There were three distinct ‘pops’ as the three dragons appeared in the Taihang Mountains. This is a vast mountain range of northern China and the ancestral home of Golden Dragons. Hopefully, here they would safe and maybe stay out of trouble. But probably not!
The Taihang Mountains are an incredible and imposingly beautiful range of mountains. Their appearance is astounding, vertical faces rising hundreds of metres into the air, stunning woods and vegetation, and vast valleys carved by ancient rivers. They are over three hundred miles long, running north to south down the eastern edge of the Loess Plateau in Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei provinces.
At first, there was silence as the three dragons stared at each other.
“Oh, my goodness,” said Howel, “that was such fun!” abandoning all pretence of snootiness.
“And well funny too,” added Bevon with a laugh.
“You see,” Ren joined in, “we could work well as a team and if we did that all the time, we would be invincible.”
They all fell about laughing as Ren imitated Jon with one of his favourite sayings.
“No. No, don’t say it, please don’t say it,” said Howel between the laughing.
“But with great power,” Ren could hardly finish for laughing, “comes.... great.... responsibility!”
The three of them fell over they were laughing so much at Ren’s impersonation.
When they had finished and composed themselves, they couldn’t help but notice a small boy standing in their midst. He was Chinese, well he looked Chinese anyway. He was less than four feet in height and slight of build. On his head was a round Mandarin hat, red with a black rim. He wore a Tang suit coat, also in black with red collar and button details, with loose black silk like trousers to complete his outfit. His entire outfit looked to be of the finest quality and cut. Not a crease or fold was out of place.
“What!” exclaimed Ren, “where did he come from?”
“I did not come from anywhere; I was already here.”
“What does he mean?” Howel said, now back in snooty mode, "what is a child of, what, five or six years old doing out here in the middle of nowhere?” Howel didn’t laugh this time, as he could see the profoundly serious look on the boy’s face.
“I appear to you as a young boy, but I am in fact over nine hundred years old.”
“But a human cannot live that long, that is not possible.” Howel continued, "only dragons live that long, in fact, we live longer,” he said boastfully.
“But I am that old, and I will live on far into the future and beyond your span of life,” he said, “my name is Songhai Chen.”
He bowed as he announced his name.
“Well, we now know your name, but where are you from?” Howel asked.
“I am from wherever I have been,” he said, “and I will be wherever I will go. But currently, I am here.”
“Please don’t talk in riddles, you’ll confuse us. Well then,” Howel said, hoping for a straight answer, “we know your name, we don’t know where you’ve come from or where you’re going, but we do know that you’re here, and that’s about all. So, what else can you tell us?”
“Well, what can I say? I was born early in the twelfth century on the day Emperor Daozong was murdered; the 12th of February 1101. When I was just fourteen, I remember the Wanyan chieftain, Emperor Taizu of Jin declared himself emperor of the Jin dynasty. In the year 1179, aged 178, I helped Zhu Xi rebuild the White Deer Grotto Academy and in August 1211, I witnessed the Battle of Yehuling, when the army of the Mongol Empire captured or killed over four hundred thousand Jin soldiers defending an important mountain pass at Zhangjiakou. In 1420, aged 319, I oversaw the construction of the Forbidden City. Do you wish me to continue for the next six hundred years of my story?”
“No, no, that is enough of a history lesson for now. But anyone could have learnt those things, though maybe not a six-year-old. What else can you tell us?”
“I am a mystic wizard.”
“Pray, tell what a mystic wizard is?” Howel said with a little frustration.
“I am a wizard, far more powerful than any you have in Trymyll. Yes, I know where you are from. As a mystic, I can receive echoes from the future.”
“That means you can foretell what is going to happen then?” Bevon decided to join in.
“I did not say that,” he said crossly, “I have reverberations of what might take place in the future. The future is still the future and can be changed, the past will always be the past and cannot be altered. History is always history; the future is yet to be. But if you want to know about the present, I didn’t get you one.” Songhai smiled when he said this, but none of the dragons got the joke.
“Aren’t you going to ask about us then?” Bevon asked.
“No,” was the sharp reply, "I know everything I need to know about you three dragons, about Llewellyn the Brave,” he said nodding to Howel, “Thomas, son of Llewellyn,” looking towards Ren, “and Jonathan, son of Llewellyn, also known as Dragon Master.”
Bevon was now extremely interested, "What do you mean by that?”
“By what?” Songhai asked, even though he knew exactly which word Bevon had latched onto, which was why he had left it until last, just for dramatic effect.
“Dragon Master,” Bevon said.
“When Jonathan received his cloak, Máthair - Queen of the Golden Dragons, mother to all, announced then that Jonathan would be known as Dragon Master. No one questioned her then, so why question me now?”
“Well, for a start, we were not there to ask any questions. So how about telling us now,” Bevon retorted.
Again, came a prompt and curt answer of “No, work it out for yourself. It is simple. If you break the title Dragon Master into its two constituent words, you will find the answer using extraordinarily little brainpower. Here, let me explain. Dragon, that’s the first word, master, that’s the second word. Now work it out.”
“He’s going to be a Dragon Master!” Bevon exclaimed rather stupidly.
“See, you have more wisdom than you credit yourself with.”
“Oh,” said Howel, unintentionally verbalising his thoughts, “I do so love a bit of sarcasm.”
“Enough of this banter, what do you want with me?” Songhai Chen asked while scanning the three dragons for an answer, “why do you seek me out?”
Ren took over the conversation, Bevon had already looked like a fool before the diminutive wizard, and he was sure that Howel’s remarks had not endeared him to him either.
“As the senior dragon, I will answer.”
“Who said you were in charge? I’m the oldest, I should be in charge.” Howel said full of objection.
Songhai answered, “Ren is in charge, as you say, for two reasons. One, because, so far, he is the only dragon amongst you not to have said anything foolish, and he has done that by the simple act of being wise enough to stay silent, and two, he is a Golden Dragon, and that requires no further explanation.”
Howel and Bevon looked quite sheepish, something quite difficult for a dragon, but they managed it somehow.
“If I may continue,” Ren said, starting again, “we did not so much seek you out as stumble upon you. When I apparated us in from the Welsh mountains, I did not have a final destination in my mind as human wizards have to do, so we arrived in the spot where you were by happenstance.”
“That is not possible, no one finds me unless they need to find me, so there is a reason, even if you do not know it yet yourselves. Now, be silent while I think.”
Songhai Chen then sat cross-legged on a flat stone, closed his eyes in meditation and floated up about three feet above the stone.
He opened his eyes wide and exclaimed, "The Master is returning!”
Songhai Chen then disappeared.