Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series

“I want to talk about something before we go see Fortitude and Devotion,” Pryce said that morning. It was Celeste’s turn to go hunting, so he had some time for a private conversation with Fathom.

“What is it?” Fathom asked, tilting his head.

“A while ago I decided to wait for other humans to arrive before telling dragons about us. Do you think this was a good idea?”

“Yes, this way is less dangerous for you. Why are you asking?”

Pryce looked away, frowning. “I’ve been thinking about it. I wanted to wait for other humans to arrive because I don’t really know what to do, but then I realized that none of the other humans would know what to do either, and I’m the human who knows the most about dragons in the entire world.” He looked into Fathom’s deep red eyes. “What if doing that just gave dragons like Trespasser a chance to see the ship? What if this makes them think humans are sneaking around the island?”

“...I didn’t think about it like that before,” Fathom said, flicking his spines contemplatively. “That might be what happens, but I don’t think they would care about that if you just gave them some human things.” He paused, then added reluctantly, “We should ask Fortitude and Devotion. They are much older, and they know how dragons think better than I do.”

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’m just worried that…if I make a mistake, and dragons decide humans are enemies or invaders…” he trailed off, not needing to finish that sentence.

“You worry a lot, but you are not wrong,” Fathom sighed. “It sounds very tiring to be always worried about other humans.”

Pryce paused, and carefully considered his words. “...Not just humans. I’m worried for dragons too.”

Fathom stared unblinkingly. “Are you worried about humans using guns on dragons?”

“Yes," Pryce admitted. “I can tell humans not to attack dragons, but they won’t listen to me if dragons attacked first.”

Fathom said nothing, and only quietly rumbled in consternation for a few moments. “Then…many humans and dragons would die?”

“...yeah,” Pryce sighed.

“...How strong are human weapons?” Fathom asked, looking at him with a wariness that he hadn’t shown before.

“Well, dragons are smart, so it wouldn’t be easy for humans to take this island, at least for a long time-”

“Answer the question,” Fathom said, his voice almost a growl. “Please.”

“...we can build much bigger and stronger guns than my rifle,” Pryce confessed. “Those could…easily kill dragons.” He glanced to the side, fearing Fathom might not react well to this admission.

“...I understand.”

“What?” Pryce blurted, raising his head.

“I am not stupid,” Fathom snorted. “I have seen your rifle and your ship, so I know humans can make powerful things, I just didn’t know ‘how’ powerful. These big guns are…concerning,” he admitted reluctantly, “but I know you would not want to kill anyone for no reason, you are too…you.”

“Thanks, I guess,” Pryce chuckled, heartened by the trust Fathom had in him. “So, what should we do?”

“Wait for the other humans,” Fathom said. “If any dragons think you were sneaking around, I can just say you were…a secret, if that makes sense. I have no responsibility to tell anyone about you.”

“That…sounds like a pretty good idea, actually,” Pryce said. “And that’s more an obligation rather than a responsibility.”

“Complicated human language,” Fathom snorted, rolling his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“Alright, we’ll stick with the original plan.”

“Good,” Fathom nodded. “And there’s one more reason why we should do that.”

“Oh?”

“There’s already three of us who can fly. Any more and I won’t be one of the first dragons to talk to a group of humans.”

Pryce snickered at that joke. It honestly wasn’t very funny, but he’d suspected his friend had made it to lighten the mood more than anything else. “Speaking of talking to groups, how much should we tell the other dragons?”

“I think dragons would respect humans more if we knew what kind of weapons you have, but dragons would also trust humans less.” Fathom said, choosing his words carefully. “They are not stupid; if they see your rifles then they will ask if humans have stronger weapons; just like I did. Then you would have to lie or tell them the truth.”

“Is lying a good idea?” Pryce asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Maybe,” Fathom said, with an odd side-to-side motion of his head. “Dragons would only ask about stronger rifles if they see what a rifle can do, but if you didn’t show them…”

“They might not think to ask, at least for a little while.”

“Yes, dragons would still learn about rifles as they learn about human technology, but by then everyone will hopefully know the others are not enemies.”

“Pretending to be weak, hm? Not a bad idea,” Pryce muttered. “Sounds like it could work, but won’t dragons think not telling is a type of lie?”

“No, not telling is just not telling, only saying something false is lying,” Fathom said, as if this were obvious. “It is not considered a bad thing to keep secrets from those who are not friends, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Alright, so we just…tell other dragons about everything except weapons? What about Celeste, Fortitude, and Devotion? What should we tell them?”

“We can tell Celeste, and Fortitude needs help from humans to fix her wing, so we don’t need to worry about her or Devotion being an enemy. Like I said earlier; it is good to ask them for their advice.”

“Alright, so we tell Fortitude and Devotion about human weapons, then listen to their advice on what to do.”

“I don’t like it very much, but I think this is the best option.”

«Absolutely ridiculous,» Devotion said, once Fathom conveyed their earlier discussion. «You can’t seriously believe creatures like him can kill us so easily.»

Fortitude eyed Pryce with uncertainty, but she didn’t seem to reject the notion outright. «If they can move things as big as that ship, then it is within the realm of possibility that the humans would have weapons of that power. What I don’t understand is why they would need our help at all.»

«The strongest weapons are hard to make, and the humans didn’t have cause to think they’d need them here,» Fathom answered, while Celeste only watched in silence. She had been somewhat skeptical when Fathom had told her about firearms, but he managed to convince her to swallow her doubts, at least for the moment.

«Pryce does have a smaller weapon called a rifle; it uses fire to push small pieces of metal called bullets, which go very very fast. He can show you how that works right now; is there a tree nearby that he can use to demonstrate?»

«That does not sound very dangerous,» Fortitude said skeptically. «How about…that one?» she suggested, pointing to a small, unremarkable tree.

“Can I shoot that one instead?” Pryce asked, pointing to an older tree a little under half a meter in diameter. Fortitude gave him her permission, and he added, “Oh, I should warn you; this is very loud.”

Even with his warning the three of them were startled by the crack of the rifle, and their subsequent inspection revealed a small point of entry in the bark.

«Is that it? A measly hole?» Devotion snorted.

«It went through the entire tree; the hole on the other side is much bigger.» Celeste had been better positioned to see the resulting spray of debris, and her observation silenced the older dragon.

«I am not sure if that could easily kill someone, but I would certainly not want to be hit by it,» Fortitude said candidly. «How much wood can a bullet go through?»

“Not much more than that, I think.”

«That is very dangerous, and you say they have stronger weapons than this?» Devotion asked, her eyes narrowed. «What is stopping humans from using weapons like these to kill us all?»

«Humans know nothing about this island, and they can still be killed by other predators, so it is desirable for them if we do not fight,» Fathom said.

«And what happens after that? What happens when they need nothing more from us?» Devotion demanded.

«That is…» Fathom paused, and realized he didn’t have the answer to that hypothetical.

“That is a good question. Do you know why humans live in groups?” Pryce asked. “It’s because we need each other. People are valuable to other people, and it can be the same between humans and dragons. Dragons can do things humans cannot, humans can do things dragons cannot, so we can be valuable to each other. Does that make sense?”

«...that makes a strange sort of sense, but I do not understand that either.» Devotion tossed her head, though she seemed somewhat mollified – at least for now. «Are you going to tell us about how humans live? I need to know more about your kind before I can trust the rest of you.»

“Yes, but we can talk about it tomorrow. I’ll need a day to prepare,” Pryce said. History was far from his speciality, but he knew enough of the broad strokes for a general lesson. “For today, I want everyone’s advice on what to tell other dragons.”

Fathom translated for Pryce, then echoed the concerns he had shared that morning.

“I…do not know what to do,” Celeste admitted.

«I have never had to deal with anything like this before,» Fortitude shrugged. «If news of you spread, then dragons would gather by the hundreds to ask questions, and they would not be happy if you answered with “I do not know”. Would it not be better if there were many humans who could answer questions together?»

Pryce considered this argument for several moments. He had considered it before, but it was more compelling to hear someone else mention it. “Makes sense to me,” he nodded.

«If possible, I would also suggest not telling the others of your weapons,» Fortitude warned.

«I agree,» Devotion said. «Do not give them this information. If they ask for it, then give as few details as possible.» She paused, and stared intently at Pryce. «Why did you tell us about rifles? Are you not afraid of us seeing you as a threat?»

“It’s called a gesture of goodwill. I do something good for you, so you know you can trust me.”

«A gift of information,» Devotion said with a slow, acquiescing nod. «Sensible.»

“Any other suggestions?” Pryce asked. After getting no responses, he continued: “Alright, before I tell you about my plan I need to explain that I will be referring to dates based on the number of days that have passed since I departed the Mainland. I left the Mainland on Day 0, that makes today Day 87.” He waited for the others to nod. “We will leave on Day 96 and arrive on Day 97, three days before the rescue ship’s scheduled arrival.” It would have been more accurate to say the Horizon would take 19.5 hours to travel the 780 kilometers, but one day was close enough to five-sixths of one.

“Why we…go early?” Celeste asked, working around her limited vocabulary.

“Just in case something goes wrong,” Pryce answered. “I don’t think anything will happen, but it’s better to be early than late.”

Fathom translated Pryce’s answer, then asked, “The rescue ship will have a radio, correct?”

“Yes, but the ship’s transmitter – the machine that can send radio signals – is relatively small. Taller transmitters can send radio signals across greater distances. To send a message around the world, the transmitter would need to be over 200 meters tall, which is obviously too big for The Horizon.”

«That is…very tall,» Fortitude said, squinting as if she was trying to visualize such a construct. «It is difficult to imagine something much taller than the tallest of the great-trees.»

Pryce filed away the mention of great-trees for later, choosing instead to stay on-topic. “In short, most signals are blocked by the curvature of the Earth, and those that the ship sends are no exception. This means that under normal circumstances, two ships like the Horizon will only be able to hear each other if they’re within 36 kilometers of the other. If I were alone there wouldn’t be anything I could do about that, but dragons can do something humans can’t: fly.”

Fathom blinked, then bobbed his head in understanding. “If I fly higher, I can see further, which means the radio can do the same.”

“Exactly!” Pryce snapped his fingers. “At an altitude of 500 meters, the radio will have a communication range of about 100 kilometers; at 2 kilometers, the range doubles.”

Dragons didn’t have units of distance. Instead, they expressed distance through travel time, which they had a variety of measurements for. One “beat of flight”, as in how long it took for them to complete one wingbeat, was twelve seconds, during which they flew approximately 133.3 meters. Fathom had told Pryce that he could visualize the length of a kilometer, but it was easier to get a feel of the distance using his native units. Thanks to the dragon’s prodigious mental math skills, Pryce didn’t have to bother with translating the units himself when Fathom could do it on the fly.

«So, with our help you can ‘hear’ them so long as they are within 1500 beats of flight, is that right?” Devotion asked. «That is a great distance, but why would they not land at their intended location?»

“Their intended location is where my ship was supposed to land, but a hurricane blew my ship off course. I’m just preparing in case something similar happens again.”

“I know you want to be prepared, but that is unlikely,” Fathom said, “A storm like that is very rare, especially at this time of the year.”

“Good to know, but we need to do this just in case we’re unlucky. What’s the furthest distance you could fly if you had to fly for many days in a row?” Pryce asked Fathom.

“We talked about this before when you showed me the world map,” Fathom chided, and said with a patient air, “I can fly 500 kilometers while the sun is up. It can be harder to fly at night because the thermals are weaker, but I could still fly another 500 kilometers if I needed to. The weather is a big factor, so that distance could be much more or less depending on the wind,” he added.

“Ah. Right, I remember now,” Pryce nodded sheepishly. That really did seem like so long ago. “That’s good news, it means-”

“What if I fly higher than 2 kilometers?” Fathom proposed, cutting Pryce off.

“You could, but humans can’t breathe very well if we’re higher than 2 kilometers above the ocean,” Pryce explained. “That little bit of extra distance I could tolerate wouldn’t give us much more range. For example, at an altitude of 10 kilometers you’d get…give me a minute,” Pryce said, scribbling down his calculations. “412 kilometers. Dragons can’t fly that high, can you?” He asked hesitantly.

“No,” Fathom shook his head. “We can fly up at least 4 kilometers, maybe 6, but that’s not what I meant. What if you just give us the radio?”

Pryce paused. “But how would you…” Pryce paused, remembering the shortwave[1] crystal set receivers were much lighter than the longwave ones[2]. “Yeah, that could work. It wouldn’t be hard to attach it to your head – even if it would look a little ridiculous – but yeah, that’s a great idea,” Pryce said, making Fathom preen.

“What is he saying?” Celeste asked; all three of them were visibly impatient at being left out of the conversation. Teaching them English would have been really helpful for this dialogue, but Pryce wanted to get planning out of the way, just in case he needed time to implement a modified plan.

Fathom was far more eager to translate this time, mostly due to having made his own contribution to their plans. While he caught the others up on their conversation Pryce did some more math; using an altitude of 5 kilometers as a conservative estimate, he obtained a new range of 300 kilometers.

The ship had a few radio transmitters, but their range was supposed to be limited to several kilometers. He’d need to run some tests to be sure, but he wasn’t holding out much hope. Even if the transmitter didn’t work out, the dragons could home in on the strength of the rescue ship’s signal with the help of the receivers.

Assuming that all worked out, he still only needed two dragons at a time; one to go north and one to go south. The Horizon would stay put where the rescue ship was expected to be, while the other two dragons could patrol to increase the effective range of the radio.

If they flew one lap per day, they could cover a distance of 250 kilometers twice over. Optimally positioned, they could cover a range of…1100 kilometers? He sketched a diagram to make sure he hadn’t made a mistake.

The rescue ship (assuming it traveled at the same cruising speed as The Horizon) would take 7.5 hours to cover that distance. The dragons all had to sleep for 10-12 hours, so a watertight patrol route was unfortunately impossible.

And since he had three able-bodied dragons, one of them could rest on deck while the others patrolled. They’d have to fly at night, but Fathom said that was doable. It was a shame he didn’t have a fourth dragon to rely on – then he could cover all of that 1100-kilometer range without any large gaps.

Overall, he was as satisfied with the plan as he could be – except for one aspect. Would the rescue ship even be broadcasting a signal so far out at sea? They probably would, since there was no reason not to. From their perspective it was entirely possible that the Horizon had been stranded somewhere out on the open ocean, and the crew were slowly dying from starvation or dehydration.

The backup crew would most likely be sent on this rescue mission, and Pryce knew they were all extremely competent.

He would just have to trust them and hope for the best.

“Are you done thinking?” Fathom asked, almost making Pryce jump. All four dragons were peering curiously at his messy scribbles. “You have been writing for almost two minutes.”

Pryce smiled. “Yeah, here’s what I got…”

It didn’t take long for Pryce to explain his plan, and the others agreed that it made sense. Devotion was still doubtful about radio waves, so they offered a short demonstration where he and Fathom talked to them through the radio from a distance of several kilometers. Unfortunately, the radio transmitter was unable to reach the receiver at distances beyond ten kilometers – not particularly useful for their purposes.

«What a fascinating tool,» Fortitude said. «Can you explain how it works in greater detail?»

“Maybe later,” Pryce said, already busy planning tomorrow’s discussion. “We still have other things to talk about, but I think that’s enough for today.”

They’d all agreed that it was best to avoid contact with other dragons for now – Fortitude was under the impression that most dragons would be interested in humans, just like Fathom had been, but Devotion was less sanguine; she thought at least some small portion of dragons would be suspicious and possibly hostile.

In the end, it was simply safer to wait, so that’s what they would do.

[JOURNAL ENTRY]

Day 87,

Lots of planning accomplished today.

None of the dragons really objected to the idea of me lying (by omission) about human weapons to the other dragons…lying may be expected between dragons, but there seems to be a lack of intraspecies loyalty between dragons (at least when compared with humans).

I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I suppose it lowers the odds of them all turning on humanity if some unfortunate incident were to occur involving a single dragon.

Sometimes it’s hard to separate yourself from the circumstances, so the fact that Fathom and the others have supported my decision makes me less worried that I’ve made some terrible mistake in my plans. Let’s just hope hindsight doesn’t prove us all to be fools.

Either way, the rescue team is going to be in for one hell of a surprise. At least that’s a burden we can all share. It’s been quite a while since I’ve talked to another human. Maybe I should shave my beard, else they might not recognize me.

I do have one, somewhat lesser concern that’s been gnawing away at me: when should I leave?

The rescue team probably intends to leave as soon as possible in order to minimize risk; everyone back on the mainland still knows next to nothing about this island, and knowing a little is better than knowing nothing. The moment I tell them there’s sapient dragons, they might think they’re out of their depth and decide to report home first.

I could argue that dragons would take insult at humans leaving so soon, or it would be better to communicate with them rather than let speculation run rampant. But even if we do that, how much longer would we stay?

I don’t know

“You have been writing for a long time,” Fathom said, cracking an eye open. His daughter was fast asleep, curled up beside him.

“You have been up for a long time,” Pryce noted. Dragons usually preferred to sleep 12 hours, and they didn’t seem to usually have trouble falling asleep either.

“I…have been thinking about the future,” Fathom said slowly, “When we find the other humans, will you go home?”

Pryce pressed his lips together, uncertain of how to respond. “It depends on what happens. If things go wrong, and dragons think humans are a threat, then I would have to leave.” Now that he’d said it, he realized he hadn’t really wanted to go home for a long time. Not since he met Fathom.

“I don’t think that will happen, but if they do, we can just fight them,” Fathom said, as if he were suggesting a leisurely flight. “If they’re that stupid then they can’t be very hard to beat.”

“Let’s try to avoid that,” Pryce said drily. There was something in Fathom’s casual suggestion that made it sound a little different, almost as if he were deflecting the subject with humor. “I do hope things go well. If they do, then I would like to stay. Very much,” he added, a little awkwardly.

“If things go bad,” Fathom said, placing emphasis on the conditional. “Can I come with you to the Mainland?”

“...Things are very different there,” Pryce said, once he had collected himself. “The weather, the food, the bacteria…it’s all different. You could get sick, maybe even die.”

“You did not get sick, at least not very sick,” Fathom pointed out, “so I should be able to do the same. If I do get sick, then I’ll just eat your medicine. Even if it tastes horrible.”

“I appreciate your confidence in me,” Pryce chuckled. “But it’s not so simple. Penicillin only works on certain types of bacteria. It’s just good luck that I haven’t gotten very sick yet, considering that my body has never had to kill the bacteria here before, but then again the bacteria probably don’t know how to infect me-” he paused, catching Fathom’s unimpressed gaze. “Sorry, I’m talking too much.”

“Yes.”

“...If you want to take that risk, then I’ll do my best to convince the rescue team to let you come along.”

“Good,” Fathom rumbled, settling down with a contented air as he closed his eyes. “Goodnight, Pryce.”

“Goodnight, Fathom.”

I don’t know

We’ll figure something out, no matter what happens.