Awakening to a new dawn....

The dragon mage is now snoring again, having passed out.

Later, after awakening to what some call a "four alarm hangover", Synizn groans and reaches into his spell component belt and pulls out his tried and true hangover remedy cure.

Washing it down with a shot of water (touching alcohol right now just made his stomach churn), he then turned and saw the others wakening and groaning.....and felt......pity.

"Here, take this....it'll help." he said to them all.

Later, with bloodshot eyes but no headaches, the others softly thank Dragon Synizn for his kindness.

"Least I could do after making a complete ass of myself last night....and for being such an asshole ever since coming here," the dragon mage muttered, sighing.

The dragons and humans blink and stare at him. This was totally out of character for him!

Dragon Synizn sees the questions on their faces, and decides a little background information was needed before he gave the final answer to their question.

"Before I tell you....let me explain something to you about me," he begins, "Now, my brothers probably already know....or have guessed at just why I have acted the way I've acted. Basically, the simple truth of it was....I was afraid. Afraid of.....shameful and stupid as it seems now.....how human I'd become over time as I was a werebear......"

Dragon Synizn then continued and told them how each day he had had to devote time to meditation learned from the Eastern Dragons (a rare gift boon indeed for a Western Dragon), else he'd succumb to the call of the beast within. It had worked, but it had also cut him off from socializing to a large extent with humans at large.....thus preventing him from really getting to know humans in general (instead of through preconceptions). Later, when finally freed of his lycanthropic curse.....he'd soon discovered by catching himself in some rather odd thinking.....thinking in a rather undraconic manner.

"Uh....trust me, there are ways for us dragons to do that kind of self diagnostic on ourselves," the dragon mage tells them, "It's a bit....involved and dull, so let's just say I did them and not go into the mechanics of it."

He'd been horrified that his mind had, despite efforts to prevent it while being under the sway of lycanthropy (a human curse that also effected dragons under certain conditions.....like how he'd contracted it in the first place).

"I went....kind ‘off the deep end' then and there," he sighed, "I denied it, and strove to be so draconic that even other dragons would pale in comparison at how dragon I was."

Dragon Synizn shook his head in self disgust.

"And so I even kept lecturing my fellow Dragon Circle members....even the Elder.....of how undragonlike each was....and how human they were becoming," he whispered hoarsely. "Tiamat, I'm sorry."

Dragon Synizn gulped, unacustomed to the feelings within him, and fled the room.

"Shit." one Fred whispered, surprised in extreme at the proud dragon mage's confession.

Later, Dragon Synizn had recovered enough to return, promising to not be "such a jerk." The others, somehow, believed him. He'd....changed somehow.

"Maybe getting drunk was just the thing to loosen him up," one Astra chuckled.

"Or not," Demifox Synizn sighed, "He told me once that after living for years like a monk, he'd wanted to do a bit of hedonistic stuff. Thus, when he had the chance and got rip roaring drunk....he indulged himself....."

"And did some rather disgusting things, I may add," Dragon Synizn said, remembering one particular thing....that he was glad nobody else seemed to remember.

"Like what?" Malachi Dronocis asked, blinking.

Several others echoed the question, curious.

"Nothing important," he said, dodging the issue, "Hey, does everyone remember your names from last night at least?"

The others smiled and nodded, and Dragon Synizn smiled, also.

"Good...." he began, then frowned as he remembered something himself of last night.

"Probe," he says to the AI, unconsiously using English, "Did you happen to share some of your personal logs or something with me last night?"

"Oh...I wouldn't do that," the AI smiled, "It's......not something I would do. Too much secret material and such."

"Oh, by the way.....when and where did you learn English?" Probe asks.

"I...don't know," the dragon mage says, perplexed, "It seemed to come from this strange dream I had....that....seemed to be of you dictating notes into one of your memory files, Sector BW-45-2, date......tomorrow?"

Probe's smile disappears.

1. "You'd....better come with me," he says softly. "That... You'd better come

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree