"As their serpentine bodies begin to undulate, there is a tension in the air. All the dances until now have been joyous and light-hearted, but as the two heads begin to weave slowly from side to side in silence, the audience watch with bated breath. At the loud clash of the cymbals, the dragons leap high into the air and begin their dance. Before the dances displayed humour and the celebration but the movements of the males reveal the power of their kind. They move together and apart like opponents in a fight to the death, their claws moving in intricate steps as their heads dart forward and suddenly recoil. Around them the music softens and booms as one with their movements. As Guo Gan lunges forward, jaws agape, Kuang Feng rears up high above him to swoop down at an angle. Just before the dark claws shred his silver white coat, the white dragon swerves away and threads himself through the loop created by his partner. Airborne, such a manoeuvre is tricky but not too difficult. On the ground it is a superb demonstration of their coordination and timing.

The dragons dance their battle, repetitively moving together to entwine and then separate with astonishing ease. Their eyes are constantly locked in silent communication as they instinctively flow together, anticipating what the other is about to do and moving to compliment him. The music ends abruptly with the white and black facing each other, heads held low with necks and bodies proudly arched. The fierce clash of the cymbals spur them into action once again and they lunge for each other, writhing and rippling as the music approaches its climax. As the drums, gongs and cymbals cry out one final time without the accompaniment of the firecrackers, the dancers freeze, locked in each other’s embrace with their jaws clasped about each others throats. Their heads, throats and jaws briefly forming the endless circle before slowly moving apart.

Fragment taken from "Happy New Year!", by Asteria or


This is a gift for my dear friend Asteria (who's birthday was actually on Monday... mercy on me, creator of the Four Realms!) and inspired on one of her best stories so far, at least in my opinion.
To be frank, I've been wishing to draw this particular scene since 2004 and I finally got the chance I needed: powerful inspiring, while I left some elements out I think I got the main ones... the fact it's not colored as it was intended can be blamed to a rather crappy combination of circumstances, being the main of them the lack of a decent scanner, the sheer size of the pic (WATCH OUT, PEEPS! BIG PICTURE up there!) and my absolute inability to use photoshop. Don't worry girl, I'll color it and then present the final piece here.

Happy birthday again Asteria. Hope you like it better than last year's one!

Guo Gan (white dragon, and one of my favorite characters in Asteria's universe) ©
Kuang Feng (black dragon) ©
Art © The wacko who wrote this ()