"Anyway, we once ruled the entire world, leaving countless descendants in this world. In that era, there were no humans like you or other little creatures."
The Dragon once again emphasized firmly.
Ian was slightly taken aback.
The next moment he suddenly realized.
"Oh, I see! I understand! You are dinosaurs!" He seemed to have connected all the information together, finding the most suitable explanation for the so-called era of the Dragon Race.
"????"
The Dragon still looked completely bewildered.
It looked helplessly at the small Witch beside it.
"You're kind of half right." The Witch sighed and spoke gently, "From what I understand, the era of the Giant Dragons he mentions indeed seems traceable to the dinosaur era you referred to. No one knows how they came to be, but they were truly the earliest batch of advanced magic life forms."
Clearly.
The Witch also understood the Dragon Race era.
She even knew better than the soul of the dragon beside her.
"Yes, that's right, just like that." The Dragon, completely clueless, yet pretended as if it knew everything, chimed in.
"You actually know about dinosaurs!" Ian was well aware that the concept of dinosaurs dates back to the early 19th century, and Witch Morgan was unlikely to have lived to this near-modern time point.
"Just because I became a soul doesn't mean I stopped learning." Morgan's expression was filled with annoyance, rolling her eyes at Ian as she continued.
"The dinosaurs you speak of were discovered to some extent during our era too. They were both a source of food for prehistoric giant dragons and, at times, became companions of prehistoric giant dragons."
This was knowledge imparted by the teacher.
Ian immediately fell into thought.
After pondering for a while, he asked curiously, "So, the Dragons of our current era and these pure-blooded giant dragons are really related by blood, right?"
"They seem so much weaker than pure-blooded giant dragons." The Little Wizard already had some guesses in his mind but needed confirmation from the knowledgeable teacher.
"Half-blood weakens the power in the bloodline; this is not a mistaken conception by wizards but a conclusion derived from observing the evolution of these fantastic beasts."
Witch Morgan indirectly answered Ian's question.
"I know this one."
The Dragon raised its claw as large as a massive van, "As the last pure-blooded giant dragon in the world, by the time I was born, the human world was already filled with those weak-blood mixed breeds."
"The glory days of the Dragon Race, which I've never seen, had long since faded away."
The noises it made with its nostrils could even change tone, filled with a sense of wistfulness and melancholy, leaving Ian astonished and wide-eyed.
"[The last of the Dragon Race will slumber here, marking the end of the Dragon Race era for good.] "
The message within the Hogwarts Underground Palace resurfaced in the Little Wizard's mind; he never expected the world to be so vast, and he indeed stumbled upon such a coincidence only in the Great Cold Nether Country.
"You're the dragon from Hogwarts' motto, Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus! I've seen your remains!"
Ian connected the dragon bones in the Underground Palace with the giant dragon before him; he hadn't realized this connection at first, especially since the dragon in front of him was far larger than the bones in the Underground Palace.
Perhaps due to the fullness of flesh in spirit state.
"I was Hogwarts' first student! And the only pure-blooded giant dragon to have ever gone to school!" The crouching dragon proudly refuted Ian's choice of words.
"I don't like causing trouble, but I'm not afraid of it either! If human wizards disturb my slumber, I must certainly teach them a lesson!" Its response left Ian speechless.
All along.
Perhaps it wasn't just Ian, but even Dumbledore and esteemed graduates thought the motto [Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus] held deep philosophical meaning.
Who could have imagined it was really just a literal message... Ian could picture someone in the past challenging a sleeping dragon only to be severely injured, forcing the four founders to post a warning at the dragon's sleeping place, which gradually became a cultural emblem used to educate students over time.
In the current era.
Everyone believes this motto conveys wisdom and caution, reminding people to stay vigilant in the face of unknown or potential danger, not to lightly provoke or disturb seemingly calm but potentially threatening entities. Even Snape had cited this motto to warn Ian not to be too reckless.
"Everyone reading too deeply into it!"
The more Ian thought about it, the more he felt he had uncovered the truth.
Bear in mind.
The original text of [Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus] literally means in Latin, "Never tickle a sleeping dragon"!
Interpreting it as a warning makes complete sense!
Surely many wizards have recklessly issued challenges only to receive missing limbs in return from the dragon's wakeful wrath! Ian reminisced for a moment about the magic resistance of that set of dragon bones, silently lamenting for the once seniors.
"If it were me... well, surely I wouldn't win, but who wouldn't want to try." Ian could certainly understand the mindset of the wizards who challenged the dragons.