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