The Long March

"It looks like we have a long walk ahead of us," Jarlath sighs, "The best option seems to be for us to go the twenty miles or so south to the village, and try to buy some horses."

Andrea

"Wish we demifoxes could change form for this trip," I say softly to Synizn, "After that trip I could use a good run to wind down!"

"I am just glad I got off that 'feather fall' spell," Synizn says, panting still in reaction, "Tiamat! Always had a fear of falling out of the sky during flying before now. Not of flying, mind you, but of something happening and falling....."

Dragons are graceful and strong fliers. They are able to achieve high altitudes easily. That being the case, if something should happen to their wings to where they suddenly cannot fly then the fall could prove disastrous. Upon gaining the ability to cast magical spells, the very first spell a dragon will probably learn is a variant of the "feather fall" spell. That spell is much stronger than the ordinary kind in that it can handle the tonnage that a dragon's body carries. Synizn here, as I remember him telling me in passing during a lesson, had gotten so proficient at it he could cast it with minimal effort.

I and the other magic user know that particular spell, but we have a long way to go to get to the proficiency a dragon (or a demifox who'd been a dragon).

He gulps, mutters something very softly about wishing sometimes he could still sweat instead of panting to relieve heat, and composes himself before going over to the learned mechanical genius (HAH!) Mucky (staring at Tarin Gazin, who is cussing him out in dwarven).

"....and one last thing," Gazin finally finishes up, switching back to a language we can follow, "You are a terrible engineer and a prime example why 'science' is not taken more seriously! Good GODS! The way you go about it I wouldn't be surprised if it NEVER......"

Was what was happening in that one world known as Krynn with the Tinker Gnomes.....

Things could be getting violent here (calling a gnome, I take, is the darkest insult imaginable) until Syniznand the others puts a halt to it. Mucky looks to be ready to draw weapons until he notices the others about him (human and otherwise) are standing by Gazin, ready to give back whatever is given out.

After everything that happened today, we are rather on a short fuse. It's been a very....trying day.

"Let the fool alone with his designs," Synizn says simply, "We have other business to attend to."

A chorus of agreements with that proceed the journey ahead, leaving the still sputtering Mucky behind.

"Good riddance," I mutter.

While that flying machine got us out of a tight situation, I now understand the reluctance that Grailing showed.

Whatever the case, we have a long march back to the "insertion point", even if we get horses....

Grailing

"So.....tell us a bit about yourself," I venture, "I do not demand information about your Vision. Such business is a personal affair, though it wounds me that you see fit to not share. Religion, though, can be that way, alas. But I want to get a better feel for the elf that stands before me."

"That....is what I am now," Gazin sighs, seeming to accept something inside.

"I...don't know where to begin," the former dwarf sighs, uncharacteristically at a loss, "Everything I thought I knew about you elves....."

"Quiet different on the inside," I say, "Perhaps you would like a few....'pointers' as my human friends would say?"

1. The former dwarf nods, wanting desperately to get a grip on his situation....to better cope. He could cope easily with life as a dwarf but he really has no experience what it means to be an elf.

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