“Ah yes, the reason for my visit.” Before the doctor could answer Apollo, my grandfather lumbered in, minus Tigger, but that didn’t ease my ire. Who knew what trouble the little bugger would cause left to his own devices.
“Grandfather, I thought you were sunbathing on the roof.” I didn’t temper my irritation.
“It’s too hot. Ooh, are those crab cakes?”
Trust my Tutu to follow his nose to food. I sighed. “Sorry, Dr. Malone. Please continue.”
“The interesting thing about dragons is how prevalent they are in lore. Stories of them appear around the world. It’s why I took such an interest, because how could so many different cultures, separated in some cases by oceans, all have tales featuring the same beast? It seemed more than logical to assume because dragons did indeed exist and, given their ability to fly, could spread themselves across many continents.”
“If they existed, how come no one’s ever found their remains?” I asked.
“Oh, some have been discovered and, in many cases, misclassified as dinosaurs.”
“You’re talking about pterodactyls,” Apollo surmised.
“Actually, no. Their bones are very different from that of a dragon, much more birdlike in that they are hollow to minimize their weight. Despite having wings, dragons are very much solid, and heavy. They defy the usual laws when it comes to animal flight.”
“What makes you think some dinosaur bones were, in fact, dragons?” Apollo had sat beside me on the couch and strung his arm casually behind me. Claiming me, and I didn’t mind.
“Because of their age. According to carbon dating and the data that’s been collected, we know dinosaurs died out millions of years ago. However, about a decade ago, an anthropologist unearthed a supposed dinosaur that was less than a thousand years old.”
“Could be they managed to survive,” I interjected.
“Those remains have other baffling characteristics. Horns and claws not comprised of keratin but some unknown substance. Skulls that don’t match any other recorded instances. And then there are the presence of wings. The discoveries were never made public, as they defied everything academia knew.”
“Then how do you know about them?” Apollo drawled.
“Because I was the anthropologist. When I presented my findings and opined that I’d found proof of dragons, I was ridiculed. However, I knew I was onto something and have since made it my life’s work to prove the existence of dragons, hence why the shift in my career to cryptozoologist.”
“A what?” I asked.
“Someone who studies and seeks out proof of mythical creatures.”
“Speaking of mythical…” Apollo leaned forward. “Those videos, you implied they might be authentic.”
“Not implying at all. They are real.”
“Why would you say that? The footage wasn’t exactly stellar.”
“Before I get into that, first, a little lesson on how dragons are born.” Malone cleared his throat. “They hatch from eggs. However, unlike common reptiles, their time in the shell is much longer. Hundreds, even thousands of years.”
I snorted. “Wouldn’t they go rotten?”
“Dragons aren’t like other creatures. Their eggs not only can remain dormant for extended periods of time, but they also require extreme heat to cure. The kind of heat only found in volcanoes. After a female dragon has her clutch fertilized, she will drop the eggs into dormant volcanoes around the world.”
“Why dormant?” Apollo interrupted.
“Because dragons are very territorial. A female dragon doesn’t see its hatchlings as children, but as competition.”
“I’m surprised they have babies at all then,” I murmured.
“Every species is driven to procreate, even those that don’t like to share land. So by scattering a clutch, the female ensures the hatchings are staggered so her progeny aren’t competing for territory.”
“But you said she dropped them in dead volcanoes. Wouldn’t that mean they’d never be born?”
“Dormant, not dead,” Malone corrected. “Volcanoes are sporadic. Just look at Mount Marapi in India. Its sudden eruption took everyone by surprise.”
“There’s been several eruptions around the world since I was born, some in Hawaii. None of them produced a dragon,” I pointed out.
