The Serpent's Enigma

3 | Of Books and Dragons

"Nyanyansaurus— Nyasasaurus parringtoni," Cal Junior's brows knitted as he wrestled with the pronunciation of an extinct genus in his book. It was new, only came for him in the mail yesterday, and now he was carrying it around like a treasure.

After their impromptu introduction a few days ago, both had found out about their shared interests in reading, and soon conversations began to flow swimmingly. If only the Emperor had been more considerate and introduced them to each other sooner...

"Another one of the ancient lizards?" Gigi peered over from her seat. They were spending a lazy afternoon in the library, playing a guessing game based on their reading topic. "The question?"

"Herbivore or carnivore?" A delinquent smile played over her lips as he pressed his hand over the text. "No peeking!"

Gigi's eyes roamed over the drawing of a two-legged animal with a swan-like neck, sharp claws and a long tail, making a deduction. "It walked on two legs and it had claws, so... carnivore."

"You're wrong!" he giggled victoriously. "It's a herbivore, and the claws were there to grapple on trees!"

Cal Junior had read more books than any boys twice his age. His reading materials covered a wide range of topics, but his favourites were the ones that could capture his imagination, such as fairy tales and dinosaurs.

"Wouldn't it be so cool if we could have dinosaurs guarding the empire? Theropods roaming over the borders and ocean reptiles patrolling our seas. Those bad guy spies wouldn't even dare to snoop around, because then they'd be eaten!"

"Sounds like a terrific idea. Though I wouldn't know if your father would agree to it, he seems to favour warships and jet planes."

"Those things are boring!" he pursed his lips. "What about your homeland, have they ever found one?"

"Dinosaurs? I don't think they have, but what we do have are Komodo dragons."

Junior gawked, staring at her owly-eyed. "Praja has dragons?"

"Well, they're not the fire-breathing dragons you'd find in fairy tales. They are much smaller and without wings, but they are venomous and could kill you with a single bite. We confined them to their home island, to keep them safe."

"A whole island? That's more than anything we have in Angletonia!" he exclaimed joyously, clutching onto her arm. "Gigi, we have to go, now!"

"Now? What about your homework?" Gigi fidgeted nervously, not expecting such enthusiasm. Truly, she was afraid of what his father would take it, or if he'd approve their friendship at all. Imagine him fuming, 'You are such a bad influence over my son, Gianita!'

"Homework? I'm off to see the dragons!"

"I could still show you their pictures," she convinced, going over to a rack where she stored all of the books she had brought from Praja. One of her brothers was in charge of the conservation, he once sent her a picture of the island and she had been using it as a bookmark.

"What are those? What are those?" Junior hopped off his chair in enthusiasm as soon as he spotted a jumble of foreign books on the shelf, aching to take a closer look at them.

"These are my personal collection," she ran her fingertips affectionately over the book spines. "I've read all of them, but I do like to re-read and knowing I was going to miss them, I brought them all abroad."

Bewildered, the Prince took each of them into his hands, retracing the embossed cover of the books. Some depicted illustrations of native folklores while others showed photographs of famous figures.