A Glider Discusses Humans

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 30374

The magic lights in the laboratory continued to glow. Fred continued to breathe steadily on the mage's bench, oblivious to the world. Astra gazed into the darkness of the tunnels leading into the laboratory, watching for the reflections from the eyes of the dragon or his agents. Checkers lay uncomfortably on the stone floor. Astra had the awful feeling of being utterly alone, with a lifetime of subservience and humiliation before her, and nobody that she could talk to. Checkers was still awake and therefore available for discussion. In an effort to make herself feel more human, and to relieve as much of the awful burden of her bleak future as her oath would allow, she struck up a conversation with the Glider.

After some talk about the small bumps and bruises that each had received, Astra asked Checkers why she was afraid to give blood. She had shown no reluctance to risk herself when exploring the tunnels, and knew that she was on a dangerous quest. What was she afraid of?

Checkers remained silent for a spell, and then rolled over onto her belly, resting her chin in her hands, staring at Astra. To Astra she made a funny picture, as she looked very much like a normal woman, but with the wings fanned out from her hands, she obviously was not. Checkers spoke. "It is not simple, Astra. There are some things about us that you do not know about, and there are a lot of things about the people here that I am still learning about. Where do I begin? First, your people seem to have a superstitious awe for magic users. You are very trusting of them. Our people try to avoid getting involved with things that we do not understand."

"You are afraid of magic, then?"

"Not afraid, just very cautious. And I do not believe in many cases that it is magic. It is more like 'hidden knowledge', which to my mind, and that of many Gliders, is 'hoarded knowledge'. Use of magic shows a selfishness by the user. Also, once this so-called 'magic' is exposed, much of it is just showmanship designed to give the so-called magician an exaggerated sense of importance. And then there is the matter of submitting one's body to it. The body is a delicate instrument, especially the wings. Having angliderim, especially a so- called 'magician', muck about the wings is very scary, and uncomfortable. Given the nature of the emergency, I thought that the leg might be done safely."

"What is an anglideim? There is no such word in our language."

"Oh, sorry, Astra. An angliderim is simply an animal that is not gliderim. That is not very helpful, I know. I will explain it, but only if you promise to let me explain fully. There are some parts that may offend you."

"Go ahead, Checkers. You are worried about my opinion, so it cannot be too bad."

"Well, we call ourselves Glideri in our native language, Modern Dolomite. Gliderim is a concept that covers several meanings. The first is an ability to fly, of course. But the second implies intelligence, and the third implies a certain virtues of honesty, courage, patriotism, compassion, and ability to keep one's word. Your people have a similar pair of phrases in human and humanity.

"It makes sense. Of course, angliderim implies that one cannot fly, or one does not have intellect, or one is morally bad, right?"

"Yes. Some mean it in the sense that one cannot fly and they are not rational and that they are bad, as if one condition necessarily meant the others. Tragami, which in the Common Language means 'dragons' are considered glideri, and are expected to be both intellegent and virtuous, although we both know of one that isn't."

Astra laughed at this. She could see where how Checkers was having difficulty in adjusting to dealing with humans. She felt fortunate that Checkers was for some reason more broadminded than what she was describing as the typical Glider attitude. She asked about this - why did the Gliders seem to be hostile to humanity, and why she seemed not to be that way?

Checkers explained, "Gliders never go far beyond the bounds of the League, so our interaction with humans is most likely to be at the point of a spear or involve raiding a farm taken from our land for fruit or food. The ogres - sorry about that, that is a slur, just like harpy is to us - the humans and Gliders have a different idea as to whether the trees can be truly owned or not. They consider us thieves, and we consider them to be greedy. That is one of many points of friction. You have to understand that sometime in the distant past, there were no animals in the Morninglands that could think that could not fly. Essentially everything that crawled around on the ground was 'prey.' The coming of humans into the East complicated that mindset. Unfortunately, and no offense is meant, but the humans that have come into the Morninglands were not 'humane.' They drove us off our lands, and fenced them in for crops, killing the big game. We remember that their so- called 'magic users' led the way. They discovered that our wings made a strong but flexible cloth. Well, you can imagine what happened." Checkers looked away, obviously uncomfortable with what she had said, as if speaking about this broke some sort of rule. She continued. "Astra, I do not want to dwell on that. I have journeyed across the Morninglands, and have seen that your people are a varied lot, like us. Any race that has kings and slavers is degenerate compared to the Gliders, who have neither. But I have also seen great displays of love, self-sacrifice, honour, and generosity - a few times, even for someone as alien as myself." Checkers then smiled thinly. "And I admit that our people often can be stubborn, hard, provincial, and suspicious, and can fall as short of our ideals as your people do yours."

Astra nodded her head, and thought that she understood. There were many reasons why she would naturally distrust Belboz - both a magic user and someone who appeared to be human. And the fact that he was setting himself up to become a slave owner was not going to raise Checkers' opinion of him. Astra could see that Belboz was creating problems for himself. All she had to do was keep her silence.

Astra had many unanswered questions. Something happened to Checkers - what drove her to seek out the dragon? And how did she overcome a distaste of humans, if not for magic and magicians? And what did she mean by that remark about "kings and slavers?" She acutely felt the injustice of slavery, which was banned in Aqualaria. But why lump kings, a part of the divine order, in with something disgusting like slavery?

  1. Astra asked why Checkers left her home and sought to kill the dragon.
  2. Astra asked Checkers what she had against royalty.
  3. Before Astra could ask Checkers a question, Checkers posed one of her own.

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