IF THE STORIES ARE REAL...
THIS IS WHAT WE'D FIND
There is one creature remembered in the legends of almost every human culture that ever existed. A creature depicted with remarkable similarity by the Chinese, the Aztecs, even the Inuits who live in a frozen land where no reptiles are found. Even they have stories of this animal.
The dragon.
Cultures from different continents, people who had no contact with one another. Yet all of them have stories describing the same mythical animal.
Could it be these stories were more than myth?
What if we discovered that this creature that haunts our imagination, had once been real?
If dragons were real, then what were they really like?
How did they fly, and how did they breathe fire?
Why did they die out?
To unlock these secrets we'd need to find physical evidence, evidence revealed in by the slow retreat of a melting glacier.
What if we found...
A body?
DRAGONS
a wild fantasy made real
A layer of snow covers the one of many peaks of a mountain range.
The Carpathian Mountains of northeastern Romania. A remote place. The last stronghold of Europe's great predators, wolves, bears, and lynx. And according to legend, here is where another great predator made its last stand.
A legend that has found new life.
On a large ledge in the mountain range, the Wild Kratts Tortuga HQ stood with a light layer of snow on it.
Inside, the Wild Kratts were relaxing doing their own thing. Koki doing a little reading on her tablet, Aviva reading a book, Chris organizing his Power Discs, Jimmy polishing his controller, and Martin reading looking through a book.
Their recently adventure led them to the Carpathian Mountain range to do a survey run on the remaining wildlife population. Mainly on Eurasian Wolves, Eurasian Brown Bears, and Eurasian Lynx.
Martin read through the book as it was actually on dragons, despite not being real animals he did find them interesting. For centuries, dragons have captured the imagination of people around the world, myths of large fire-breathing reptiles that can fly. Others of dragons guarding hidden treasure, and knights in shining armor slaying dragons. Dragons have also been a hit in cinema history as well, like with the How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, and DragonHeart. Dragons have been a legend to almost every continent, from China, Japan, Romania, Ethiopia, Egypt, to even as far north to Greenland where no reptiles live.
"Fascinating." Martin said.
"Huh?" Chris frowned turning his brother.
"It's really amazing that almost every culture has a legend on dragons." Martin said.
"Yeah, they truly are amazing." Chris said. "Beasts of legends that could fly raiding farms."
"Hoarding caves full of treasure and gold." Aviva said.
"Knights slaying dragons." Koki added.
"Man, it would've been incredible to actually see one alive." Martin said.
"Hold on, dragons are myths, let's not go on a wild goose chase." Koki said.
Jimmy then chuckled. "Yeah, even I know that dragons are fake."
"Whoa, whoa." Martin quickly said. "I didn't say it was possible for dragons to be real. I just said it would be amazing if they did."
"Even so, what animals did start with people of seeing dragons?" Aviva inquired.
"That's an interesting question." Chris said and works on the large screen's dashboard showing Africa. "In Africa, they showed legends of dragons like the Ethiopia Dragon. Even legends of them in Egypt, they could have easily been based on crocodiles."
"Maybe monitor lizards as well" Martin said. "And maybe spitting cobras brought the idea of them breathing fire as the cobra can shoot venom."
"China shows dragons more snake-like, likely based the many snakes like vipers." Chris said as the screen showed a Wagler's or Temple Viper. "I'm pretty sure tigers might've played a role of dragon legends."
"Then we have dragons based in European legends." Martin said. "Showing legends of knights slaying dragons. I heard of Draco Lizards sometimes being brought to Europe centuries ago, and people thought they were baby dragons."
"Guess that's where the legend comes from." Koki said.
"Yeah, in fact, Draco means "Dragon" in Latin." Aviva said.
"And those of sea dragons, those are likely based on whales, including this mysterious deep sea fish." Martin said as the screen showed a long silver fish. "The Oarfish."
"Whoa, I actually didn't think something like that exists." Koki said.
"It almost looks like a sea serpent." Aviva said. "I can see why many would think it's a sea monster."
"Yeah, Oarfish spend most of their lives in the depths, rarely seen at the surface." Chris said. "And sometimes some are washed ashore."
"Hmm. But why would so many countries have myths of dragons?" Aviva inquired.
"Not sure." Chris said. "Many never even met one another. It's odd how they describe the same creature in different ways."
"Even so, dragons truly are fascinating." Martin said.
"Although, I think I do know what creature could be close enough to a real a dragon." Chris said and works the screen.
And it soon shows images of fossils and large pterosaurs.
"Pterosaurs are flying reptiles." Chris said. "And the biggest of those are the Azhdarchids. Queztalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx were the biggest of the them, and the closest thing to a real dragon."
"I'll say." Koki said.
"Yeah, with wingspans over 30 feet across, and as big as giraffes." Martin added. "Those giant pterosaurs would be an awe-inspiring sight. And perhaps impressive and terrifying on the ground. I mean, they were serious predators themselves to any small animal, as well as dinosaurs."
The next day, Chris and Martin were out snowboarding through the snow-covered mountain sides.
They continuing boarding down the slope as then a ledge leading to a sheer drop below.
"Whoa, we've got a monster drop coming up, bro." Chris said.
Seeing they were fast approaching the ledge, and not enough time to stop they start nearing the edge.
"Check out this big air!" Chris yelled as he flew over the edge and twirls.
"Right behind you, Chris!" Martin yelled.
Chris soon fell a staggering 200 feet and soon lands on an angled slope breaking his fall. He rode down the hill as Martin lands but then tripped as Chris skids to a stop.
"That's no newbie move." Chris said.
Martin slid on the snow face-planted and slid to a stop, and then his board landing next to him as his helmet landed on his foot.
Chris then started laughing.
"Nice face plant, bro!" Chris joked.
Martin soon pulls his head free and then narrowed his eyes.
Chris continued laughing as then his hood was pulled back as he saw Martin dropping a handful of snow in it as Chris screams of the cold snow against his neck. And Martin laughed as Chris hopped around trying to get the snow off him.
"Nice dance moves." Martin joked and laughed.
Chris soon removes the snow off him. "Don't worry, I'll get you back." He said turning to him.
"What, me worry?" Martin said and then noticed something. "Huh?"
"Huh?" Chris looked back.
Just a few yards away was a glacier on the mountain side.
"Whoa, a glacier." Chris said.
"Hey, let's check it out." Martin said.
They went over near the glacier as part of it looked it was melted by an unseasonably warm winter.
"Huh. Seems part of this glacier was melted during the winter." Martin said.
"Yeah, certainly showing that rising global temperatures are effecting even the highest mountain ranges." Chris said. "Remember hearing Mt. Everest losing 2,000 years worth of ice?"
"Yeah, definitely not a good sign." Martin said.
They soon climbed down a small ledge and got to a layer of ice.
"This area sure is amazing." Chris said.
"Yeah." Martin said.
Then a cracking sound was heard as Martin looked down and saw some cracked ice by his foot.
The ice continues creaking as Martin panicked with a short gasp. And then the ice broke under him as Martin fell through screaming, and then grunted as he hits a hill of snow. He sighed as he lifted his head up groaning and shook some snow off.
"Martin, you okay?!" Chris called through the gap.
"Yeah." Martin said and looked at the hole we came through. "Wow. What a hole."
Martin then got up and brushed some snow off him.
But he then saw a network of ice caves leading into the glacier.
"Whoa, you gotta see this." Martin said.
"What?" Chris asked.
"There's a whole network of caves down here." Martin said. "Let's call the others to come over."
Before long, Aviva, Koki and Jimmy arrived as they started exploring the caves.
"Sure is odd exploring an ice cave." Aviva said.
"Yeah, these caves look they were naturally formed." Chris said.
"Maybe these caves were once open with an entrance before being sealed overtime." Martin theorized.
"Wait, where's Jimmy?" Koki asked suddenly noticing he was missing.
"I thought he was right behind us." Aviva said.
Suddenly a familiar scream fills the cave, and they quickly followed it.
They soon found Jimmy backed against the ice wall with a frighten look.
"What's wrong, Jimmy?" Aviva and Koki asked simultaneously.
Jimmy nervously shuddered as he pointed ahead.
They turned to what Jimmy what pointed at, and then suddenly gasped.
An old dark corpse of a human body.
A brutal Medieval crime scene.
They then started looking around and saw 2 more bodies, and found they were from the Middle Ages.
The remains of human bodies dressed in 15th Century armor. Armored men entombed in a mountain cave.
"What do we got?" Aviva asked.
"So far 3 bodies." Chris reported.
"A scan shows that they been here since sometime in the 1470's." Koki said.
"Something happened here." Martin said.
"Yeah, what are 3 men doing up here in a cave?" Chris inquired.
"One way to find out." Martin said.
They then started heading further into the cave as Jimmy stood in place.
"Uh, I think I'm gonna-" Jimmy said.
"Jimmy!" Koki snapped.
"Okay, I'm coming." Jimmy said and whined.
They quietly head further into the tunnel, unsure what they will encounter. And this place was maze-like with many chambers.
And in the last chamber, lay the creature that had sealed their fate over 500 years ago.
They soon got to the chamber, as they looked around, Chris noticed something ahead and shines his CreaturePod's flashlight revealing a shape close by.
"What is that?" Chris wondered.
Chris went over to it as it looked it was covered in snow, and takes a closer look.
"Is that a creature?" Chris wondered noticing what looked like scaly skin.
He then brushed some snow away, and then suddenly revealed a row of sharp teeth.
"Whoa!" Chris exclaimed quickly backing away.
Soon they all what it was as it had claws and green scaly skin, and 2 wings.
A dragon carcass. Completely intact.
Perfectly preserved for centuries in glacial ice.
"Is that a... dragon?" Martin said in disbelief.
"It... almost looks like it." Chris said.
"B-B-B-B-But dragons aren't real!" Jimmy stammered.
"This has to be a hoax!" Koki said both skeptically and dumbfounded. "No way it's real."
"Best looking hoax if it is." Aviva said dumbfounded. "It can't be real."
"One way to be sure." Martin said.
He then scans the body with his CreaturePod, and they waited for the results.
And they soon came.
"What?!" Martin exclaimed. "Scan is showing some damaged DNA!"
"WHAT?!" Chris, Aviva, Koki and Jimmy yelled in disbelief.
"S-So... that thing is real?!" Jimmy said disbelief.
"This is unbelievable." Chris said. "A mythical creature proven to actually existed."
"I think we just made the discovery of the century." Martin said.
"Um, before we work this out, we can head back to the Tortuga?" Jimmy hopefully asked not standing it any longer.
"Jimmy, you really need to lighten sometimes." Koki said.
They then begin to leave the dragon's lair, as many secrets awaited them.
Author's Note:
When I was younger, like around 6 or 7, I remember seeing my first look of Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real on YouTube with the fight of the Prehistoric Dragon and the T. Rex. Truly amazing how it shows how dragons might've been like if they truly existed.
Of the different versions, I like the Animal Planet one with it being narrated by Patrick Stewart.