The story of Mizuchi, the Four-Legged Dragon, features a water dragon, challenged by a man named Agatamori to make three floating gourds sink to the bottom of a lake.

And not always into humans, but into other animals. Furious that she had betrayed him, the dragon banished Griselda from his castle.ĭragons that can shape-shift also seems to be fairly popular in Japanese mythology. Eventually, Griselda breaks her vows and one day walks into her husband’s private room to see him turn into a huge golden dragon. The two marry, but on the conditions that Griselda never try to learn of his true identity and that she can only be with him when he chooses to see her. About a young woman named Griselda, who falls madly in love with a mysterious but very handsome young man. Such as the story of Griselda and the Dragon Troubador, that takes place during the Middle Ages. Not long after that, I started to learn that shape-shifting dragons are fairly common in a lot of dragon mythology.

I still remember it was one morning when I was in the car on the way to school (yes, that’s how long I’ve been thinking of these characters for), and I’m not sure what prompted it, but the thought came to me, “hey, what if inside of being dragon riders, my characters could actually turn into dragons?” Suffice it to say, that idea sank its claws into me and never let go. At the time I was very into dragon stories like Eragon by Christopher Paolini and the How to Train Your Dragon movie, so I took a lot of inspiration from them. A Guardian’s defining trait is that they’re able to turn into dragons through the use of enchanted rings that only they can use.īefore Amulet of Wishes and back when Derek and Arabelle and the rest of these characters in this world were still in the middle of coming to life in my head, instead of being able to turn into dragons themselves, the Guardians were dragon riders. The whole of the Chronicles of the Guardians series pretty much revolves around this society of people known as Guardians, who are the protectors of Aloseria, where the books take place. So I don’t think it came as a surprise to anyone who knew me that the first book I wrote was a fantasy about people who can turn into dragons. Growing up, if anything had dragons in it, it immediately caught my attention. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved fantasy and I’ve always loved dragons.

Amulet of Wishes by Rita A. Rubin