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From: Lil Stinker NP-g07 <anywhere@uwant2.com>
Newsgroups: alt.fan.rolex
Subject: A third dragon story
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 19:55:16 -0500
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Tome Quest
By Diana M. Blount
"What do you mean you don't have the book?" asked Amy as she glared at the
clerk.
"Just what I said lady, we don't have it," the clerk answered nonchalantly.
"Look! I called here and asked if you had a copy of Historia Brittonum by
Nennius and you said you did. Now you're telling me you don't have it. What's
going on?"
"We did have it, but ten minutes ago some professor came in and bought it."
"I told you I would be here in forty minutes."
"He beat you to it."
She stood there for a minute piercing him with her emerald green eyes. Then she
pulled herself up to her full height of five feet three inches and looked down
her nose at him as his eyes wandered down her frame. For once in her life she
was glad she was so striking in this stance. Her slim figure, bright eyes and
black hair always commanded attention if she ever straightened up to take
advantage of them. She spun on her heel and marched out of the store, letting
the door slam behind her.
The nerve of that jerk. She stopped under the street light and glanced up at the
neon sign that read: Bob's Rare and Unusual Books. Rare and unusual was a
perfect description of that snotty sales clerk. She should write a letter of
complaint to the owner. After all she was the daughter of the Governor of New
York. The owner of this store won't be pleased at all about her mistreatment at
his store. She glanced at her watch.
"A quarter till ten. Damn I'm late and I haven't even changed out of my horse
back riding close yet. My father is going to kill me," she swore under her
breath as she ran around the corner and headed for her car. Something green
caught her eye. She stopped and looked in the direction of the green whatever it
was. At first a passing truck momentarily blocked the light from the street
lamp, but she spotted the green color again when the light splashed back into
the parking lot. She found herself staring at what looked like a large green
wall right in front of her.
She looked up to try and figure out how tall it was, but the light from the
street lamp barely lit it. Only about a foot and a half of it was visible. The
rest was in the shadows and because it was back dropped against the building she
couldn't identify its shape. She stepped closer to the wall and looked closely
at its surface. It was made up of dark green disks which glistened in the light.
Each disk was shaped like an octagon. She looked closely at them to try and
figure out how they were connected, but she could not see any sign of concrete
or other connecting material. The disks themselves looked rough and unyielding
and each was approximately the size of a dessert plate. She cautiously stretched
a hand out and touched the wall with her finger tips. To her surprise it felt
soft and smooth, so she placed her whole palm against it. It felt warm under her
cold hand and she almost pulled away from it, but it felt too intriguing. She
could feel strong pulsations under her hand. It reminded her of holding a water
hose while hot water shot through it as someone turned the nozzle on and off.
She slowly moved her hand up the wall tracing the path of the pulsations and
marveled at the feeling that the wall's surface was actually rippling under her
hand.
As she moved her hand up and down the wall she was suddenly startled by a deep,
rumbling chuckle that came from somewhere above her head. She could feel the
wall vibrating in unison with the chuckle. She looked up and saw two sparkling
topaz blue disks, about the size of the ones on the wall, right above her head.
She backed up to see whatever this was. The topaz orbs slowly descended. She
found herself looking at a head that was at least half the size of her body,
with what looked like extremely sharp teeth in its mouth. She gasped and
scrambled backwards tripping over a trash can. The dark green head came farther
into the light along with what she had thought was a wall. Now she saw that she
had her hand on some kind of large monster whose teeth were as long as her arms.
Horrified and terrified at the same time, she tried to collect her thoughts only
to have her mind go blank once again as the monster stretched its head out
toward her with its mouth partially open.
"Get away from me!" she screamed as she tried to scramble away, only to find she
couldn't move.
"Relax, you can not go anywhere since I put a holding spell on you, you are mine
now," he said as he opened his mouth even wider in what could be taken as a grin
or snarl.
"If you try to hurt me I'll scream and have everyone within hearing distance
here in a minute."
"O come now child, do you think I would not have thought of that. I have
captured so many humans during my life time that there is not any thing you
could do that has not already been tried. I am prepared for everything, but if
you really want to exhaust yourself by screaming, then go ahead. You and I are
the only ones who will hear it and compared to a dragon roar your screams are
nothing more than a whisper to me."
"What do you mean you and I are the only ones who can hear me scream. This is
the middle of New York on a weekend. If I scream there will be at least half a
dozen people to hear it. Then the army will be here to capture you and take you
away like I have read in my books" she glared up at the monster.
"Oh really, maybe I should fly out of here will I can," he snickered down at her
and then turned serious again, "Look around you child and you will see that
everything is a little fuzzy; good, by your surprised look I guess you know what
I mean. Well the reason no one will be able to hear you besides me is because
you are in an elapse with me. Before you ask, an elapse is a place where we
dragons can go to get away from bothersome things, or for some privacy. They are
also good shortcuts through time, space and dimensions. Now what is that shocked
look for?"
"You're a dragon?"
"Yes I am a dragon."
"You are a dragon!" she announced as it dawned on her and she looked at his
whole body instead of just his mouth.
"Oh, well that explains a lot to me. You see I always thought I was an extension
of the wall or pavement. Now this revelation of yours explains why I have
wings," he spread his wings out for her to see them, "Claws," he lifted a hand
which displayed five fingers each with a topaz claw the size of her arm on it,
"a tail," which he lashed violently once, "and teeth," which he snapped
together, "thank you so much for helping me in this way." He gave her a mock
bow, over exaggerating the embellishments with his hands. "I never would have
figured that out on my own."
"I've read about you in a lot of books. In fact I love dragons. Every time I go
to the book store or library I look for a book on dragons that I haven't read
yet. Now I get to meet one, but why haven't I ever seen one before? What do you
want? and What did you mean when you said that an elapse is a short cut between
times, space and dimensions?"
"At least now I know you listened and understood some of what I said," he
answered as he gave her a disapproving look. "Now to answer your first question,
you have never seen a dragon before because I am the first one who has chosen to
reveal myself to you. You are lucky that I sensed your abilities, not many
humans are lucky enough to attract the attention of a dragon. The fact that you
love dragons was obvious to me since you were able to see me rather easily and
did not freak out by my presence. To your second question I only wish to help
you. The third is easy, dragons can travel in time, space and between dimensions
at the blink of an eye and on just a split second of thought, but that requires
a lot of energy. This way only requires a little dragon fire energy so we are
free to use our magic in other ways...."
"What did you mean by my abilities? and Why do you want to help me?"
He sighed deeply, "By your abilities I meant that you have very strong
telekinetic abilities, which is extremely rare for humans. In fact your
abilities are stronger than any other human's that I have encountered. I sensed
them when I was flying over head so I decided to drop down and investigate you.
The reason I want to help you is because you intrigue me more than most other
humans, so I will help you with whatever you want as I do for the other humans
that attract my attention. Now what is it that I can help you with? Before you
answer let me warn you that I have no more patience for questions so be wise and
answer mine before I decide to toast you."
This was said with a little smoke sifting through his jaws to emphasize his
point, so she quickly shut her mouth before her question could escape. She took
three big swallows and stared at him.
"If all you are going to do is sit there looking stupid then I will allow you
one more question, but only if it is logical and good will you escape becoming
burnt rubbish, and do not think you can just sit there this time either. I am
losing all patience with you now, so speak and speak fast or I will toast you
for the sheer pleasure of it and leave."
Now his eyes were bright and she could even see little spurts of flame in his
mouth when he spoke so she swallowed hard again and opened her mouth. Nothing
came out and his eyes were narrowing rapidly, so she swallowed hard again and
said the first thing that came into her mind. "I don't know what you can help me
with because I don't know what you were referring to when you said you were here
to help me." She was breathing heavily now and her heart was racing as she
stared up at him. For a moment he didn't move and she was afraid he didn't like
her answering question then he relaxed his stance a little.
"I am here to help you find what ever it is that you were so upset about in that
store. So what is it you are looking for?"
"Oh I'm looking for one of the few remaining copies of Historia Brittonum. There
are only about six that survived till this time and miraculously one of them had
been here until the jackass in the store sold it to someone else after I had
called about it. I thought I would have a copy of it finally. I even went to the
risk of being late for my father's big dinner tonight. Which I'm totally late
for now and ....."
"ENOUGH! I WILL NOT STAND FOR YOUR RAMBLINGS. Do it again and I will crush you
with my claws. Now as for your book. I know where at least two copies can be
found that are in perfect shape and of which you humans do not know....."
"You do! Wow! Where are they? Will you take me to them...." she stopped as he
raised one of his hands and flexed his claws at her.
He relaxed his stance when she became silent again, but he paused for a moment
before setting his hand down. "I might take you to them, but first I want to
know why you want this book so badly before I go to the trouble of taking you to
find them?"
"Well like I said before, I like to read books with dragons in them. I'm not
sure if this one contains anything about dragons, but I want it anyway. Will you
take me to get it now?" That wasn't her real reason for wanting the book, but he
didn't need to know that what she wanted the book for was to look for a key to
her past. She had always had the feeling that she belonged in medieval England
in the time of the dragon and now that she was with him she felt that feeling
even more. She was more comfortable with him than she was with most people.
"Well, I know my father, Solas, has one. His library has every thing that was
ever written in any dimension, on any planet, in any time. I could ask him to
bring it, but he is busy with Zenith, so he would not be happy with me for the
interruption. Nor would Zenith for that matter and I am not willing to have
Zenith angry with me over just a book, so that leaves Malice. His library
contains a copy of every thing ever written on Earth. So I know he has to have a
copy of Historia Brittonum. I will take you to see him if you will do one thing
for me."
"What do you want from me?"
"I want your word that you will serve me for however long I wish you too in my
own dimension."
"What? I'm a governor's daughter, I serve no one."
"Suite yourself." he turned to leave.
"All right, I'll be your servant if you take me to get the book."
"Good, climb aboard." He turned and lay down so that she could reach his back
easier.
She tested her ability to move and found that she could get up. Now that she was
thinking about getting her hands on the book she had wanted for so long she
forgot about having to serve him once she got it and climbed aboard his back,
Which took some doing since his skin was slicker than it looked and she kept
sliding off. It took her four tries before, with the help of his nose pushing
her up, she was positioned between one of his neck ridges and a shoulder ridge.
Now that she was on his back she noticed that topaz blue was on the tip of all
of his ridges, as if the tips had been brushed with a petite paint brush. She
didn't have long to ponder this fact before the bottom dropped out from beneath
them and she frantically reached for and clung to the ridge in front of her as
she felt herself leave his back. Then he just as suddenly spread his wings and
stopped their descent making her slam back down onto his back which nearly
knocked the breath out of her. When she looked down she noticed that they were
about three hundred feet above a cliff that had, she guessed, a drop off to the
valley below of at least a hundred thousand feet. It had to be early afternoon
because the sun was just starting its downward decent. She had just gotten her
stomach back when he dove for the cliff, slamming her against the shoulder
ridge, which she swore was cutting into her back. Then he stopped suddenly in
the air above the cliff which through her forward into the ridge she was still
clinging to and then landed a lot softer than she would have imagined after that
super harsh flight.
"You can let go of my ridge and dismount now." He chuckled as he kneeled to give
her easier access to the ground.
She quickly slid off his back and collapsed to the ground. It took all she had
not to kiss the blessed earth that was once again under her feet. Above her head
she heard him laughing at her. He had done all of that crazy flying just to
scare her to amuse himself. She glared up at him, stood up to her full height,
braced her hands on her hips and gave him her most condescending look, which
made him laugh that much harder. Exasperated, she turned toward the mouth of the
cave and saw a young man standing in the door way. Was this Malice? Is Malice
then a human? The dragon must have noticed the young man, too, because the
laughing suddenly stopped and she heard his claws scratching on the cliff's
surface as he walked to the mouth of the cave. She moved up to stand next to his
shoulder where she could see the young man. The young man's eyes were focused on
the dragon. The boy didn't seem to be nervous because a dragon was standing
there, so she supposed he was used to them visiting. A lot more used to them
than she was.
"Well, you are new. When did Malice take to having a human servant. Especially
up here," said the dragon as he eyed the boy skeptically.
"I'm not human. I'm a shape shifter," answered the boy, "My name is Troika."
"That is different. Troika, how many shapes can you manage now?"
"Three!" announced the boy right before he changed into a black Flion1 with red
on the tips of its wing; he then changed into a silver Unicorn with a golden
horn, hooves and eyes; lastly he changed into a small blue dragon with red eyes
and yellow wings. Then he went back to his human shape.
"That was very good. You can even change colors most shape shifters do not
master that until they are at least fifty. Now take us to Malice."
"I can't do that right now because he's taking a nap and left orders not to be
disturbed. I will take your name and tell him you dropped by though."
"My name is Georgia Pine and I will see him now!" he answered as he stormed past
Troika and disappeared into the cave.
The boy nearly fell over backwards in his rush to get out of the way. He then
looked back at Amy.
"That was close. Malice told me that Georgia Pine is in the habit of just
dropping by and that I should let him in and not try to keep him out."
"Oh, why does he come by here so often? and Where is here?"
"Oh I'm sorry I thought you knew where you are. You're on the southern side of
Dragon Mountain on Dragon Planet I in the Earth Dragon Dimension. It's the next
dimension up from earth's. I'm not sure why Georgia Pine drops by so often, but
I would say it is because Malice is lazy and Georgia Pine has a reputation of
making even the laziest dragon do something every once in a while."
"Oh I see."
"Well come on, I'll show you to the kitchen, I'm sure Georgia Pine will want
some sunflower tea."
"I am not here to go sit in a kitchen, Georgia Pine brought me here to get a
book that I am looking for."
"Oh? I guess I owe you an apology, I thought you were his servant."
"I am."
"Well in that case come with me you have serving to do and if he is going to get
you a book from Malice then he'll get it without you." Troika stuck his nose in
the air, turned and marched off. He had gone a few steps when his name was
bellowed from within the cave. "Now you've done it!"
"Done What?"
"Since I had to stand here explaining things to you, I'm late in serving Malice
so he is mad at me. I'm sure Georgia Pine is angry with you too by now. No, no
more questions just follow me before we get them any madder."
She was led through several corridors and passages before they entered a large
room which had, counting the door they walked through six doors spread out
around it that led different directions. In the middle of the room was a rather
large, he was smaller than her dragon, misty gray dragon with scarlet red ridges
and emerald green claws, wings and eyes sitting in it. Georgia Pine was sitting
next to him and they both looked at Troika and herself as they walked into the
room. Malice was the only one who looked angry so she passed Troika and walked
up to stand beside Georgia Pine.
"Troika, go to the kitchen and bring up some sunflower tea for Georgia Pine and
his servant Amy. You can leave it here with mine and we will get it when we
return from the Library." ordered Malice.
"Yes sir." answered Troika as he gave a slight bow then turned to leave. He
glared at Amy on his way out of the room through a door to the right.
"Well Amy, Georgia Pine said you want a book. So what kind of book do you want?"
"I was looking for a copy of the Historia Brittonum. Do you have one?"
"Certainly, if you would both follow me please." He rose and headed for a door
to the left of the chamber. When they walked through the door Malice whispered a
phrase and the room light up instantly. Amy was floored by what she saw. All
four of the walls had shelves ranging from top to bottom and every shelf was
field with books, parchments, and scrolls. She approached a shelf which had some
stone tablets on it. When she got closer to them she saw that it was the Ten
Commandments from the bible. She gasped as she realized that and next to them
were some ancient scrolls from biblical times as well as from ancient cities
like Troy and Athens. As she walked down looking at the shelf she saw the
complete original transcripts of William Shakespeare's plays and poems, the
original copy of the Bible in Hebrew, several texts written in Latin and even a
copy of Beowulf which looked unharmed.
"Wow your library looks like it has everything in it. I could spend an eternity
here."
Georgia Pine and Malice both chuckled then Malice said, "Well little one Georgia
Pine will have to bring you back some time to read some of them. Now the book
you want is over here." He crossed to the left side of the room. Traced a shelf
with his claw and then pulled out a huge book. "Here you go child, you can keep
this copy of the book for I have two of them." He handed her the book which
proved to be a little too heavy since she dropped it.
Malice laughed as Georgia Pine came forward and picked it up for her. "I will
carry it for you. Now I am sorry to have to cut our visit short this time
Malice, but if I do not get back over to the Crystal Palace in time to train
Aristrofus' troops in battle techniques then he will have my head."
"I understand completely Georgia Pine, but do bring your little human back. It
is not that often when I have some one visit who likes to read my books and
spend time with me in my library."
"Certainly, come Amy." Georgia Pine wrapped his tail around the book to free his
claw, turned and left the room. Amy followed behind him. They passed Troika in
the other chamber and went back out the door she and Troika had entered through.
Troika glared at her as she passed and she stuck her nose up in the air and
walked out of the room as regally as she could in jeans and a tee-shirt.
When they reached the cliff Georgia Pine lay down and let Amy climb aboard. Once
she was settled on his back, with his help, he stepped to the edge of the cliff
and surged forward into the air spreading his mighty wings. He flapped his wings
in three powerful down thrusts to gain a good altitude then circled right and
flew toward the sun. They had flown for a few minutes when he sailed over a
mountain and dropped down to a lower altitude in a valley.
She looked down into the valley. The walls were covered with caves, most of
which had a cliff on the front of them. Most of the caves were close together
but there were a few larger caves located higher on the walls which were alone.
There were dragons of various colors, shapes and sizes located all over the
valley. Some were on the cliffs, while others were flying around or on the
valley floor. Georgia Pine flew to the end of the valley where there were only
six caves spread out with three caves on each side of the valley and all six
caves had a cliff large enough for three full size dragons to lie on. The caves
were positioned with the farthest one from the waterfall as the highest one on
the wall. The middle one was the next highest then the third one on each side of
the valley was the lowest, yet it had a drop off to the valley floor of at least
two thousand feet. On the end wall was a cascading waterfall which emptied into
a large pool of water. Georgia Pine headed for the cliff of one of the caves on
the right. It was the cave that was the closest to the water fall. He landed
softly and lay down to let her dismount.
"This little one is my cave and your home until I decide your service to me is
over. You may look around, but be careful I do not want to loose you to the
valley floor."
She looked around at the other caves on there side of the wall then across the
valley to the caves on the far side, which looked like ant holes from where she
stood. None of them showed any signs of being lived in. "Who lives in these
other caves?"
"Well the highest one on that side belongs to Aristrofus, our highest ranked
General and the Prince to the dragons. The one in the middle belongs to Star
Gaizer the lowest ranked general of the dragons, his wife is our healer dragon,
we go to her whenever we are sick or hurt. The one across from mine is vacant at
the moment. Now the highest one on this side belongs to Cockalane, the second
highest ranked General to the dragons, the one in the middle is also vacant."
"All the dragons that you named, except for the healer, are generals, so does
that mean you are one too?"
"Yes little one, you're smart for a human. I am the third highest ranked of the
four Generals."
"Then why is your cave lower than Star Gaizer's?"
"Because I liked this one better than the others and it is my choice where I
live. Now no more questions. You and I both have work to do now come along."
He led her into his cave and showed her to a room which had a large nest like
structure in the corner which looked to be made out of raw cotton and giant
feathers. He pulled a handful of this material off and made a small nest about
three feet from the large one. Then he placed her book next to it.
"This is where you will sleep. I sleep on the larger one so if you ever need
anything I'll be right there. Now I know the times changed on you and this is
your usual sleep time so you may rest. I will wake you if I need you."
"Thankyou," she sighed as she crawled onto her nest. It was extremely soft so
she fell into a deep sleep instantly. A few hours latter she was awakened by
someone calling her name. She opened her eyes and was startled by the presence
of a dragon. Then she remembered everything that had happened the night before.
She rose and was put to work making Georgia Pine's breakfast. After breakfast,
which took a while to prepare since she wasn't used to cooking, she had to clean
out his entire cave, which consisted of twelve large chambers, eight passages,
four small chambers and one large cliff.
This continued for the next two weeks. She had to accompany him everywhere he
went and since he made no effort to get her food she was used to or give her a
fire, she had to learn to eat raw meat from various planets. The other dragons
looked down on her, but since she was Georgia Pines servant none of them would
bother her. She actually became fairly good friends with Georgia Pine and
although he would not allow her to cook her food he did let he curl up with him
on his nest at night so she could stay warm. She would crawl up onto his tail
and he would lift her on the bed where she curled up in the crook of his neck
with his body all around her keeping her warm. She had only slept on the bed he
made for her the first night she was here.
She never had any trouble sleeping and actually enjoyed herself when she could
just sit still and watch him train the other dragons in fighting skills. From
what she could see there wasn't a dragon that could beat him. He told her that
only his father or another Star Dust dragon could defeat him. He talked a lot
about his father and she found herself wishing she could meet him, but that
didn't happen.
She had been here for a little over two weeks when he came in from sunning
himself on the cliff. She was cleaning up the entrance chamber. He walked past
her to their bedroom and returned a minute latter with the Historia Brittonum.
"Come along Amy." he said as he lay down to let her mount which she did without
his help, after two weeks of this she had gotten good at it. She was good at
balancing herself on his back too, so that no matter how rough he flew she could
stay with him and not get thrown around on his back.
"Where are we going that you need my book?"
"I'm taking you home. Your time of service is over." He said as he walked out
onto the ledge, surged into the air and gained a good altitude. The next second
they were hovering over the parking lot of Bob's Rare and Unusual Books. He
landed and let her off. She glanced around the parking lot and was surprised to
see her candy apple red `96 mustang convertible still sitting there.
"I can't believe that my car hasn't been towed with me gone for two weeks."
"You were only gone for two minutes since I brought you back to the time of two
minutes after we left."
"Oh, well, um......." she looked at her feet. She would miss being with him. She
didn't really want to be back home, she would rather stay with him. After all
these past two weeks, though filled with hard work, were the best two weeks of
her life.
"Here is your book Amy," He gave her the book, which didn't seem that heavy now
that she was used to dragging large animals and buckets of water around the
cave. "Be well in your life and do not be surprised if you see me again
sometime. You were the best servant I have had yet."
"Thankyou, I really enjoyed myself. I'm not even sure I want to be back home."
"You need to go home little one, but remember if you ever want me all you have
to do is find a dragon that is willing to bring you to me. You can usually find
one if you go down a path in the woods that is overgrown. Just look around you
carefully and you will see them, now that you believe in us. I have to go now so
be well little one and remember never discount that we exist or you will never
see us again. You can only see a dragon if you believe in them. Good bye little
one," with that he disappeared in a flash of green and topaz.
She sighed, walked over to her car and put the book in the passenger seat. With
one last glance at where he had been standing she hoped in her car and drove out
of the parking lot.
Lil Stinker
"just havin' fun!"
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