Dragons of Eslura
| Classification | Winged beast |
|---|---|
| Habitat | The chilly peaks around Galecrest; hatched in the core of Alakyer |
| Size | Donkey-sized on hatching; ridden when grown |
| Notable traits | Scalding scales, fire, flight, intelligence |
| Notable individuals | Egras |
| First appearance | Sacred: Eslura's Calling |
Dragons are the winged beasts of the chilly peaks around Galecrest. The bestiary appendix calls them intelligent creatures, often used by Millennium Loftwind and her dragon riders to guard the borders of Eslura against the Nelazgians, and says that for all they look frightening they are generally very cuddly.[1] The fire in them comes from the energy of the Book of Fire: when the Book's Heart was stolen, the dragons of Galecrest went cold.[2]
Appearance
Dragon colouring varies. Those over Galecrest are described as blurs of red, blue and green in the clouds, a yellow and green pair nest closest to the mouth of the cave, and Millennium's own dragon form carries purple scales, a coiling tail, horns and fur down the back.[3][2] Egras hatched from a green-speckled egg, and Barnaby Britto named her after a grey and white gully Pemadee once brought home, because she had the same aloofness about her.[4][5]
A dragon's scales are naturally scalding, which every knowledgeable Galecresteen knows. Their wings snap open with a leathery crack, their tails are spiked, and their claws will strip armour off a body.[2][6][5]
A dragon's spinal fluid has near-magical healing properties. Millennium used it to bring Reagan Hideaway back after a Shadow Reaper wound.[7]
Behaviour
Dragons understand what is said to them, at least in part. Egras purrs like a cat, clings to Barnaby's back the way his toad clings to his head, nods when she has grasped an instruction, and takes off and lands on Peppersnakes, the word Barnaby uses as a curse. She yawns at questions she has no interest in. Barnaby had never met a dragon before and wondered whether they are all that feline.[5]
They are also patient with riders who do not know what they are doing. Egras carried Barnaby, Alpin Loomin, Piercio and the toad over the sea to Morgaedion the first time anyone climbed on her back, and put them down hard enough to scatter all three across the beach.[5]
Hatching
Dragon eggs come from, and hatch in, the core of Alakyer, Eslura's highest peak. It is the only place hot enough for a dragon to break its shell, and the egg has to go into the lava for the fire to melt it open.[4][8]
Vendalis, a troll on the slopes of Alakyer, found a clutch after the mother perished on her way back to the mountain. Two more eggs had been in it, and both were lost. Vendalis kept the last one under a blanket by her fire, a green-speckled thing standing a head taller than Barnaby and weighing about twice what he and his toad weighed together, and said it had been trying to hatch for moons. Barnaby and his companions carried it to the core, where it hatched donkey-sized and became Egras.[4][6]
Vendalis also says dragons are not as common as they used to be.[4]
Dragons of Galecrest
Galecrest keeps its dragons in nests in a cave in the lower quarter of the city, and Millennium Loftwind, herself a dragon shifter, can feel their pain.[2] Riders fly them out to the borders under a captain, Prylis, who is about Beatrice Tidal's age.[9]
The city is built around the image. A gold dragon statue as tall as a four-storey building stands in the plaza with its wings spread over the crowd, two golden dragons crown the roof of the Eslurian Opera House, and Ferhant wears a dragon-horned mask.[3][10][11]
The grounding
The dragons of Galecrest lost their fire overnight. Millennium found them huddled in their nests, icy cold to the touch and confused, and said they had lost their flame and were as cold as stone. She and Ferhant concluded that something had happened to the Book of Fire and cut the dragons off from its energy. No gully had come from the Sacred Guard in Zybersia to say what.[2]
The grounding did not lift. The riders had to walk back from the border and use the city lift, with no fire and no flight to be had.[9] When the Nelazgians came for Galecrest they came on dragons of their own that were somehow unaffected, which the captain of the riders could not explain.[9]
Egras, hatched in Alakyer's core after all this, was icy cold when Barnaby put a hand on her on the shore of Morgaedion, and lit a torch for him inside the prison a short while later.[5]
Under Obellius
Obellius Kalaar had his Nelazgians cage every dragon that returned to the core of Alakyer and bring it to him. He emptied three in a row of whatever it is he takes and raised them as soldiers with black spheres for eyes, then left the core with his newly claimed Shadow Dragons flapping behind him.[8][6]
Piercio thought this was probably why the mother dragon had left the core carrying her eggs.[6]
Behind the scenes
The bestiary appendix at the back of both novels heads the entry DRAGONS and annotates the illustration as a very sleepy boy. The appendix in Book 2 reprints Book 1's page unchanged.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Book 1, "The Many Creatures of Eslura".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Book 1, Ch. 5.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Book 1, Ch. 4.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Book 2, Ch. 6.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Book 2, Ch. 18.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Book 2, Ch. 14.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 26.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Book 2, Ch. 11.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Book 2, Ch. 3.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 13.
- ↑ Book 1, Ch. 24.