Listen
Demand tribute from the sky-human
No.
Hmm. Tempting. But most likely the sky creature isn't even a human. You can speak the human tongue. Certainly other creatures can as well. It's probably a dragon you're hearing. Though that doesn't explain the extremely high pitch of its speech. You can easily
hear that high, but its speaking well out of the range typical of dragon-speak. It's probably best to investigate further.
Focus. Pick up as much meaningful information as we can from the sounds
You burrow in and cover yourself with rocks then settle in to listen. There are so many sounds that it's difficult to distinguish any one from the others. But a few things do become clear:
* It seems that the noises are generally distributed across various pitches. Only rarely do multiple voices speak at the same pitch.
* Strangely, the voices speaking at any particular pitch seem to be completely ignoring the voices speaking at other pitches, even when both voices come from roughly the same direction. You almost suspect that they can't hear each other.
* There are many voices that are doing nothing but perpetually growling or hissing without breath, without end, and yet are not the growls or hisses of any creature you know.
* There is much human-speak among the voices, but there are other voices clearly speaking with a pace and cadence that resembles human-speak, and yet is not.
* A large portion of the human-speak voices are singing, accompanied by what you suspect to be musical instruments unfamiliar to you.
* There are many voices speaking in a manner that is completely foreign to you. They are not speech. They are not growls or hisses or chirps. They are irregular pops and clicks and hums. Something about these reminds you of the calls of insects, and yet they are like no insect you have ever heard.
* There are a number of bird voices chirping at strangely regular intervals. There are some birds that chirp in such a manner, but never have you known a bird to chirp the same note with such perfect rhythm for such a long time
Finally, the majority of conversations you hear do not make sense to you. It is difficult to make out more than half a sentence at a time, but those you do hear are filled with words you do not recognize and conversations that seem nonsensical. What is a "kimkerdashan?" What does it mean to "pile upon moat or way?" And there is a strange preponderance of numbers inserted into conversations for no obvious reason.
During your listening you also observe many voices in the sky. These in particular you pay more attention to, as their presence above you makes them considerably easier to distinguish from the landward cacophony all around, and these seem to be of generally distinct character in comparison to the others. These voices seem to come from discrete sources that you're able to directionally track across the sky. Each seems to always speak in a regular rhythmic bird-chirp, which is curiously close, but not quite synchronized with the chirps of the others. And often, as these bird-chirping creatures approach the east, they begin to speak in the human tongue at a different pitch. These human-tongue voices seem to be having one-sided conversations with another speaker you cannot hear, and the conversations almost invariably seem to mention "landing" and "runway," along with the usual preponderance of meaningless numbers. During one especially curious event, you heard a voice mentioning a "holding pattern" and then proceeded to fly in large circle before apparently being granted to permission to continue by its mysterious silent partner, and then continuing in its original direction.
The behavior of these flying voices perplexes you. Why do they both chirp and speak in the language of humans? What creature of the sky would seek permission from another to land? Why would they need a particular place to land? Why would they need to run when landing? What bird could carry humans to speak on its behalf? Why would it do so? And yet this particular conversation happen so often, so regularly, that you're almost certain you're not misunderstanding it. Has some tremendous dragon emperor come to power during your rest, so powerful that he has cowed the willing submission of every flyer?
You are no fool. If another dragon of such vast power has staked claim to these lands during your rest, it might be best to simply leave. It would be unfortunate to abandon your lair, but it is currently submerged, and it would be easier to begin anew elsewhere than to fight such a powerful dragon, with allies no less, and on an empty stomach. You can always return to reclaim your treasure another day.
Let us sneak to the west
I support going to the southwest
+1
By nightfall you have had your fill of listening. Unburying yourself, you take to the sky and immediately spy a number of small lights over the water. Staying close to the wave height, you cautiously approach one. It seems to be a boat perhaps half your length, with a single single mast with a light atop it, sails tied down, and several humans. Honing your ears in on their conversation, you identify four speakers. Two male, two female. Their conversation includes many words you do not know, but they seem to be cheerfully discussing a previous night of drunken debauchery, during which one of the male speakers embarrassed himself in front of many others. There is also a regular, deep growling coming from a source you're unable to identify, but very near to them. Strangely, the humans seem unconcerned by it.
Human sight and hearing are both terrible, their vision especially bad at night. There's no chance of them detecting you at this distance. You could easily retreat without their knowledge, or rapidly close and be on them before they realized if you wish. After such a long nap, four humans would be little more than a snack, but perhaps whatever creature is growling near them would be more substantial. Or, if you wish to wait, another day or two without eating would be of no consequence. There are also many other lights on the water to investigate if you wish.
Author
Topic: You are a dragon awakening from slumber, the suggestion game, Update #18 Huzzah! (Read 21915 times)