Page 121 of The Last Dragon
Bones. Sharp edges jut out from the wall like teeth—twisted, jagged things, half-embedded in the rock. I stare, trying to decide if they’re fossilized remains or just cruel tricks of the stone. But my gut already knows. My stomach drops.
“What is that thing?” she says, clutching her torch.
“That’s—” I stutter, my tongue twisting in my mouth. I find no words to say. No words Idareto say.
“A Stonetail?” Nida’s voice trembles. “But it’s—larger.” She quickly takes out a wrinkled, bloodied piece of paper from her side pocket—notes she’s taken during Marina Fay’s dragon anatomy class. She scans the wall from top to bottom.
“Nothing in my notes says anything about this type of anatomy,” she says. “But… I have a theory.” She shakes her head, brow furrowed, eyes scanning every scribbled line like she’s hoping something new might appear.
I wait.
“It doesn’t fully match any Stonetail structure. Not the rib curvature, not the density of the bone. And these” —she points to one of the rough, blade-like protrusions— “they’re too long to be dorsal spikes, so nothing to do with a Horntongue. And they grow from the wrong angle.”
“So?” I press.
Nida hesitates, then finally looks up. “What if we’re not looking at a dragon we know of?”
My breath stills.
“What if we’re looking at something entirely new?”
The torchlight flickers as a draft whistles through the cave.
“I need you to go to the end of that wall and see what you can find. Then we meet up and report our findings,” she says, pointing at the end of the cavern.
I trace the spine of the beast as I move, trying to figure out where it begins and where it ends. But this creature is far larger than anything I’ve seen up close. Not even a Redsnout reaches this size. It’s massive—I have to crane my neck just to glimpse the shadow of its wings, but the torchlight doesn’t reach that far.
Eventually, I reach the end of the spine and pause. A split runs through the tailbone just meters from the tip. It forks into two, creating the illusion of twin tails.
“Zel,” Nida calls again.
I turn and make my way back to her. It takes longer than I expected.
“Look at this.” She traces her fingers over the notes, a rough sketch of what’s in front of us. “The anatomy aligns well with what a Stonetail looks like, but these here—” She waves her hands near the skull. “You see this? Two large fangs on each side of the upper jaw. It hasfourfangs in total. The bone structure is” —she blows air from her mouth— “it has more bones compared to a regular Stonetail.”
I take a look at Nida’s notes, comparing the anatomy pictures with my own visual recollections of a Stonetail.
“Even the wingspan is larger,” I say. “Take a look at this.” I point at the end of the Stonetail’s abdomen, brushing my finger across its thick tail. “The tail is shorter on a Stonetail, but this is longer, and it has a split at the end. Looks like two tails.” We pause for a moment, staring at the creature embedded in the walls with no idea what it is.
“Anything about the scales?” I ask, but she slowly shakes her head.
“There’s a few left that have fossilized, but everything else seems to have decomposed.” She folds her note with a shrug. “What Icouldtell—is that not even our metal poles would be able to penetrate that.”
“Divines,” I blurt.
“How long do you think it’s been here?” she asks.
“Could be centuries.” I shrug, approaching the wall with different claw marks. They’re deep. I shuffle my feet, feeling the coarse dust under my boot. I kneel and brush my hand on the ground.Sand. A faint voice drifts from Nida’s direction, and I turn toward her.
“You said something?” I say, furrowing my brow, but she remains silent. “I thought you said something,” I repeat.
“No,” she says, her brow creases. “What is it—did you hear something?”
“I thought I did.” I shake my head, wondering if I’m still a bit off from the venom.
Nida reaches for her pocket, pulling out a blank piece of paper, and lets out a sigh. “We have to figure out what this is. I’ll do some sketches.”
“I’ll make a fire,” I say, and begin gathering branches, anything I can find to keep us warm for a couple of days.
