Many, many years ago, there was nothing on the Earth but destruction. Meteors and asteroids threatened the young planet. Then, according to some, a comet crashed into the planet, scattering its water and microbes onto the planet's surface. But what nobody knows is that this was not a comet.
The object that landed on Earth and sewed the seed of life into the planet was a refugee from a distant planet, destroyed in a galaxy several light-years away from our own. This being was a dragon, the first living thing on Earth and the last from his home. He felt pity for the barren, lifeless planet, so the dragon used his abilities to end the asteroids strikes, cool the molten rocks at the surface, and create living creatures to join him on the planet. For millions of years, he watched as the planet grew and changed around him, caring for it all. But when one asteroid threatened the planet, he was unable to stop it, and several species of plants and animals were wiped away.
The dragon mourned for the loss of these companions, for it reminded him of his own kind--and how they became extinct. Realizing that at some point he may disappear from the universe completely, the dragon formed a mate for himself, and spawned a flock of dragons in his own image. They were long, serpentine creatures with four legs, with scale color varying amongst them, but each took after their father in terms of their personalities and abilities. They were able to heal others, to merge with each other into fusion dragons with one or more heads, plant life into the most barren of places, take any shape or form they wished for as long as they wanted, and so on. They mated, and began to swell in numbers as their vast family grew and spread. As time went on, humans began to emerge on the changing planet, and eventually they began to form bonds with the dragons. The dragons were worshipped and praised, and sometimes even feared. Soon, each began to reside with certain peoples, developing different relations with the people they befriended or feared.
Over time, the humans began to grow further away from the dragons. One by one, each dragon retreated to a distant place to seek refuge or to watch the humans from afar, especially where humans had now grown fearful of their kind and wished to purge them from the Earth. As the years passed, the dragons fell into myth, and few humans began to believe that such creatures even existed. The First Dragon, the one who had created this world, retreated into a distant land, one unseen by humans, where he is believed to still live in extreme old age to this day. Many of the other dragons took refuge in other remote locations--the peaks of the Himalayas, the depths of Loch Ness, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, the caverns within the Hawaiian volcanoes, and so on. It seemed as though the creatures that coexisted with humans had vanished completely. But they still lived in these remote places, some of them using their powers to keep any humans from finding them again.
But there were exceptions to this seclusion. Five dragons in particular stood out in this manner--they were all direct descendants of the First Dragon, and were careful to keep their identities as dragons hidden from those who feared them. These dragons were different from many of the others--not only did they wish to coexist with humans, they also wished to live amongst them as humans. Unfortunately, they were not able to take the forms of ordinary humans--at least, not on their own. One day, the five dragons gathered together to do what had been deemed impossible by so many of their kind.
Each dragon was nearly identical, with mustaches and beards, but different in their colors: red scales with orange hair and spines, blue with green, white with gold, yellow with tangerine, and purple with vermillion. They gathered in a cave deep underground, one that only they knew about, for they wanted what they were going to do to be hidden and unknown to humans or dragons. The purple one had brought something with him, something that was able to grant any wish if enough power for that wish was sent into it. It looked like a pearl, it glowed like a diamond, but this jewel was the only one of its kind--it was one that the dragon had brought to Earth with him and used to put life into the planet. It had not been used since, for many believed that its power was used completely to create the dragons. Now, it was being used not to give or create life, but to change it.
The dragons placed the Jewel in the center of the cave, on an ornate pedestal, and placed themselves in a circle around it. Then, they sent their powers out towards the Jewel from their mouths and hands. The cave was filled with a bright light from their powers--fire, water, earth, grass, rock, ice, electricity, psychic, strength, flight, life, shapeshifting, future-sight, and so on. Once all of their powers had been sent into the Jewel, it glowed brighter than before, and the dragons knew that it was ready to make their wish. The five of them held their hands together, concentrated, and wished.
It is unclear what happened next, for the Jewel was never recovered and the five dragons never seen again. What is known is that afterwards, five male humans emerged from the underground caverns at different locations, and were often seen together. They seemed strange, and no one seemed to know where they came from, when they came into the world, or even who they were. All they could know with certainty is that they were different. For example, when seen in a certain lighting, two of them and bluish or purplish skin, and the former seemed to have greenish hair. Each of the other four had orangish hair, but their skin colors ranged from pale to what seemed to be a suntan or something. Even if they were different, they were able to find homes in the world, all in the same city, and each found happiness in matrimony and family life. Their bond as friends never wavered, and they and their families remain good friends to this day.
But it seems that is not the end of the story...