A small yet astonishingly swift bird of prey soared over the Great Desert, the plains, the Jungle, and the Inland Sea.
That night, it reached the largest and most prosperous city at the heart of the Old World.
Under cover of night, no one could clearly make out its form. The peregrine falcon slipped silently into a building that remained brightly lit even at that late hour.
This was the headquarters of the Royal Paleontology Scriveners.
The peregrine falcon flapped its wings and landed on a smooth wooden perch. The young scholar on duty carefully untied the metal message tube, no thicker than a finger, from its leg. After meticulously checking that the wax seal was intact, he sprinted out of the room.
He raced through corridors and up stairways, barging into an office without even taking the time to knock.
"Chief Student! A peregrine express letter from Loc Lac! It's marked as urgent!"
The elder Wyverian, who had been leafing through an ancient book beneath the warm yellow glow of a gas lamp, looked up. He took no offense at the young scholar's abrupt entrance. Reaching out, he accepted the message tube, cut through the wax seal with a small knife, and opened it.
The message inside had been rolled extremely tightly. It took the elder Wyverian some effort to draw the paper scroll all the way out and unfold it.
"A large number of unidentified Small Flying Wyverns have suddenly appeared around Loc Lac?"
He pushed up his glasses, leaned closer to the letter, and continued reading the tiny characters, each smaller than a grain of rice, along with several compact yet exquisitely detailed orthographic dissection diagrams.
"Compact bone structure. Muscle strength surpassing that of a Remobra. It possesses an organ similar to a Flame Sac and can even breathe dragonfire?! What the devil is this thing?!" The old scholar shot to his feet.
He was absolutely certain that he had never seen or heard of such a creature. It was similar in size to a Remobra, yet capable of spewing high-temperature breath attacks. Even a Monster the size of a Yian Kut-Ku struggled to build enough internal pressure to produce a cohesive blast and could only hurl a mixture of flame and gravel that created an effect resembling a breath attack.
A Small Monster barely four meters long could launch breath attacks... What strange evolutionary path had produced such a thing?! If he had ever seen any relevant records, he could not possibly have forgotten them.
Was it truly a new species? Had the relevant records been lost to history? Or perhaps... He carefully put the letter away, looked up at the young scholar on duty, and said, "I'm heading to the Elder Dragon Observation Team right now. Go to the Royal Academy and summon the Professor at once."
With that, the old scholar hurried out of the office.
Over half an hour later, several old scholars whose combined ages easily exceeded a thousand years gathered in an archive room belonging to the Elder Dragon Observation Team.
The elder Wyverian known as the "Professor" had been the last one notified, yet he was the most impatient of them all and practically burst into the archive room when he finally arrived.
"A Small Flying Wyvern built like a Remobra, yet capable of breath attacks? And they appear in swarms? You're not joking?" he demanded in his booming voice the moment he stepped inside.
The Chief Student of the Royal Paleontology Scriveners gave him a displeased look. "A peregrine express letter came from Loc Lac, and you think I'm joking?
Quiet down. Can't you see we're searching right now?"
The Professor did not mind. Among this group of old-timers, even the shortest friendship stretched back over a century; an exchange like this barely qualified as an argument.
"Does the Director have a lead?" The Professor leaned closer to the Chief Student of the Royal Paleontology Scriveners and asked in a low voice.
The "Director" he meant was the elder Wyverian, who looked even older than the Professor himself and was rapidly leafing through documents.
Although he was so old that he could barely keep his eyes open, the Director of the Elder Dragon Observation Team possessed knowledge of Elder Dragons, including intelligence concerning the "Forbidden," that not even His Immenseness could match.
Of course, that was largely because His Immenseness's memory was not as good and he had not read as many books or documents.
"Found it!" The elder Wyverian known as the Director pulled a scroll from the pile of records.
"This happened roughly seventy years ago." The Director's hands trembled slightly with age as he unfurled the scroll and turned to the Professor.
"You have an interest in archaeology as well as biology, so you should know about this. At the time, ancient ruins were discovered above the clouds, atop an extraordinarily high mountain peak."
The Professor considered this for a moment. "Are you referring to the ruins that the Guild later designated a restricted zone and closed to all further archaeological expeditions? If memory serves, the site was called 'Cloud Viewing Fortress,' correct?"
"Indeed. It was designated a restricted zone because a certain dangerous Elder Dragon had made its lair atop Cloud Viewing Fortress. The Hunters and investigators sent to examine it were, almost without exception, thrown from the peak and fell to their deaths.
The only information available came from one fortunate Palico who managed to escape."
"So these unknown Small Monsters appearing near Loc Lac are related to that Elder Dragon?" the Chief Student of the Elder Dragon Observation Team pressed.
"Yes. According to the Palico's account, the black-and-gold Elder Dragon did not even need to act. The Small Flying Wyverns surrounding it swarmed forward, engulfed the Hunters and investigators in their breath attacks, gravely wounded them, then seized them and hurled them off the cliff."
The Director pointed to several sketches on the unrolled scroll. "These images were preserved based on the Palico's description at the time."
The old scholars crowded around the scroll, with the letter from Loc Lac spread out over it.
The sketches were somewhat crude and likely distorted, but a comparison of their features revealed a similarity of at least eighty percent.
Together with details such as the breath attacks, blue scales, and yellow crests, the resemblance all but confirmed that the unidentified Small Flying Wyverns appearing near Loc Lac were the same species as those discovered at Cloud Viewing Fortress seventy years earlier.
"'Egyurasu, the loyal guard that protects an emperor,' and 'Guanzorumu, the Imperial Conqueror Dragon who occupies the cloud-wreathed throne'..." the Professor quietly read from the scroll.
"But one detail does not fit."
The Chief Student of the Royal Paleontology Scriveners furrowed his snow-white brows. "This scroll states clearly that the Small Flying Wyvern species designated 'Egyurasu' possesses considerable skill in group combat and can even coordinate overlapping breath attacks to block a Hunter's path.
However, according to the intelligence sent from Loc Lac, they have shown none of that behavior. They are scattered around the city as individuals. Even without a 'Guanzorumu' leader present, their habits should not change so drastically.
Consider Velociprey. A pack led by a Velocidrome will coordinate while hunting, but even without a Velocidrome's commands, the pack will still surround and capture prey in the same way."
After a brief silence, the Director said, "This likely means that Guanzorumu's control over the Egyurasu surpasses anything we imagined.
Their relationship may be less like that of a Velocidrome and its pack than that of a Seltas Queen and a Seltas. Perhaps they are not companions at all, but tools or weapons."
"We cannot determine why these Egyurasu have appeared in swarms. Are they scouts serving as a vanguard? Or did some accident befall Guanzorumu, causing it to lose control of them and leaving them to migrate at random?
Either way, this cannot be a good omen." The Professor looked at the other scholars. "We must report this to His Immenseness at once. The intelligence concerning Guanzorumu and Egyurasu must also be dispatched as soon as possible. Sparse as it is, it will at least allow Loc Lac to heighten its vigilance."
"Guanzorumu... The Imperial Conqueror Dragon. What an unsettling name..."
(Translated by yourtl.app)