Dragon Skeletons

We got caught in a snowstorm on our way to the obelisk. I pushed through the howling winds, possessed by my goal, but when I turned back to drag my new assistant along, her rosy face vanished behind specks of white.

"Fran!" I yelled. Her response echoed, sounding miles away. Then, a horrible screech shook me to my core. I rushed towards her, piercing the veil of snow. When I finally spotted her again, she was cowering beneath a vulture that hid inside the whirling winds.

I found my freezing fingers wrapped around a stone and tossed it with all my might. The vulture tumbled down, disoriented, and I stomped it until I felt its skull give in. Then, I froze.

I think Fran spoke to me as she took a bone sample, frantically brushing her hand across its wing, but I heard nothing. I looked at her face and saw her rosy cheeks gushing blood, ripped apart by claws. "She will never be the same," I thought. "And neither will I."

— Loraine Crim, Yearfall, 508 D.A.

When we found solace from the snowstorm here, we were simply glad to have shelter. The outcrops left and right looked like stone formations through the blurring winds. Only just now did I realize that we weren't surrounded by stone, but ribs.

Real, giant, well-preserved, ivory ribs — lying amidst a set of 6 limbs. We've decided to settle and take samples, mostly because Fran is thrilled to research the skeleton. She calls it "Ony" because "the letters look like a tailed animal with 6 limbs, bowing down to drink."

She's smiling ear to ear while brushing dust off the cartilage, but I can hardly look at her. The gashes on her face are still fresh, and I fear they're my fault. I might as well have scarred her face myself. Maybe letting her stay will allow me to repent.

— Loraine Crim, Yearfall, 508 D.A.

If the data samples didn't match, I'd pass this theory off as a bad joke. But they do.

The structure of these giant bones is similar to that of the Whitewing Vulture sample we took during that snowstorm. There's a historical relation here, the same ancestral blood. Not just the skeletons here, but in the Kindlewastes, too.

It's all pointing towards dragons.

All this distracts my obelisk research, but I hope to return to deciphering those soon. Only if the dragons don't get me first, that is.

— Loraine Crim, Yearfall, 508 D.A.