Why the animals in the Draken Trilogy are so intelligent.

"I am sure many of you are curious as to why the animals appear to be so intelligent these days."  The children watched as the apparition paced back and forth on the wall in front of them.  "Let me start by explaining how we saved the animals from certain annihilation."

The ghostly figure flickered out of view, as a jungle scene appeared on the concrete wall, "Man years ago," the voice came from among the trees, "we hunted the animals mercilessly.  Many of them were killed off in the wild and the few that remained were kept in privately held collections."  The scene showed the jungle wrapped in a wall of concrete and a glass dome crafted over the top of it.

"Not all of the collectors focused on just keeping their 'pets' alive," the voice continued as the scene changed to the inside of a laboratory.  "Many of them started to experiment on the animals, as they tried to create the perfect soldier."

The children watched as creatures were born in tanks and grown to man size, before they died horribly when removed from their birth chambers.

"These experiments had some unforeseen side effects," the voice continued once more.  "One of these was a race of soldiers who had a sort of empathy with the animals whose DNA they shared."  The children were mesmerized as the soldiers freed the animals and took over the private collections.

"These soldiers then used the same process that had created them, to introduce human DNA into the animals.  Since they revered the animals too much to alter them physically, they instead worked on their intelligence."  The ghostly man appeared back on the wall again, "Suffice it to say, some of the animals got smarter, and others did not.  The soldiers died off, and the animals have lived in their own areas with no interaction with the outside world."  The scene shifted to a picture of a huge concrete wall with a glass dome across the top of it.  In the middle of the scene, they could see a man pull down a metal door and lock it, he then pulled two security screen together and locked them in the middle.  "Any questions?" the apparition asked as it turned from the gate to look at the children.

"A little girl in the front row raised her hand, when there came sudden explosion and a wall of white hot fire entered the room.  I couldn't help myself, I cast a fire shield spell over the little ones and held back the flames until I passed out."

"When I awoke, I found myself surrounded by the children and a grey skinned man who wrapped my burnt arms in cold wet linens.  I knew I would die soon of my wounds, so I wrote this with the only ink I had, the ash from my own charred flesh."

Signed,

Sir Lenton Night of the Light

This scroll was delivered to the Elvin city of ElraNoch by a grey skinned man who said nothing, but handed us the scroll and left.