R.S.V.P.
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Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
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Chapter XV
by General (Uncle Claude) Xxaxx
& General (E.J. Gold) Nunan PFC 1st Class Ret.
Student Woo’s eyes opened. They didn’t spring open, one moment they were closed the next moment they were open. Looking down into her face was a pair of kindly eyes wide set in a green and purple scaled face. “This must be a Drak. Wait a minute. What is a Drak and how do I know this is one?”
“Are you okay?” The voice was deep vibrator and equally gentle.
“Yes, I think so. Who are you?”
“I am Drak.”
“I knew that, how did I know that?”
“We have met little-one. You will probably not remember our meeting it was in a land very close to this but much overlooked.”
Great, Woo thought. “You must be a dragon, the speaking in cryptic riddles is a dead give away.”
“Yes, and you must be a human, the speaking in candor bordering on gross disrespect is a dead give away.”
“Touche, I apologize for my unfortunate western habit. I have been sent into the jungle to collect rare flowers to prove my worthiness so that I may be granted an opportunity to work with your clans.”
“Your habits aside, you have actually been sent into the jungle so that we may sniff you. If you didn’t smell right, no matter how well you performed your studies you would have been passed out of dragon studies into some other line of research.”
“Did you say something about candor bordering on gross disrespect?”
“Touche yourself, I apologize for my unfortunate human habits. But you do catch my drift.”
“Yes, and I wish you would stand down wind. This sniffing test goes both ways.”
“Yes, little one you do have a forthright nature not to mention you head is resting on the leaves of a carrion orchid. Perhaps you have mistaken its unique perfume for that of mine.”
Reaching up to verify Drak’s observation, not only did Student Woo feel the characteristic bristles and sticky sap of the carrion orchid, she also could feel countless wiggling things caught in the sap and in her hair. This was the straw. At this Woo sprang into action bolting upright, running around and around the jungle clearing, brushing her hair wildly with both hands and making various whimpering noises — not exactly scholarly or demure.
Having trampled a definite track around the clearing, Woo took a moment to catch her breath. “How . . . (wheeze, pant) could you (gasp) carry on small talk like (pant, pant) that and not warn me that my head was lying in a pile of those . . . those bugs.”
“I figured that if you didn’t have a problem with it, I shouldn’t interfere in another’s life style. I have given up trying to understand human trends.” The twinkle in the dragon’s eyes belied his ingenuousness.
Reaching up to remove a final wiggling thing from her shoulder, Student Woo admitted to herself that she liked this scoundrel of a dragon and the next three years of study were not going to be anything but dull.
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R.S.V.P.
|
Slimeworld & Galaxy Magazine -- All rights reserved -- |
|