"Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan" examines how the seafaring trading people known as the "Nusantao" from Insular Southeast Asia influenced world history. This is a "blook," a book based on a weblog (blog). The decision to publish the book came after requests to make the information in the blog available in an easier-to-read and more portable format. The advantage of the printed work is that the blog entries are arranged in easy-to-manage chronological order with out the need for the clicking through the blog archives. The glossary entries are also in alphabetical order for easy look-up, and a word index and table of contents further increase the readiblity of the blog/book. Important supplementary articles have also been included in the appendices. A must-read for those who think there is more to history than what we find in "mainstream" publications.

Amazing stories about the artifacts transcend from generation to generation where the Tingguians viewed that Kaboniyan, the benevolent spirit or the creator or God, had rewarded industrious farmers and hunters whom he appreciated with talking jars and agates hanging in branches of plants near the cave where he lived. Cabildo confirmed the story about the talking jar. He is the grandson of Magsawi, the hunter who owned the famous talking jar. He was from Patok, Peñarrubia, Abra. He claimed that Magsawi had a hard time catching the eluding talking jar, but an unknown voice suggested to Magsawi how to catch the jumping, running, and talking jar. Magsawi had to kill a pig without young and offer the blood to the spirit. After Magsawi complied, he was able to catch the jar. The story spread and was extensively published. Tingguian elders were happy talking about the generosity and support of Kaboniyan to the Tingguians. There are other remarkable stories cited in the folktales of the Tingguians. One of them was when Kaboniyan had turned the water that dropped from the bodies of the ladies taking a bath in a river into agates a long, long time ago. The Tingguians postulate that the jars or the beads were either from Kaboniyan or from their ancestors. Whatever the case may be, the stories are mysterious and enchanting!

No one steals treasure from a dragon. So what was Sevyr thinking when he stole tribute from another clan? The dragonborn divided the land specifically to avoid inter-clan conflicts, but when his lover is about to be sacrificed to a neighboring clan that will kill her, Sevyr does the only sensible thing he can think of: he steals her away to the safety of the Red Mountain. His plan is not without flaws. The biggest one? Desdemona is more than she appears, and Drake Bronzeclaw has very personal reasons for wanting to ensure that she winds up stone cold before her secrets are revealed. Sevyr will do anything to protect the woman he loves. But will the rest of his clan risk going to war over a matter of the heart? *The Dragon's Treasure is a complete, standalone romance novella. It can be read on its own or as part of the Blackwing Dragons series.*

The term 'jar' refers to any man-made shape with the capacity to enclose something. Few objects are as universal and multi-functional as a jar – regardless of whether they contain food or drink, matter or a void, life-giving medicine or the ashes of the deceased. As ubiquitous as they may seem, such containers, storage vessels and urns are, as this book demonstrates, highly significant cultural and historical artefacts that mediate between content and environment, exterior worlds and interior enclosures, local and global, this-worldly and otherworldly realms. The contributors to this volume understand jars not only as household utensils or evidence of human civilizations, but also as artefacts in their own right. Asian jars are culturally and aesthetically defined crafted goods and as objects charged with spiritual meanings and ritual significance. Transformative Jars situates Asian jars in a global context and focuses on relationships between the filling, emptying and re-filling of jars with a variety of contents and meanings through time and throughout space. Transformative Jars brings together an interdisciplinary team of scholars with backgrounds in curating, art history and anthropology to offer perspectives that go beyond archaeological approaches with detailed analyses of a broad range of objects. By looking at jars as things in the hands of makers, users and collectors, this book presents these objects as agents of change in cultures of craftsmanship and consumption.