Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series

Pryce spent several hours packing things up while Celeste helped ferry her father’s possessions aboard the ship, though Devotion preferred to lay sprawled out upon the deck; apparently the black tarmac was luxuriously warm compared to the natural sun-heated stones.

Once he was done with his task the dragons helped him pull up the anchor – the crank was quite interesting to them – and now all that was left was to set sail, so to speak.

“Starting the ship now,” Pryce warned.

The engines rumbled to life, and the three dragons shifted nervously despite his warning; they probably weren’t very used to the ground vibrating beneath them. Exhaust began to pour out of the smokestacks as Pryce ramped up the propeller, pushing the rear end of the ship up against the flow of the river before cutting the engines. He repeated this motion several times, eventually freeing the Horizon from its entrenched position on the beach. Once the ship drifted to the middle of the river Pryce dropped one of the rear anchors.

This was done because the rear of the ship faced the mouth of the river. Pryce was well aware he lacked the skill to elegantly redirect the ship, and he certainly couldn’t pilot the ship in reverse either – especially when that risked running into the shores propeller-first.

In order to avoid that scenario he’d devised this somewhat clumsy maneuver, which involved using the anchor to fix the rear of the ship in place and allowing the current to pull the Horizon down towards the mouth of the river.

Inelegant as it was, it seemed to be working so far; all that was left was to pull the anchor back up, and the river would naturally carry the ship out to sea.

“Wait,” Fathom said, pointing at the beach. “The ship made a big hole in the sand.”

Pryce stepped out of the wheelhouse and saw the gaping hole in the sand where the ship had been. “Can you push the sand back in and make it look like the ship was never here?” he asked.

“I hate digging in sand, it always gets under my scales,” Fathom grumbled. He gave his palms a forlorn glance before leaping onto the beach, where he used a tree trunk as a stick to break the sand loose, which he smoothed out with splashes of water. When he was done, it was as if the ship had never been there at all.

“Alright, you can crank the anchor up now, Celeste,” Pryce called out upon Fathom’s return. The dragon had tried to wash himself in the river, but sand immediately clung onto his wet hands and feet the moment he stepped back on shore. Now Fathom scraped his palms on the edge of the bulwark in an effort to clean himself, but this effort was met with limited success.

Celeste did as he asked, and Pryce breathed a sigh of relief when the Horizon floated down the river without any problems. Once out on the open ocean he eased the engines to their maximum sustainable output, and the ship sped out to the east, away from Alternis’ shores.

«My territory is to the north, where is he going?» Devotion asked, looking uncharacteristically unnerved. The dragons all sat near the nose of the ship, ahead of the exhaust.

«Pryce and I talked about this earlier,» Fathom said, «he wants to go east and then north, that way other dragons cannot see us.» He gave the smokestacks a pointed look. «I thought this was too cautious, but the smoke makes Pryce's ship very easy to follow. This way, we can just fly south until the smoke disappears. That way, we will know for certain that we are not being pursued.»

«I see,» Devotion rumbled. «This ship is…very impressive, even if it makes a terrible smell,» she grumbled, casting a critical eye at the grey plumes of exhaust. «We seem to be traveling quite fast.»

«Yes, I have never seen the ship go this fast either,» Fathom said in awe. Celeste seemed to share their sentiment, judging by the look on her face. She seemed to be visibly resisting the urge to mantle her wings.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Pryce asked once he stepped out of the wheelhouse. “We’ll go in this direction for half an hour. That should get us about 20 kilometers away from shore. I’d rather go further, but I also don’t want to use too much fuel.”

“It should be enough, 20 kilometers is far enough that the smoke will be very hard to notice, and dragons don’t stare at the ocean very often,” Fathom reassured. “There’s usually nothing there.”

“How…do the ship move?” Celeste asked, her eyes brimming with wonder.

Pryce froze for a moment, then chuckled. “Sorry, I was just thinking of something else,” he said, shaking his head. “That’s a great question, and the answer is very complicated, so I’ll simplify it. Remember how I said hot gasses expand? We use fires to make very hot gasses, and we use the expansion of these gasses to make a propeller spin, and that spinning pushes the ship forward.”

“Can you explain…more?” Celeste asked when Fathom translated for her.

Pryce smiled. “Well, we do have a few hours to spare.”

It only took four hours to get back to Devotion’s territory, and between talking about the ship’s engines and correcting their course, the time passed in the blink of an eye.

Fathom periodically flew back along the smoke trail and found no one following them, which was a relief. Pryce wasn’t really sure what he would have done if someone had been following their trail.

«It is convenient to move so fast with no effort,» Devotion rumbled appreciatively as she stood up to stretch. «Jooral will be excited to see this.»

«I can go and tell her, if you want,» Celeste offered.

Devotion shrugged. «I can do it myself,» was all she said before she took off.

«It is rare to see her so excited,» Celeste said to Fathom as she watched the older dragon gain elevation.

Fathom hummed doubtfully, not having seen any trace of this excitement himself.

Pryce approached the beach and dialed down the engines earlier this time, guiding the ship to a much smoother landing. They waited for a few minutes, until Fathom and Celeste simultaneously turned their heads to some noise within the forest.

“What is it?” Pryce asked, a little worried.

“It is okay, that is…Jo – Fortitude,” Celeste said just before Pryce heard a distant crashing noise emanating from the forest.

“Are you sure?” The sound was getting closer at an alarming rate.

“Yes,” Fathom said, just as Fortitude burst out of the forest. Green smears marked her hide, and she panted as she stared up at the Horizon with wide round eyes.

“Someone’s excited,” Pryce muttered to Fathom, who snorted in amusement. “I guess I better go talk to her-” he dashed backwards as Fortitude crouched and leapt up, her claws hooking onto the bulwark as her hind legs scrabbled uselessly against the smooth hull.

Celeste rushed over to help, which gave Pryce the chance to observe the unusual sight of one dragon pulling up another by the hand.

“You could have given me some warning,” Pryce said, scowling at Fortitude while Fathom translated.

«Why? You would not have been hurt even if you stayed still,» Fortitude asked reasonably, which was technically true.

“Well I didn’t know that,” Pryce grumbled. The sun flickered, and Pryce looked up to see Devotion coasting down.

«If you had just waited a beat, then I could have helped you up. You looked like a silly hrota clinging onto a tree branch,» Devotion chided.

“A hrota is a small furry animal that climbs up trees,” Fathom quietly translated for Pryce.

«But look at all this!» Fortitude cried, completely ignoring her partner’s qualms. «Everything is so straight or perfectly curved!»

«That is what I said yesterday,» Celeste hummed in amusement.

«How long did it take for you to move this ship here?» Fortitude asked, staring and tapping at the deck beneath her. «It is hard to believe that you could move this thing anywhere.»

«Only about a sixth of a sun,» Fathom answered.

«Amazing. It is a shame I could not see it move.»

«You will be able to see it soon, when we move the ship out to sea,» Fathom pointed out.

«Yes, that is true,» she said distractedly as she examined the ship’s rigging.

«Wait, did Ghorrah tell you about the green dragon?» Celeste asked.

«What green dragon?» Fortitude asked, which was itself enough of an answer. «I was in a hurry to see this ship, but I think she might have been trying to tell me something,» she mused with a tilt of her head.

Fathom looked a little exasperated as he explained what had happened. «The green dragon chewed off a piece of metal here, can you recognize the scent?»

Fortitude gave the handle-stub a few experimental sniffs before tossing her head in a negative. «I do not recognize this scent.» She paused. «If you do not want this ship to be seen, then why did you bring it here for me to see? Would it not have been better if you left it far away on the sea?»

Fathom translated this with a curious look at Pryce, as if he had also considered the same question.

“...Maybe,” Pryce said, hesitantly. The truth was, he had originally considered doing exactly that. “But you said this territory was pretty safe, and you wanted to see the ship, right?” He had already planned to show Fortitude the ship, even before Trespasser had altered the circumstances – a secret could only be leaked once, after all.

Considered rationally, he wasn’t sure if encouraging Fortitude’s interest in humans was worth risking further detection by less friendly dragons, but he did prefer the ship to be on solid ground when doing lab work. Pryce didn’t know what the right choice was, and maybe spending time with dragons had affected his decision-making skills, but he couldn’t quite bring himself to regret this choice when faced with the childlike interest that she radiated.

«Yes, very much,” she said, glancing around eagerly. «What do all these things do?»

"I can tell you about that later. I still have to give you your gift, remember?" Pryce asked, hefting up a backpack.

Fortitude blinked. It seemed that in her excitement, she had indeed forgotten. "Is this the gift?" she asked, nosing the bag.

“Not yet. First I’ll need your gold ring for about ten minutes,” Pryce said, pointing at the aforementioned object.

«He needs the gold ring for about fifty beats.» Fathom translated Pryce's words with notable caution.

«Absolutely not!» Devotion hissed, making Pryce jump.

«Okay,» Fortitude shrugged, and deftly removed her own ring.

«What? But you spent tens of years making these!» Devotion exclaimed. «How can you just give it away?»

«I am not giving it away, I am letting him clean it. And look how small he is! It is not like he could keep it from me,» Fortitude said with a reasonable air, gesturing pointedly at the diminutive human.

Devotion huffed in acquiescence. She glared at Pryce as he accepted the gold band, and carefully set the precious accessory down upon a soft cloth. The amount of gold in that band would have fetched a considerable sum on the Mainland, making Pryce wonder if Alternis was richly laden with the precious metal. Though gold wasn't the most interesting of substances – its non-reactivity limited its practical applications – the possibility of the island having significant reserves of the metal was certainly worth noting.

He would have preferred to do both rings at once, but he doubted he could convince Devotion without first proving his claim. To start, Pryce filled a metal bowl with water, then he added soap, ammonia, and sodium bicarbonate – otherwise known as baking soda.

Fortitude pulled her head back the moment the scent of ammonia graced her nostrils. "What is that? It smells horrible!" she exclaimed, disgusted.

"It's called ammonia; it's a liquid that cleans things.”

Fortitude froze and stared with a blank expression while Celeste and Devotion frowned, flattening their spines. Even Fathom looked rather apprehensive.

«Oh.» She didn’t sound very reassured. «Is he going to put it in that terrible smelling liquid?»

"Yes, why?" Pryce asked. "Ah. I promise it won't smell like ammonia afterwards." Pausing, he turned to Fathom. "She's not worried about me keeping it, right? It's not like I could actually keep it from her."

"No, she's worried about you making it smell bad," Fathom said, answering Pryce's question before relaying the human's words to Fortitude, who then narrowed her eyes in thought.

«Very well,» she sighed, and drew her head back.

«If he breaks it or makes it smell terrible, then he will need to either fix it or replace it with something of equal value,» Devotion warned. «If he doesn't, then I will squash him until he does.»

«That will not happen,» Fathom said confidently before leaning over to Pryce. “Are you sure that liquid won't damage it? Or make it smell like ammonia?” he asked, in a neutral tone.

“No, of course not,” Pryce said, placing the ring into the cleaning solution with a plink. “We need to wait five minutes, then I’ll be able to clean it,” he said, checking the time with the chronometer.

They passed the time with idle chatter, though the dragons were a little distracted by the precious treasure currently stewing in the offensive smell of ammonia.

Pryce picked up a toothbrush when five minutes had passed, and began to scrub at the gold ring. Dust and grime fell away with ease, and eyes widened as the precious metal revealed its true luster.

«It looks like new,» Fortitude breathed. She tried to reach for the ring, but was warded off by Pryce’s toothbrush.

“Wait a few more minutes, I can make it shinier,” Pryce said, and she restrained herself with a grumble. The accessory seemed to gain a little more luster on the second round, though the change was far less noticeable this time. For the last step he simply rinsed the band in clean water before rubbing it down with a rag soaked in isopropyl alcohol.

Fortitude deftly speared the ring through with a talon, and gave it an experimental sniff.

“See, no ammonia smell, right?” Pryce asked Fortitude.

«This smells like…alcohol, but different. Not bad.»

“Yeah, alcohol is good at cleaning things, and it evaporates much faster than water,” Pryce explained. “How is it? Human gold looks like a mirror because we have special tools to polish it, but I don’t have any of that,” he said apologetically.

Fathom opened his mouth to translate, then paused. “You haven’t shown them a mirror yet,” he pointed out.

“Ah. Just tell them human gold is really smooth and shiny for now,” Pryce shrugged; he did have a lot of work left to finish today. Maybe he’d explain what a mirror was tomorrow.

«Yes, this makes it look like new – better than new! Thank you,» she said, bowing her head gratefully. «Though I cannot imagine it looking any shinier than this.»

“Great,” Pryce smiled, then turned to Devotion, who was staring at the metal bowl and not quite meeting his eyes. “Do you want me to make your ring shiny too?”

«...yes,» she mumbled, reluctantly handing over the precious item. Her partner gave her a pointed look, and she begrudgingly added, «Please.»

This second process was much less eventful. When it was done, Devotion accepted her new and improved treasure with stilted thanks, though she noticeably held her head a little higher afterwards.

“Well, I need to go and make medicine now. Fathom knows a lot about the ship, he can tell you whatever you want,” Pryce said.

The dragons’ brassy voices grew muffled as he descended to the cargo hold, but even in the bowels of the ship he could still hear them as a low background thrum.

Fathom and Celeste sat on the deck of the ship while Devotion and Fortitude watched the Horizon drift away from the beach, the dragons all still fascinated by how something so large could move so quickly. It had taken several hours for Pryce to finish synthesizing the rest of the mold broth, and the next batch was already incubating in the ship's depths, ready to be harvested in nine or ten days.

Pryce let the ship chug along, the pink-tinged sky growing red with the approaching sunlight. Half an hour later he shut down the engines, then dropped the anchors. At a distance of fifteen to twenty kilometers away from shore, the Horizon should be hidden well enough.

It would still be visible to dragon in flight, but there was nothing Pryce could do about that. Theoretically, a dragon flying at a height of 500 meters above sea level ought to be able to see up to 92 kilometers away, though there was no point in hiding the ship at such a far distance from the shore; the ocean would likely be too deep for the anchors, to say nothing of the cost of fuel involved in keeping the ship so far away, nor the sheer inconvenience.

“I’m a little surprised that you showed her the ship,” Fathom noted rather abruptly while Pryce latched himself onto his neck. “Especially after that green dragon saw it. Someone else might have seen it, and you seemed like you really didn’t want that to happen.”

“Yeah,” Pryce sighed. Fathom stared expectantly, and he elaborated, saying, “It’s important to get Fortitude as an ally, since Devotion will help us so long as we help her…but this is really just something I wanted to do.”

Fathom gave him a look that Pryce strongly suspected would’ve been a smirk on a human. “Good,” was all he said before he offered Pryce a hand up.

[JOURNAL ENTRY]

Day 86,

It’s not a good feeling, having something outside of your control.

Trespasser could really throw a wrench into my plans, but I don’t know what sort of impact he could have. Considering recent events, it might be a good idea to limit the (possible) spread of disinformation by reaching out to as many dragons as possible, but it would only take one hostile dragon to ruin everything.

Rationally speaking, I wasn’t sure if bringing the ship to Fortitude was a good decision. The benefit of getting Fortitude (and by extension Devotion) more interested in humans might not warrant the risk of (additional) premature discovery, but it’s rather distasteful to be so calculating when it comes to making gestures of goodwill. Maybe spending time with dragons has affected my decision-making skills, but that might not be a bad thing either.

If I’m being honest with myself, the reason why I’ve been avoiding reaching out to dragons as a whole is because I’m not confident in representing humanity. It’s one thing to talk to a few individuals, but an entire species? I never liked bureaucracy or politics or anything of that nature. I have no idea where to even begin, but if I think about it…I am unequivocally the most qualified human for this – it’s not much of a competition given that no one else even knows dragons exist.

Are my fears justified, or am I just avoiding responsibility? I should ask Fathom and the others for some advice.

On a less dour note: Human and dragon facial expressions have very little in common. Their lips are far too stiff, their spines are only vaguely analogous to eyebrows…and yet their red and gold eyes can still express familiar emotions.

When they saw the ship move they were a little unnerved, but mostly in awe. It might sound a little narcissistic, but seeing their amazement makes me feel pride as a human.

Tomorrow we discuss how humans can make a good first impression.

Note 1: Synthesized 50.33 grams of penicillin today.

Total quantity of Penicillin-G produced: 185.69 grams.

Note 2: I’ve moved the stock of Penicillin into another cold mountain-river.

Approximately two hundred kilometers away, a green dragon descended upon a small, unkempt cave.

«There you are,» Sharnha said, his eyes dilated to see deeper into the dark grotto. «Your directions are terrible, by the way.»

A pale red dragon crept out of his shallow cave, warily eyeing his acquaintance. “You seem excited,» Ighnahr said, ignoring the jab and asking his own implicit question.

«Yes, well I did just see something very, very interesting,» Sharnha said off-handedly. «But first, I heard you were hurt quite badly, but you seem to be doing…well enough.»

Ighnahr resisted the urge to growl, knowing he was in a rather sorry state. He had only recently regained the ability to fly, and much of his coloring had faded along with his musculature. Sharnha’s ‘concern’ was at best a jab, and at worst a way to gauge how far the green dragon could push him.

«I am well enough,» Ighnahr grunted, «and what do you mean ‘Interesting’?» He asked, the glint in his eyes belying his feigned disinterest.

«Let us not bother playing games, I know what you want to know, and I am not telling you anything without payment,» the verdant dragon snorted. Still, he was visibly eager to share his information. It was quite possibly an act, but the sly dragon’s zeal did seem genuine, judging by the light lashing of his tail.

«Fine,» Ighnahr snorted, and retrieved a sizeable chunk of quartz.

«Not enough.» Sharnha said, turning his muzzle up at the sizable treasure.

Ighnahr flattened his spines and stifled a growl. «How is this not enough?»

«I just snuck into a territory with three dragons to take a look at the most interesting thing I have ever seen, so yes, this is not enough. I do not think it unreasonable, considering no one else would do this for someone like you,» Sharnha said, sneering austerely.

Ighnahr narrowed his eyes, though he knew the conniving dragon was right. Another crystal was reluctantly added to the first.

Sharnha peered at the crystals with an appraising eye, then nodded before opening his hand to reveal a golden elongated…thing, unnaturally smooth and polished far beyond anything Ighnahr had ever seen. One end of it was jagged, as if it had been broken off from a larger piece, but most of its surface was like that of a calm lake in that it reflected his distorted self back at him.

«What…is that?» Ighnahr asked, bewitched by the treasure. Then he shook his head and remembered himself. «What does this have to do with Huroumh?» He demanded, returning to the real point of concern.

Sharnha flashed him a predatory grin. «Allow me to explain…»