Here Be Dragons: Book 1 of the Emergence Series

Pryce woke up early in the morning, and for a moment he wondered if he'd had a very strange dream. A glance at his journal told him otherwise, but even then the reality of it was difficult to believe. It was impossible to consider all the implications of a sapient species, so he instead rubbed his eyes to focus on the present.

First he gathered various items he thought would be useful for establishing a shared language, and at the same time he mulled over how he should go about communicating with the dragon. Hironh may have 'saved' Pryce from the raptors, but the dragon's true motives were as of yet still unknown to him. It was entirely possible that Hironh had helped him for purely selfish reasons, but the dragon had more than earned the benefit of the doubt, and Pryce was determined to establish friendly relations between their species.

Pryce was far from a misanthrope, but he also had no illusions as to the potential threat that humanity posed to dragonkind. How mankind reacted to the existence of dragons would depend almost entirely on his actions here, which was a rather distressing idea.

These thoughts occupied his mind until a distant roar caught his attention – in the sky, a dragon could be seen flying towards the ship, backed by the morning sun.

Pryce hid behind the wheelhouse as the dragon approached, using his binoculars to ensure that the dragon was indeed Hironh and not some other individual. He relaxed as he recognized the same row of scars on the dragon's left shoulder, and stepped out to greet the red-eyed dragon as they landed on the beach. Pryce had deliberated over whether or not to keep the rifle slung around his shoulder, but he could not expect to gain the trust of another without accepting a modicum of risk, so he decided to leave the firearm off to the side for now. Besides, he was hesitant to harm another intelligent being, and even less willing to kill one.

"Hironh," Pryce said, feeling that 'hello' would only cause confusion.

"Pryce," Hironh nodded, speaking past something in their jaws. "Jom," the dragon said, and extended their foreclaws to drop something onto the beach.

…It was a clawful of raptor heads, Pryce realized faintly. He was just about to give his reluctant thanks when Hironh opened his jaws, adding a few more heads onto the pile.

"Oh," Pryce murmured faintly, feeling like he'd been given a gift by an oversized cat.

"Hironh jom alcohol?" the dragon asked expectantly.

"Yes," Pryce said, handing over the dragon's reward.

Hironh accepted the item with surprising care for a creature their size, and they sat themselves down with the bottle between their foreclaws – apparently for safekeeping. As Hironh relaxed, Pryce realized that the membrane of their right wing had a gash in it. The injury looked about a day old, which meant that it was probably inflicted by one of the raptors. The wound was only about five centimeters long, so it was really more of a scratch for a creature the size of Hironh, but a wound was still a wound.

"Wait," Pryce said, and left to retrieve a few things from the ship. He returned a minute later and made sure Hironh was watching as he poked his arm with a needle– just enough to draw a droplet of blood. "Wound," he said, then pointing at the dragon's injury. "Wound."

"Yes, Wound," Hironh echoed, glancing back at their wing.

"Medicine," Pryce continued, holding up a tube of ointment. He sanitized his hands, then slowly applied the salve onto his 'wound'. "Medicine…wound," he slowly enunciated before pointing at Hironh's injury.

Hironh tilted their head, and rumbled in what felt like an uncertain manner. "Hrrrn…yeees?" they rumbled, slowly extending their wing for treatment.

The wound itself was relatively clean, so Pryce gave it a quick wash before carefully applying the ointment to the damaged membrane. As he treated the wound he realized that thin ring-like scales dotted the membranous wings, forming an arrangement reminiscent of the corners of a hexagonal mesh. Such scales could be found broken at both ends of the tear, and they seemed to stop the damage from propagating further by distributing stress across the scale itself.

The application of the ointment must have stung, but Hironh sat stoically throughout the entire process until Pryce stepped away. The dragon took a few moments to flex their wing in an experimental manner before nodding gratefully at Pryce – perhaps they'd noticed the ointment's numbing effects?

"Okay," Pryce said, picking up a stick. Now that he was attempting to establish a shared language in earnest, he figured there was only one topic they could start with. "Humans," he said, circling the three stick figures he'd drawn into the sand. "Human," he added, circling one singular figure.

Hironh cocked his head at this, and the dragon stared intently at the diagram for a moment. "Huumahns…Humans?" he asked, circling two of the three stick figures.

"Yes."

"Human?" Hironh asked, pointing at Pryce.

"Yes," Pryce nodded, and the dragon paused, looking a little uncertain. Pryce wasn't sure why, considering that he answered it correctly. Could the concept of conjugation or plurals be foreign to the dragon? That might make things difficult, but at least they seemed quick on the uptake. Pushing speculation aside, Pryce drew a few dragons in the sand…or at least, tried to.

"Dragon," he said, hoping that the figures were recognizable.

Hironh gazed down at the drawings with narrowed eyes, then glanced back up at Pryce with an undecipherable expression.

"Dragon?" Pryce repeated, awkwardly pointing between Hironh and his drawings.

The dragon chuffed, then smoothed over Pryce's sketches to draw three simple but much more recognizable dragons in the sand.

"Hona," Hironh said, gesturing at the dragons.

"Hona," Pryce agreed, and took the opportunity to teach an important word. "Raptor is Vauk. Pryce is human. Hironh is Hona. Hona is dragon."

Hironh narrowed their eyes and the webbed spines along their jaw flattened a little. Either the dragon was irked by the human's pronunciation, or perhaps they were wondering what 'dragon' meant in the human tongue.

"Humans is kana," the dragon explained, circling the group of humans in the sand.

Pryce nodded, unsurprised. Dragons clearly knew of manmade objects, so it followed that they would have names for the creators of those mysterious artifacts. Humans might even be perceived as some creature of myth or legend, which was something he'd certainly have to ask about later. For now, he drew something else into the sand – two human figures, with a line connecting them to a child.

"Male, female, child," he said, tapping the stick figures from largest to smallest. He paused, abruptly realizing that he needed a new word. "Humans make alcohol."

Hironh cocked their head, looking a bit surprised or confused. "Hironh-ǂ make," the dragon echoed after a moment, and pointed at their own drawings to demonstrate their understanding of the new word.

"Yes," Pryce nodded, pleased by their progress. "Hironh make drawings."

"Drah-ings," Hironh repeated, and nodded his understanding.

"Good," Pryce said, and pointed back at his diagram of the human couple. He made sure to speak slowly so that Hironh could hear the enunciation of each individual word. "Female human make child." He circled two of Hironh's drawings before connecting them to an egg. "Female dragon make egg?" He looked up to see the dragon's response. He had no idea if dragons laid eggs or not, so he hoped Hironh would correct him if need be.

"Female dragon make egg," the dragon nodded, erasing and modifying one of the stick-dragons to have curled horns in addition to being a little larger than the male. "Hironh is male, Pryce is male."

Pryce blinked in surprise. "...Yes," he replied after a moment. Was the dragon just asking if he was male, or did he somehow already know? A keen sense of smell would explain how he tracked down the raptor, but what if Hironh already knew the difference between male and female humans? Could that have been something he learned from other humans? Survivors of a previous expedition?

The obvious thing to do was to simply ask Hironh, but how was he going to teach the words necessary for the dragon to understand his question?

"This is raptor," Pryce said, pointing to one of the raptor heads. "This is alcohol." He pointed to the bottle of alcohol in Hironh's foreclaws.

"...Yes," Hironh rumbled. "This is Hironh drawing," he said, pointing at his own sketches.

"Yes," Pryce answered, then he tried something a little more abstract. "This is yes," he said, giving a thumbs up. "This is no," he continued, rotating his wrist to give a thumbs-down. "Yes, no," he repeated, hoping to convey that the concepts were opposites.

Hironh cocked his head at the gesture before glancing down at his foreclaw, then at his wing. He seemed torn on which limb to use, but after a moment he simply returned the gesture with both thumbs.

"Yes. No," he said, though his wrists seemed to have a somewhat limited range of rotation, at least when compared to a human.

"Yes," Pryce confirmed, and Hironh nodded in satisfaction.

"This is eyes," Pryce said, pointing at his eyes. "Eyes see."

"See," Hironh nodded, and unfurled a wing to cover his face. "No see," he said, speaking from behind the membranous curtain.

"Yes!" Pryce exclaimed. "Hironh see human? See human is not Pryce?"

"...See human is not Pryce?" Hironh echoed, tilting his head in confusion.

""Hironh see humans?" Pryce tried, hoping the dragon would understand a different approach.

"Hironh see Pryce," the dragon said, still looking confused.

"Pryce is human. Hironh see humans?"

"Hironh no see human is no Pryce," Hironh said, which Pryce took to mean the dragon hadn't seen any humans who weren't Pryce.

"Dragons see humans?" Pryce pressed. "Dragons is no Hironh?"

"Yes…no?" Hironh said, scratching his jaw with an uncertain air.

"What?" Pryce asked involuntarily, baffled by the response. Had dragons seen humans before or not? How was it possible for 'maybe' to be an answer?

Hironh seemed to be aware that this was a confusing response to give, and the dragon stood up to make his way over to the nearest raptor corpse which the scavengers had already begun to make a meal out of. The dragon grunted as he tore off a raptor's leg, then ripped off the flesh to expose the tibia. "This is?" Hironh asked, waving the bone around.

"Bone," Pryce replied.

"This is?" Hironh asked, gesturing at the ship this time.

"Ship."

"Dragons see humans bones, humans ship."

"Oh," Pryce said. Hironh's uncertain response suddenly made much more sense; the dragons had found a ghost ship, and with it human skeletal remains. The news was saddening, but not terribly surprising; if there were other humans around then Hironh would at least have known a few words of Murian, especially with how he knew about manmade glass bottles.

At least the lack of survivors simplified things; without urgent matters to attend to Pryce could focus on teaching Hironh Murian. He still wanted to learn more about the ghost ship, however, and now was as good a time as any to begin teaching the dragon about numbers. Picking up a stick Pryce began to etch a table into the beach, and once that was done he gathered some pebbles to complete his portion of the table.

"Zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," Pryce said, pointing at each square with its respective number of pebbles.

"Zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten," Hironh echoed as he inspected the chart with interest.

Pryce blinked, surprised by the ease with which the dragon had recited the numbers. The dragon seemed to pick up his idea quite quickly, and soon the chart was filled in with talon marks.

Pryce scratched his head at the strange numbering system. Writing those numbers on a page would be woefully inefficient, but Hironh's 'hands' had five talons each, which meant that each character only required two strokes at most to complete. Pryce spent a few more minutes gathering enough rocks to see how dragons depicted larger numbers, which Hironh obligingly filled in.

It was a rather sensible system, all things considered. The tens place was a little awkward, but Pryce supposed that the grid of ten was self-evident, so it didn't need an extra 'one' next to it, unlike the higher numbers.

Pryce spent the next few minutes teaching Hironh the pronunciation of numbers from one to one hundred, done in sets of ten. Surprisingly, Hironh continued to echo these numbers back with no issue at all, though the dragon seemed a little confused for reasons Pryce could not immediately understand. "...thirty-six, thirty-seven-"

"Thirty-eight, thirty-nine," Hironh said, cutting Pryce off to continue the pattern himself. "Foenty? Fouirty?"

"...Forty," Pryce corrected.

"...Four-ten is yes," Hironh sighed, tossing his head in evident exasperation. "Four-ten-one, four-ten-two, no forty-one, forty-two," he counted, with what Pryce felt was a lecturing tone.

Pryce couldn't quite blame Hironh for his annoyance. Judging by the dragon's alternate way of counting, his numbers didn't seem to need any sort of 'conjugation' at all, which was admittedly a lot simpler.

"Four-ten-one, four-ten-two," Pryce conceded. Grammatical precision wasn't as important so long as they understood each other.

The doctor continued his count in this modified way, which seemed to mollify the dragon – though it was rather difficult to read his expressions. Hironh's scaled face wasn't expressive like that of a human's, but he still had his own way of emoting: head movement, eyelid narrowing, pupil contraction/dilation, and of course the webbed spines along his jaw were all indicators of emotion.

"One hundred and ten one, one hundred and ten two," Pryce continued counting, but was interrupted as Hironh waved a folded wing dismissively.

"Yes, yes," Hironh said, clearly understanding the gist of things.

"Good," Pryce nodded, pointing at the sun. "Four-hundred and two-ten days is year."

"Yes, year," Hironh answered, evidently recognizing the number. Good, that made things a lot easier.

"One, two, three, is numbers," Pryce explained. "Pryce see four-ten years. What is numbers years Hironh see?"

"See four-ten years? Ah. Hironh see five-ten-two years," Hironh replied, surprising Pryce a little. That seemed rather old, but Pryce had no idea what the natural lifespan of a dragon was.

"Good," Pryce nodded. "What is number of years dragons see ship?"

"One hundred and five-ten-two years," Hironh answered confidently.

Pryce raised an eyebrow at the number, though he wasn't very surprised; humans had made attempts to sail across the world for hundreds of years, so there was a good chance that the dragons had found a ghost ship from a prior era. If only he could ask more about the ship, but they just didn't have the shared vocabulary for him to ask that question.

Time to fix that.

Pryce spent the next several hours covering important words and concepts, gradually teaching more and more words through pantomime and induction.

One notable concept that Pryce managed to teach was the concept of a 'meter'. Hironh seemed fascinated by the tape measure at first, but the dragon was quick to ask questions about lengths and distances. Hironh was also kind enough to allow Pryce to measure him snout-to-tail – a measurement that yielded a length of 5.99 meters. Next Pryce had Hironh stand on all fours, and measuring the dragon's shoulder revealed it to be very nearly level with the top of Pryce's head at 137 centimeters.

Pryce also measured his wingspan, which stretched a span of 12.03 meters, but during this process Pryce noticed something odd with one of the dragon's left wing 'fingerbones', which had a slight bend in the middle – it was clearly a malunion, a deformation caused by a broken bone that hadn't quite healed perfectly. The old wound clearly didn't stop Hironh from flying, but Pryce would have been surprised if it didn't impair him in any way.

Hironh was a remarkable student throughout the entire process, and he seemed to memorize everything upon the first exposure. Pryce had to wonder if he was special, or if it was just a normal trait among dragons. Regardless, a perfect memory could only do so much; after all, new words could only be defined by old ones, and Pryce was forced to redefine some of the previously-taught words to clear up the occasional misunderstanding. It took some time, but eventually the human was able to cover most of the words he needed for his next lesson.

"This is prism," Pryce said, positioning the object such that it scattered a rainbow onto the beach, catching the dragon's attention.

Hironh lowered his head to inspect the crystalline object, and slowly extended a talon to gently tap the prism. The dragon's pupils widened as rainbow light danced across the sand, and he rumbled appreciatively at the light show. "Very good. Like no move water."

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Pryce hid a smile as he watched Hironh play with the toy. It was oddly endearing to see such a large and powerful predator displaying childlike curiosity. "No move water is ice," he explained, and re-adjusted the prism so that it projected a clear rainbow. "This is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet," he said, swiftly enunciating each word as he pointed at each of the seven colors. The human had grown comfortable with Hironh's rapid rate of learning, but perhaps he went too fast this time, as the dragon cocked his head as he often did to signify confusion. "Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Indigo. Violet." Pryce repeated, more slowly this time, but Hironh still seemed oddly bewildered.

The dragon flicked his nictitating membranes – which Pryce hadn't previously noticed – and reached out with a talon to tap on…the empty spot next to red. "What is this?" Hironh asked, and repeated the question while tapping the spot next to purple.

Pryce stared blankly for a few moments, deeply confused by the baffling question. He knew that some wavelengths of sunlight existed outside the visible spectrum, and that humans could only see a portion of these wavelengths. Could dragons see in ultraviolet and infrared? That certainly seemed to be the only possible explanation – how else could Hironh point to something that he couldn't see?

"Pryce can not see this," Pryce said, tracing the areas outside of the rainbow.

"Pryce can not see this?" Hironh asked, drawing his head back in surprise. "Hironh not understand. How Pryce not see this?"

"Pryce…can not," Pryce said, shaking his head helplessly.

The doctor was…amazed, to put it bluntly. How animals perceived the world was a mystery that captivated humans for nearly as long as they had language. Modern science could identify which wavelengths of light that cone cells could detect, but it couldn't explain how the brain interpreted these electrical signals – at least, not yet. Even so, he had never heard of an animal with cone cells capable of detecting both ultraviolet and infrared. In fact, most mammals were colorblind compared to humans, though Pryce was fairly certain dragons were hexapedal avians instead – a mammal would be far too heavy, as they lacked the air sacs that avians possessed.

"Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet, is color Pryce can see," Pryce explained, and again traced the outline of the rainbow. "Where color Hironh can see?"

"Here," Hironh said, drawing an outline that fully encapsulated the rainbow along with some 'empty' space.

Pryce measured the area Hironh had traced. The human visible spectrum covered a span of 380 to 700 nanometers, but his measurement showed that dragons could see a range of light spanning from 320 to 920 nanometers.

Now that was truly stunning. If a rainbow consisted of seven colors, then dragons could see over four more colors in infrared, and about one and a half in ultraviolet. Pryce decided to take a picture of the diagram for posterity. He also took pictures of the previous diagrams they drew, all while Hironh curiously watched.

"What is this?" Hironh asked, peering curiously at the camera.

"This is device," Pryce said as he mulled over how to explain the camera. "Device name is 'camera'. Camera can make…things eyes can see."

"Things eyes can see?" Hironh echoed, sounding understandably confused. "Hironh not understand."

"Pryce show you," Pryce said, and took a picture of Hironh, whose head took up most of the viewfinder. "Wait," he said as he cranked out the developing photograph.

"Why you wait?" Hironh asked, confused by his inaction.

"Wait," Pryce repeated, making a mental note to teach Hironh about units of time tomorrow. Once a minute elapsed he peeled off the negative, and Hironh's pupils dilated wide open as the picture was revealed.

(Art by Rackiera)

"This is photograph," Pryce said.

"What? Tan tak…lan?" the dragon rumbled, reverting back to his native language in surprise. "How…how Pryce make this?"

"Camera make this," Pryce shrugged. "I can not explain."

"Pryce explain days in future?" Hironh asked, his eyes glued onto the photograph.

"...Pryce not know how camera make photograph," Pryce said, scratching his head. He was familiar with the general concept, but it would be some time before Hironh could understand any explanation he could give.

Hironh snorted as he drew his head back, looking rather disappointed.

"Pryce can make more photographs," Pryce offered, holding up his camera. This seemed to cheer Hironh up considerably, and soon Pryce had a few pictures of the dragon in several (somewhat ostentatious) poses.

"Wait," Pryce said, pausing after the sixth photograph. The doctor retrieved a tripod from the ship, and shortly afterwards he had the camera on a timer ready to take a photo. "Here," he said, and moved to the side as Hironh crowded into the frame. After a moment there was a click, and in a minute Pryce laid the developed photos out on the beach for Hironh's viewing, using the chronometer as a paperweight.

Hironh was clearly fascinated by the photographs, and Pryce took the opportunity to retrieve something else from the ship. "Pryce show you thing," he said, and brought out a copy of the satellite imagery. "Camera in sky make this photograph five years ago."

"Camera in sky?" Hironh asked, and squinted uncomprehendingly at the photograph. "I not understand. What is this?"

"This is land, this is ocean," Pryce explained, tapping on the map.

Hironh began to tilt his head, but then the dragon abruptly froze, his pupils dilating as he finally seemed to recognize the map. "Here is ship?" Hironh asked, tapping the X that Pryce had drawn.

"Yes," Pryce nodded, glad to see him understanding it. The map might have been simple to a human, but it wasn't completely intuitive to represent a landmass as a two-dimensional object, and depicting north as 'up' was an entirely subjective decision as well. That combined with the fact that the image was black and white, and it was understandable that Hironh didn't immediately comprehend the map.

"Hironh…not understand," Hironh said, without taking his eyes off the image. "How humans fly camera in sky?"

"Humans use device. Device name is rocket," Pryce explained. "Rocket fly camera, camera make photograph."

Hironh stared doubtful. "Why humans not make rocket fly here?"

"Rocket carry small things, ship carry big things," Pryce said, gesturing to the imposing bulk of the Horizon. "Look here," he said, and brought out a globe that showed all the major continents of the world.

Hironh's spines stood up interestedly upon seeing this new object, and the dragon carefully picked up and inspected the proffered globe.

"...Land is small small," Hironh said, his wounded tone making Pryce chuckle. This continent was the dragon's entire world, but it was only a mere sliver when compared to the enormity of the ocean. Hironh carefully nudged the globe, and made a surprised noise as it spun about its axis. He nudged it again, and again, spinning it about rapidly.

Hironh continued to play with the globe for another minute, and Pryce had to wave his hand to distract Hironh from his new toy. "Humans from here," Pryce said, reaching up to point at the central landmass. "This land is Mainland."

Hironh did not immediately answer, and instead spent a few more moments quietly studying the globe. "How rocket fly?" he eventually asked, his eyes leaving the globe to look at Pryce.

"...Pryce maybe explain. Wait," Pryce said, and went to retrieve a lighter. "This device is lighter. Lighter make fire," he said, sparking a tiny flame into existence, causing Hironh to blink in surprise.

"How lighter make fire?" The dragon asked as he stared intently at the tiny flame.

"Lighter have liquid. Liquid make fire," Pryce said, hoping this was enough explanation. "Lighter start fire like this," he said, flicking the spark wheel a few times.

"Understand. Hironh have fire," Hironh said.

"Hironh can make fire?" Pryce asked interestedly. It made sense, fire was useful, and dragons were certainly smart enough to figure out how to-

His train of thought was broken when Hironh picked up a dried branch. Pryce looked back up at the dragon, expecting another attempt of communication, but instead the dragon opened his jaws to make an odd hissing noise.

"What Hironh-" Pryce asked, and was cut off by a snap and a fwoosh as the branch appeared to spontaneously combust. "What the hell?" he stammered, stumbling backwards. The air before the dragon's mouth shimmered like a mirage as if it were hot, but there was no flame – at least, not any that Pryce could see.

"Fire," Hironh said candidly.

"How?" Pryce demanded, still not quite believing his eyes. What kind of biological creature weaponized fire?

Hironh stared blankly at him. "Like that," he said, waving the burning branch around. After a moment the dragon tossed it aside, allowing the fire to smolder harmlessly upon the beach.

"Pryce…not understand," Pryce murmured, a realization occurring to him. There had to have been a fire for the branch to be ignited, which meant the flames were invisible, and Pryce only knew of one gas that burned outside of the visible spectrum – hydrogen.

Suddenly the dragon's vast visible spectrum made a lot more sense.

"Hironh make fire," Hironh replied. The dragon spoke as if this ability were as simple as breathing; which, Pryce supposed, was true for Hironh. "Why Pryce explain fire? How rocket fly?" the dragon asked, returning to his original line of inquiry.

"Rocket…use fire," Pryce said, his mind still stuck on the dragon's incredible incendiary display. "Fire make rocket fly. Camera fly with rocket, make photograph of land."

"Yes, how rocket fly?" Hironh pressed, gesturing urgently.

"Like that," Pryce said coyly as he gestured to the map, unable to resist giving the dragon a taste of his own medicine.

Hironh narrowed his eyes. "Laituk", he murmured, snorting derisively.

"...Pryce need more words. Pryce explain in future," Pryce promised, ignoring what was probably a draconic insult.

"Mmmh," Hironh rumbled, sounding quite unsatisfied. "What is number of humans here?" he asked, pointing at the largest continent in the world.

"No humans there," Pryce answered, shaking his head. "Humans go here first. Go there in future."

"What is distance from here to Mainland?" Hironh asked. "What is distance from here to this land?"

"Eight thousand kilometers and four thousand kilometers," Pryce answered.

"Dragon can fly…maybe two thousand kilometers," Hironh rumbled contemplatively. "No can go."

"Ship can go. Dragons want to go here?" Pryce asked.

"Very yes," Hironh replied, bobbing his head. "Many dragons want see other land."

Interesting. That was something dragons and humans had in common at least, and a shared desire would certainly help foster future cooperation between their species.

"What is dragon name for land?" Pryce asked, circling the entire continent. Humanity hadn't officially named the two uncolonized continents, but it seemed insulting to name it now when natives already occupied it.

"Loahm," Hironh replied.

Pryce blinked. That was the word that the dragon had used for 'land'. "Loahm is word for land," he said.

"Yes. Land is land," Hironh said, glancing away from the map to give him a mildly confused look.

"Land not have name?" Pryce asked.

Hironh shrugged his shoulders – the ones attached to his wings. "Land is land."

Pryce frowned, but accepted that. He supposed 'Mainland' wasn't exactly a proper name either, and it didn't make sense to come up with one when you only had a singular landmass to refer to. At least now he had a name for the continent, which he hoped Hironh wouldn't mind if he borrowed. Pryce had really tried to pronounce the dragon's name properly, but Hironh seemed mildly insulted with each new way he managed to mangle it.

"Dragon land is Loahm," Pryce stated.

"Understand," Hironh nodded, though the dragon side-eyed him a little – probably due to his poor pronunciation of the word, Pryce thought humorously. After a moment the dragon blinked as if recalling something. "Where other ship-humans?"

Pryce froze, and his face immediately fell. "Thing that can move, eat, and drink is live," he explained. "Thing that is not live…is dead. Other humans on the ship is dead."

Hironh drew his head back, his spines flattening in what might have been surprise or dismay. "How humans dead?"

"...Pryce can not explain."

The dragon seemed to hesitate, evidently sensing that something was wrong. "...when humans dead?" he asked, in something approaching a gentler tone.

"Seven days before present," Pryce answered, speaking past the lump in his throat.

"What is dead humans on ship number?" Hironh asked.

"Four-ten-seven," Pryce replied, readjusting his glasses. "Four-ten-seven dead humans is on ship."

Hironh paused, and glanced towards the ship. "Pryce want dead humans on ship in future?"

"...no," Pryce replied. "Pryce want 'bury' dead humans. Bury is this," he said, covering the now-smoking branch with a few handfuls of sand.

"...Understand," Hironh rumbled. "Pryce want Hironh bury humans?"

Pryce looked up at the dragon in surprise. "Hironh want…bury humans?"

"Pryce small. How Pryce bury four-ten-seven humans?" Hironh snorted. "Hironh move sand. Pryce take humans. Yes?"

"I…yes, good. Thank you," Pryce said, just before he remembered that he hadn't taught those words yet.

The dragon cocked his head. "What is 'thank you'?"

"'Thank you' is…" Pryce trailed off, unsure of how to define it. "Thing Pryce say when Hironh give Pryce thing."

"Understand…maybe," Hironh said, and nodded towards the ship. "Move humans. Hironh bury."

One by one, Pryce carried out the bodies of his crewmates to lay them out on the beach.

At first Hironh would pause his digging to inspect the human cadavers, but the dragon eventually ignored them to focus on excavating the grave. Hironh's foreclaws didn't seem particularly suited for digging, but the dragon's great strength was more than enough to send sand flying at an incredible rate. On occasion Hironh would take a break to lick his wings, which Pryce assumed provided cooling just as human sweat did, but the dragon would just as quickly go back to digging.

Hironh completed the pit long before Pryce brought out the last body, and the dragon seemed to busy himself by examining the rest of the human bodies. "Humans same colors," the dragon rumbled.

Pryce grunted noncommittally as he picked up Captain Williams and laid him down into the grave. Next was Siebert, then Warren, then Randal.

As one of the ship's doctors, Pryce was personally familiar with each of the forty-nine other crewmen.

Elliot. Emile. Kendall. Jerry. Charles. He listed off each crewman as he laid them to rest. Meanwhile, Hironh silently watched from the sidelines, the dragon seeming to recognize the personal nature of this task.

The day was nearly at its end by the time Pryce finished laying the crew to rest. For a moment he stood, trembling with exhaustion as he tried to conjure a few words…but his mind was completely blank.

"Bury?" Hironh asked, breaking the solemn silence.

"No, I…" Pryce said, glancing towards his shovel. He was grateful for Hironh for digging the grave, but he still wished to be the one to bury his crewmates. Pryce glanced up at the setting sun and sighed; it just wasn't possible for him to move thousands of kilograms of sand in his condition. "Yes. Bury."

Pryce watched as Hironh pushed great piles of sand over his crewmates. He tried to help, but his efforts were barely a drop in the bucket compared to the dragon's strength. Still, there was a great amount of sand, and it took until sunset for Hironh to smooth over the grave; a task that left the dragon panting in exhaustion.

The tired dragon's head perked up as Pryce uncorked a bottle of wine, and the human poured himself a small glass before handing the rest to the dragon.

Hironh tentatively accepted the bottle, though the dragon seemed surprisingly reluctant as to whether or not he should drink it.

"Ship have more alcohol," Pryce reassured, suspecting that the dragon was unwilling to 'waste' something so precious. He'd liked to have said that alcohol wasn't hard to make, but they didn't quite have the vocabulary for that yet.

Hironh looked down at the bottle of wine, then slowly tipped the bottle back along with his maw. The dragon swiftly rightened the bottle as he tilted his head upwards; it was an odd way of drinking, but it was likely normal for them, considering their long jaws and lack of soft lips.

Pryce turned his gaze back to the grave, silently paying his respects to his fallen comrades. He had no way of constructing a proper cemetery star, so he retrieved a flagpole from the ship to serve as a grave marker.

It felt wrong to use the flag in this manner, as it had been intended to be a symbol of triumph…and yet Pryce could think of no better substitute. It would have to suffice for now. Perhaps someday in the future it would be replaced with a proper memorial.

With the flag planted, there was only one thing left to do. Glass in hand, Pryce poured it over-

"Kraah!" Hironh hissed, startling Pryce. The human jumped as he turned around, and was met by a wide-eyed Hironh, whose spines stood upright in a plainly indignant manner. "Why you do this?!" the dragon exclaimed, jabbing a talon at the damp spot of sand.

"Human…thing," Pryce said, gesturing weakly in the face of the mortified dragon's expression.

Hironh snorted, and tossed his head in what Pryce assumed to be dismay. "What is this?" he asked, gesturing at the flag.

"Explain in future," Pryce sighed wearily. The loss of the crew still pained him deeply, but he felt something approaching acceptance now that the burial was complete. The doctor turned to the dragon, who still looked a little drained by the physical labor he had completed. "Thank you, Hironh," Pryce said, wishing he could say more.

"Yes," Hironh rumbled, his spines flicking against his neck. Pryce had associated that gesture with annoyance, though he wasn't sure if it had any other connotations.

"Pryce say Hironh name very bad?" Pryce asked, scratching his head.

"Pryce say name wrong, hear like bad word," Hironh grumbled.

"Oh," Pryce said, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. He very much wanted to avoid insulting the dragon, but most of the dragon's words had variously subtle noises that Pryce had no hope of replicating. "Hmm," he hummed, an idea coming across his mind. "Pryce give Hironh name, good?"

"Give name?" Hironh asked, drawing his head back in surprise. "Why?"

"Pryce can not say Hironh name. Pryce give name Pryce can say," the doctor explained, hoping the dragon would accept.

Hironh narrowed his eyes as his spines slowly flattened, and the dragon had to spend a minute mulling over the idea. "What name Pryce give?" he asked tentatively.

"Pryce give name is…Fathom," Pryce said, pointing at the dragon.

"Faa-thom," Hironh said, trying out this new word. "What is 'Fathom'?"

"Fathom means 'understand'," Pryce explained, feeling rather proud of the choice. The word also had naval connotations which suited the dragon's deep blue color, but that was harder to describe with their current vocabulary. It wasn't anything like a human name, but that wouldn't suit a dragon anyway.

"Hrrn…" Hirnoh murmured, rumbling in thought. "...Okay, Pryce use this name."

"Good," Pryce nodded in satisfaction – at least until Fathom jabbed a talon at him.

"Gharrum."

Pryce blinked. "Gharrum?" he asked, pointing at himself.

"Gharrum," Fathom confirmed, sitting down with a satisfied air.

Pryce scratched his head, supposing that it was fair. "What Gharrum means?"

"Need more words," Fathom said evasively. Pryce suspected it was something derogatory or insulting, but he let it slide for now, especially as Hironh – or rather, Fathom, turned to look at the setting sun. "Night is close. Fathom go. Return tomorrow morning."

"Return tomorrow morning," Pryce agreed, smiling faintly. He took a few steps back, and watched as the dragon took a running start before taking off into the air, flying off in the direction of the nearby mountains.

[JOURNAL ENTRY EXCERPTS]

Day 22,

Today was very productive. I taught Hironh much, and gave him a nickname ('Fathom').

According to Fathom, dragons discovered a human ghost ship 152 years ago, though I suspect manmade objects were discovered long before that. I don't yet have the words to ask what opinion dragons have about humans, but I suspect it to be positive. Manmade alcohol appears to be an extremely valuable commodity among dragons, and it's not much of a stretch to assume humans are viewed as creators of great treasures.

I'm not certain about the wider implications of this, but it should make things easier for me. Dragons would likely be eager to obtain more human artifacts, and I can use that as a bargaining chip.

The photographs turned out fairly well, save for the first one. I wonder if they'll be featured in a textbook one day.

Notes:

Fathom's proportions:
Total Length: 5.99 m
Shoulder height (standing on all fours): 1.37 m
Wingspan: 12.03 m
Weight: ??? (determine tomorrow)

Estimated range of light that dragons can see: 320* nm – 900 nm
*Conservative lower bound. Will need to devise an experiment to work around the absorption spectra of glass. Upper bound should be correct.

I don't know why dragons evolved the ability to see in such a wide spectrum of light, but I suspect it has to do with their ability to spew 'invisible' flames. I don't know the exact emission spectra of hydrogen, nor is it listed in any of the ship's textbooks, but I would bet that dragons have no problems seeing their own flames.

Another thought: very long wavelengths of IR can pass through clouds – that would be an obvious advantage for a flying predator to have. Upon second thought, this seems unlikely. Water vapor droplets are usually measured in micrometers, not nanometers, and the wavelength of light would need to be larger than these droplets to pass through it unimpeded. The sun simply doesn't produce enough IR light for sight in these wavelengths to be viable, so that hypothesis can be safely discarded.