Maaave and the Phantom Writer: Vol. 1

A fabric of the People of the Springs, telling the legend of the young dragon Ma'awi creating hot springs. Different passages seem to come from poets of different ages.

Legend says that in a remote past, Natlan's lands were a free-ranging home of proud great dragons.

In that age there were not yet human tribes upon the earth; dragons were far taller and prouder than now.

Just as humans now, dragons themselves divided into different tribes, each ruled by an ancient clan mother.

In that age there were not yet steaming hot springs on the earth, nor lakes calm and crystalline as gems—

oh, and of course no noisy traveling singers, no slow-tempered hot-spring poets.

In that age, upon this red earth where great dragons roamed, there was once a young dragon unlike the rest.

Proud dragons had always scorned other living beings—whether envoys from high heaven or tiny mortals.

Ancient war had not erased their honor; on the contrary, the fire of hardship forged their fortitude and pride.

Yet this young dragon was different. It was intoxicated with listening to the songs of the Iktomisaurus spirits, and quietly watched human ways.

Its name was Ma'awi—in an ancient tongue no one now knows, meaning "bond."

Young Ma'awi had never lived through the age of ancient war, and did not understand dragon virtue.

For it, cool moonlit nights and the warm shade of red cliffs were more worth enjoying as scenery.

"How can the palace of the sacred dragon tolerate such indolence? The tender cub must recover its noble ambition and rage,"

so the dragon clan mother judged, ordering young Ma'awi to leave the tribe and grow like a "true dragon"—

to harden its heart, as fortitude-proud as obsidian, to chase cruel and lofty ambition...