In PDO in Episode 1: City in the Storm, towards the end of the episode Orta and the dragon come up to the empire’s battleship, with one or two of the dragonmares in tow. How come Orta and the dragon go into that other area before facing the battleship? I’m assuming that the dragon couldn’t handle it at the time perhaps. And what is that place they go into? I’m assuming its an excavation site of sorts, but I’m really unsure about this one.
I thought about this when I was working on the PDO story synopsis with D-Unit, and I’m fairly sure that the underground area isn’t meant to be an excavation site: there’s no ancient architecture or technology down there really, just primitive grey stonework with wooden waterwheels and things, though it is on a strangely huge scale. I guess it’s just meant to be an aqueduct for the city, either carved out by the Seekers themselves or an older structure that they put to use when they settled there.
As for why Orta flies into the tunnel, I thought it was probably meant to look like the “safest” route out of the city, as the dragonmares don’t seem to be small enough to follow Orta inside. (Then when Orta emerges from the tunnel, the Vermana confronts her and she ends up having to fight it after all, or something along those lines.)