Dragons

*You are right here in your story. Don't skip ahead.*
Massie Burnson, *The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner*, p. 32
**WARNING: SPOILERS FOR *PRINCE LANDER & THE DRAGON WAR* ARE AHEAD; CAUTION IS ADVISED.**

## Dragons

A dragon, as illustrated by Zach Franzen in The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner.

## Physical information

### Distinctions

• Thick, powerful bodies
• Long tails
• Forked tongues

## Book information

### Appears

• *The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner*
• *Prince Lander & the Dragon War*
• *Ember's End*

### Mentioned

• *The Green Ember*
• *Ember Falls*
• *Ember Rising*

**D****ragons** were a species of predatory that inhabited Natalia in the time of King Whitson Mariner, nearly making a resurgence before suffering extinction in the time of Smalden Joveson.

## History

### Ancient evil

At some point before the Trekkers arrived in the lands they dubbed Natalia, the dragons made their own arrival and found a population of rabbits already in residence. They soon conquered these rabbits, enslaving or killing many and forcing the others to flee, with most the latter making their way into the southwest. In the heart of what would one day be called the Great Wood, the dragons established their chief fortress of Dragon Mountain, though they spread across western Natalia. Though uncertain, it was speculated centuries later by Heather Longtreader, who had the gifts of a seer, that the dragons must have made a truce with the Lords of Prey in eastern Natalia, in which they agreed-at least for a time-to share the rabbits of that land between them.

### *The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner*

Some time after the Battle of Ayman Lake, Lord Grimble and Captain Grimble encountered the dragons on an island to the west of Ayman Lake where they maintained a shrine. Prior to this meeting, the dragons had enslaved a local population of rabbits, whom they used as a food source. The two villainous parties struck an alliance, with the Grimbles promising the dragons a new group of slaves in the form of King Whitson and the crew and passengers of *Vanguard*.

During or just prior to the wreck of *Vanguard*, at least one dragon came silently and secretly aboard ship and helped capture Queen Lillie in the service of Lord Grimble, taking her away deep into the forest.

Massie and Lander tracked them down and come upon Galt, who had been living on the island in exile for months. Galt knew of the dragons and directed the pair to where the dragons were surely holding Lillie captive.

He told them all he had come to know of the dragons since he came to live on the island, which the dragons have inhabited long before his coming. They would occasionally congregate during the night at a sacred pool of theirs, where they would chant dark, ominous songs, in an evil ritual. In the middle of the pool, upon a raft, they would tie up a rabbit, and after their dark chant was done, they would hurl themselves viciously upon the poor creature as a part of their ritual.

Queen Lillie also had a close-up encounter with a dragon while she was captive in a hut deep in the forest on the island. She woke from an unconscious stupor and was attempting to free herself from the bonds with which her hands were tied, when a dragon entered the hut and stopped her from freeing herself.

Later, Lander, Galt and Massie made it to the hut where the dragon and three of Grimble's bucks stood guard over Lillie. Lander managed to get on the raft in the middle of the pool, covering himself with a cloak and feigning unconsciousness. The only dragon present, the one Lillie had encountered earlier, waded into the pool, thinking to kill Lander; but when he got close enough, Lander suddenly lashed out with his sword which he had hidden. By driving his weapon deep into the monster's soft underbelly, Lander killed him instantly.

It wasn't long before another score of dragons arrived and, seeing their dead comrade in their desecrated sacred pool, they immediately found and chased Lillie, Galt, Lander, and Massie. Lander bravely led many of the dragons into a cave, to distract them from pursuing his mother, Galt and Massie.

Lillie, Galt, and Massie fled towards the riverside cliffs, a group of dragons hard on their heels. King Whitson Mariner and his crew aboard *Steadfast* were there, on their way to attack Grimble and his *Desolation*. Lillie, Massie, and Galt managed to jump desperately from the cliffside onto *Steadfast*'s mainmast, thus saving themselves from the dragons. Whitson ordered his archers to fire upon the dragons, but the arrows all failed to slay them except when they struck their soft, scaleless bellies.

Lander then appeared, being pursued by even more dragons, and ran toward the five dragons at the cliff's edge. *Steadfast*'s mainmast suddenly struck the cliff's edge, and instead of breaking, it tore the loose rocks of the cliff's edge, and the dragons on the edge fell to their deaths on *Steadfast* or in the raging river below.

Later, Whitson was approached by Mother Saramack, who told him that one of Grimble's bucks has brought a message from the dragons. The message stated that the dragons intended to report to their king of the trouble, and that they would return to finish off the rest of the rabbits. This buck was the only survivor of a party of Grimble's rabbits slaughtered as punishment for their failure to keep Lillie as a prisoner.

### *Prince Lander and the Dragon War*

Despite their failures, the remnants of the Grimble faction were accepted as allies by the dragons, and the two forces engaged in a war against the forces of Whitson's camp at Lener's Crossroads. This Dragon War went on for years, with Whitson's party unable to do much more than enact a plan of defense while they sought to unify rabbitkind against the dragons. One attack by the dragons resulted in the death of Davis Whitson, third son of the king. Hostilites continued until one bitterly cold winter, which did little to slow the dragons as Whitson had hoped.

As part of their alliance with the dragons, the Grimble faction would periodically offer up half of their younglings as a sacrifice. These were corralled in a barn in the Grimbles' settlement on Grimble Island, which the dragons had given to the Grimbles for their habitation. On a night when the younglings were gathered in preparation for the offering, Prince Lander led a mission that successfully freed the captives. Not long afterwards, a scouting party of dragons was spotted west of Lener's Crossroads and deemed to either be just what it was or else a distraction for an attack from the east.

Grant Whitson, the king's fourth son, was sent with a smaller party to investigate the scouting dragons while the king led a larger force east as a precaution against the attack that he feared. Unfortunately, Grant chose to defy orders and attack the dragons, resulting in grievous injuries to himself and those of his unit who survived. Not long afterwards, Lord Grimble—formerly Captain Grimble—sent Whitson an invitation to a "peace summit" on Barren Point. Though neither rabbit faction was able to mass any forces on or near the island, a group of dragons were positioned in the waters surrounding the island.

King Namoz, his sorcerer, and a priestess emerged from the water to join the conference between Grimble and Whitson, and to enact a dark ritual that saw Grimble become a hybrid of rabbit and dragon. Another dragon, armed with a crossbow, briefly appeared to cover Whitson with his weapon, which he later surrendered to Grimble for use in killing Hollie Grimble. Other dragons erupted from the water to join in as the Battle of Barren Point erupted, and pursued the fleeing Whitson, Lander, and Hollie across the river.

These dragons were met by a force of Whitson's rabbits, whom they engaged as Whitson—who had perished in the escape—was carried away from the fight. Lander, now leader of these rabbits, fought back against the enemy, but were outnumbered and outmatched even before rabbits of the Grimble faction appeared to join the fight. Much to the shock of the dragons, however, reinforcements for Lander's side arrived in the form of Black Star Company, traveling aboard *Steadfast*. With their aid, dragons and oathbreakers alike were killed or driven back, allowing Lander to lead his rabbits back to Lener's Crossroads.

In answer to the summons of Namoz Dragonking, the dragon hordes gathered from across western Natalia to Dragon Mountain. Most of the army rested on the slopes of the mountain and its neighbors as Namoz and his elite guard performed ceremonies in preparation for battle. At dawn of the day on which the dragons were to set out to attack Lener's Crossroads, however, the forces under King Lander attacked the mountains. With the aid of this surprise and the formidable Stone Sword of Flint, Lander and his soldiers were able to drive the dragon armies towards the confluence of the River Flint and the River Fay.

*Steadfast* appeared on the water to join in the attack then, and an attempt by the dragons to breach the rabbit lines was thwarted by the sudden appearance of the Terralain army under Galt. Between these forces, the dragons who had not been inside the mountain were slaughtered, though they launched at attack on *Steadfast* that resulted in the ship's destruction in a blastpowder explosion. King Namoz and his elite forces, including Grimble Halfdragon, then emerged from the mountain to the dismay of their rabbit foes. Determined to fight until the last, Lander faced Namoz in a duel and slew the dragon king, while his dismayed soldiers were pursued by the rabbits they had sought to conquer.

Having defeated the dragons, Lander resolved to bury their eggs within Dragon Mountain along with the Stone Sword of Flint. When Massie noted that the relics might be discovered, Lander proposed that they dam the rivers to turn the mountain into an island. He further proclaimed that the rabbits would "try to forget", until or unless it became necessary for one of his heirs to "remember" contend with the foe. This would eventually result in the dragons being remembered among rabbits mostly as figures of myth, rather than actual creatures.

### *The Green Ember*

The Tomb of Lander's Dragons was mentioned in passing by Emma.

### *Ember Falls*

The Tomb of Lander's Dragons-and more particularly the dragon seeds-was mentioned by Captain Frye, as he spoke to Picket on the latter's plan to lead the Fowlers on a rescue mission to liberate his family.

Later, Heather had a nightmare in which she fell into a dark hole, amidst countless large, dark eggs. A cruel, scaly hand reached toward her out of the darkness just as the dream ended.

### *Ember Rising*

Heather dreamed a dream similar to one she had experienced before, as she slept restlessly in the Akolan prison within the Sixth District. In the dream, she fell into a dark place among many dragon eggs. An evil voice told her that they would awaken, and a scaly hand reached out to her from the darkness.

### *Ember's End*

Having been consigned to the depths of the dragon tomb by Morbin Blackhawk and Garten Longtreader, Smalden Joveson and Heather Longtreader encountered a live dragon. He introduced himself as the dragon keeper and explained that he was the successor of the only hatched dragon to survive the final battle with Lander's followers. Lander made a treaty with that dragon, who agreed to watch over the eggs of his kind, only allowing one to hatch when his time of death drew near. The keeper claimed that this tradition, along with that of a meeting between the keepers and the rabbit monarchs of Natalia, had continued until the present.

The keeper, however, reported that he had never met with any king of rabbits, leading Smalls to suspect that his father King Jupiter must have been the last to do so. After noting that he had helped keep Smalls alive before Heather arrived with the Firstflower infusion that saved them both from mortal wounds, he asked for Smalls' help. As he reported, the tunnels of the tomb had become unstable, and he had been working to ensure that they did not collapse and destroy all the eggs. It wasn't long, however, before Heather discovered that the keeper had been lying, and that he was not the dragon keeper at all, but the dragon prince.

Having killed the last keeper after awaking of his own volition, the prince admitted to causing many of the other eggs to hatch, giving him an army of thousands of dragons. Discovering a means to dig into an ancient vault built in Lander's time, the dragons were prepared to break free and rampage across Natalia. However, having already made his way into the vault, Smalls emerged with the starsword, which he used to kill the prince. Realizing that they couldn't escape through the vault exit without leaving the remaining dragons free to do the same, Smalls questioned whether the beasts might ever fight against the other predators of Natalia.

Heather quickly rejected this idea, believing that the dragons would do as their ancestors had presumably done and form a pact with the Preylords to divided their common food source. Left with no choice but to stop the dragons, she and Smalls armed themselves and set about destroying the dragons and their tomb. As a result, the dragon race was utterly wiped out, shortly before a similar fate befell the wolves and Lords of Prey.

## Physical characteristics

Dragons were four-legged carnivorous creatures, with five razor-sharp claws at the end of each leg. They were lithe, scaly, and muscular, capable of standing upright. Their scales provided considerable protection from arrows and blades, but their vulnerability lay in their soft underbellies, which lacked this protection. Dragons were capable of swimming and could remain concealed underwater for a considerable length of time and could travel and fight swiftly in cold weather despite being somewhat slowed by it.

Though their own bodies were formidably equipped, dragons also wielded swords, pikes, and crossbows in battle.

## Sociocultural characteristics

The dragons were known to be of consistently vicious demeanors. Usually found in groups, or tribes, they were fiercely loyal to their own kind, and would stop at nothing to take revenge on anyone who defied them. They often partook in dark rites, which included chanting, singing, and carrying torches, but typically involved devouring still-living rabbits. Utterly without pity even for their own kind, they would kill the widows of slain dragons by burning them alive, deeming it an act of prudence.

Dragons considered rabbits to be nothing more than prey or sources of amusement, having no regard for their status as thinking, speaking beings. They were nonetheless willing to ally with any wicked enough to aid them in advancing their own aims, or to feign friendship in order to gain their help. However, in both situations dragons were ruthless when their pawns, witting or unwitting, failed to achieve what they desired. If Heather's reasonings were correct they were also willing to deal with other races of predators, though King Namoz's proclaimed goals of world domination seemed to forebode that such bargains were seen only as temporary measures.

The dragons spoke a language of their own, but also had the ability to communicate in the language spoken by rabbits. Like other inhabitants of Natalia their government was a monarchy, with Namoz Dragonking and the dragon prince each serving as absolute rulers in their turn. Namoz was advised by a council and served by a sorcerer and an unknown number of priestesses, who also presided over the dragon's rituals, while the dragon prince was aided in commanding his armies by a number of chieftains. It was typical of dragons either in positions of prominence or taking part in dark rituals to wear robes or capes, which they would discard for battle or the climax of their evil rites.

## References

1. ↑ *Prince Lander & the Dragon War*, p. 304

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