Anyone who's been paying attention to this blog for the past year would know that the Traveler occasionally runs into dragons. As fae, we accept it as a fact of existence, but he feels the need to analyze it. Something about fog banks and "here there be dragons" and the emotional state of the surrounding area and whatever. Well, I for one would like to know what in bloody hell caused this one.
Yesterday, I was returning to his dorm (or "residence hall" as the resident assistants keep insisting I call it). There appeared to be some fog rolling in as the sun set on campus. It had a distinct boundary at the western end of the grounds, thickest on the road which runs around them. I like fog so I went to revel in it.
It wasn't fog. Not in the least.
Smoke. Not normally a big deal. There's normally the scent of smoke to accompany the woodland controlled burns which happen in Arkansas this time of year, but this was centered on the road. And it didn't smell like wood smoke.
I was immediately aware of strange air currents which flowed through the smoky area. Regular down-blowing gusts. Never strong, but certainly an unusual direction. Visibility was such that I could see the sky through the pall of smoke. Nothing unusual that I could see.
Then the ground shook and there was a wall of shadow immediately in front of me. The gusts stopped abruptly. I took a few steps forward to investigate, which was probably stupid given the circumstances. What I encountered was a mass which resembled a cross between an elephant leg and a sequoia's trunk. With scales. Enough investigation for one day. I did a heel face turn and ran like hell.
It noticed me I think, 'cause there was a cacophonous noise like an army of screaming crack babies on autotuner and it took a few steps toward my direction but it faded out with the boundary of the smoke cloud. Let me tell you it was massive to the point that the bank was filled with it and I think that's only what could manifest given the bank's size. I hope that was an isolated incident.
Somehow I don't think it was.
Showing posts with label Dragons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dragons. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Snow Tinks and Dragons
Had two days of ice this past week. I'm sure anyone reading was aware of the Kansas+-sized winter storm that swept across the US last week. My part of Arkansas got hit pretty hard as far as the state's usual winter weather goes. Sleet the first day. Snow the second. I actually got snowed in at a friend's apartment on the second night. It didn't occur to me until tonight that it was anything other than ordinary. Tonight I saw the Snow Tinks.
It was foggy this evening as slightly-above-freezing temperatures caused the snow and ice to melt and the humidity was so high that it became visible in the night air. As I've said before, strange things come out of the mists. And tonight was no exception. I was walking the path around the outside of my dorm (looking for some headphones I had dropped), when it came out. It was large, in the European style of dragons, and looked to be made of paper and books. Not really surprising, it being a Sunday evening with so much unfinished homework about.
Like most dragons, it quickly zeroed in on me. And I, foolishly not having considered the fog, was unarmed. Fortunately for me, that was when the Snow Tinks arrived. All at once these little snow- white imps seemed to appear from all around and latch on to the dragon. The air tinkled with a sweet childish laughter. Within moments, the dragon was an ice sculpture of itself and the little creatures hopped off and went about their business, which now that I noticed them could see that it was a huge snowball fight. One of those snowballs went for me and I took it as an invitation to join in. I can't say that I won, but I haven't had quite so much fun in the snow in quite some time.
Now as to the Snow Tinks themselves. They're somewhat of a rare breed. Almost unheard of in North America. They're actually the strange crossbreed of a gnome and pixie (something about a "free love" movement in the 1700's from what I've heard) and they tend to bring snow and other wintry weather wherever they go. The name Snow Tink is actually a more recent development derived from their striking similarities to a snow white variation of J.M. Barrie's Tinkerbelle. The species' numbers have grown significantly since the race was born, but they mostly stay in Europe. One has to wonder what they're doing all the way over here across the pond.
But I'm not about to look a gift mouth in the horse.
It was foggy this evening as slightly-above-freezing temperatures caused the snow and ice to melt and the humidity was so high that it became visible in the night air. As I've said before, strange things come out of the mists. And tonight was no exception. I was walking the path around the outside of my dorm (looking for some headphones I had dropped), when it came out. It was large, in the European style of dragons, and looked to be made of paper and books. Not really surprising, it being a Sunday evening with so much unfinished homework about.
Like most dragons, it quickly zeroed in on me. And I, foolishly not having considered the fog, was unarmed. Fortunately for me, that was when the Snow Tinks arrived. All at once these little snow- white imps seemed to appear from all around and latch on to the dragon. The air tinkled with a sweet childish laughter. Within moments, the dragon was an ice sculpture of itself and the little creatures hopped off and went about their business, which now that I noticed them could see that it was a huge snowball fight. One of those snowballs went for me and I took it as an invitation to join in. I can't say that I won, but I haven't had quite so much fun in the snow in quite some time.
Now as to the Snow Tinks themselves. They're somewhat of a rare breed. Almost unheard of in North America. They're actually the strange crossbreed of a gnome and pixie (something about a "free love" movement in the 1700's from what I've heard) and they tend to bring snow and other wintry weather wherever they go. The name Snow Tink is actually a more recent development derived from their striking similarities to a snow white variation of J.M. Barrie's Tinkerbelle. The species' numbers have grown significantly since the race was born, but they mostly stay in Europe. One has to wonder what they're doing all the way over here across the pond.
But I'm not about to look a gift mouth in the horse.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Dragons in the Mists and Shadow Highways
It was foggy out this morning. The entire campus was shrouded in thick fog. It was kind of nice but I was a bit worried that I would run into a dragon on my way to class.
Dragons are imaginary. They weren't always. The naturally-occurring variation was wiped out in the dark ages by glory-seeking knights. But they are now (and that's another story, as Scheherazade would say). Regardless of what the old ones were like, the imaginary sort are generally intelligent but vicious and greedy. And they live in fog banks.
I dunno why. I guess it's something about the fog bank's "mysterious aura" and the concept still ingrained into our collective consciousness that "here there be dragons". They're weird, too. They seem to take whatever form of the most powerful emotions and thoughts around them. To that point, I've encountered dragons formed apparently of test anxiety, the color purple (but not the play), and Hello Kitty. They've all got weaknesses and things they can't do, too. Most notably, I was able to slay a large sulphur-breathing one on the Arkansas River two years ago by scratching it with a plastic fork (again, Scheherazade's excuse).
Mercifully, I wasn't attacked. But that leaves me the other thing I intended to bring up in this post. I sit now at the doctor's office in my home town. It's a surgery followup, but I'm sure I'm fine. Anywhat, my home is some 80 miles from my university. It's a bit of a drive. And though I've become more comfortable driving on the interstate, I'm still a pretty paranoid driver when I'm on it. That self-induced heightened awareness paid off today when I noticed something running alongside my own stretch of highway. It was another set of roads I hadn't ever noticed before. It wasn't the opposite direction's lanes, because that's always been to my left. This path was on the right. Before I knew it, the second highway was running off the ground without any support, sometimes parallel to me, sometimes perpendicular to my own, sometimes running the other way entirely. Oddly enough, I didn't see any vehicles or on ramps and off ramps. And LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, nobody seemed to notice.
This warrants further study.
Dragons are imaginary. They weren't always. The naturally-occurring variation was wiped out in the dark ages by glory-seeking knights. But they are now (and that's another story, as Scheherazade would say). Regardless of what the old ones were like, the imaginary sort are generally intelligent but vicious and greedy. And they live in fog banks.
I dunno why. I guess it's something about the fog bank's "mysterious aura" and the concept still ingrained into our collective consciousness that "here there be dragons". They're weird, too. They seem to take whatever form of the most powerful emotions and thoughts around them. To that point, I've encountered dragons formed apparently of test anxiety, the color purple (but not the play), and Hello Kitty. They've all got weaknesses and things they can't do, too. Most notably, I was able to slay a large sulphur-breathing one on the Arkansas River two years ago by scratching it with a plastic fork (again, Scheherazade's excuse).
Mercifully, I wasn't attacked. But that leaves me the other thing I intended to bring up in this post. I sit now at the doctor's office in my home town. It's a surgery followup, but I'm sure I'm fine. Anywhat, my home is some 80 miles from my university. It's a bit of a drive. And though I've become more comfortable driving on the interstate, I'm still a pretty paranoid driver when I'm on it. That self-induced heightened awareness paid off today when I noticed something running alongside my own stretch of highway. It was another set of roads I hadn't ever noticed before. It wasn't the opposite direction's lanes, because that's always been to my left. This path was on the right. Before I knew it, the second highway was running off the ground without any support, sometimes parallel to me, sometimes perpendicular to my own, sometimes running the other way entirely. Oddly enough, I didn't see any vehicles or on ramps and off ramps. And LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE, nobody seemed to notice.
This warrants further study.
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