Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series

"So, what do you think we should talk about today?" Fathom asked, early that morning.

Celeste had just left to hunt, and she wouldn't be back for some time.

"Celeste seems curious about human history and culture, so maybe we can talk about that," Pryce suggested, though he wasn't particularly keen on the idea. Not only was it a potentially dangerous topic, but it was difficult to convey such alien concepts, especially without context. He had attempted to discuss the topic with Fathom before, but they hadn't made much headway before postponing that discussion.

"I'm not sure how well I'll be able to explain it to them," Fathom warned, his snout wrinkling doubtfully. "Human culture is too strange, and I still don't really understand it."

"It's still worth talking about," Pryce replied. "And while we're on the subject…do you think we should tell them about rifles?"

"Hrrm," Fathom rumbled. "Dragons would respect humans more if they knew what kind of weapons you have, but they would also be more afraid as well." Fathom said, choosing his words carefully. "Normally it is expected that a dragon will keep secrets from those who are not their friends, but this is different from a normal interaction. There are benefits to not telling them about it now, but things will be simpler if you are open about things from the start."

Pryce took a few moments to weigh his options, until Fathom spoke up again.

"We could ask Ghorrah-ǂ and Jooral-ǂ," he suggested. "They have lived a long time, and their advice will be better than mine."

"...I think that's our best choice," Pryce agreed. "Let's just hope we don't scare them too much."

"Today I wanted to talk about human culture and history. Is there anything specific that I should cover?" Pryce asked, and waited as Fathom translated his question. The others had progressed enough to understand most of his sentence, but they still needed help to understand the few key words that Fathom hadn't yet taught them.

"Yes, I am excited to learn about this," Celeste said, with her stilted-but-rapidly-improving Murian.

"I do not know enough to ask about details," Fortitude said. Her words were a bit more heavily accented, but still completely understandable.

"That's true. I suppose I should start from the beginning, then. First, let me say that I'm not a history expert, so feel free to ask about anything, but there's a good chance I won't know it," Pryce warned, as he glanced down at his notes. "No one knows for sure, but humans have existed for at least 50,000 years."

"Wait, I am confused," Devotion said after Fathom echoed Pryce's statement. «A clan of humans must have counted the years, so where is the uncertainty coming from?»

Fathom translated this question, then added, "Dragons usually teach hatchlings about events that have happened in the last five hundred or so years. Anything older than that would be a special event."

"Makes sense," Pryce nodded. "As for why we think humans have existed for at least 50,000 years…that's probably better to explain later. It's pretty complicated."

«Well now I'm curious,» Fortitude snorted. «Can he at least give a basic explanation?»

"I'll tell you about it later, I promise," Pryce said, trying to keep things from going off track. "The important thing is that the techniques we use can only tell if something is less than 50,000 years old, so that's where the number comes from."

He went on to explain how humans originally lived in groups as wandering hunter-gatherers, until farming was invented about ten thousand years ago.

"All humans lived in groups?" Celeste asked, tilting her head curiously.

"Yes. Humans aren't as capable as dragons. We need to live and work together just to survive."

"I see…" Celeste murmured as she digested this information. "What changed?"

"We started farming, and that meant we had to live in one place, because all the food was grown in one place."

«You stopped hunting?» Devotion asked, her spines flattening in surprise and confusion.

"No, we still hunted, but we also captured animals and grew food for them, so we could make our own source of meat. Most animals are also bigger and stronger than humans, so we used them to do work for us too."

The three dragons looked askance at this, which wasn't a surprise. It was hardly in line with 'proper' hunting ideals that dragons so seemed to value, and he couldn't imagine that they thought kindly of using others for labor as well.

«I suppose it makes sense, given how small they are,» Celeste shrugged.

Devotion seemed a little less generous, but Pryce was relieved that she didn't voice any objections herself.

«I should have asked this earlier, but these animals, could they speak like humans or dragons?» Fortitude asked, her eyes wide with interest.

"Oh, no, definitely not," Pryce said, shaking his head. He was glad to say that humans hadn't enslaved any intelligent animals, though he wasn't looking forward to telling the dragons about human slavery, even if it hadn't been practiced for decades. That was definitely something to share at a later date.

"Good," Fortitude nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer.

Next he described the concept of a city. "Like I said earlier, farming made it so people lived in bigger groups called towns. These groups of people didn't have to spend as much time making food, so they could focus on learning things, like learning how to create pottery and art," Pryce said, gesturing to Fortitude. "Thanks to farming, humans began to invent more technologies, and we eventually built very large towns, which are called cities."

"How many humans…in one town? How many humans in one city?" Celeste curiously asked.

"Small towns only had a few tens of people, bigger towns had maybe a few thousand. Cities have at least tens of thousands, and the ones that exist today have millions of people."

«I still can't believe there are millions of humans. It must look like an ocean,» Devotion grumbled.

"Groups of cities were called kingdoms," Pryce said, ignoring her comment. "There were many kingdoms in human history, but the most important ones were the four kingdoms that existed almost one thousand years ago. These kingdoms were constantly fighting each other so that they could take what the other had, and eventually the kingdom named Muria defeated the others, forming the Murian empire – which was basically one big kingdom."

"I…am confused," Devotion said. "Why did kingdoms fight other kingdoms?"

"What do you mean 'why'?" Pryce asked, confused by the odd question. "They're two different groups, so they have different interests. Of course they would fight each other."

«Yes, but each group is made of thousands or millions of people,» Fortitude pointed out. «They can't all want to work together, can they?»

"Maybe not, but humans like to see ourselves as a 'part' of the group. It's common to help other people in your group, and to think of them as 'us' or 'we', even if you don't know them at all."

The three females stared as Fathom translated this, and even he seemed baffled by this explanation.

«But that doesn't make any sense. Are you saying that a human would prefer to help a stranger who lives in their city rather than a stranger from another city?» Fortitude asked, sounding more confused than curious.

"That's correct, yes," Pryce replied, scratching his head. "It does sound strange when I describe it like this…but do groups of dragons not fight each other?"

"Very rarely," Fathom replied, tossing his head. "It depends on why that group is together in the first place, but large groups tend to break apart into smaller groups, and it is common to leave or join a group whenever you want. It just makes sense to fight those you want to fight, not others in their group."

"I see…" Pryce said, making a mental note of that for later. It was quite the significant difference in mentality. "Anyway, where was I? Ah right, the Empire of Muria."

"Oh, Muria – that is like Murian?" Celeste asked.

"Yes, this empire lasted almost seven hundred years, and it's the reason why humans all speak the same language: Murian."

"I'm glad I don't have to learn another language," Fathom sighed in relief, a sentiment wholeheartedly shared by Pryce.

«Wait, why was there more than one way of speaking?» Devotion asked. «That must have been terribly inconvenient.»

"The Mainland is very big, and humans can't fly, remember? Many of us spend our lives in the same place, so they developed different languages." Pryce estimated that a dragon could fly from the south end of Loahm to the north in a little over a week of solid travel, so it made sense that there was only one language.

"Hrrm. That makes sense," Devotion rumbled. "Continue."

"A lot of progress happened under the Empire, which was so important that we refer to the year that the empire was established as year 0; years that came before and after that date are referred to as 'Before Erudition and 'After Erudition. The meaning of 'erudition' is complicated, but I'll tell you about it later," Pryce added, seeing Fathom's confusion.

"The Empire lasted until the year 624 After Erudition, when the king was killed. This caused the Empire to fall apart, and the pieces became two groups of cities called 'countries' which looked like this." Pryce laid a political map out on the ground for their perusal. It wasn't actually a historical map, but for this purpose it was accurate enough.

"The northern country was called Septen, while the southern one was called Auster. These two countries sometimes came into conflict, but they managed to coexist for a time. In fact, progress began to speed up even more."

Fortitude perked up at this. "Really? What changed?"

"Humans began to make powerful machines that were stronger than humans or animals. This allowed us to make more food more efficiently, which made it so that people could spend less time growing food and more time working on more complicated things – like building better machines, which made people even more productive. This caused the biggest change in human history, and we call it the industrial revolution."

"Fascinating," Fortitude rumbled. "Is this progress still happening?"

"It's only been getting faster, actually," Pryce replied. "Well, that's not entirely correct. The Great War began in 902, and that…wasn't very good for progress."

Celeste tilted her head as Fathom translated this. "Why is this war 'great'?"

«'Great' can mean very large,» Fathom explained. «I know, it's very confusing.»

"It's called the great war because it caused a lot of death. The industrial revolution made our lives better, but it also allowed us to create much deadlier weapons, and the war would go on to kill over two million people before it ended in the year 920 with Auster's victory."

The dragons drew their heads back in shock upon hearing Pryce's words, having understood enough to realize the gravity of what he'd said.

"Two million humans?" Celeste asked, her eyes wide in horror. "How did so many die?"

«That can't be right,» Devotion frowned. «How can a conflict possibly last eighteen years?»

«...To be fair, it does sound somewhat similar to what we did to the wyverns,» Fortitude interrupted. «I doubt there were two million of them to begin with, but it is arguably worse since we killed them all.»

«That's different, the wyverns had no speech, and they weren't our own kind,» Devotion chuffed.

"Er…What are they talking about?" Pryce asked, as the two elders hotly debated the issue.

"There used to be large birds called 'wyverns' that often fought with dragons," Fathom explained. "Eventually the dragons who were alive at the time decided to kill them all, but that ended up being a mistake. Without the wyverns to fight, the dragon population increased, which meant hunting became harder for everyone. At the same time there was a disease that killed many of the dragons, and over the next few hundred years our population went from tens of thousands to only a few thousand. We called this event the Great Dying."

"Oh," Pryce said, uncertain of how to reply. "...How long ago was this?"

"The killing of the wyverns began over 9,500 years ago, and it ended after a few decades. The Great Dying happened soon after that, with the survivors eventually agreeing to limit our population 9,242 years ago."

"So that's why only ten thousand dragons are allowed to exist at any given time," Pryce abruptly realized.

Fathom nodded seriously. "Yes. The survivors realized that killing the wyverns was a mistake; they made this rule to ensure that there would be enough food and land for everyone, and so that the Great Dying would never happen again."

"I see…" Pryce said, and looked up to see Fortitude and Devotion eyeing him impatiently.

"Why did humans have this war?" Fortitude asked, having evidently waited for the two of them to finish their conversation.

"The War was a result of a long history of conflict, but to put it simply it was about resources and power. Both countries wanted what the other had."

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«What kind of weapons were used in this war for two million to have been killed?» Devotion demanded.

"Well, most people weren't killed by weapons," Pryce said, trying not to falter under their hardened gazes. "Only about three hundred thousand people died in the fighting, but the war prevented people from growing food. Most of the deaths happened because there was nothing to eat. As for the weapons…I'll show you one later, once we're done talking."

Devotion narrowed her eyes. «Why not just show it to us now?»

Fathom tossed an uncertain glance at Pryce. «We…could do that, if that's what you want.»

«Alright, let's see it then,» Fortitude encouraged, stepping back a little.

"Okay," Pryce sighed, unhooking the rifle from his backpack. "This is a rifle."

"It…does not look very dangerous," Celeste noted as she cautiously eyed the weapon.

«Don't underestimate it,» Fathom warned. «This weapon makes a tiny explosion that sends a piece of metal flying out at incredible speeds. It's fully capable of piercing through a small tree.»

«Really?» Fortitude asked, looking rather curious despite her apprehension. «How about…that one?» she suggested, pointing to a rather unremarkable looking tree.

Pryce would have called it 'medium sized', but he raised the rifle all the same. "Oh, I should warn you: the rifle is very loud."

Even with his warning the three of them were still startled by the crack of the rifle. A subsequent inspection revealed a small point of entry in the bark, with a much larger exit wound bursting out of the back.

«Well, I would certainly not want to be hit by that,» Fortitude commented candidly. «How much wood can a rifle go through?»

"Not much more than that, I think," Pryce said. He did his best to answer their subsequent questions about the rifle without alarming them, but that simply wasn't possible given the nature of the weapon.

«What a horrifying weapon…and you must have even bigger ones, correct?» Devotion asked, her eyes narrowed. «Tell me, what exactly is stopping you humans from using these weapons to kill us all?»

«Because they need our help,» Fathom said, having asked this question before. «They may have fearsome weapons, but their senses are poor, and they are very easily killed. In short, our assistance would be the most desirable outcome.»

«And what happens after that? What happens when they have no further need of us?» Devotion demanded.

«I had the same question,» Fathom nodded. «As Pryce mentioned earlier, humans live in groups because they are dependent on one another. They already rely on one another to fully utilize their strengths, so there's no reason why we can't continue to do the same. We can do things humans cannot, and humans can do things we cannot, so there's no reason why we can't be valuable to each other.»

«That is true,» Fortitude murmured to her partner. «Apparently the humans aren't even smarter than us, but they're still able to do so much despite also being smaller and weaker. Imagine what we could do if we joined them? If we accepted the knowledge and tools that they're offering us?»

«I know all of that, I just don't like not having a choice,» Devotion quietly growled. «Even if they agreed to leave us alone, there's nothing stopping them from changing their minds in twenty or thirty years, and by then they'd have even fiercer weapons. That argument was why we agreed to work with them in the first place, and it still holds true; I just didn't expect them to have such powerful weapons.»

«Well, you did always tell me that there's no use complaining about the inevitable,» Celeste replied. «The Sun will rise, after all.»

«Hah!» Devotion barked a laugh. «I suppose it does.»

«I should point out that it is not Pryce's fault that his people have such weapons,» Fortitude commented. «He's just the messenger, and with that in mind his honesty is quite apprecitated…isn't it, Ghorrah?»

«...I suppose,» Devotion reluctantly grunted. "You give us information about rifle. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Pryce nodded, though he was more relieved by the ease in tension than anything else.

«Tell us, what happened after this 'Great War'?» Celeste asked, bringing them back to their original topic.

"Ah, right. The war ended with Auster's victory, but both countries were weakened by the war, so they agreed to join together to form the nation that we call the Mainland." The merging was a long and complicated diplomatic process – to be more specific, the two countries had officially become provinces, but that was getting into more detail than he needed to convey.

"What is the difference between 'nation' and 'empire'?" Celeste asked.

"They're similar, but the Mainland is a democracy, which means that leaders only have power if they have the approval of other humans. This is different from an empire, where all the cities are controlled by one person with all of the power."

"That…does not make sense," Fortitude murmured. «Those in control must always have more approval than their rivals. If they did not, then they would not be in control. What is the difference between a 'democracy' and an 'empire'?»

"Well…" Pryce trailed off, scratching his head. "It's hard to explain, but a democracy allows every adult human to have a vote, and they can use this vote to express their approval of a leader – which is also called a politician. An empire doesn't need to ask for the approval of the people, and it can use force to make people do things that they don't want to do."

«I…still do not understand,» Devotion said. «Why would people allow an empire to force them to do things? Would they not fight back and destroy the empire?»

"That can happen, but empires are powerful, and most people would not want to risk their lives to fight back, even if they could win if they all fought together."

«So instead of allowing yourselves to be ruled by a single person, you allow yourselves to be ruled by the majority of people,» Devotion flatly replied. «I don't see how that is much of an improvement.»

"You…have a point," Pryce admitted. He certainly hadn't thought of things that way. "But a democracy is still better because the power is spread out across multiple leaders, which makes it much harder for one person to do horrible things."

"…I suppose that makes sense," Fortitude slowly admitted. "But what things can 'politicians' do in a democracy?"

"Good question. First you need to know that humans have rules that we need to follow called 'laws'. Some of them are simple, like no killing or stealing, but there are a lot of laws for a lot of different situations, and not everyone agrees on what any new laws should be, so politicians can change old laws or make new ones – after a long and complicated process where they argue with other politicians."

«So in short, these 'politicians' have the power to change the rules that you must abide by,» Devotion rumbled with flattened spines. «If these 'laws' are so important then why is everyone allowed to vote on who gets to change them? Surely you don't allow idiots to affect the foundation of what is or is not allowed?»

"They still get a vote. I know only letting smart people vote sounds like a good idea, but how do you decide who's 'smart'? And what's stopping politicians from implementing a method that benefits their supporters alone?"

Devotion flattened her spines as she considered this problem. «How terribly bothersome,» she finally sighed. «I haven't even seen it myself and it sounds like a horrible headache.»

"People do often argue over what's right and what's wrong," Pryce admitted. "For example…do dragons have any stories about how the world was made?"

«Oh!» Fortitude said, looking quite excited. «I think volcanoes are proof that deep inside the world is a vast amount of liquid rock, which leaks into the ocean to make islands. Am I right?»

"Well…you are mostly right, but-"

«Hah, see? I told you I was right!» Fortitude cheered, poking her exasperated partner in the side.

«Wait wait wait, how do you know what's inside of the world?» Devotion asked, with enough insistence that it gave Pryce the impression that this was a longstanding topic of debate between them.

"Sound moves through liquids and solids differently. We use tools to listen to Earthquakes as they move through the Earth, and from that we can tell that the inside of the Earth is liquid except the center, which is made of solid metal."

«Wait, what?!» Fortitude demanded. «Wouldn't the center be even hotter? Why would it be solid? Are you sure that-»

"It's because of the pressure," Pryce said, interrupting her spiel of questions. "The more pressure you add to something the more easily it becomes liquid or solid. If you had enough pressure you could freeze water without even making it cold. I don't know if you've noticed this, but it's the same reason why it's easier to boil water at higher altitudes, because there's less air exerting pressure on the water."

Fathom had to define pressure before translating Pryce's explanation, but this was all Fortitude needed for her eyes to light up in realization.

«Oh, that makes so much sense! And now I feel so stupid for not realizing that sooner.»

«Well, you couldn't have known that rock and water behaved the same way,» Devotion said, though Pryce swore he saw a brief glint of satisfaction in her eyes.

"When did humans learn this?" Celeste curiously asked. "It sounds very impressive."

"Only a few years ago, actually," Pryce said, his face falling. "The person who discovered this was Doctor Jane Callan. She was one of my crewmembers aboard the Horizon."

«Oh, that is a shame,» Fortitude said when Fathom quietly translated this for her. «I'm sure I would have liked to meet her.»

"I'm sure she would have liked to meet you too," Pryce smiled sadly. "Anyway, I'm glad I could answer that question of yours, but I actually meant something else. Do dragons have stories on how the world was created? As in, the entire thing?"

«Oh, I have no idea,» Fortitude shrugged. «Neither does anyone else, as far as I know…d…do humans know this?» she asked, her spines flaring in alarm.

"No, no," Pryce hurriedly said. "It's just one of the questions that humans like to argue over the most. Why are we here? Who created the world? What happens after death? What is the purpose in life? Those questions have been asked for as long as we've had language. Some people think they have the answer, but no one really knows."

«Really?» Devotion asked, blinking in confusion. «Those questions are interesting, but I don't see how they could be that controversial.»

"Really? What do you think the answers are?" Pryce asked, amused; he had a pretty good idea of the type of answers they would give.

«We don't know how the world was created, but knowing would not change anything anyway. Likewise, how dragons came into being is not particularly important either, as it has no effect on the present. What happens after death is what happens before one is hatched, and the purpose of life is to just do whatever you want,» Fortitude said succinctly, with the others nodding in mild agreement.

"I guess humans are different," Pryce shrugged. "Most humans wouldn't be satisfied with those answers…wait, was that part about the egg literal?"

Fathom cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

"Is she saying that dead dragons become new eggs?"

"Of course not," Fathom snorted, looking at him in an odd way. "She is saying that after death there is nothing, just like how there is nothing before someone is hatched. I told you before, remember? Lives are like flames; they disappear when they are extinguished."

"I remember, I just wanted to make sure she wasn't saying something new."

Fathom paused. "Wait, what you said doesn't make any sense; how would a dead dragon become an egg? Is that something else humans believe in?" he asked ludicrously.

"...Yes?" Pryce said, knowing how bizarre the concept of reincarnation sounded to someone unfamiliar with the concept.

"That doesn't make any sense at all, your population grows; where would the new people even come from?"

"I never said I believed in it," Pryce said defensively.

"How many people believe in this?" Fathom asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"The belief of the dead being reborn in new bodies is called reincarnation, and maybe…20 percent believe in it?"

"Twenty million. Twenty million humans believe in this."

"Yeah, okay, I get that it sounds ridiculous, but there's a good reason why people want to believe in this-"

Fathom snorted skeptically at this.

"-people really don't like dying, so it's nice to think that you might get another chance to live another life, another chance to fix your mistakes."

"What are you two saying?" Fortitude plaintively commented. «I'm having a hard time following your speech.»

Fathom quickly translated their conversation, resulting in many similar sentiments – much to Pryce's consternation.

«I wonder if it's because they live such short lives,» Fortitude mused once most of her incredulity had passed.

«It is a bit…sad,» Devotion admitted while Celeste glanced at him with a sympathetic air.

"I guess I might as well explain everything," Pryce sighed, feeling slightly nettled. "Beliefs about those questions are explained by stories called religions. The most popular religion is Narunaism, which is the belief in the god named Naruna. The second most popular one is Astrianism, which is the belief in the twin gods Yinea and Yarota."

"Have humans…seen these 'gods'?" Celeste asked in disbelief.

"Some claim to have seen gods almost a thousand years ago – the story goes that Naruna descended from the night sky like a burning star, and she touched the land and its people for seven days before returning to the heavens. So many people believed in this story that it helped make the Murian kingdom powerful enough to conquer the others."

"She?" Fortitude asked, tilting her head. "Why is this 'god' she?"

"Naruna is supposed to be female, since she's the mother-creator of all things," Pryce explained. "It is believed that Naruna created one sun, one world, and one land for one people."

«Well that's a rather self-centered way of seeing the world» Devotion grumbled.

"What about our land? Or the bigger one to the west?" Celeste asked.

"Humans only learned about them eight years ago, so Narunaism never mentioned any. Some people weren't happy about the satellite imagery since it contradicted their god, while others just believed that Naruna might have created other lands after making ours." Pryce felt like he had tarnished humanity's reputation enough for one day, and for now he decided not to mention the mass crisis of faith induced by the satellite imagery.

«How very convenient for her,» Devotion rumbled sarcastically. «I assume that the other two 'gods' are equally as bizarre?»

"Astrianism says that the universe began with the birth of two gods, one male and one female. These two gods worked together to create the stars, the sun, and the earth. However, when the time came for them to create life, they began to argue. Yinea, the god who was born first, argued that they should not make intelligent creatures, while Yarota, the god who was born second, argued for the opposite. In the end, they agreed to create one intelligent people – us humans – to see what would happen." Pryce stopped, and took a much-needed breath. "Yinea and Yarota were also believed to take turns watching humanity as the sun and moon, but humans slowly stopped believing in that as our science progressed." Modern-day adherents considered it a metaphorical representation rather than a literal one.

Celeste rumbled in a contemplative manner. «If gods can be things like the sun and moon…I think I understand them a little better. Humans use gods to explain things they do not understand.»

«It seems they're quite a bit more…imaginative than I thought,» Fortitude said, sounding as though she was trying to be polite.

"Like I said before, these stories were made thousands of years before any human met a dragon," Pryce said apologetically; it was somewhat mortifying to tell another species about how humans made stories about themselves being the 'chosen people' of god and/or gods. "One thing I should mention is that Yarota and Yinea are supposed to have created other islands for humanity to find, so it's gotten more popular in the last eight years. Right now I'd say about 30% of the population believes in Narunaism, while 20% of the population believes in Astrianism."

«Well. That is…rather concerning,» Devotion slowly commented. «How many of them do you think will stop believing in those stories once they meet us?»

"...Less than you'd think," Pryce admitted.

«This just keeps getting better and better,» Devotion sighed.

«I think it's rather interesting,» Celeste commented. "Can you tell me more about Yarota and Yinea?"

"Of course," Pryce said. "Yarota and Yinea are two opposites; Yarota creates life, and Yinea creates death. Without death there is no life, and the two gods work together to balance the world. It is believed that Yarota wishes for humans to learn, grow, and explore the world that he made for us, while Yinea tests us with pain and suffering."

"Wait, what about the 'reincarnation' that you said?" Celeste asked.

"Ah, sorry, I almost forgot to talk about that. Narunaism says good people go to a place called heaven after death, and bad people go to hell after death. Heaven is a good place because there are good people, and hell is a bad place because there are bad people. Astrianism says that people who die get reincarnated, and are reborn as something else."

"Something else?" Fortitude asked. "Not born as another human?"

"You can be reborn as anything. At least, that's what Astrianism says."

«I don't quite feel that I understand,» Devotion said, flicking her spines as Fathom finished his translation. «These stories are all very bizarre. Would it not have been a better use of time for us to learn more Murian?»

"It's because these stories are very important to humans, and these beliefs tell them how to live their lives. I just wanted to teach you about the basics so you won't be surprised when someone mentions their beliefs, and so that you won't be too insulting," Pryce said, though he had his doubts as to whether or not this hope would be heeded. "Fortitude and Celeste also seemed interested in learning more about humans, so I thought I would teach about it first."

«Yes, thank you for fulfilling my request – even if this was not at all what I expected,» Fortitude said with a nod of her head. «I think it was a good use of our time, and besides, it's still early – plenty of time to continue our lessons.»

[JOURNAL ENTRY EXCERPTS]

Day 85,

It is interesting that dragons don't even seem to consider the possibility of a higher power. I suspect it's a result of some fundamental difference in mentality, though the cause may just as easily be sociological.

My reasoning is this: all social animals have size limits to their packs. Past a certain point, and any group of animals will splinter into two smaller packs. However, humans notably defy this rule, and some anthropologists theorize that beliefs and ideals are a form of technology that allowed early humans to form 'packs' far larger than any other animal. Instead of identifying with individuals, humans began to identify with 'groups', which in turn functioned as extensions of their own identity. As a result, a stranger could – in only a few words – communicate to another human that they share the same values and beliefs, establishing trust and the possibility of future cooperation despite just having met the person.

Dragons don't need to live in groups to ensure their survival, and their memories are clearly far superior to ours. It seems clear that they never needed to develop such behaviors, reducing the importance of the role of beliefs in their society.

Still, this does beg the question of why dragons developed such intelligence in the first place. At present, I believe this to be the greatest mystery yet unsolved. Such extreme cognitive abilities seem quite unnecessary, and yet it clearly was.

Theories aside, the dragons continue to make excellent progress on their Murian.