Editing Journey of the Strange (section)

===The Drakes and colonisation===
Much of the lowlands occupied by the drakes is inhospitable swamp and mangroves, but there are ranges of low hills a short way inland. In the incipient colonies, these hills are considered prime targets for agriculture. A few dissenting voices have pointed out that, despite the lush vegetation, the red soil is very infertile and have proposed ambitious schemes for partial draining of some of the coastal areas to plant rice. That infertile soil could support lush vegetation is, of course, considered foolishness by most. Overall, no particular direction has yet been taken, though most know that the colony cannot sustain itself forever as it currently is.

The drakes themselves have no discernible organisation or society yet a few have shown themselves to be quite intelligent and cultured when they have come in peace to deal with the colonists. A dozen years ago, an effort was made to use the drakes' services to chart some of the coastline from the air. Despite the cartographers' best efforts, however, all they could produce were strange geometrical designs linking the various known geographical features, utterly useless for navigation. Due to the exorbitant fees charged by the drakes (consisting of diamonds, rubies and live captives), the maps were never thrown away, but are rather held under lock and key.