Trail of Bones

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Indeed, nestled between the Sea of Ashes to the east and the Velemir Mountain range protecting against modernization to the north and warring countries to the west, the Valley offers a semi-permanent refuge. The once desolate, barren, and unexplored area is now rich with foliage and home to the last remaining dragons on earth.

There is much to be said about the lore of dragons. Tales of mighty beasts that can breathe fire, or manifest some other elemental effect, wise, and hoarders of riches are ubiquitous, grandiose, and repetitiously dull. To be sure, these dragons existed millennia ago, and many cultures and histories lost to all but time seem to indicate that entire civilizations were built around the glorification of dragons in their efforts to conquest whole continents. Rarely do the records indicate symbiosis with humans, say for the far reaches of the East in the Ridgetail Mountains mostly inhabited by monks, but even these records are dubious and old.

As a boy, I enjoyed reading these tales, and dreaming of one day being in the presence of such a creature. This had only a small part to play in my eventual disappointment when I came to realize that much of what we knew was the product of historical revisionism.

These tales, however, also belie the fact that dragons were largely subjected to the horrors of man in their everlasting conquest to destroy what they do not understand. Or each other. To make matters worse, many people in the higher echelons of society were willing to pay huge sums of gold for well-preserved dragon bones, namely their feet, skulls, teeth, and tail bones, and the best way to get "well preserved" bones was through hunting and poaching.

While in some parts of the world eating dragons had been a dietary staple, in much of the rest of the world, it was a delicacy. As a result, young dragons were hunted to the point that the population began to decline because younger drakes were easier to capture. Smaller dragon bones also became more popular as they were easier to transport, more curious, and because they made for good trophies for children wanting to hunt "the world's most dangerous monsters." The rest is lost to the smog of industrialization and the brutality of war. Surely obvious to the reader, dragons no longer fly freely or roam the woods, or hoard their riches.

Most of the dragons that settled this valley remain today, and I am fortunate enough to now be witnessing the birth of a fourth-generation begin to take their first steps. It is elating to see these creatures be able to live in peace, as the Elders - the dragons that settled this valley - faced near-total extinction during their journey to get here.

This is the history of how the Elders came to arrive in this valley. Their journey began nearly 50-years ago in what was then the Callahan Province, through the Baralak Desert which was dominated by thunderbirds, raiders, and cannibals, followed by a more than a six-month journey across the Jade Sea, culminating in a more than four-month trek through nearly impossible mountain ranges constantly besieged by four warring kingdoms. Of the forty-five dragons that my compatriots and I smuggled to the security of this valley, fewer than half made it to this valley.

This journey, a more than 5,500-mile escape, is what I have since referred to as the Trail of Bones, and begins in a small village on the eastern border of the Callahan Province. My best friend Kaine and I had traveled there in search of a rare flower that historical records indicated only grew in the region. The literature, however brief, referred to a flower labeled a Weeping Violet that was a bright, if not somewhat flat, purple that would glow in the night and release bioluminescent spores. The record was also over one hundred years old, and for all we knew this plant had long gone extinct, or never have even existed beyond the creative musings of a person interested in writing children's books.

Kaine and I grew up together, attended the Royal School of Botany and Physical Sciences together, and were called upon by the Kingdom to fight in the War of the Rivers, a nearly three-year-long conflict to decide who would control a major port for trade. We both came from a long lineage of farmers, laborers, and blacksmiths, and preferred silence over wanton inflection of our voices. No matter what happened, or how dire the straights were as they say, he seemed to always find a silver lining, a solution, and above all fought for what he felt was right.

In many ways, Kaine is why we all risked our lives for these misunderstood creatures, and in other ways, this telling of the history serves as a long breath of a eulogy for my best friend. He was fortunate enough to see these wonderful beasts first step foot here, but the universe had other plans and he died not long after formalizing a small settlement for our permanent residence here in what would be our ever-lasting watch over these dragons.

The Callahan Province resisted the temptation towards industrialization for centuries and had remained a bedrock of stability for neighboring provinces by providing vast imports of wheat and cotton. As much as the scenery seemed familiar to our upbringing, Pallalah felt like home. The small village was quaint, and served as a central hub for the local fishermen and farmers, with a small pub, a tailor, an inn, and a general store for which we could send and receive parcels and letters.

In the spring of c.3340, after a day of following the river twenty miles from the village into some hills, we found ourselves at the local pub, the Sneaky Sheep, reviewing the plans for the following day. We had stayed at the inn for nearly a fortnight and while we had collected a hansom assortment of other plants and rocks to take back to the Royal College, we had no evidence that the Weeping Violet grew in the area.

We had also grown to know some of the regulars in the area. There was an air of hospitality despite a strong distrust towards outsiders. If it was one thing that the villagers hated more than outsiders, it was industrialization. They maintained a strong sense of peace and responsibility to protect the soil, feeling that the earth would take away just as freely as it gave its resources.

Elias was one such vocal person on these affairs. Every night, he and his wife Lina would come to the local pub to catch up on the gossip and get inebriated enough to forget about the aches and pains that their labor brought with their age. Elias had been a farmer his whole life and often bragged about his "last stand" against the neighboring Inundale Province for attempting to bring mechanization to his profession.

"I showed them!" he could be heard telling anyone that would listen, but mostly to himself and his near-empty glass of ale. "I stood there..." he began, "and I yelled at them, warnin' them mechnizer things that they would be swallowed by the earth herself and they didn't listen!"

Elias was clever and often embellished his history with tales of having summoned the old gods when really he had simply lured the people and their giant machines into a bog for which they remain even to this day. Every time he would tell the story, his wife would almost always respond with "yes, yes, Elias, we know."

Our night was like any other night, and to say that there was a routine with each day undersells the sheer monotony of just how consistent each day seemed. So it was in this context that Kaine and I were struck by Elias' allegations of sheep missing from his herd.

"It was probably wolves," the barkeep said without a care in his voice. The idea that cattle would go missing seemed obvious to the barkeep but entirely foreign to Elias.

"Then where's the body, John, hm?" Elias said with a strike of sarcasm, followed by a chase of ale.

"Wolves are too obvious an answer for a missing sheep and no evidence of an eaten sheep," Elias said skeptically, "how do you explain that?"

"Oh now, don't be foolish Elias. The only reason you can find the outhouse is 'cause there's a light on it, imagine being a sheep with no lights," Lina said wittily, "maybe they're here in the basement of this here pub!"

Elias did not appear amused, rather convinced that there was a more reasonable explanation than a lost sheep. John, the barkeep, without any emotion whatsoever, whispered "sneaky bastards," a clear homage to the name of the pub. Kaine could be seen smirking, ever the fan of simple jokes.

"Well then wuddya have to say 'bout the noises we hear at night?" Elias inquired, "I know I'm not the only'un to hear'em."

"Probably the wolves plotting," Lina retorted.

"No, there's strange lights farther to the north o' here. Only see'm at night, and just the other night, I could swear could'a seen somethin' flyin about," Elias said with an ever increasing slur.

Kaine and I shared glances because we knew what Elias was talking about. We had seen lights in the distance, and what seemed like screeching we assumed was the wind.

"Maybe it's the Inundales coming to seek their revenge!" Lina said while waving both of her hands and chuckling at her own humor.

"You both, over there keepin' quiet, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout don't ya, you've seen the lights?!" Elias said while trying to point at the two of us and drink his ale at the same time.

Kaine responded, "yes, we've seen the lights, and heard noises, but that could be caused by the wind, or a search party of some sort."

Elias was not impressed with Kaine's rational answer. Afterall, there were hills, and trees, and the wind often blew harder as day turned to night and the temperature dropped. "You...where are you both from again?" Elias asked.

For Elias' sake, I answered, "we are here looking for a flower that was said to have grown in this area about a hundred years ago."

"A flower you say? What for?" Elias asked with an expression of bewilderment for why two people from the bigger city that he resented would be searching for flowers half a world away.

"Yes, called a Weeping Violet," Kaine said flatly.

"A weepin' what? Willer?" Elias said, clearly intoxicated.

"Violet. A Weeping Violet," Lina said calmly correcting Elias, "What's it look like, fellas?"

Kaine read the description from the parchment, and after a brief moment of silence, Lina explained that no such flower had been seen in this area for her entire life, but that it had been mentioned in folk songs. While not anything tangible, it was substantive because it corroborated the possibility that the plant did indeed exist at some point, and in the region.

"Why are you searching for flowers all the way out here?" Elias asked, with an increasing tone of distrust.

"We are botanists," Kaine responded.

"Botawhats?" Elias asked.

"We study plants of all kinds," I explained.

"Oh..." Elias said, with less distrust and more disappointment. "Well, whatever ya are, those lights and noises are no good. They're scaring the sheep."

"Well that explains why they're missing," Lina said without missing a moment.

"Remember when I had to travel to Alorath, that godersaken city?" Elias directed at Lina.

"How could I forget?" Lina said while rolling her eyes, "you rambled for months about some stories that some drunk man told you in a pub."

"It wasn't nothin', Lina, what if that's happenin' here?" Elias said with a noticeable dose of concern.

Elias then went on to explain that while traveling to Alorath, the capital city of the Inundale Province, he overheard a story about a secret society seeking to bring back sorcery and combine it with resurrected creatures and machines.

"Oh heavens," Lina could be heard whispering to herself followed by a glance to Kaine and I, "now you've got 'im started."

"What if that's what those lights are? What if it's them, and they're stealing my sheep!" Elias said with outrage, followed by the completion of his pint and slamming it onto the counter, "get me another!"

As John poured another pint of ale for Elias, he slyly said "well I guess we can't escape the machines after all, how do you know your sheep aren't already machines?"

Elias shot a piercing stare at John which quickly turned into suspicion about his sheep. "That's not funny, John, this is serious."

Kaine, in a moment rarely seen, entertained what he often perceived as thoughts rooted in vanity or suspicion, "we'll go check out the lights for you, Elias."

I am not sure who was more surprised, myself or Elias. Lina was gesturing for us not to entertain Elias' assumed delusions, and Elias appeared ready to go marching towards the enemy. "You will?!" he exclaimed.

"Yes. We'll get to the bottom of what the lights are, the noises, and if we see any of your sheep we will return them," Kaine said politely but confidently.

"That would sure put an ole' man's mind at ease," Elias said, sinking into his chair, "a few missing sheep, I can handle, but people bringing sorcery to this land, I just can't ponder what..." the alcohol had finally settled, and Elias, a hard-working man in his seventies, began to doze off.

"Perhaps it's a lead," Kain said, "but if not at least we will have brought peace to his mind, and what do we have to lose? We haven't searched going towards the lights. Maybe we'll find something."

"Should we leave at first light?" I asked.

"Yes. We should plan to be gone for a few days. I'll let the innkeeper know," Kaine said.

We finished eating, took our notes, adjusted our plan on the map, and then headed towards the inn. Kaine, in an apparent rush, briskly walked to the inn, whereas I took my time. The morning was not going to get here faster just because I ran towards it. I had a tendency to look at the ground as I walked, always looking for what new plant or thing in nature that I had not seen before. But tonight was different. It was a clear night, with few clouds. The lights that Elias spoke of could barely be seen in the distance, and the stars shone brightly without the moon deafening them with its glory.

Further in the distance, above a grouping of trees at the end of a large clearing, I saw a flying creature chaotically flying in no uniform direction, and assumed it was a bat. What I did not know at that moment, and what I have come to understand, is that I had in fact seen a dragon and that nothing would be the same again after leaving the small village of Pallalah.