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Kabberjaw was a bunch of dragon bones from some long dead ultra-dragon.
That was all Mark understood at that moment, regarding the vision before him.
As the Dreadnought sailed forward, upon deep, blue waters, Eliot captured views with small scanner drones and picked up civilization in several areas, along with their radio signals. Mark flew in the sky with Isoko, high overhead, taking it all in.
It was like the great creature had laid down in the water, curled a bit, and then died. The flesh was all gone, replaced with greenery on every horizontal surface, but a lot of surfaces were pure vertical rises, and a few places were on the undersides of bones that were themselves the sizes of entire cities.
The skull lay at the center of a 1,000 kilometer wide spiral of ribs and spine bones and assorted wing and limb structures. That skull was the largest, most singular part of the beast, and it had some strong radio signals coming from the center. From this far away —maybe 750 kilometers, on a completely flat world, by the way— Quark could only pick out a few things about that place, and mostly just the ships in the waters around the skull. They were big ships. There were probably a lot of small ships, but those were impossible to see from this distance. Air density and mist prevented deeper investigations.
This was a big place.
Quark estimated the full ‘diameter’ of the ‘layer’ that was Kabberjaw had to be something like 3,000 kilometers wide, with the center as the skull, in the very middle. Kabberjaw’s skull, no doubt. That place was called ‘Stronghold’, according to the signals Eliot was receiving and patching through to Quark.
Other signals came in from some raptor-like claw bones jutting up from the water, to the right. If Mark’s guess was correct, then those bones, each of which were 20-30 kilometers across, with their curved parts sticking out of the water, were the back right claws of the dragon Kabberjaw. That place was calling itself Raptor.
Wing bones floated in the sky, barely moving, like Kabberjaw had died but its wings still wanted to fly, or at least remain in the air. All of those bones were dislodged. Out of place.
Gently passing overhead of all of the remains.
Somehow, all of those floating bones were spilling waterfalls into the air, providing rain upon all the rest of the bony islands. From their small movements, scanned and understood by Eliot’s machines, and from Quark gauging greenery on the various ‘lands’, Quark postulated that the sky bones were moving at 5-10 kilometers per hour, and they were constantly raining wherever they flew. The center ‘islands’ got the most rainfall, but all of the bones, everywhere, eventually got some rain.
One of the giant shoulderblades in the far, far distance, far beyond the skull, also had radio waves coming from it. That place called itself Skybones.
Other radio signals were coming from other various parts of the skeleton of Kabberjaw, but only those three sources had named broadcasting stations.
“The individual signals are probably a bunch of individuals on basic radios, talking to each other and coordinating stuff,” Eliot said, “But there’s also actual music being played on some radio stations; those ones from Stronghold. 1980’s American Rock and Roll right now.”
“Any sign of any advanced tech?” Mark asked.
“Where are the ships! The turrets!” Isoko said, “Anything at all offensive? Or even defensive, for that matter?”
Mark asked, “And where are the dragons?”
Shouldn’t there be dragons here? Like… a lot of them?
Certainly enough space for ‘em!
“I’m calibrating… Deciphering signals…” Eliot’s voice trailed off— “Oh! I know— We use Kaiju Call resonators to pick up kaiju, of which dragons are, but there is no Calling in this layer. Hold on. Updating some visual scanners to search for dragon-shapes— There! Ah…” Eliot’s voice went away, and then it came back a bit less relaxed. “There they are.”
Using Eliot’s machines, Quark picked out several dragon shapes on the second scapula of Kabberjaw, which was further beyond the skull and laying kinda angled against the main set of rib cages. Had to be a thousand kilometers away! Eliot had some impressive cameras. Quark could have seen that himself, if Mark let him set up, but it was easier to use Eliot’s stuff.
The ‘land’ back there was tilted only slightly, and covered in greenery, with big open spaces that were… nests? No. Not nests. Just big bowls, carved into the bone itself, where dragons could curl up and sleep. Many of them appeared to be asleep right now.
Quark counted 18 dragons.
And then Quark looked around and spotted similar bowls cut into other ribs and vertebrae. Not many outside of that main area, but definitely enough. Mostly those other carved bowls were in pairs… so couples? Maybe.
Was this…
Was Kabberjaw the dragon breeding grounds?
Mark asked a very serious question, “Candragons breed and lay eggs?”
Derek spoke up, “There are historical records of them certainly trying.”
Another Derek said, “That sex part anyway. No successful eggs or live births have ever been recorded.”
There were at least 30 dragons out there, visible from this angle alone; 15 pairs.
Mark went, “Huh.”
The Dreadnought sailed on, with Mark and Isoko flying above it—
Isoko asked, “Why are we the only fliers out here? Do the dragons not allow flying stuff? Because I still don’t see any flying stuff— but I only got human eyes. Mark? Quark? Eliot?”
Eliot said, “Nothing flying out there at all. You might be correct.”
Most places had ordinances on who could fly and could not, so that made sense—
“We’ve been noticed,” Eliot said. “Getting hails from some ships out of Raptor. Marking them on the scanners and patching them in.”
Mark glanced out toward Raptor and saw dots moving this way on top of the waters, about 250-ish kilometers away. They’d be 2.5 hours before they got here; they were not moving that fast at all. Neither was the Dreadnought, though. David could take to the air and fly the ship a lot faster, but they didn’t need to do that, just like those guys in those Raptor boats didn’t need to move fast, either.
A female voice came over the air, strong and deep, “Attention unknown vessel. This is Raptor Guard. Do you copy? Over.”
She was saying ‘over’ like in one of those old-timey shows that Mark barely remembered watching, but he had certainly seen them before. He could play along, he guessed? Mostly people spoke openly these days.
Mark spoke up, “This is Mark Careed of the vessel Dreadnought, and we copy. We’re here to deliver goods and services on behalf of the dragon Elkatracks’ request for stuff. We should have a massive load of grav crystal for our own purposes, and some metal to turn into whatever you guys need. There’s a whole list.”
Eliot spoke up for Mark’s benefit, “They can add more to the list.”
They had not heard that, so Mark said, “And you can add more to the list if you want.”
The woman’s voice came back even stronger, “We have been waiting for you, and we are glad to see that you came in from this direction, instead of from others. It is surely one of God’s small miracles. Please c— to Raptor. We do not have your grav cry—ls, but we — have lots of ext— me—”
The voice cut out, static invading the sound, but it had been cutting out for a bit before it finally died.
Mark asked, “What’s with the static, Eliot?”
“Not a problem on our end! Radios are on— Ah. Other people are messaging us.”
A male voice cut in, “—tion Dreadnought. Stronghold welcomes you to Kabberjaw. Do you copy? Over.”
Mark arched an eyebrow and waited for Quark to locate the source of the message, but Quark couldn’t find it, which meant Eliot couldn’t find it. Well, whatever. Mark spoke, “We copy, Stronghold. This is Mark Careed of the Dreadnought—”
“Ah by the Great One Himself!” said the guy, excited. “Welcome! Welcome! Stronghold has your grav crystal, and we merely await your arrival to give it to you! We also have all the metal necessary for Mister Cybersong to create whatever he needs! We also have hundreds of extra tons of metal for your own needs, as well as the capability to sell you grown crystals of all types, if you choose to trade with us for those things. Our Hunters have outdone themselves, going out and scouring nearby Paths to bring back gifts for you. The Elders are quite eager to discover who has gained Odanci’s interests so strongly as for her to leave a gift, and so you and yours are deeply welcomed at Skull Hall, if you would please accept our hospitality!”
Mark grinned a little, and said, “Sure, we’ll head there. We just have to make a stop over at Raptor, first. Their ships seem to be coming at us faster now, so maybe their radios broke and they have important things to say.”
Or maybe this guy was jamming them.
There was a pause.
“Of course! But… I only warn you not to disembark at Raptor. We’re having a bit of an internal disagreement with them right now about various things. We look forward to seeing you at Stronghold, when you can get here, for we are a safe and prosperous nation, and we seek to share that with you. We have 50,000 kilos of grav crystal for you, and it is taking up quite a lot of space.”
“Ah… sure. What’s your name, anyway?”
“Apologies! I am… I am honestly not used to people not knowing me by the sound of my voice. I am Wang Lo, leader of the Skull Guard. It was a pleasure to speak with you.”
“A pleasure to speak to you as well, Wang Lo,” Mark said. “See you all soon.”
The ships from Raptor had never stopped coming this way, and Mark wondered about them, now. Would they be enemies, and open fire on the Dreadnought? Or was this truly just some sort of internal struggle between the nations of Kabberjaw? The second was more likely, but perhaps… Pirates?
The radio crackled.
And then the deep woman’s voice returned, “—st, test— Ah! It says we’re connected again? Are we connected?” Pause. “Ah, good. Uh? Dreadnought? Can you hear?”
Mark said, “Yes, ma’am. I’d like to know what happened there, from your perspective.”
“… A communications malfunction, I am sure.”
Isoko shook her head at Mark, mouthing ‘complete lie’.
Mark agreed, but what he said was, “These things happen. I have been given to understand you all need some new stuff, and radios are probably on the list.”
“Thank God; yes! We do need new radios. Please allow us to escort you to Raptor.”
Mark said, “Sure, but don’t flank us. Stay on one side, and 500 meters away.”
“Of course. It is only prudent.”
“What is your name, anyway?”
“… Uh… Apologies. I am Nomvula Dlamini, leader of the Raptor Guard, under Chief Ariku Naet… And you have likely heard something from Stronghold, but I assure you that we are not savages, no matter what they say.”
Mark said, “They didn’t call you that. They warned us about disembarking and said something about internal disagreements.”
“… Yes. They are… We would not accept you as a part of our internal struggles, so I will refrain from gossiping about them, though it seems they would not extend us the same courtesy. It is a normal slight, so we ignore it as much as we can. We look forward to trading with you, though.”
“Of course, Nomvula. We look forward to helping out Raptor.”
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In the distance the 4 Raptor Guard ships slowed down and began rearranging themselves. They had been getting ready to approach and surround, but now they all maneuvered to the starboard side and fell into a diagonal line with each other, separated by a kilometer each; close enough to be a grouping, but far enough to not be too vulnerable to most conventional weaponry.
Eliot spoke up, “I silenced it, but they can still talk if they need to. What do we think we’re running into here? Ambush, or politics?”
“Politics,” Mark said.
Isoko said, “Oh there’s gonna be an ambush of some sort. Maybe not violent, but there will be an ambush somewhere.”
Lola said, “I would agree with Isoko if the parties had been more polite, but they revealed some of their hands toward each other. Either they are exceedingly coordinated, or they are truly at odds with each other, and any goods we give to one would be lorded over the other. I would caution us to simply not involve ourselves in empowering one party over all others, and to trade to both sides. It’s just basic aid, yes? No weapons?”
“No weapons,” Eliot said.
Lola continued, “So as long as we stay on the ship then I doubt we’ll encounter any real issues. I think Derek wants to go out there, though, and we want him out there as well?”
Mark said, “I’d like to know of Kabberjaw, so Derek, for sure, will disembark. Tartu and David will stay on board, and probably you too, right Eliot? What about you, Lola? Sally, Isoko? Andria?”
Derek made a few small ‘yesss!’s in the background.
Three Dereks jumped off of the Dreadnought right there, over the edge of the ship and into the waters, yelling about ‘swimming time!’. Mark just stared in that direction, where he felt those guys leap off, disbelieving what he was Unionsensing. What the heck was Derek gonna do out there but drown— Ah. He was okay with drowning, as long as it got him to see more of the world.
Right.
Tartu was eager to remain onboard, and David was fine with that.
Lola said, “There is one major concern I have, and I would appreciate seeing it for myself, and so I would go with Derek out there onto Raptor —not into the water here, for the Goddess’s sake, Derek— for the way they said ‘God’, with emphasis, makes me wonder if they have ever heardof the Pantheon… surely they have? If not, then they might need healing. I encourage you and Isoko to go out there, for that reason alone.” Lola added, “But maybe only after Derek has been everywhere, to see what it looks like and how they react to him.”
Andria spoke with an adamant voice, “I want spices and real food and I want to get a feel for all of the people here. I am disembarking when we get close enough.”
From way down in the ship, Mark feltAndria’s words as much as he heard them, because she had a golden glint to her vector.
Every single paladin on the ship saw that glittering gold, too.
The only one who didn't was Tartu, who was suddenly very confused, looking around at everyone in the observation deck, asking, “What is happening?”
Lola said, “We might be disembarking at Raptor… Andria?”
“Oh yes,” Andria said, “We’re disembarking on Raptor. And you’re coming with me, Tartu. We got something to see out there!”
“… Okay?” Tartu said, not quite sure what was happening, yet again.
Mark opened up the comms and said, “Raptor Guard, do you copy?”
“We copy, Dreadnought,” said some guy.
Nomvula spoke up, “Leader Dlamini here.”
“It appears we wish to disembark at Raptor. We have very good healers, if you need any. We have lots of services available, actually, but we want some good food and some…” Mark turned to the side, and Quark knew to switch the channels. “What else, Andria?”
“I want to meet the leader. Chief Ariku Naet,” Andria said.
Mark continued, “And we would like to meet Chief Ariku Naet.”
“… One minute, Dreadnought— Why do you want to meet her?”
Andria told Mark, “I don’t know!”
Mark said, “… Because we are here on humanitarian aid and we want to know how the goods will be disseminated, and that means speaking to the people who will determine how it all gets around.”
Nomvula instantly said, “We will gladly show you how we do things here when it comes to overwhelming bounty, Dreadnought. I doubt you would get the same treatment at Stronghold.”
“… We look forward to sharing our bounty, Raptor.”
Eliot said, “Line off.”
David steered the ship through gentle waters, toward Raptor.
Tartu said to Andria on the comms, “If you want more foods and spices I can make more types of plants with Domain if you want, Andria. Peppers and radishes and stuff? I didn’t know you were missing out on those things.”
Andria said, “No no. I need to see the people here. I need to know.”
“Know what?” Tartu asked.
“I have no idea!” Andria said.
“… Sure,” Tartu said.
Derek piped up, “It’s a paladin thing; you wouldn’t understand.”
Tartu didn’t answer, but he did seem to feel more internal for a little while.
Soon, they were 40 kilometers from Raptor, and they could see it a lot better.
Raptor was pretty neat.
Three dark claws and some white knuckle bones jutted half from the surface, like giant, 40 kilometer long whales cresting the water, while a fourth claw was just below the waves, like a vast sandbank. The fifth claw was somewhere deep under the waters, no doubt. Mark glanced into the depths, and Quark outlined a claw and some bones down there that Mark couldn’t even hope to see himself.
All of the solid spaces above the water were covered with greenery, and the main claw, right in front of the Dreadnought, had a bunch of dark ‘stone’ buildings, covering the place. Someone, or perhaps a whole lot of people, had carved into the dark material of the claw in some ancient time, and then stacked ‘stone’ above the carvings to raise buildings even higher. Most of the greenery grew on the white bone above the claws, where a river spurted out from somewhere in there and then trailed down the claw, through aqueducts of black ‘stone’. A lot of greenery grew on the claw itself, but it looked at least partially tamed, instead of the wild forests that grew out of the bone itself.
The city of Raptor was a fishing village maintaining itself on the coast of an ancient town that was much, much bigger than the village.
Two similarly-sized and higher-cresting talons beyond Raptor had some much bigger buildings on them that looked a lot older and a lot grander. Quark had to magnify Mark’s vision to see those things way over there, and when he did, Mark saw giant domes and obelisks and what looked like centers of worship, or maybe very old palaces. Dragon-sized palaces, maybe? … Or maybe not. Quark measured those domes as single-kilometer-wide domes. Not nearly big enough for more than 1 dragon at a time, and even then, Mark was pretty sure no dragon would want to contain itself into such a small building.
The dragon ‘nests’ located all across the gigantic rib bones, 100 kilometers or more in the sky, were each multiple kilometers wide and fully open.
Mark kinda drank it all in.
Everyone else did, too. ‘Awe’ was the emotion of the hour, and Mark suspected that would be the emotion for a while. Mark was already settling into being here for a few days, at least. Andria was absolutely ready to go exploring and talking and buying. What did they even use for currency? Mark had no idea.
Mark asked, “You’re taking video, right, Eliot?”
“So, SO much video— Wow! Look at that up there! The tip of that wing bone, floating over that rib there. You can see the rainfall from it from this angle! That’s… that’s a lot of water!”
Mark looked up and saw a wing bone, covered in lush greenery and dripping a sheet of rain, passing over that giant rib. Mark had no idea how the wing bone, which was 800 kilometers long and 20 thick, was still floating after all this time. He had no idea why it was raining, either. But he didn’t need to know howit worked to know that he was seeing one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen before.
The wing bone passed over the rib, and rain and mist spread in a continual sheet from that wing bone.
“Gods,” Mark muttered.
Lola said, “Perhaps they only say ‘God’ here because they only know of this one… possible god? Could this be the corpse of a god? I do not know, but I could see someone believing it to be that.”
Mark chuckled a little, nervously. Why nervous? Who knew!
“So I waited as long as I could, but I can’t wait anymore.” Tartu took a breath. Tartu asked, “Anyone going to ask our escorts about dragons coming down to kill them all? Maybe about how they know they’re safe from the dragons? No? No one is interested in that?”
Sally said, “I’m guessing that most people pretendthe dragons are not a problem, because they usually aren’t?”
Lola said, “Quite correct, Miss Wuthers.”
“And what happens when they are a problem,” Tartu stated.
“Then people die and some people rise up and kill the dragons,” Mark said, “Just like all revolutions against all tyrants of all kinds.”
Tartu said, “… Sure.”
Sally cheerfully added, “And sometimes you just trade one tyrant for another.”
Mark nodded sagely, flying in the sky, saying, “And sometimes the cycle has to go a few times before you get someone reasonable.”
“Oh yeah totally,” Sally said.
The mood was darkening.
Lola said, “Children. Please limit your catastrophizing.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Mark said, smirking.