>At a scavenger den._

Pain.

That was the first thing Argonaut’s first waking thought was aware of. The absolute worst headache he’d ever felt in his life rampaged through his skull, far worse than the migraine that occurred whenever he accidentally surfaced too quickly after spending a long time deep underwater. It consumed his awareness, and throbbed horribly along with his heartbeat.

His ears were ringing. His teeth hurt. His bones ached. Every muscle and scale felt sore. His wing membranes felt strangely raw, and he was queasy. He let out a small groan. A groan he himself could hear.

Wait. I don’t remember being in the open air. When did I get out of the water?

The memories of the past few… hours? Day? He knew not how long; came back to him in a rush, worsening his headache further. The peculiar search mission, the creepy huge shapes, the corpse… and the explosion.

The explosion. What happened? Did it get me? Is that how this happened? Why am I in the open air? Am I dead?

Argonaut tried to move his talons- which were splayed out alongside him- to rub his snout. Only to find that they were restrained.

His heart rate accelerated. Out of all the things any patroller had nightmares to, waking up chained was one of the worst. Because, it meant a talonful of things: It meant that you and your wing had been ambushed, and had been beaten so thoroughly and easily that your opponents didn’t even need to kill you to end the fight, but were able so much as incapacitate and bind you. A blow to any dragon’s pride. Made worse by the fact that the dragons they were fighting in this war were all either capable of breathing fire or freezing cold air. They obviously would not have used those powers when defeating you if you were still in a state that was healthy enough to necessitate being binded by your enemies.

Further from that point, it also meant that all your Wing Mates were certainly dead. Dragons didn’t have much use for prisoners, unless said prisoner was royalty or of some other important stature, which a patroller would certainly not be. The only reason you were still alive was because you were, for all intents and purposes, a trophy. Dragons only need one trophy from any given triumph to prove their point.

Which led to the third thing it meant, which was perhaps more specific to this war in particular: Being captured as a SeaWing patroller implied that you had either been taken by SkyWings, MudWings, or SandWings (The IceWings don’t take prisoners). Although the two former options were much more likely. If you had been captured by either Sky or MudWings, it inevitably meant that you would eventually wind up in Queen Scarlet’s arena, where reports from spies and long range scouts confirmed you were doomed to an entertainingly gruesome death in gladiatorial combat with other prisoners in front of a crowd of SkyWing spectators.

Trying to fight his rising panic, he opened his eyes. An action he instantly regretted as he was immediately and utterly blinded by the great, glaring brightness that was the sun. His already unbearable headache became worse, and he slammed his eyelids back shut. He grit his aching teeth and bit back an undignified whimper.

With his sense of sight out of commission, he instead opted to use his other senses to try and get a read on his situation. The ringing within his ears was slowly abating, gradually allowing more sounds through. He also had his sense of smell, which was probably the only sense he had that wasn’t being actively interfered with by his pain.

He took a long breath through his nostrils, not liking how his chest almost rattled from the action.

Moons, that sinking-cylinder-explosion-thing did a whole whale on me. What in the Great Currents was that thing, anyway?

Nonetheless, he still got a whole collection of different smells from the environment around him, so much so that it actually took him aback. Some of the smells were familiar: The smell of trees, grass, and other vegetation. As well as that of sea spray, the ocean, and of the beach (That at least meant that he was still near the sea). But among those smells, there were many more that were entirely unfamiliar to him, and others that he didn’t even begin to recognize or know how to describe at all. Corroborating with many new sounds his slowly returning ears were picking up that he had never heard before.

For starters, the most apparent scent he could detect was this incredibly strong… burning smell? Argonaut wasn’t really sure. It sort of smelled like smoke, but not really. It wasn’t exactly repulsive, but it was perhaps the definition of pungent. There was an almost tang to it that made his nose feel weird. He could also smell a lot of dirt, the kind that had been recently turned over and moved around. There was a myriad of odors that he could hardly begin to place, as they were so new to him. However, through that, he picked up a scent that he did somewhat recognize. It was a smell that he had encountered before, during a few of his patrols. It wasn’t very strong, had a sort of salty oily-ness to it, and was only really apparent if you looked for it. Though it was unmistakable once you recognized it.

Scavengers?

He could smell scavengers nearby. Why would that be? He of course knew his patrol mission took them near a scavenger den, but why would he still be near scavengers? He’d been captured! Why would MudWings or SkyWings chain him up near a scavenger den?

I… have been captured by enemy dragons… right?

The noises he was hearing around him didn’t sound much like a dragon encampment. Through the ringing, Argonaut could hear high-pitched whirring noises, the dull thunks of things behind shoved into soil and of soil being moved about. And, most strangely of all, an alien rumbling and growling noise that maintained a constant pitch and frequency for far longer than a dragon or other large animal should be able to maintain, by his reckoning. The rumbling noise was sometimes accompanied by the sound of something heavy being rolled across dirt, and a sort of clanking clattering noise at others. The only somewhat natural sounds that he could currently hear were the cries of seagulls, and the sound of a bunch of somethings muttering to one another.

A sharp barking sound, followed by a volume and frequency decrease to the muttering sounds, broke him from his internal musings. Bracing himself, Argonaut slowly cracked one eye open, groaning and wincing again at the oppressive brightness and the redoubled pain in his head.

Slowly- too slowly- his eye adjusted to the mid-afternoon sunlight, and he realized he couldn’t make anything out, as he was seeing triple-vision and everything was blurry.

He was feeling pretty woozy, come to think of it.

After a little while longer, though, his vision began to refocus, and the first thing his gaze centered on were a pair of small, wide-set hazel colored eyes similar to his own (sans the coloration) staring right back at him.

Argonaut started, slightly pulling his talons against their restraints. There were scavengers! Glancing around, he could see more scavengers in one place than he’d seen in his entire life! The small creatures surrounded him in a wide circle, all of them staring at him.

These scavengers look strange. First of all, they were all the wrong color. All the scavengers he’d ever seen, or indeed any dragon had ever seen, had light-brown skin, and had dark brown fur patches. They were also known for always wearing weird fur or fabric coverings. These scavengers, on the other talon, had skin that generally looked more like exposed wood in color, and all had peculiar green tortoise shell-looking things on top of their heads that obscured what fur they did have. They also had coverings that- Argonaut realized- were all identical to one another. They were all light brownish-green in color, and made from a material that he did not recognize.

They stood calmly around him at a fair distance, in doing so diametrically opposing the normal scavenger behavioral reaction to dragons which was to run away shrieking. All of them were holding various… things in their weird clawless paws. Argonaut knew that scavengers carried weird metal claw things as weapons, but these things were clearly not that. Some appeared to be made mostly of wood, making them look like sticks. Others did look to be made of metal, judging by their dull gray color. A few of the scavengers held strange small dark green tube-things, which they hung over their shoulder rather than having it pitted into their shoulder, like all the other scavengers with strange things did. The only collective similarity between all the things the scavengers held was that they were all pointed at him.

He could hardly fathom why these scavengers appeared to be trying to threaten him with a bunch of… blunt sticks. The sharp metal claws they usually wielded were already unthreatening enough as it was.

Looking up, he realized where the steady rumbling noise was probably coming from. Just across from him, behind the scavengers, was this weirdly-shaped dark brownish green structure-thing that was about as big as he was. The bottom of the structure-thing seemed to rest on a pair of grayish black circular things with line patterns. Atop that was this kind or bar-thing that had a cylinder with a bunch of weird gray rope coiled around it. Above that was this sort of slat formation followed by a smooth panel that angled backwards and slightly upwards, with a white five-pointed shape within a circle in the middle that looked like it was painted on. Behind that was another flat panel, this one angling more sharply upwards and had two small squares cut into it that looked only big enough for a scavenger to look with their two little eyes through. Yet behind that was this almost pedestal-looking thing with complicated-looking metalworks just above and on either side of it. The metalworking on either side appeared to be divided into four distinct sections, two on each side. Each with these green square/semicircle combination shapes and small black metal tube pointed directly at him.

Positioned in-between the four things and just behind the pedestal shape was yet another scavenger, also staring directly at him with its lip curled up and backward, revealing its small teeth. The scavenger had an expression that looked for all the world like it was saying: “Try it.”

Argonaut himself stared back dumbly. He had no idea what to make of the weird rumbling structure-thing, nor what it had to do with him.

He looked back to his restrained limbs, to get an idea of what was holding him captive. Most dragon tribes, including SeaWings, restrained prisoners with wing-clamps that kept the imprisoned dragon from spreading their wings, and usually a chain loop around one leg that kept them stuck to a wall. Fire-breathing dragons and IceWings often got their snouts chained shut as well.

Instead, he had chains wrapped around each of his wrists and ankles, which were in turn attached to sizable stakes shoved into the ground, keeping each of his four webbed appendages splayed out and immobile. He could also feel a similar chain wrapped around his tail, which was also probably staked to the ground as well. The chains were relatively small, and looked thin enough that he should be able to snap them if he pulled hard enough. However, giving them a good yank revealed they instead didn’t budge in the slightest.

What in the Great Currents? I’ve seen SeaWings smaller than me break chains thicker than these! What are these chains made of?

Aside from that, he also noticed that his wings were wrapped up as well with a sort of rope coil that kept them from extending. That was perhaps the only relatively standard part of this whole ordeal.

What’s stranger, Argonaut also realized that he had similar ropes running across his back and shoulders that were also nailed into the ground. The only part of him that wasn’t tied to something was his head and neck, which he could move more freely. The whole setup made him feel rather like a tent that was pitched to the soil.

The scavengers clearly took issue with his half-hearted escape attempt, by how they all seemed to bristle and shift around, still not taking their eyes off him.

“(Steady there, sea dragon.)”

Argonaut jumped slightly once again. Where did that noise come from? He knew what scavengers sounded like, and that was not it. From experience he was familiar with the squeaky chirping noises that scavengers always made at each other. That sounded more like a dragonet’s voice, by its pitch and consistency.

“(If it breaks out, do we shoot it?)”

“(The locals are vehemently opposed to us not killing the sea dragon. The higher ups think that it’s more valuable alive, so we’ll try to keep it that way. However; if it comes to it, they also said that our relationship with the locals is far more important than this thing. If it so much as looks like this thing is gonna break out and hurt some people, we put it down on the spot.)”

“(Yes, sir.)”

That was definitely the scavengers making those noises. He could see their small mouths moving, and the ones that were making the noises were looking at each other as if they were conversing.

That’s not what scavengers are supposed to sound like! What’s going on!?

“(Oi, why’s it staring at us like that?)”

“(Beats me.)”

The frill on the back of Argonaut’s neck stood on end, and his ears pinned themselves back against his skull. Rather than making noises reminiscent of birds and squirrels like every dragon, including him, knew scavengers to make; These scavengers produced sharp barking sounds and throaty, lower-pitched vocalizations that were… unnervingly close to how young dragonets tend to speak.

If dragonets spoke in a garbled manner that was completely incomprehensible to other dragons, anyway.

Nevertheless, it made him strangely uncomfortable.

The scavengers, for their part, did little further in terms of moving around after that. It would seem they appeared content to stand mostly still so long as he too remained still, which was strange. That sort of behavior would make sense if it were coming from a guard, but these were scavengers! Scavengers can’t guard things! Even then, with how many ropes and mysteriously-strong chains around him, he didn’t think he would be able to move very much if he tried.

Taking his attention off the creepy scavengers for a moment, he instead paid heed to the surrounding landscape, to get a better idea of where exactly he was.

Which proved to be a decision that a part of him came to regret mere moments later, to which another yet smaller part of him came to recognize a potential- and recent- pattern forming regarding himself rather quickly regretting a physical decision he made just prior.

Naturally, the first thing that his eyes gravitated towards once they were focused on the environment around him was the ocean. Even though he already knew he was near the sea thanks to the sounds of waves and seagulls he could hear, it was still nice to see it. That small amount of reassurance was promptly quashed by what he could see on, or more aptly, all over the sea. The waters around the land he was on were dominated by a giant pod of hulking gray semi-rounded building-looking things that seemed to float suspended on the surface despite their obvious weight.

Argonaut immediately knew what they were. He realized he’s already seen the things, but from a different angle.

The floating building-things were the shapes that he and his Wing had seen from underwater. They were what they had been sent here to investigate. They were what his fellow enclavers had warned the palace about.

And from there; they were also somehow responsible for whatever it was that happened to that NightWing corpse that left it in that state.

And one of them was also what dropped that explosive cylinder-thing that was what seemed to have got him here.

Chained up, and surrounded by scavengers pointing things at him that were acting as if they were guards. Even though that’s impossible.

They definitely didn't train us patrollers for this. Three moons, I’m done for.

On the plus side, if he somehow survived this and escaped, he would certainly have the most interesting story to brag about at the eating cave during break.

On the other talon, most dragons would probably consider the prospect of being taken prisoner by scavengers to be pretty humiliating.

Wait, if these discolored scavengers are from the den that killed those NightWings, and they got me, then why am I not dead?

He couldn’t see or smell any traces of other dragons nearby, other than a faint… bloody smell… but that didn’t give any clues as to how he ended up like this. Somehow, these scavengers used one of those floating-building-things to drop that underwater-bomb-thing that knocked him out, hauled him out of the water, dragged him over here and chained him to the dirt. Surrounded by scavengers and scavenger-sized tents and weird dragon-sized mini-structures that growled and rumbled.

If it all didn’t feel so real, he’d think he’d completely lost his pearls. Instead he found himself favoring the conclusion that the world itself had gone insane.

Scavengers aren’t capable of any of this. This is all ridiculous!

A movement from the corner of his vision attracted his attention and broke him from his reverie. A talonful of scavengers were approaching, one of them carrying something peculiar. One of the new scavengers, which was also pale in color and wearing strange coverings, got close to another that had already been standing in a circle around him; and seemed to whisper something that his ears could not detect- beyond a small windy noise- to the ‘guard scavenger.’ Said scavenger bobbed its head up and down, and pointed lazily towards Argonaut with a paw.

The new scavengers passed the ‘guards’ and began to… do something… with the strange thing that one was carrying that involved unfolding and planting a spindly part of it onto the dirt a short distance in front of his snout, beyond his reach. The top of the thing, which was roughly as tall as a scavenger now, had a strange somewhat box-shaped thing with a bunch of smaller shapes all over it, and a small dark wide tube that glinted slightly in the sunlight.

The scavenger that was carrying the thing then stood behind it, moving it around with its paws so that the tube was pointed directly at Argonaut’s face, and then moved its whole head so that one of its eyes was pressed right against one of the small shapes on the box, with the other eye squinted tightly shut.

(“Say cheese, sea dragon.”) The scavenger muttered quietly.

Argonaut stared with confusion as the scavenger manipulated more small shapes on the box-thing with its paws for a few seconds, and jumped when a disorientating bright flash of white light and a weird “Shclick!” sound came from the box. Another of the scavengers, one that had come with the new procession and was standing just behind the one messing with the box-thing, spread its lips apart slightly and emitted a sharp “ha!” bark sound that seemed to be aimed at him in particular.

The scavenger operating the strange contraption stood back upright from it, picked the entire thing up with a huff, and moved over until they were facing Argonaut from a different direction, and repeated the process of setting it up, messing with it, and making it produce that bright flash and Shclick sound. They continued that process until they had gone a full circle around him, stopping once again his head. From there the scavengers set up the contraption again and pointed it at him, but did not make it flash or click again. Instead they seemed to stand and wait.

Scavengers are so confusing. Why can’t these creatures act like normal animals!? Even the wisest dragons can’t make sense of their behavior!

Eventually, another talonful of scavengers made their appearance. One amongst this group was also carrying something. Something that seemed distinctly more familiar than what the first group was carrying.

Something that looked almost like a rolled up scroll.

The new group of scavengers repeated the process the previous did, muttering something to the same ‘guard’ scavenger, before passing the rest of the ‘guard scavengers’ and closing with the original several that came with the box-contraption.

The two groups exchanged a series of barks and mutterings that Argonaut found himself not really listening all that closely too. After all, these were just scavengers making scavenger noises. Even if those noises sounded weirdly close to dragon register, and the scavengers making those noises had weird things and somehow got him stuck to the dirt like a tent. Scavengers were always known for doing weird things, it was just part of their nature.

The scavengers set the rolled up paper on the ground just ahead of him, and unrolled it. Argonaut’s eyes boggled. The scroll, which it now certainly was, had a map of Pyrrhia etched onto it, with several circles and crosses over several locations that he wasn’t familiar with. The map also had some text, reading:

Search the scavenger den at this location. find the Eye of Onyx, if it is there. It is crucial to the outcome of the plan that it is accounted for.

“Shclick!”

How did these scavengers get their paws on this!? It was clearly a dragon scroll, being written in standard dragon script. The scroll itself smelled somewhat of ash, which wasn’t uncommon for scrolls owned by fire-breathing tribes, and therefore gave little in terms of clues to its origin. The vague message written upon it only made it more confusing. Eye of Onyx? What plan? What does any of that have to do with a scavenger den? Why do these scavengers have this scroll? Does it have to do with the NightWings these scavengers allegedly killed?

The scavengers started barking at each other again:

(“He’s definitely reacting to the scroll.”)

(“Can he read it?”)

(“Probably not, this scroll came from the black dragons. This sea dragon, if he can read, most likely has a different language.”)

(“He at least definitely recognizes it. That’s a start.”)

(“These photographs’ll turn out great when they develop.”)

After that, the two groups of scavengers gathered the things they had brought and walked off. Argonaut wasn’t sure how the lanky creatures could maintain balance while always on two legs like they did, but whatever.

For the rest of that day, Argonaut stayed chained to the ground. The scavengers around him occasionally switched places with other new scavengers so that he was surrounded at all times, yet other scavengers mulled around various tent-looking things. To his bafflement, the green structure-thing that was right in front of him came to life and started moving on its own! It growled loudly, backed up, turned and stalked away. Moving on those round black things which spun in place and a… belt-thing? That also spun at the back of it rather than legs. The scavenger riding on it that was staring at him continued to do so. Another structure-thing that was visually similar emerged from somewhere and took up the last one’s position in front of him.

All this, the scavengers, the weird smells, the green growling structure thing, the floating-building-things, the chains, the scroll, it was all becoming too much for him to bear. He wished he could just close his eyes and wake up back at the Summer Palace, with the patrol director barging into their sleeping cave to yell at him for being asleep. This sunk.

Throughout the day, he could hear a series of booms like thunder sounding from somewhere off in the distance, but he could see no storm clouds. He had no idea where those sounds were coming from. He might have thought he was hallucinating them (For he was beginning to wish he was hallucinating the entire ordeal), if it weren’t for the scavengers with matching coverings clearly noticing the sounds too. Whatever it was, the scavengers didn’t seem to care much.

Eventually, towards the end of the day, another group of scavengers approached him and his ‘guard,’ larger than either of the previous two groups. These scavengers looked different from the ones before, both in relation to the previous groups and to each other. Some of them wore different coverings, some unique, some similar to each other again. Two of the scavengers in the group acted differently than all the others, though. They both seemed afraid. One of the fearful ones, Argonaut realized, looked like a normal scavenger that he would recognize. Having brown skin and coverings that matched the environment around them. That one was clearly afraid of him, by how it kept its wide eyes unwaveringly trained on him and seemed almost reluctant to approach him even in his immobilized state. Nevertheless, the scavenger continued to step closer, sticking close to its taller, less fearful weird-colored counterparts.

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He notice there was a distinct difference in the way that the normal and weird scavengers walked. The weird scavengers stood taller. Both in their physical stature and in their posture. They also walked more loosely, and seemingly more smoothly than the normal scavenger, which had its knees slightly bent and body decidedly more tense. A large part of that could of course be scratched up to fear of him, but the other clearly fearful scavenger did not walk like that.

The other nervous looking scavenger had more in common appearance-wise with the other strange scavengers, but was skinnier and a little shorter. It also seemed to be more afraid of the other scavengers than it was of him, which was peculiar to say the least.

The scavengers started to bark at each other, and Argonaut tried to pay closer attention.

(“So what’re we up to, here?”)

(“The Jerry here said he’s familiar with sea dragons like this. Says he even might have learned one of their words. We wanna see how the big lizard reacts like with the scroll.”)

One of the scavengers pointed a paw towards the nervous-looking skinny scavenger, and then pointed towards him, barking something. The nervous scavenger nodded, and stepped a single pace towards the SeaWing, fiddling its paws and making a coughing noise.

Eventually the scavenger looked Argonaut in the eye, shuffled on its feet, opened its mouth and uttered:

“Cut- Cuttle-Fish?”

Suppose for the sake of argument, that nothing else that weirded and freaked out Argonaut that day had happened. Or perhaps suppose at least that nothing had gotten to him. Waking up chained, being surrounded by discolored scavengers that made sounds close to the register of dragonets and gave him the creeps. Being surrounded by strange things that moved on their own and smelled yet weirder than they looked. As well as being shown a weird, vague scroll that smelled of ash and gave instructions for something he didn’t understand. Any one of those occurrences would have any normal dragon’s spines stand on end. But let’s suppose that Argonaut was tougher than he really was, and had absorbed each of those abnormalities with the stoicism of a whale.

If Argonaut wasn’t creeped out before, he certainly was now. By a bunch of dumb scavengers, no less.

***

~

Anatomical report: Regarding hitherto unknown large reptilian “Night Dragon” species.

Introduction:

Part and parcel of our introduction to this “new world” was the abrupt discovery of a- until now- completely unknown and unprecedented new class of creature. Said creatures are large, capable of flight, and appear largely reptilian in classification. The new creatures bear an uncanny resemblance to ancient myths and legends of dragons found across Europe in their physical appearance and apparent abilities from what we are able to determine. As such they will be referred to as ‘dragons’ for the purposes of this report. The ‘dragons’ were visually confirmed less than 24 hours after establishing first contact with a race of native humans that were already present at this location prior to our arrival. How exactly they got here, and how long they have been here, is another question. A question that is not the concern of this paper at the moment.

This paper will cover what useful information has been determined through observations made of the dragons in their probable natural state before they were terminated, as well as what was learned through dissecting and examining what remains that could be recovered. Bear in mind that this examination was largely conducted not only with the purpose of inquiry and research for the sake of research, but also with an emphasis on determining both the distinct physical capabilities of this new ‘dragon’ species, as well as their weaknesses.

Caveats:

Out of all eight examples of this new ‘dragon’ organism neutralized, only 4 were either recoverable or left intact enough that meaningful information could be gleaned. Out of these organisms, no single one was left undamaged enough that it could be an accurate example of what one of these creatures would be in their natural state. However, through cross-examining and cross-referencing each of the four organisms, we believe that we were able to create an adequate picture given the required criteria.*

It should also be noted that we (the examining team) are operating with comparatively limited resources when it comes to scientific tools. It is not as though biology and taxonomy equipment are considered incredibly high priority in a wartime supply shipment, after all. That said, it is also not as though we were not able to learn a substantial amount and accomplish plenty with the tools we had. We were able to source and utilize dissection equipment and some surprisingly handy magnifying glasses for our tests, as well as some basic pH measuring tools and various other chemical-related amenities. All that is to say: while we were able to get plenty of information regarding these creatures regarding their physical characteristics, particularly of their tissues, we were not able to do much on the microscopic or cellular level.

*The recent capture of what is seemingly another species of ‘dragon’-like organism- a live one, no less- provided some additional fascinating information. Such as what one of these creatures actually looks like alive, for example. However, it also raised a lot more questions that we are not yet able to answer. (ex: both examples of this new class of creature shared distinct visual similarities, suggesting relation, but also massive characteristic differences that very obviously set them apart.)

Morphological Characteristics- Quantitative Observations:

* Investigation subjects: 4 members of the same species.

* Sex: 3 male, 1 female.

* Average subject height (feet to shoulder): 204 cm

* Average subject height (feet to head): 315 cm

* Average subject length (incl. tail) 1037 cm

* Average subject wingspan: 2242 cm

* Average subject mass: 1,950 kg

Morphological Characteristics- Qualitative Observations:

Each of the ‘dragon’ organisms bear an uncanny resemblance to some depictions of dragons in Indo-European mythology. They are largely reptilian in visual appearance, but some of the only traits they actually visually share with other reptiles are that they seem to walk on four legs and have an external dermal organ that is covered entirely by keratin scales. Their overall physique and approximated posture have more in common with Great Cats in appearance rather than with lizards or crocodilia as one may expect a large reptile-like species to have.

These ‘dragons’ are hexapedal in nature, possessing six limbs. Four of them are clearly meant for terrestrial locomotion and as tools and weapons, particularly the frontmost two limbs. The next two limbs just beside the frontmost are significantly elongated and stretched out, with the digits an order of magnitude longer than their counterparts on the other limbs and have a thin membrane of skin and tiny scales stretched in-between them that serves as surface area for generating lift. The hindmost limbs are also meant for locomotion, being digitigrade in type and not as flexible as either other pairs. Interestingly enough, the front and back legs contrast each other, with the front pair being plantigrade and the hindlegs being digitigrade. In fact, it was also observed that the ‘dragons’ frontmost two limbs had more in common with arms in their structure rather than legs. Nevertheless, it is still clear that these creatures use said ‘arms’ for walking. Every limb on each of the organisms have clawed digits, with four digits on each appendage.

Each of the four recovered subjects had thin skin layers covered entirely by scales (that were determined to be made from keratin like scales on other creatures) that were either dark green or dark purple in coloration. So dark that they appeared almost entirely black. These scales seemed to be divided into 4 distinct types. The most common of these types are a sort of large scale that overlap each other and resemble plate armor more than they do actual reptilian scales. These scales start at their head, running down the back and sides of their unusually long neck, over their back and spine and the top portion of their tail. The scales themselves are almost completely inelastic, but seem to be able to slide over and across one another according to how the creature moves. One of the civilian medical technicians assisting in research remarked that: “These scales are [kind of] like giant fingernails.” He is not technically wrong.

The second kind of scale only appears on each of the ‘dragon’s’ limbs and face. These scales are not that unusual compared to the others, being similar in shape and configuration to the scales that cover the bodies of most lizards. The preliminary difference being that these ones are scaled up. The third kind of scales that cover these organisms are vastly removed from the previous examples, and don’t look much like scales at first glance.

The scales that cover the undersides of the neck, chest, torso, tail, and backside of each of the limbs are very small, giving them an almost smooth leathery appearance to the naked eye. These scales are much thinner, are softer and more flexible. They likely serve to provide the organism freedom of movement rather than protection, as the other scales are obviously meant for.

The fourth kind of scale is very similar, but even thinner and smaller. These scales cover a thin skin layer that makes up the giant membrane which provides these ‘dragons’ with their flight ability. These scales are so small and thin that they are almost negligible, but it should be noted that many of the scales on the undersides of the wings do not share the near-black pigmentation all the other scales do, but rather are bright white and even have retroreflective properties in their structure. This makes them appear shiny and glittery, especially if a light is shone upon them. An interesting visual spectacle, though we are not certain what it is for.

These creatures are of course rather large, weighing slightly more than an adult male hippopotamus. However these creature’s wings make them appear larger than they actually are at a glance.

Strangely enough, these creatures also feature a pair of large horns that emerge from their cranium just behind and above their eyes. What function these horns serve exactly is not known. It is unlikely they are for combat, as they are positioned in an inefficient manner for that sort of engagement. Not to mention their skulls and necks are clearly not meant for headbutting or headlocking, and they have a plethora of other natural weapons at their disposal that these horns would not complement at all.

The organisms also all possessed sharp spikes of varying size that emerge on the back along the spine that run from the base of the skull and run all the way to the tip of the tail. These spikes are not directly connected to the vertebrae, but are embedded in the dermal organ and have small muscles connected to them that allow them to either lay flat or stand erect. Not dissimilar to the small hairs on our own skin, but much larger.

It was also observed that these creatures have eyes that are rather different from the vast majority of eyes found in the animal kingdom in that they are remarkably similar to our own. Featuring circular pupils, distinct and circular irises with stroma and pigmented epithelium and a white sclera. More details on this later.

Basic Taxonomy:

As far as classification goes, these new creatures are in their own category. Therefore: We’re starting from the top, and effectively making it up as we go along. These ‘dragons’ defy most of our taxonomic systems, but they are relatively similar to large lizard species. At least more similar than they are to snakes, crocodilians or turtles.

Subject: “Night Dragon(s)”

* Domain: Euykarya

* Kingdon: Animalia

* Phylum: Chordata

* Class: Reptilia(?)

* Order: Squamata(?)

* Suborder: Lacertilia(?)

* Family: Magna Serpentium

* Genus: Draco

* Species: Nox Draconis

As one may see, we have made the decision to classify these creatures roughly as a kind of lizard, as that's what they are most visually similar to. However, the potential flaws with this approach are obvious. These early classifications are subject to change, should more substantial information be acquired.

The decision was also made to dub the species of study- The black dragons- after what the local word for them is. Their word translates to “Night Dragon” in English. Further lending credence to the theory that these particular creatures are normally nocturnal.

Skeletal System Analysis:

The skeletal system that gives these organisms their stature are unique among the animal kingdom. They share many distinct similarities in their structure with the bones found in most birds that fly at high altitude or over long distances in that they are pneumatized, or filled with hollows. The shape of the bone’s internal structure and purpose of the hollow, however, seems to differ rather greatly than in avians.

For example: The hollow bones found in most avians are mostly open space, with calcified struts running in a web-like fashion across the bone that provides them the structural integrity required for taking off, landing, and the rigors of sustained powered flight. Contrary to popular belief, the hollow bones of a bird are not a weight-saving measure, as avian bones are roughly as heavy as mammalian bones by volume. Rather, the hollow bones that birds possess are part of their unique respiratory system. Powered atmospheric flight is the most strenuous and most energy-intensive sustained physical activity any vertebrate can undertake, and therefore requires an amount of oxygen and energy that a ‘normal’ respiratory system cannot provide. Air in the bones of a bird are able flow in between each other, to and from their air sacs, lungs and bronchi system in order to provide a constant and substantial stream of oxygen to their bloodstream.

This contrasts the bones found in the Nox Draconis examples, which were not in any way shown to connect to the creature’s respiratory system. Rather than the almost spongy appearance of avian bones, the bones found in these creatures were denser and thicker, with the marrow-containing struts that run through the internal cavity of the bone being thicker and more evenly spaced out with distinct patterns. Giving them an appearance reminiscent of bridge architecture. This much more structurally sound configuration, combined with the bone tissue itself being much harder and much more rigid than mammalian bones (a trait that bird bones also share) means that these bones are much stronger than their avian counterparts. Somewhat ironically, the leading theory as to why these bones are hollow at all given that they are not connected to the lungs is that it is a weight-saving measure.

As per the request of some weapon specialists, attention was focused on and tests were run regarding the actual strength of these bones against damage, providing some rather interesting results. Nox Draconis’ bone tissues have high strength and rigidity, or ‘hardness.’ More so than the skeletons found in other vertebrates. This hardness means they are easily able to withstand the strains of powered flight and are able to withstand a fair bit of physical trauma before they break. However, that hardness also means they have very low elasticity, and thus whenever any given bone is subjected to an external force greater than its tolerance threshold, it is prone to shatter violently and send calcified splinters in multiple directions. (Rather than just fracture or break like they do in humans.) Several examples of this were found in the recovered remains of felled Nox Draconis examples, specifically the two that had been shot down by Lt. Hill’s Sea Hurricane, where 20mm shells without explosive fillers were able to inflict an uncharacteristically high amount of damage to internal tissues by hitting parts of the skeleton and creating bone-fragment spalling that wreaked almost as much havoc on said creature’s internal organs as the HE-I shells did.**

The next subject of pressing importance that pertained to Nox Draconis’ skeletal system is the internal structure of the bones themselves. As mentioned prior, each of the bones have thick, sturdy struts that run through the hollow spaces similar to the coupling bars that reinforce steel architecture. This contrasts the hollow bones found in most avians, where the struts are much thinner and randomly spread out. Again similar to coupling bars, the struts found in Nox Draconis bones provide them a substantial increase in structural integrity. Factoring both this and their natural rigidity renders them impressively resistant against large amounts of tension, compression, and lateral forces. However, it was noted that these bones are surprisingly weak against torsion force, or torque. In other words, twisting the bones proved more effective at breaking them than bending them or subjecting them to impacts.

Torsion was not the only weakness these bones were found to have. When tests were conducted to gauge how essential the struts that reinforced the bone hollows were to said bone’s integrity, it was shown that displacing or fracturing one or more of these struts can cause a complete structural integrity compromise in the bone itself.

All that is to say: Nox Draconis, (and presumably other organisms of the same genus, such as the ‘aquatic dragon’) have impressively strong bones due to their density, the hardness level of their tissues, and the shape and layout of the internal struts that line the inside of the larger bones. However, they also possess several weaknesses that are a consequence of these advantages. Their rigidity makes them brittle and prone to shatter when broken, as well as making repairing damage a far more lengthy and resource-intensive process than it is in the bones of most other creatures, including our own. They are prone to breaking when subjected to intense twisting forces, and the importance of the internal struts serve a failure point for the entire bone’s structure should they break.

*Bone shrapnel has (repeatedly) been proven a major danger in humans as well in regards to bullet wounds, but the problem seems to be exacerbated in the case of Nox Draconis.

*It should be noted that, when it is said that Nox Draconis’s bones are prone to shatter should their stress failure threshold be overcome, it does not mean that the entire bone splinters to pieces like a Prince Rupert’s Drop. Rather, the fracture area remains localized around the failure point. Put simply, it is likely that such a phenomenon as a ‘clean break’ does not exist for the bones of these creatures. The inelasticity of the calcified bone tissue leads to spider webbing cracks and considerable amounts of fragments separating off in the case of a break.

Muscular System Analysis:

If one thing was determined for certain by analyzing (primarily) the skeletal muscular system of Nox Draconis it is that they are impressively strong. Bear in mind that not a whole lot of reliable information was gained through the examination of our study subjects, as many of their muscle tissues had taken so much damage from shrapnel, overpressure and direct autocannon fire (Most of the light shrapnel fragments that penetrated the scales were caught within muscle fibers). It was, however, determined that these organisms have considerably dense muscle tissue on their chests, around the shoulders, on the back, and along each limb and the tail. Obviously, a flight-capable organism would need strong muscles in those locations in order to fly. It would also need strong muscles on the limbs for terrestrial locomotion and for combat. Strong tail muscles not only suggest the tail as a balancing system in-flight, but as a tool appendage on the ground as well. In other words, it is possible that Nox Draconis, and presumably other members of the genus, can use their tails as blunt weapons. (A characteristic they share with other large lizards.)

However, all that raises a rather large question, one that we are yet to formulate a comprehensive answer to. How are these creatures, being largely reptilian in nature, able to support such energy-intensive systems? It is well known that reptiles are completely incapable of powered flight. The reason this is so can be attributed to all cold-blooded creatures, by their nature, having much slower metabolisms than mammals or avians. As stated prior, flying is the most energy-intensive physical activity a vertebrate undertake. Only creatures with relatively blisteringly fast metabolisms such as birds, bats and insects are able to keep up with the immense energy demands. One of the key defining characteristics of reptiles and indeed all cold-blooded creatures is their sluggish metabolism rate. This is why cold-blooded organisms do not maintain a constant internal temperature through homeostasis. It is why reptiles like snakes and alligators are able to feed so infrequently. Animals that can fly have to eat their own body weight in food multiple times a day to keep up with the intensive energy demands flying implies. If Nox Draconis is a reptile, which it certainly seems to be from all our other observations, there is simply no way it would be capable of sustaining powered flight. Yet, it was indisputably proven through empirical observation that these creatures are indeed able to fly. That begs the question, if Nox Draconis is able to have all these incredibly dense muscles, and even be capable of powered flight, while also possessing the metabolism and morphology of a reptile, not to mention being huge: Where is all that additional energy coming from?

Sensory Organ Analysis:

Nox Draconis, by the standards of this examination, appears to share the standard 5 senses that we use to detect the physical world around us that is also shared by most organisms in the animal kingdom. Those senses of course being sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch. Whilst we were not able to do a whole lot on the front of detailed analysis for each of these systems on the nervous front with the tools we had at hand, it was possible to extrapolate a lot from what we could observe.

Visual system:

The first of the sensory systems covered in this report regard Nox Draconis’ sense of sight. Mainly the eyes themselves. As mentioned prior, these organisms possess eyeballs that are remarkably similar to our own. There are a few reasons this is not really a surprise, given what prior information we already knew about them before this examination began. For example, Nox Draconis’s eyes feature circular pupils. This was to be expected for the following reasons: Vertical slit pupils like those found in small cats and some reptiles (Which are also commonly associated with ‘dragon-like’ creatures such as these) are only found in ambush predators that hunt near the ground, and in low-light conditions. Hence why small cats, crocodilians, and many lizards and snakes often have them. Circular pupils are usually found in predatory or omnivorous creatures that need to see clearly at a wide range of distances and light levels. Which is why animals like wolves, great cats, bears, birds of prey and us humans have them. What is less usual, however, are the features of the rest of the eye. As mentioned above, Nox Draconis’ eyes possess stomated, green pigmented irises and white sclera like our own eyes do. This is strange enough even for other mammals, much less reptiles. The result is what looks externally to be a scaled-up version of a human eyeball. (Yes, it is rather eerie.)

It was initially theorized that the eyes Nox Draconis had a vision range that was similar to that found in birds of prey. Meaning, they are able to easily discern detail at incredible ranges that far surpass what our own eyes can, with the downside of not being able to see things closer than several meters in front of them clearly. We also supposed them to have far superior scotopic vision to our own. However, dissection of intact eyes revealed that on top of looking strangely similar to human eyes on the outside, their eyes were also uncanny as far as their lens and retina structures went as well. Analyzing the shape and size of their lenses against the retina revealed that Nox Draconis has a similar vision range to ourselves as far as distance is concerned. In hindsight, it makes sense. Should these organisms possess eyes similar to those found in birds of prey, they surely would be incapable of forming and using a literary writing system as their eyes would not be able to focus on objects that are close as a scroll or tablet would need to be to the individual for writing to be feasible.

Analyzing the retina pointed to these creatures likely being able to see in a similar light and color spectrum to us (Though we of course cannot be sure how their visual cortex interprets that information), however likely possessing slightly superior scotopic vision in trade for slightly inferior color vision compared to that of the average human.

Olfactory System:

As far as we can tell, Nox Draconis has an incredibly sensitive sense of smell, able to discern far more scents than we can. A feature it shares in common with most other members of the animal kingdom. As of the writing of this report, The research team was unable to determine much in terms of specifics as far as Nox Draconis’ olfactory system is concerned. Partially due to equipment constraints, and partially due all research subjects were already expired prior to the initiation of study.*

Given the threat of detection-by scent that will no doubt be posed to us by these organisms, it is recommended that a means of countermeasure ought to be developed in order to decrease these creature’s olfactory effectiveness, or hopefully neutralize it entirely.

*Tests regarding how members of the Draco genus respond to olfactory stimuli in general can be conducted with the live ‘sea dragon’ example already captured, should permission be granted. However, live Nox Draconis examples would need to be acquired should we desire to better identify the scent-detection capabilities of that species in particular.

Auditory System:

Unfortunately, due to being unable to conduct stimulus tests with the subjects being deceased, unable to conduct neurology tests due to equipment constraints, and being unable to conduct detailed examinations of the outer ear structure due to all their eardrums being completely blown out; there are once again gaps in what we were able to accurately determine as far as what range and frequencies Nox Draconis is able to hear, and how well they pick out individual sounds and determine range and positioning. However, through examination of relatively undamaged inner ear structure and projecting a theoretical functional eardrum that fits the ear itself as well as the general shape of the outer ear we were able to determine some things:

Nox Draconis certainly has more sensitive hearing than our own, probably being able to differentiate sound sources as quiet as 5 decibels at a distance of around 4 meters (Bear in mind those are rough estimates). As far as amplitude is concerned, we think that, given the data so far, Nox Draconis possess a hearing range that is somewhat different than our own, with the low end of their hearing range stretching slightly into infrasound, but not able to detect sounds much higher-pitched than 10kHz.**

*It should be noted that since Nox Draconis possess ears that can hear quieter sounds than we can, it stands to reason that their damage threshold is also lower. Humans can comfortably hear sounds up to 80-85dB without taking damage, with sounds louder than 120dB being where real damage starts to occur. Nox Draconis likely cannot hear sounds louder than to 70dB before it becomes harmful, with the real damage starting at around 90 to 100dB. With that in mind, countermeasures against their acute auditory senses should not be difficult to develop.

*The much-diminished capacity to hear high-pitched sounds has to do with our observations of the subject’s inner ear structures, many of which being too large or sturdy to be affected (and thus be able to detect) high-frequency noises. It is also likely that their intelligibility threshold for high-frequency sounds are much lower than even that.

‘Unique’ Features:

No doubt the most pressing question on everyone’s minds is whether or not Nox Draconis is capable of ‘breathing fire’ or not. As far as we can tell, the answer to that question is most likely yes. During dissection, a pair of strange sac-like glands were found in each of the subject’s necks, roughly halfway in between the jaw and shoulder. These glands were connected to the esophagus via small, one-way valves. Within the glands, traces of the hydrocarbon compound Acetylene were found. It seems that Nox Draconis is somehow able to biologically produce the compound, deposit it within these glands, which in turn then (using specialized muscles) hold it under a pressure of at least 1.40 atm for extended periods of time (Though they can clearly go higher). It would also appear as though these organisms are indeed capable of using this as a weapon, given the local’s insistence on these creatures and others like them being able to ‘breathe fire.’ The most plausible way they are able to accomplish this is by building up acetylene under pressure within the glands (which have an average internal volume of around 479mL ) thus in turn raising the compound's temperature as a factor of the gas’s pressure. They then force deoxygenated air from the lungs, and release the pressurized, high-temperature acetylene from the glands via the one-way valves into the airflow. This action carries the hydrocarbon solution along and expels it through the mouth at speed, at which point it is then introduced to oxygen in the wider atmosphere and undergoes an exothermic chemical reaction, and combustion occurs. Thus giving Nox Draconis a built-in, biological aerosol flamethrower. Exactly how hot these flames can get is a little up in the air, but we believe that more mature individuals are probably capable of weakening relatively weak, impure metals to the point where molding is possible ( that is not to say that these organisms would be capable of doing that with their appendages). We’ve organized the most probable steps members of the species would need to complete for successful fire attack to occur as follows:

-Acetylene is refined and stored within each of the neck glands, where it is held under a constant pressure slightly higher than ambient atmospheric pressure at sea level.

-A feasible target for the fire attack is identified, the individual fills their lungs to their maximum extent, which then rapidly deoxygenates that air. Simultaneously, pressure within the acetylene glands is built up, both through rapid production of more gas and through the small organ’s muscles diminishing the gland’s internal volume via compression.

-Once the air within the lungs has been deoxygenated, and the pressure and temperature of the acetylene solution has reached adequate levels, the air from the lungs is forced out at speed. (These creatures have rather powerful diaphragms.)

-The valves for the neck glands open, and the pressurized, high-temperature acetylene is forced into the stream of air coming from the lungs, where it is quickly carried out of the body.

-The high-temperature acetylene is introduced to oxygen in the atmosphere, and combustion requirements are met.

This all raises a rather important concern: whether infantry would be at all combat effective against these organisms in a realistic scenario. One edge that humans have had against larger and more physically powerful predators in nature is our ability to easily utilize ranged attacks (usually through throwing things). That principle would hold true even given the rather large physical disparity between us and members of the Draco genus thanks to our firearms if it were not for these creatures having their own built-in ranged weapon in the form of the biological acetylene flamer. However, due to the fast specific reaction rate of acetylene combined with the maximum projected force Nox Draconis is able to exhale, we have calculated that their aerosol fire attack cannot reach more than a few meters in front of them. Even our own man-portable napalm-based flamethrowers, much less kinetic firearms, can still outrange them.

The next most recognizable characteristic of this new species that is not shared by other relatively similar organisms is the pair of distinctly wing-like limbs that attach to the shoulders just behind the forelimbs. Nox Draconis possess a pair of wings that are, strangely enough, visually reminiscent of the wings that bats have. Why this is the case is unknown. Despite these facilitators of flight, had we not directly observed these organisms literally flying and were only going off what we can observe of them in their post-mortem state, we would have declared these creatures flightless. We have already stated that the metabolisms of these organisms simply could not keep up with the energy demands of flight, but it would also seem that members of the Draco genus share a characteristic in common with common honeybees in that their wing surface areas should be inadequate for producing enough lift to get their heavy bodies off the ground. Nonetheless, these creatures can fly anyway. Apparently another thing different in this world compared to our own is that the laws of physics here apply themselves arbitrarily.

During our examinations of the four recoverable Nox Draconis subject’s brains in order to assess damage dealt by overpressure shockwaves, it was noted that these creatures have surprisingly large and complicated brains compared to other reptilians. Not much in terms of specifics could be determined here, unfortunately. Neurology is a new enough study in regards to human anatomy, much less these unprecedented organisms. We were able to determine at least that these creatures have neural complexity rather similar to our own. (Which makes sense, given the prior discovery of at least one member of the species being literate.) However, this brings yet another feature of these creatures that defy contemporary biological patterns. That is to say: it is unlikely that a reptilian organism would have a metabolism capable of keeping up with the large energy demands such a complicated brain would entail. Another paradox to add onto the pile, so to say.

Regarding the recently captured ‘Sea dragon’ individual, information collected is far more limited in scope due to our examination being limited to a superficial level. In other words, all we could do was look at it and take notes rather than the detailed dissection and examination conducted with the Nox Draconis examples. Nevertheless, the information learned is as follows:

Basic Taxonomy:

Subject: “Sea Dragon”

* Domain: Euykarya

* Kingdon: Animalia

* Phylum: Chordata

* Class: Reptilia(?)

* Order: Squamata(?)

* Suborder: Lacertilia(?)

* Family: Magna Serpentium

* Genus: Draco

* Species: Draco Marinus

Morphological characteristics- Quantitative observations:

* Investigation subject: 1 member of the same species.

* Sex: male

* Subject height (feet to shoulder): 190 cm

* Subject height (feet to head): 234 cm

* Subject length (incl. tail) 1102 cm

* Subject wingspan: 2162 cm

* Subject mass: 2,180 kg

Morphological Characteristics- Qualitative Observations:

Draco Marinus shares remarkable physiological similarities with Nox Draconis. Hence our decision to classify them in the same genus. However, there are many visually apparent differences in their external appearance and morphology. For example, Draco Marinus possess keratin scales that are largely green in coloration, similar to the color of photosynthetic shallow-water algae. These scales are also slightly different in texture, being slightly smoother and more similar to the scales found on most fish compared to lizard-like scales of Nox Draconis. As far as composition is concerned, Draco Marinus possesses far less large plate-like scales than its black-colored counterparts, only having them on the head and along the spine. The majority of the scales covering the green reptile are more similar in shape to the scales found on other members of the Lacertilia suborder. The undersides of the organism was also covered in tiny smooth scales as well (Albeit, the scales on Draco Marinus are segmented). The most prominent difference between the two members of the Draco genus as far as their scales are concerned is that Draco Marinus has approximately 220 unique, translucent, and presumably flimsy scales of various size running along the muzzle, neck, shoulder, limbs, torso back and tail with many more on their wing membranes that are bioluminescent. How exactly this creature is able to sustain that many biological lights is lost on us. As if these creatures did not already have enough paradoxes about them.

The next most obvious visual difference is that Draco Marinus appears to possess several gills on its neck concealed by plate-scales that connect to the respiratory system. Suggesting these creatures can operate underwater for long periods of time. As was determined by the deck crew of the USS Le Hardy when this subject was pulled out of the water and by us during our visual inspection, this organism, and presumably others like it have a large chest cavity where lungs are present. Making Draco Marinus one of the few known organisms to simultaneously have fully functioning lungs as well as gills.

Another notable difference between both types of ‘dragon’ is found in their natural weapons. For starters, Draco Marinus cannot ‘breathe fire,’ as its gills are present in the same location the acetylene glands are in Nox Draconis. Other than that, the large claws that adorn each digit are different in shape compared to the claws of Nox Draconis, being longer and more hook-like, suggesting a specialization towards catching fish. These claws would be less effective as weapons against other members of the Draco genus in a fight.