The Rise of Xosha Scavenger Hunt

“We know not where they came from, nor why they disrupted our way of life so drastically. But with their arrival came many changes: mostly for the benefit of themselves and the destruction of our once proud kingdom.

“The Anjyls were ingenious in their plotting. They quickly learned how to disguise themselves as the winged humans in man's religious texts, thus earning them their name of Anjyl. Or as the humans spell it--Angels.

“They quickly turned the humans who were once our allies against us. Our hatcheries obliterated, our children slaughtered, our bravest slain, all under the influence of the Anjyls, who told those misguided mortal males that our deaths would bring them the love of females.

“The greedy stole our riches, claiming our wealth as their own, as they lessened our numbers stealthily in the cover of the dark hours when we, like they, rested.”

An uncomfortable and eerie quiet blanketed the small group of twenty-four dragons. The older ones looked down as they remembered the last days before they'd had to flee their homes like cowards. The younger ones, their eyes shining and glued to Oceanus as if they'd never heard the story before, were eager for him to continue.

“Many of you have asked me why we did not stand and fight. Why we did not wipe out the infestation of the Anjyls and eliminate the humans. I did not answer you then, but I shall now.”

The older ones, surely the same that asked Oceanus this very question, looked to him curiously now as he went on.

“What would that have accomplished? I led a valiant fight at the start and look where are now. Look around you. Those with me are all that remain. Thousands of us were slain as our kingdom crumbled around us. Should I have stayed and remained fighting until every last one of us were dead? Until we were little more than the fairy tales the humans tell their young?

“NO! That will never be our fate as long as I still breathe!”

Many of the younger ones jumped at that growled word which held all Oceanus' age and wisdom in it.

“Out of options, I sought out Rose,” Oceanus craned his neck in the direction of the white dragon who had opted to place herself as far away from the others as possible.