The Dracotaur flexed and rolled her deadly limbs, as her clawed feet pounded the beach sand with indelible marks, the translucent, almost pretty fins on her back angling slightly to catch the suns rays. How good it felt to be on land once more, with the Earth's heat and soil to warm her blood! Her own mind was more than half instinct, and the simple, primal goodness of the act was undeniable to her. It was what she had been made to do-it was inscribed in her very bones. She had done it automatically, with no conscious inflection-and yet now a part of her that was growing spoke up, in gentle warning.
Think, before actingShe had wondered about that voice, and many other things...such, as...how there were no expanses of water so vast in her own world as that she had just crossed, not nearly so...and how she had marveled so much at what might lie beneath those ocean depths. They had told her many tales-some lies, no doubt-but many sounded plausible....castles under the sea, great beasts, beautiful maids with the tails of fish and the tops of women (The men sounded most vigorous speaking about the tops, for some reason)...was it all to be believed?
She had seen too much to know for sure or nil.
What she did know was that this world was amazing. And very dangerous. And she was getting hungry. But it was warm, and she felt good about what what was coming ahead. She would listen to the voice, though, the one that seemed to be growing in her heart and mind, and think before acting.
...
"Run to where? Do we have any idea where we are? Perhaps you have concealed a pair of seven-league boots of transportation in your pack, there? I know you do not." Conra rumbled toward the merchant-man. Her tone didn't vary much-it was hard to tell if she was making a joke, or threatening to dismember him.
"I truly find it amusing that you are all lost in this single part of your own world, as I am merely lost in ninety nine out of a hundred parts of it. No, it's best we face the foe...er, whoever it is...'head on', as you hunams say. Better than fleeing from one mystery to another, unless the problem proves utterly insurmountable. They might even be friendly-if wary-and running would only make more cautious. If it's a predator, running only makes us prey.
I say we hold our ground and wait for the sun to show us the way on. That's a saying of my own people.
If they or he or she or it wishes to make trouble with us, well...personally, then, I hope it's at least edible company. I don't really want to eat the goat." She conferred, her hungry eyes flickering toward Roger for a moment with a sharp light.
She rolled out her shoulder with an audible pop. Such an odd situation.
In her world, whatever was coming for them would be an enemy, unless it announced itself-and it would, why would it do otherwise? The war never ended, just as the passage of seasons never ended. It had taken a good deal of time for her to realize that many of the creatures of this world seemingly had no allegiance to anyone but
themselves. That it could very well be an enemy to them up ahead-a friend, or an enemy to them and friends to others of the same kind, or the other way around. It might even depend on the mood of the beings in question-not their nature, but their own free will to decide. Free will. Now, that was a concept that was nearly alien to her!
In Conra's world, it was by necessity black and white. Everything had it's place and everyone knew their role. In this world, she had found things were far more confusing...
---
Not posting them right now because, boy, I'm tired from this huge thing, I don't know how Dwarmin always manages to write so much.
As my favorite author Stephen King would be apt to say, 'One word at a time'
Author
Topic: Spellbreakers! RtD. What shall we do with this story? (Read 13745 times)