R.S.V.P.
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Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
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Chapter XIII
by General (Uncle Claude) Xxaxx
& General (E.J. Gold) Nunan PFC 1st Class Ret.
DracckaifrungNwurK’s, or Drak as he was known to humans and other lingually challenged species, sniffed at the breeze. “Who is this human that cleanses herself in berries and herbs? Another voguing female. One misbegotten quip about a female student and wham it’s an all male college. At least this one has the courtesy to not stink up the jungle. Perhaps this is the one we have been waiting for. We’ve tolerated these humans, forgave them their petty ambitions and trained them in the magical arts for centuries waiting for the one. The one the elders call dragon in a human form I think the waiting would go easier if we didn’t have to work with the human trash that didn’t measure up.”
Dragon Lore [Cypher 7;Code 6] — The “dragon in a human form” that the dragon elders have predicted is a special form of human. It is not a dragon wearing a human form. Any dragon worth his or her sodium chloride content could transform his or her body into any form — including human. It is not the form so much as the content. The dragons were looking for a being that has voluntarily placed itself within human form and still managed to find its way out of the tarbaby called human involvement. In the past 3500 years the dragons have dealt with three such individuals.
Drak has been accused from time to time of being a misanthropist. As Drak puts it, “I wouldn’t miss those anthros one bit.” This may or may not prove his misanthrope, but it certainly demonstrates his proclivity as a punster. Both attributes not uncommon to dragons.
Fortunately for humans, the dragons are generally not at liberty to have social intercourse with humans. The world view held by the humans could not tolerate more than rumors and myths of a race of superior sentient beings. Just look at the trials and tribulations of whales and dolphins, the second and third most intelligent being on the planet, preceded only by the dragons themselves. Not only don’t the humans win the intelligence race they don’t even place or show. The dragons have a joke about the humans, “if the humans were in an intelligence race running unopposed they would have a good chance of coming in third if not second — provided they stuffed the ballot box.” The dragons find this hysterically funny. The whales and dolphins would probably find it humorous if they hadn’t blasted off for parts unknown several centuries ago. The few humans that have heard the joke don’t seem to be as amused by it.
All of this passed across Drak’s mind during the time span of a few micro-seconds while he sat on his haunches savoring the smell of this new human. Peaking out from behind an appropriately sized dense clump of foliage Drak could see the human walking up the hint of a path that passes for a trail in these parts. In a blink Drak was gone — not invisible or hidden, just gone. Drak used the next few moments to confer with the full dragon cownsil for a month of moons then returned to his place of discretion behind the foliage before the blades of grass could unfurl into a standing position. The consensus of the dragon cownsil was to give this human the full test. If it did not survive, no big deal. The likelihood of humans having enough remaining time on this planet to generate another candidate of this caliber was so remote as to be impossible.
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R.S.V.P.
|
Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
|