The decaying Cinder City and the usurper's delirious dream collapsed together into a blaze as brilliant as the sun. The scarlet-eyed hero summoned the god's fiery wrath, burning the blighted, corrupted throne to drifting ash. Decades have passed since Maghan the dragon slayer drove the old ruler from the deep valleys. In the villages that once worshiped the dragons, new generations have long since forgotten their ancestral oaths. Thus, when the young priest Wagadu fulfilled Maghan's final wish... And laid him to rest in a nameless grave, taking up his bow, and setting forth toward the mist-shrouded mountains... He had no understanding of what the old man's dying words truly meant. What was it to "renew the covenant"? What was it to "restore peace"? Wagadu had no idea. He simply believed the old priest had asked him to return his cherished bow to the perilous Night Realm... To soothe the wrathful spirits long abandoned since the age of ancient sacrifice. He parted the veil of mist and climbed the threefold stone stair. At the ineffable border of the shadowed realm, a vast, labyrinthine hall revealed itself. Its intricate corridors glowed softly in the flowing light. Before the young priest could discern whose hand had inscribed the gilded runes, a sudden surge of fog clouded his sight. Visions rose in the mist and filled his mind. In a daze, countless shifting forms shimmered like iridescent light. He saw a maiden with eyes of turquoise, a colossal serpent draped in starlight, and a white spider weaving the sun and moon... He saw figures of black gold and white steel, a sly hare mocking a wild fox, and a coyote struggling in tar. Terrified, Wagadu fell to his knees. He begged the sacred ones of the Night Realm to forgive his intrusion. But when the mist finally lifted, the being that loomed above the hall and gazed down upon him was not the dead he had imagined. It was a mighty dragon, its wings unfurled like a rainbow cascading across the heavens. "O soulless one, whose fate is bound to the stars, do not let my form fill you with fear." "I have long comprehended your purpose, even if your own heart remains veiled in ignorant mist." "The priest who named himself dragon slayer sent you to forge a covenant for the ages to come." "The noble blood of the ancients never stained his blade, and that sincerity speaks louder than a thousand words." "It matters not. Our king has long perished, and I have grown weary of tending to my kin who dwell within dreams." "I am willing to impart all the secret rites I know, that your tribes may prosper." "To let you hear the whispers of the night without giving blood to the envoy who has fallen into the underworld." "For this, I ask but two things in return, as price for the covenant to be sealed." "First, your descendants must treat the ancient people I once protected as friends and equals." "They must heed their counsel at all times, and never allow their oaths to become mockery like the Grand Alliance." "Second, your descendants must strike my name from every woven record and scroll." "Let no self-proclaimed sage uncover it, lest they bring ruin upon our pact through their foolish revenge." "You need not consider, only accept. The Wayob that shelters you was once my servant." "Long before your birth, she told me of this transgressive covenant." Like one just awakening, unable to tell dream from reality, the dazed Wagadu nodded to signify acceptance. In an instant, the gilded hall and the mighty dragon dissolved like mist from a past age. Wagadu was still wondering whether the visions he had just witnessed were anything more than a fleeting dream born of fatigue... When suddenly, he felt a soft, feather-like touch at his side, cold as the night wind, that made him instinctively turn around. There, according to legend, stood the first Iktomisaurus, newly emerged from the Night Kingdom.