Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 01:08:35 -0500
From: Peter Orion <bd_porion@hotmail.com>
Subject: Blue Dragon - The Orion Transcripts - pt3

This story is fictious. None of the characters or situations are intended to
represent any real life character or situation. This is a fairy tail that
came to me over many rough nights. This story contains sexual acts and/or
sexual inuendo. If you find this  offensive, leave now. I have no desire to
offend you.


Fantasy Winter Landscape

A silver dawn slowly rose over new-fallen snow, casting light across the
northern plains. Frigid wind scraped the steel sky like a dragon's talons.
Then the wind stopped suddenly, as if the Gods had taken a deep breath.
Nothing stirred for a long moment. Then a shadow spread like water across
the snow, growing larger and darker until a great beast could be seen in the
sky. The dragon's magnificent wings glittered like diamonds in the sunlight
as it soared over the plains. The wild air beneath its wings swept the snow
below, blowing it across the plains. The dragon soared higher, disappearing
into spiderweb-like clouds. All was silent and still once more.

Author Unknown

===============================

Blue Dragon -- The Orion Transcripts, part 3

I had realized that the strange sensations I'd felt while attending the
government ritual was somehow being used to invade and control our entire
society. Now don't get me wrong I'm not coward, while I was a young sprout
in the woods, some of the things I had to face in the forest were things
that decent folk didn't even talk about. Creatures with fangs so large
they'd take off a limb in a single bite; claws that would reach out in the
darkness and end your days in a flash. But this ... this was something beyond
me. I needed to run to escape this madness and return after I had a chance
to sort it out.

The evening had been a nightmare; I stood and watched as the life of my
friends was sucked out of them. I knew that for a short while, I easily fell
prey to that wonderful sensation myself. What would I do now? Who would I
speak to about this? Who could I trust? The 3 clans had already fallen.
Tears formed in my eyes when I thought of my friends being taken so easily
by a fiend. Why did we trust Whitaker so easily? It was evident that he was
behind this madness. Why did we allow him in? He wasn't even part of the 3
clans. Nobody really knew what a Whitaker was, ugly pale skinned thing.

I headed home to collect some things. I didn't take the trains. Paranoia was
beginning to set in; what if they were watching me? I traveled down quiet
paths and dark ways that others rarely use. When I got home I quickly ran to
the cupboard. "I don't need much," I told myself. Hell I'd spent most of my
life in the forest. I only needed enough to be sure that I could make my way
a good distance into the woods without stopping. I grabbed a small amount of
food and stuffed it into a pouch on my belt.

As I left my apartment, I turned around and looked at the `stuff' I'd
accumulated. I noticed all of the memories organized in neat and tidy
fashion on shelves. I gave a moments thought to the wonders of indoor
plumbing. I was going to miss this quiet little place that I'd created. I
wondered if I would ever see it again. Then I locked the door and turned
into the hall.

"Hey dude you're out kinda late aren't ya?" It was Korel-Orion in the hall.
Korel was a caretaker in this building where we lived. He had been a friend
for many of the years I'd lived here.

"Not that it matters to me mind you. I mean I'm not one to nose into other's
affairs. I just like to be sure that everybody is OK," he went on.
"Sometimes you don't get out much at all and now here you are goin' out
twice in the same evening, and with that food pouch no less. That is a food
pouch isn't it? Somebody might think you were headin' out on a trip or ..."

Once you've noticed those dark eyes they are difficult to get out of your
mind. In fact, I could barely take my gaze off of his eyes. Korel had always
been such a wonderful person. The kind of person everybody found themselves
comfortable speaking with. He always got along with everyone and yet he had
a sense of mystery to him, an aloof quality that made you wonder if anybody
really knew him at all. His soft skinned nature made you want to take him
into your arms and into you heart so as to hold him and protect him from the
evil in the world. His smile could make you melt into a gibbering idiot.
Words like corruption and deceit would never enter your mind as you found
yourself opening yourself up to this man. Yet here he was, just another
victim of Whitakers treachery.

"... house?" Korel said as I found myself snapped back into the moment. I
fumbled around for a moment to get into the conversation and try to
understand what he had asked me.

"Oh, yes ... um ... I'm sure that was ... um ... well I was just heading out for the
evening" I said.

"So you don't want me to keep an eye on your house?" spoke Korel.

Of course now I realized what he had asked, "Oh that would be great, Korel".
I gave him the keys and taking a moment to enjoy his touch, I let my hand
glide over his as I pulled it back. "Just be sure that it's all in one piece
for me when I return OK?" I knew that I was being a bit more personal than I
should have been but I thought that I might never see him again.

(As I write this I realize that in your world the touch of another can be
slightly more common. Understand that in this place such things as physical
contact occurred so rarely that it could make for a truly amazing moment.
Some people would remember such a moment forever, while others would draw
away in embarrassment and try to forget it as quickly as possible.)

We smiled at each other and I turned to head down the hall. I looked back
over my shoulder and for a moment I thought that I could see a touch of that
sparkle back in his eyes. I found some fleeting sense of relief right then.

As I left the building my `sense of relief' evaporated quickly. It seemed
like everyone I passed was staring at me with those cold, searing, creepy
black eyes. How could I possibly have never noticed this? How blind have I
been?  How is it that we go through our lives seeing only what we want to
see and never giving a passing thought to the things that we choose to
ignore?

I headed to the rail station and found myself on a conveyor traveling up
through a transparent shaft that would drop me off at my transport. I was
completely enclosed in this cylinder but I could see the clear night
outside. If I lifted my gaze just a bit and looked to my right, I could see
the moon brilliantly illuminating the city. The stars sparkled in the sky
like candles left lit in the window for some long lost traveler who might
find his way home by their light. As I traveled higher and higher, I began
to emerge above the city itself.  I could see the image of this perfect
skyscape in the glassy reflection of the dome. Despite my general reluctance
to admit it, this place was an awesome accomplishment.

I noticed Maraqq-Aquin traveling on another runway along side me in a shaft
that was beginning to come into mine. I wouldn't have even noticed him
except that he still wore the orange, red, and yellow robe he had been
wearing earlier in the ceremony. The ceremonial silver band of the Nequii
was still on his shoulder.

As the two paths became one I spoke first, "You are Maraqq correct?

"Yes I am. Do I know you sir?" Maraqq replied with a smile.

"I saw you this evening in chambers. Welcome to our city and to our
community. I hope that you find whatever it is that you're looking for," I
told him.

"I've never before been happy away from the sea and the far shores, but this
place suggests that there can be so much more to our existence. The feelings
you all share with Whitaker, they are like nothing I'd ever dreamed
possible. This place is truly the center of all things."

I just looked at him for a moment, dumbstruck. This crap was really
beginning to get to me. "I'm sure that everything will be just (aahh) great
for you here." I shook my head a bit thinking that if I add some colorful
gestures it might cover up for my sudden lack of good sense. "Yeah that
Whitaker, Wooo Boy, he's just everything really, ya gotta know that, that's
aahhh hmmm ...". Damn, what a great conversationalist. My brain was suddenly
racing for words as I was certain that Maraqq must have noticed that I had
become a complete fool.

"So where are you headed Maraqq?" I asked as I finally got a grip.

"After the ceremony, Whitaker spent some time with me in private. He told me
that he had a special assignment for me. That he needed me to travel to the
southern borders as quickly as possible and report back to him on the status
of a project going on there. I am amazed, and so honored that he choose me.
I am so new here. Where are you headed?"

"Oh, I just need to spend some time with my friends in the woods. This place
can sometimes feel confining and I long for the open skies" I answered.

"I know what you mean. For me it is the water that calls me. If you like,
maybe we can travel together?" Maraqq said in a gesture of friendship.

I looked at his eyes and saw the darkness there. I didn't know exactly what
all this meant but I knew I didn't trust Maraqq. Despite his innocence, he
was a pawn in Whitaker's game. "I'm sorry, and I mean no disrespect, but I
do this so I may have time to myself. If you would take no offense, then I'd
say I need to be on my own."

"No offense taken my friend, I have an important job to do and will travel
faster on my own. Maybe some other time," he said flashing that wonderful
smile again.

Our conveyors approached the tranny station and I glanced back to the city
one last time, wondering if it would be the last time I saw it. My fear of
what was happening here growing to ridiculous proportions. Creatures,
friends, having there minds altered in such a way as to cause them to
conform to the fantasy and whim of one other creature. Truth fading into
non-existence; love and caring being replaced by bigotry and the self
serving corruption of the Whitaker; my heart raced and I longed to be out in
the open where fresh air might clear my head.

We'd reached the station and the transports were lined up awaiting our
arrival. Small bullet shaped carriers that could be propelled along thru a
tube-like structure that hung a few hundred yards above the landscape. Each
car could accommodate as many as 12 people comfortably but they were fully
automated and nobody monitored there usage. I entered into one car and he
entered into another. I gazed at him through the glass and wondered what
sort of project he was heading into at the southern border.

A low hum sound hung in the background as my car whirred off into the tube.
What was ahead of me laid quietly in the darkness of ancient treetops and
mountains. The tube initially curved around the city as it positioned itself
to head to it's destination and I was afforded one last look at the city.
The sparkling lights of conventional life faded gradually into the distance
as I head back into the lands of my youth.

===============================
I found myself lost in thought and drifting in an out of awareness:

Years earlier I would frequently take the trannys to a place outside the
domes. Nequii had been a beautiful world of endless forests. But as the
years had passed I found that I spent less time traveling and more time
obsessed with day-to-day life. Things of little or no consequence became
more and more important while true beauty became more and more ignored.

Hours passed I found myself realizing that every passing year the city
seemed to grow larger, encroaching on the forests that we claimed to hold so
dear. The great tubes that carried the trains beyond the parks, to the edges
of the forest seemed need extensions upon extensions. The forests grew
farther and farther.

Something had happened to my people, something that was causing us to
destroy our world in the name of "progress".  It seemed to me that we had
changed our path, as if the dream that made us what we are had suddenly been
ripped away and replaced with something more sinister. I thought we were on
a collision course with disaster and I couldn't have been more right. Tears
swelled in my eyes as I recognized my own failure to support the people and
ideas that I held most dear in life.

My trip to the hostile outlands ended with an abrupt stop at the station. I
disembarked and the transport reversed it's course and raced off into the
night.

I left the platform and walked briefly down a well kept path to find myself
at the edges of my precious forest. I wandered amongst the trees listening
to the other animals as they told me of the joys they had that day. I
marveled at an ancient tree and tried to imagine all the changes it had seen
in its lifetime. It must have been 20 feet in girth, possibly even fatter
near its root. My eyes glanced upwards and saw it glistening with pre-dawn
dew on the tips of its leaves. I hadn't had anything to quench my thirst in
hours and I stuck my tongue out and licked the moisture off. The taste of
the trees, it's texture in my mouth, I was home.

I needed sleep and the trees could hold me gently in their arms. If I were
at the tree-tops I would be safe and unseen by any hostile creatures of the
night.

In an instant I looked above me and for the first time in as long as I could
remember, I spread my wings and took to the air.

=========
Peter ORion
bd_POrion@Hotmail.com