The Needle's I

Ah pernishus, your reverie has stirred mine too. I wandered through the net searching for my old haunts, wondered how the nomads' camp site fared. Using the one-way palantir of the great google, I found only a few people moving about unscathed despite the spam blizzard, though I supposed many others were in protective meditaion. Silence is an effective camouflage there. I even dropped by The Place, bustling with activities and seeing a surprising number of people I recognized from times past. By concentrating on an arcane mathematical progression, I discovered I could focus not only across the metrics but across time, and soon I found a wonderful story written by many authors; this was a collaboration of a wonderful magical place and time. Herein I found the tail end of my thread of that story:

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FoFF: The needle's I - Draco's trip
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He saw a grouping of gnarled trees growing towards the center of
something very strange: Blackness like the umbra of a solar eclipse,
but murky twilight in all directions, oily darkness in the center,
save for a lucent point of light. It poured tendrils of change that
twisted the air, the soil, shifting colors, whispered in the minds.

"Have I seen this place before? I know I have." wondered the watcher
worriedly.

His companion was confused <This is strange, dark but not> *CHEEP*

He stroked his companion gently. "I know Foehn. We are very close to
the center of all possibilities... just relax and watch."

<I don't understand><!>

The mind imagined. Shapes took form. The mind reacted. Substance
acted. The mind disbelieved. Reality shifted. A voice reached in and
queried:

<<<What do you want?>>>

Touching his core consciousness, the question elicited an automatic
reply.

"To see the trapped singularity if that's possible. To see if in fact
it creates multiple possibilities. Who am I talking to?"

<<<Yourself in part. Your expectations perhaps. I am Lathalia.>>>

<<<What do you want?>>>

Draco pondered on the metaphorical implications of this turn of
events. He answered in kind: "To touch your hand."

The bright light flared out to touch his soul... bleached it... White
out.

A firelizard screamed in despair <* DDDRRAAACCOOOOO!!!!!
DDDDAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!*> and he went *between*.

                 ---------< * >---------

Few events are given top priority: they are intrinsic, wired-in if he
had wires. Danger to his body or his shell are a couple of these
compelling instincts. Another few events are granted top priority by
his own volition. He made those choices alone, by his own will. And
he cherished this concept.

For the first time since landfall, the Dragons Flight broke
stationkeeping and it rapidly reeled in its elevators and service
lines. Its hydrogen jet drives spooled up to maximum thrust, and the
gentle sighing breeze that people below had gotten used to turned
into a deeper rumble. The giant zeppelin majestically turned 180
degrees and began its climb towards the center of the island. The
shields now running at maximum power surrounded the zeppelin in an
ovoid of a ghostly blue glow. For the first time, Dae ignored the
calls of the people below. It had to think deeply and it could not
spare capacity to parse speech nor to respond.

In a score of minutes the Dragons Flight reached the center of the
island high above the mountain peak, a trip that took a few days for
the exploration party. Dae would have pondered on this, but he had no
time for stray thoughts. He was totally absorbed in the rescue. The
Dragons Flight descended to the center of this reality. He probed
the surface with mighty energy scans looking for his lost friends.

The magick was extremely potent here, and even though the shields were
fully deployed a message punched through to Dae's core consciousness:

<<<*What do you want*>>>

and he too replied...

                 ---------< * >---------
                 
                 

The sun shined again, its eternal passage across the heavens brought
warmth and light to the lifeforms below. It was an afternoon of many
days past that singular event when the explorers reached the center
of the island, some not to return. The day to day activity returned
to normal. People went on with their daily lives in this gentle land.

Far off in the western distance in direct line with the descending
sun, which had now as always turned into an orange oblate sphere,
three approaching black dots could be discerned by some of the folks
on the beach. Most went on with their interrupted activity because
mirages were a common sight on the high seas, but a few chose to
watch the approaching trio with interest, and with high hopes.

The dots soon took form resolving into three creatures of wildly
differing sizes. A small slender silver dragonet performed snappy
aerobatic maneuvers. His movements created a rippling of rainbow
colors across its body. Another larger greyish-silver shortnecked
dragon swept its wings majestically. It carried a strange package on
its back spines. 

Both of these creatures were dwarfed by an enormous gold hued dragon
easily twenty times larger than its midsized companion. It flew by
catching the ocean thermals in its outstretched wings, and only once
it swept its mammoth wings downward, the force of the wind creating
pressure waves that sent spray outward in a ring on the ocean's
surface below.

The trio turned as one looking for an appropriate landing spot. As
they took a parallel course to the beach, amazed onlookers could see
the intense colors of blues, greens, and silver that adorned the
serpentine neck of the largest dragon, tracing an intricate tatoo of
two dragons in flight.

                 ---------< * >---------
                    (To be continued)
                    
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  / \    Draco, Foehn, Daedelus