300, Dragons

Once again it took a while to get the scenario finished. For once there was living proof of life. Klype wanted very much to satisfy Lucie and made a scenario very close to the present time. Once again it was a story like the one about the ants. Klype knew now that Lucie preferred a tale, so he made one about the livings in a not too far time.

The second planet was hit hardest. The global warming lasted a hundred thousand year. Volcanoes spewed magna for millions of years. Most life was destroyed by radiation, earthquakes and gasses. But worst of all, life suffered under the hardest ice age ever.

Most life forms in the seas could swim to warmer areas. They who could fly found permanent routs to fertile lands. But most land creatures got the choice of either to drown or to freeze. Anyhow, most species became distinct. After this great disaster, only one tenth of the sea creatures and one third of the land creatures survived.

The ice, that covered half the globe, pulled back when the clouds dissolved and the star got to warm the planet again. The remaining life got extraordinary good conditions. With new genetic materiel, fewer competitor and lots of food, not only did the remaining species developed. New species occurred by mutation and development.

The new species got almost unlimited life conditions. Soon the withdrawing glacier uncovered all the growth hormones that were a part of the shipment. Lizards developed to the largest species ever. The smaller mammals developed basically in peace, - and faster than ever.

Finally all the ice had melted and the ice age came to an end. The planet became very rich on life in the seas, on land and in the air. After 100 million years, it was still the age of the dragons[2]. They dominated the mammals everywhere.

These dragons developed in several ways. Some species developed merely on a single continent, while other species developed at the whole globe. Likewise, sea dragon developed differently too, since the continents had split the single sea in several smaller seas.

Almost all dragon species got unlimited life conditions. There were rich reservoirs of air, plants, insects and mammals to them all. For the dragons did not eat their own, as long as there were alternatives. Insects and mammals were inferior from the start on. They got merely time to eat and avoid being eaten.

Some dragon species got rich amounts of growth hormones. Both vegetarian and predator dragons grew to almost impractical proportions. Big bodies were of cause an advantage in the struggle for life, but became impractical for movement and eating.

With such a growth rate, the resources decreased too fast. There was no longer a balance in nature. The insects and mammals became fewer and the dragons became more. The predator dragons soon turned against their own kind and attached the vegetarian ones. Soon predators had to attack each other for food too. After a long while the balance in nature was gained and the amount of plants, insects, mammals and dragons stabilized. Some species learned how to act in groups and developed communication and social intelligence.

Some giant vegetarian dragons found one of the few forests in their domain. Their weights were about 80 tons, they were 13 meters high and their upper arm bone ware over 2 meters long.

Frankly, it could not be called forest anymore because it was reduced to about 20 trees. Underneath the giants, there was a flock of small dragons. They were an agile two-legged predator.  They were 2 meters long and weighted 10 kilos. Their long tail gave them great maneuverability and balance for hunting.Their heads were relatively small and short with sharp, conical teeth. They fed on lizards and small mammals, and could grab these with their strong hands that had 2 long clawed fingers and one short one.

The predators acted eagerly, just like they encouraged the giant to take a big bite of the tree. The giant vegetarian gaped over a whole branch, and dragged it between its teeth to get the leaves. At the very same instance, there were hysteric screams from several places in the tree. Suddenly an ape fell down, then another. The predator dragons got their reward.

An ape tried to escape to the tree but, the way was blocked by a predator. Meanwhile another hit the ape with its claws. The monkey fell screaming. Then the first predator sat its teeth over its back and chewed. The back broke. Then the second dragon sat its teeth over its head and dragged until it came of. The other ape managed to get a meter up the tree, when it was hit at the side by a third dragon’s claws. Soon it was ripped into pieces too.

Then the vegetarian dragon took another bite of the tree and three more apes fell down screaming. In panic two of them attacked a predator dragon. They screamed and jumped at its face. The dragon hissed and shook its head. One ape bit the dragon’s neck and the other hit its eye. Two other dragons rushed to the fight. They caught a ape each with their teeth and shock them furiously. The first dragon was hurt. It was hard for it to see clearly. The second dragon laid the guilty ape to the ground in front of the hurt dragon. The ape’s back was broken. It tried hard, but could not crawl away. The hurt dragon picked at it with its claw and got a scream out of it. Then it slowly pushed the claw into its stomach. The screaming ape was lifted to the dragons face. It did not notice until the dragon suddenly bit of its head. The other apes were already eaten.

The apes in the tree were terrified. They screamed and jumped as to scare the vegetarian dragons away. No one noticed. An ape threw his handful of nuts at the giant dragon’s face. One nut hit it in the eye. The dragon roared so loud that an ape fell down to the ground. However, the predator dragons look up to the giant and wondered what this was all about, and did not see it. The giant pulled back and happened to stamp on one of the predators by accident. The giant turned its long neck and looked to the side. There he saw a fellow giant pulling a branch while monkeys fell to the ground. The giant went over there when the predators ran to their new companion. One ape escaped to the tree while the other two were caught.

The other predator dragons seemed to had enough that day. They were just playing around with the apes’ remains. When they were tired of that, they headed home to their own domain. The apes finally dared to go down to their relatives. They grieved, but there were nothing they could do to get them back to life. Soon they realized that and found it safest to climb up to the trees again. The sun was setting.

Then a young male did something unusually careless. Suddenly it ran after the predator dragons. The other apes screamed and jumped to warn about the danger. However, neither the apes nor the dragons cared. The ape’s three brothers were confused and did not know whether to go along or stay. As soon as one ran down the tree, the two others came too. They followed the dragons at a safe distance.

They reached the dragons nests some kilometers away. The dragons went over to their spouses and offspring. The apes found a tree nearby and climbed it. The dragons were well greeted at home. Once at place, they vomited up some of their meal, so their offspring got something eat. They fought a little about it. The apes were horrified but stayed still in their places. However, they noticed that two of the nests had merely eggs and no offsprings.

The apes stayed in the tree till the next morning. They watched the parents leave their nests to hunt. Soon they were gone and the offspring left alone. However, the eggs were still taken care of by the spouses. After some hours a flock of ratlike mammals approached the dragons’ nests. The apes watched closely and found the risky behavior interesting. The dragons became nervous and tried to scare the rats away. But they only spread out and closed in. Soon they were at close range and the dragons became uncontrollably furious. Then suddenly a dragon ran after a rat a long way from the nest. The reaming rats attacked the eggs and cared less about the hunted one. They scraped and bit eagerly at the eggs until they broke.

The rats broke all the eggs and had eaten most of them when the dragon returned. She proudly got a dead rat in her mouth, but she was stunned when she realized that her eggs were ruined. The rats flew into hiding when she carefully moved the remaining with her nose. The rats now gathered around the next nest. The dragon hissed but did not move away. Then one of the apes climbed down the tree and dared approaching. The others followed after. The first one picked up a stone and threw it at her. Next, the other apes did the same. Both the dragons got furious and threatened them as much as they could. But the apes did not quit. Finally, the dragons lost control and ran after the apes to the trees. The apes managed to escape to a branch and continued to throw nuts at them.

Meanwhile the rats attacked the eggs in the second nest. Soon the eggs were cracked and most of the content eaten. After a while, the dragons remembered their nests, only to discover that both were ruined. They ran back to their nests to care for their eggs. Hopelessly they tried to nurse the eggs for a long time. They did not seem to realize that there was nothing to do about it. Meanwhile the apes dared to climb down the tree again. Hesitating at first, they soon found their way back to their tribe. They had learned to follow the dragons to their nests and attack their eggs.

Coming home the apes found no-one. They were frustrated, running up and down in every single tree and shouting out for their relatives. For a long time there was no response, until they heard distant calls from another forest at the other side of the plain. The apes took the risk and rushed over. Fortunately, there were no predators around. At least there were no predators quick enough. Speed was one of their advantages. The tribe had moved because the giant dragons had eaten off most of the food for the apes. These trees were strangely untouched, though.

The apes had a long period of time in peace in the new forest. These trees were quite different from the ones in their previous forest. However, they were very pleased because they provided juicy leaves, fruits and even flowers. However, their long lasted peace could not last forever. One summer’s day the next year, a young giant vegetarian dragon came their way and headed for a tree. By experience the apes moved to a tree deeper into the forest. They sat and watched while the giant stripped a branch for leaves, flowers and fruits. The much smaller predator dragons waited restlessly by its feet. They seem frustrated that the giant continued to rip the same tree when there obviously were no apes there.

However, after an hour of eating the giant dragon stopped. It pulled back and the predators run eagerly around its feet. The giant headed for another tree and took a big bite of a branch. The predators knew that something had to fall eventually. This change had to be good, they seemed to think. The giant hesitated again and waited a long time. The predators were frustrated and furious. They ran around its legs screaming. Then the giant dragon fell down sideward. It did not make a sound. It just tipped over and hit the ground with a thunder. One predator dragon did not see it coming and was squished under the 50 ton body.

Then the apes showed their presence. They jumped and shouted in ecstasy. The predators stood helpless on the ground because they could not climb and their companion was down. The giant could not even be eaten, even when it laid down. It was simply too big for the small dragons. When nuts hit them they had enough. Eventually, they turn and went back from where they came from.

Then one day a couple of large predator dragons came along. Their massive size of 3 ton and 12 meter scared most living being, except for a standing giant vegetarian.

They noticed the poisoned giant that laid by the forest. The apes held still, although they usually were too small to take any notice of the big ones. The big predator dragons came over and saw the giant laying defenseless and barely breathing. They were hungry and did not waste any time on mercy. Have eaten a ton each, there were still about 50 tons left. In this way the giant became the food for many passing dragons. Several flocks of small predators returned and found this much more convenient than ape hunting. The apes got used to the savage feasts in their backyard. They did not care, for they were not hunted themselves, as long as the dragoons ate their own kinds. However, they followed up their egg hunting by following after the predators home after they finished their meals. Although the tribe of apes had found a safe living in the era of the dragons, the fear of the dragons became an eternal traumatic instinct.

Lucie was puzzled. These dragons and primate humanoids are they living in the presence. Oh yes, Klype said. They might not quite of the exact same kind today, but they certainly live down there now. Lucie thought she was about to get something interesting for her superiors. The coexisting of dragons and humanoids most certainly were of their interest. Let’s go, she suddenly said enthusiastic. Klype was stunned. There were no way he ever wanted or expected to go to a dragon dominated planet. Dragons were the second worst thing he could think of, - except for cookie shortage though.