

  In the year 586 of our era, the Lombards, another barbarian nation, began taking control of the northern portion of Italy. This way was ferociously defended by the Byzantines, who, in spite of their efforts, had only managed to rescue a few coastal regions of the country. In the middle of the clash between the Lombards and the Byzantines, the Pope of Rome tried to maintain a precarious balance. In time his power grew little by little, and established himself as an important political and military force.

  On the other hand, the Visigothic monarchy reached its greatest power with Leovigild the emperor, who managed to establish territorial unity after winning over the Suebi of the northwest, the Basques of the north, and the Byzantines of the Southeast. The assault on the south of Great Brittan by the Anglos and the Saxons,[3] after the attacks of the Picts [4] and the Caledonians, forced the Celts to either take refuge in the highlands of Wales and Scotland or to yield to the new power. Many Celts directed by Maeloc, a renowned druid priest, went north of Galicia fleeing from the Anglo-Saxons, but others stayed on the island safeguarding their sacred ancestral rites and traditions, even under threat of the invaders and the early Christian evangelization.

  The Anglo-Saxons divided the territory into seven small independent kingdoms. Each kingdom fought to establish its dominion of the island; however, neither of their borders had touched a remote area known by all as The Region of Fire, which was formed by the group of the Faroe Islands, located beyond the Shetland Islands, north of Great Britain. On these islands lived two tribes that for many centuries had disputed, in gruesome battles, the dominion of the SacredCity, which both claimed as their own.

  The Helenex, those who adored the god Helion, occupied a large portion of the t
erritory, controlling the Sacred City and conquering the Selenex tribe, who worshiped the god Selion[5]. They lived as refugees, on their own land, as the Helenex refused to acknowledge them as an independent nation.

  Rasux, King of the Helenex, in an effort to achieve peace with Palex, King of the Selenex, offered to withdraw his troops from the occupied territories in exchange for an end to the attacks, but without granting him any part of the Sacred City. This offer was refused.

  Despite his efforts to restore the peace talk, Palex was not able to restrain his citizens who, heated by their ancestral hatred, acted on their own against the Helenex, preventing peace from reigning among these tribes.

  The continual attacks of the Selenex on Helenex territory spread terror and uncertainty among its inhabitants. This caused them to retaliate against the High Command of Selenex, particularly Palex. They accused of inflicting great destruction and of inciting his followers to act violently, while he spoke of peace.

  The majority of the neighboring island nations sympathized with the Selenex cause; they begged them, through lively meetings, to reach a peaceful agreement. However, all neighboring nations benefited from the conflict by selling arms and equipment or by taking a stance that placed them in an improved political position against those of the other nations.

  The occupation of the Selenex territory by the Helenex would continue until one of them gave up their intentions or destroyed the other, although, the most likely outcome of this conflict would be the destruction of both tribes.

  These types of wars have existed throughout the history of human kind; however, I should clarify to the reader that the tribes in this story were not human, but enormous and ferocious dragons.

  There were three types of dragons in the Region of Fire. The Robuxes were gigantic, strong dragons of brown or dark green color, whose wings were so short that they could not fly. For this reason they were used as fearsome, armored dragon soldiers in the infantry.

  The Agilux were small dragons with large wings, which allowed them to fly at high altitudes and to cover long distances. They were used as sentinels, explorers, or as artillery dragons; the Dragon Air Force. There were two types of Agilux: litmus blue and pearl white.

  The Pantesux were the best-rounded of all the dragons. They were strong dragons with large wings. They could carry out missions on land or in the air, and they were destined to take part in the elite army or in the Royal Council. The most amazing characteristic was that they could change color at will. They could be shift between dark green, litmus blue, pearl white, red, or grey color, according to the circumstances they confronted in battle. Novax was a Pantesux dragon.

  “For Dragonia, the Sacred City!” Novax, the Great Helenex Dragon, gave the order to attack.

  The loud beating of the soldiers’ wings sounded like a wasp’s nest with thundering reverberations. The fire that spewed from their enormous snouts choked the air making it almost impossible to breathe, and the sound of the blows that they inflicted upon each another with their powerful tails shook the very air in all over the region.

  A squadron of powerful Helenex armored dragons burst through the enemy’s front lines looking for those responsible for the most recent attacks on Dragonia. The cries of pain, which could be heard everywhere, mixed with the sound of the sizzling flames and the clamor of the destruction of the Selenex caves.

  The Helenex ruled over the beaches where the marine shells were abundant. Luckily enough, they held exclusive rights to the production of their protective armor, made from the ammonite shells covered in bronze, which provided them with excellent protection from the eyes to the tip of the tail, making them almost invulnerable to hostile fire.

  Given the enormous weight of the armored dragons’ protection, their missions were mostly focused on land. Nevertheless, they could march through almost any terrain, and nothing could stop them, causing great losses in their enemy’s troops, destroying and incinerating everything in their path.

  The artillery dragon had a device on the end of his tail made of lamb leather fitted with sharp arrows covered with tar, which with a powerful whipping motion, could be thrown through the air at the rival army, inflicting great damage upon them.

  Once the sharp arrows hit their unfortunate target, the artillery dragon charged towards it, spewing fire, which ignited the arrows instantly. Many times, when the victims felt the scorching fire on their backs, they tried to put it out by rolling around. This sent the sharp arrows deeper into their bodies, causing an slow, painful death.

  The Selenex had come up with a way to stop the armored Helenex, which consisted of digging well-camouflaged, deep holes and filling them with muddy water which they placed strategically around certain areas of the battlefield which they were trying to defend. When an armored dragon fell in one of these pits, it was almost impossible for him to get out, because of the enormous weight of the armor which the unlucky dragon carried, causing him to drown. In addition, the Selenex also counterattacked with robuxes dragons, skillfully outfitted with catapults. They carried a sling filled with enormous boulders on their tails and they hurled them at the enemy army. They also found a way to counteract the attacks from the Helenex artillery. In order to do this they looked for a way to ignite the cargo carried by the Helenex dragons on their tails in mid-air before it was used against their soldiers. To achieve this, they sent Agilux dragons called hunters, who were lighter and faster than the others, because they carried no load. When the fire of a hunter reached an artillery dragon, the deadly cargo exploded destroying his tail, despite its protective armor, and sending them crashing, like a shooting star, to the ground.

  The Amerux, the most powerful tribe in the region, were selling tar on an exclusive basis to their allies, the Helenex. Since the Selenex did not have this substance, they were limited to lighting the Helenex artillery dragon’s tails on fire in battle and to destroying the enemies’ warehouses during truce, through suicide missions. This was something that happened often, even though these weapons warehouses were carefully guarded by an elite group of enormous and ferocious Pantesux dragons.

  After several hours of heated battle, the moans and cries of the wounded became unbearable to the ears of noble Dragon Lords, and the dragons who were not hurt had the task of gathering up their mutilated soldiers and burying their dead.

  On the eve of that wretched day, Califax, son of Novax, was born along with two brothers and two beautiful sisters.

  The light of a new shone put upon the world and the proud parents announced their joy to the whole population of the nation, who had gathered in large numbers for the event. They celebrated by lighting the sky with huge flames and drinking barley liquor.

  While Darta, Califax’s sweet and beautiful mother, sang the newly born to sleep, lovingly, Novax tried, unsuccessfully, to restrain the roars of joy which burst from his friends outside the comfortable cave of the new parents.

  “Hey, Novax! Now you will know what the real warmth of home feels like, friend.” said Felex with an enormous, mocking laugh.

  “Silence, please! Lower the volume of your growls!” Novax pleaded, putting a claw to his snout. “The pups are sleeping and my wife is tired, my friends.” he explained, murmuring, while he made a gesture with his claws.

  “You should sleep too, my friend, while you still can,” Rhudex advised. “Later, you will get white scales from the insomnia on top of other things,” he said, provoking yet more laughter.

  “Silence, dragons!” reprimanded Gramma, Felex’s wife. “Can’t you see that there are pups, which have just broken their eggshells and are trying to rest after that hard rite of passage?” she asked, as giving her husband a harsh look.

  The dragons looked at one another with wide eyes of surprise, and, shamefully, lowered their heads and immediately took their leave under the stern eyes of Gramma who, claws on hips, followed the sluggish steps of her husband.

  “Tomorrow we’ll meet at the gathering, Novax.” said Rhudex, mumbling.

>   “Very well, my friend. Thank you very much for visiting!” he expressed to the rest of the dragons who silently walked away.

  Inside the cave, Novax sat with his wife and the small offspring. The day had been long and he felt tired as well, thus he fell into the rock bed, which was covered in a comfortable and cool moss.

  “Do you think we will be safe from the Selenex, my love?” asked Darta, concerned.

  “Yes, dear. Even though they are becoming more fierce and cruel,” he said, lying down heavily on the rock. “Nevertheless, as long as we have warriors like Rhudex, we will be safe. I hate that our children have been born in the middle of all this hostility!” he complained, covering his face with his claws.

  “Calm down my love.” she said, caressing her husband’s forehead. “Someday all this will be over.”

  The night’s dark cloak covered all the area in a false calm, as in the eye of a hurricane, but the war clung to their homes like a demon, which claims his ancient lodgings to anyone who dares to profane them.

  The next day, the assembly of the Royal Dragon Council gathered to discuss policy and strategy regarding the conflict with the Selenex. The tally of the war informed the Council of the figures for the wounded, dead, and the extent of the destruction, carried out by the enemy’s assaults. The most important report told them that the main tar warehouse had sustained substantial damage.

  Rhudex proposed an idea to eliminate the Selenex once and for all. This idea was rejected immediately by the Council because the League of Dragons would severely retaliate against them. In answer to that refusal, Rhudex proposed that some other member of the League surrender part of their land to the Selenex. “Let them do it so if they have so much consideration towards the Selenex!” he said, full of rage. Rasux explained that the Selenex would not give up Dragonia for anything, since it was also sacred ground to them.