Ice and Fire: Reign of the Dragon.

Chapter 297: The Origin of Dragons
Dan was lost in thought.

He slowly replayed in his mind the journey that Benilla had taken after leaving Westeros. The Queen Mother had traveled almost all over the known world. Wait, the map Dan had drawn in his mind suddenly connected. He had an impression of the journey that Benilla had carved on the stone tablet, and it was a very deep impression.

He remembered that Rey's notes on dragon research had compiled various legends about the origin of dragons. Judging from the age, it seemed that there were legends about dragons active in the world long before the Valyrians appeared on the historical stage, some of which were reliable, some were not.

The obsidian throne in Dragon's Nest depicts a legend that says the dragons came from outer space, the product of the explosion of another moon. In the myth of Qarth, the moon was scorched by its proximity to the sun, and it broke apart like an egg, with millions of dragons rushing out of it, multiplying and thriving on the earth and in the sky.

Many places do not actually agree with this point about dragon myths. However, apart from the heyday of Valyria's Freehold, the areas conquered by her derived the legend that dragons were created by Valyria. The myths and legends of more regions show that long before Valyria left the Fourteen Fire Peaks and even in ancient times before the rise of the Kingdom of Dawn, dragons were already flying in the ancient sky.

"Uncle, uncle." Belle interrupted Dan's thoughts.

"What's the matter?" Dan suddenly realized and looked at his nephew with some confusion.

I saw Beile holding up a tattered notebook as if to seek credit. If it weren't for the familiar golden leather cover, it would have been completely destroyed. "This was found in the interlayer of the dragon saddle."

Dragon leather notebook?
Dan immediately recognized the origin of the notebook cover. In the days when Valyria was still prosperous, the dragon kings would use the hides of dead dragons to make indestructible books, and blood wizards and fire sorcerers used this technology to record mysterious and obscure magic. As Valyria was shattered by the fire of the Doom, most of the dragon skin books were lost. Only a small number of them remained in Asshai and Yidu. There was half a book in the library of the Citadel, and only three history books made of dragon skin were in the library of the Vareses family.

Now, the only ones capable of making dragonhide books are the Targaryen and Varese families.

The dragon skin of this notebook comes from Yang Yan.

Even though the dragon leather cover is damaged, it still has a beautiful color. The pages inside cannot be said to be intact, but they are almost completely damaged, with only the last few pages still intact.

I don't know if it's because of the high-temperature baking that caused the paper to become brittle and damaged, the ink to fade, or because of external forces, but this book of Benilla, let's just call it a diary, is already difficult to read as a diary. Dan quickly glanced through the content that could still be read.

His expression changed again and again, and when he carefully closed the book, only a long sigh remained.

Maybe Rey would be right, no, I should say Rey would definitely be interested in the fragments of Benilla.

What was left was her diary from her flight from Qarth to Asshai, and then from Asshai to Sothoryos. A small part of it was repeated with the text on the back of the black stone tablet, but there were more new things that were not mentioned.

Benilla saw a huge petrified dragon skeleton in the wasteland east of Qarth. She wrote in her diary: "The skeleton of that dragon, the head alone, is two-thirds the size of Moon Dancer's."

This can only mean one thing, that is, the dragon skeleton described by Benila is even larger than the current largest dragon, Wormisol.
But Womisol is only over 100 years old, and his growth rate has almost stagnated, which is much slower than that of a young dragon. According to the current records of the age of dragons, it is impossible for it to grow to the size of that dragon bone.

It seems that Bella knew, or had already prepared for the day when she would not be able to bring these materials back to Westeros, so she did not miss any details in her diary. As a Targaryen royal, she had come into contact with the skulls of royal dead dragons, including Balerion, and the bones left on Dragonstone, so she could conclude that even if it had been petrified, the skeleton still belonged to a dragon. The Dothraki and the Jogsnai sometimes roamed the wasteland, and the warriors among them would break off the unpetrified parts of the dragon bones and use them to make their own dragon bone bows or as handles for weapons. The wealthy merchants of Qarth would also send expeditions into the wasteland to hunt for dragon bones.

But there are still many left.

Benila noticed that Moon Dancer had no special reaction when seeing these huge dragon bones. It just curiously flew around the huge remains of its own kind for a few times, and then boredly enjoyed the wild horses it had just hunted. It seemed that it had nothing to do with it. Benila didn't know how the dragon would react when facing the corpses of its own kind, so she could only record everything. Dan smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Of course there would be no reaction. Although dragons have a certain degree of intelligence, they are still essentially solitary beasts. They may live in groups and form a certain order because of the close relationship with their companions, the fixed birthplace and living place, but in the final analysis, dragons are quite selfish creatures.

They can devour the corpses of their own kind without any concern - the gluttons of that time were typical examples, and they would naturally turn a blind eye to the corpses of their own kind.

Benilla broke off a piece of dragon bone as a souvenir. The dark white dragon bone had been sorted out by the bachelor and put aside.

After leaving the dragon burial ground in the wasteland, Benilla went deep into the shadow land, preparing to visit the legendary land of eternal summer and the country without sun before heading to the magic city.

When they entered the Shadow Land, Moon Dance was still normal, but the deeper they went, the more excited Moon Dance became - or the more abnormal it became. Sensing something was wrong, Benila immediately changed direction and no longer went deeper into the Shadow Land, but flew directly to Yasha.

She didn't know why Yuewu was becoming more and more excited, she only knew one thing.

When passing by the ruins of a city, Yuewu suddenly lost contact with herself for a short while, which was very abnormal for a dragon rider, and even a huge disaster.

With doubts, Benilla won the respect of Asshai with her identity as a dragon rider. The cloud wizard high in the tower dispersed the dark clouds for her arrival. The Sunless City briefly had sunshine. The fire warlocks welcomed the arrival of the dragon with grand fire magic. The moon singers and the pale holy children danced for the queen mother. The oldest blood wizard in the city, who fanatically worshipped Longzel, met with the queen mother in his own tower.

Benilla was free to browse the great library of Ashai.

She discovered something more.

Dragon's Nest City.

Longzel put down the long letter Dan had given him and handed it to Rei, who had been eager to try.

"Benilla has roughly found clues about the origin of the dragon."

Longzel was always serious about this kind of thing. He gently stroked the armrest of the chair and said, "Dan will be back with Baylor soon, but he may have to go out again."

Lei Yi glanced at Chang Xin and nodded: "If that's the case, we can unite all the forces that can be united. But, brother, are you sure you can guarantee that everything will be safe?"

Longzel looked into his brother's eyes: "I can't guarantee it, but I have to do it."

(End of this chapter)