//------------------------------//
// The First Empire 
// Story: Lyra's Voyages 2: On Strange Tides 
// by Prince_Staghorn 
//------------------------------//

We were chained together and forced to walk through the jungle. We didn't stop for anything. However, our captors were fairly interesting. They weren't dinosaurs, or any other type of archosaur*.

They were green-scaled dragons, roughly alicorn sized, with tiny, useless wings. Each one walked bipedally on two bird-like legs, and they were all armed with rapier-like blades and shields. The shields were magic, generated from a small crystal on a bracelet worn around each dragon's arm.



I had no idea what these creatures were, or where we were going.


***


We came to a large river, with a vine bridge stretching across... except it hadn't been built. Rather, it looked like it had been grown into place. Large orange creatures floated in the water, sort of like squids, except supported by two natural buoys, a large organic sail rising up from the back of each cephalopod. Swimming among them were scaly beasts like finned gorillas with seahorse heads, eel tails, and, strangest of all, an organic cannon growing from each shoulder. They all seemed natural, but they couldn't be. At least, not without heavy selective breeding over a LONG period of time.

We were eventually led to another ancient Lemurian city... except this one was in relatively good shape... I suddenly had a good idea who our captors were.


LYRA'S EXPOSITION TIME!


65 million years ago, the Cretaceous Era ended, a meteor wiping out most of the dinosaur species (and giving birth to the first 30 draconequi). Before then, several sapient dinosaur species had roamed the world. With their extinction, a new intelligence rose. A certain species of dragon began crafting tools.

They began progressing, and by the Oligocene, they took to the seas, building an empire, exploring and conquering, even taking back captured slaves, a three-toed equine race known as Mesohippus. The dragons began to carefully breed their livestock, creating weapons and transports, and they selectively bred a fraction of their slaves, creating the Morulak.

However, what pure Mesohippus remained rose up against their draconian masters, overthrowing them. The dragons hid, and faded into myth, known only under one name.

Lemurians.


***


We barely talked as the Lemurians led us into the city, but the dragons watched us from everywhere. We wouldn't be escaping easily.

We were led to a large building, then shoved inside. I had to give these dragons credit, since these quarters were better than those given to us by the Mahars. 

Night was falling, so for the first time in days, we settled down in the cots, and fell asleep