Talking was the best solution under these circumstances. Of course he would not tell her everything, but there was the chance that these people could help him. Maybe they would know what had happened. Curiously he observed the woman who was writing in a notebook. It didn't look like she had noticed him yet.
In an uncannily human act of body language, he held one of his claws to his snout and cleared his throat. The effect was immediate. The women turned around and waved her left hand dismissively. Was she expecting someone?
"Don't you see that I am working? These notes don't write themselves. Go and tell the headmaster...Oh!"
Duran blinked. He hadn't understood a single word the woman had said. This tongue was foreign to him and he didn't think he would be able to learn the language anytime soon.
That could be a bit of a problem.
The worst part was, that he had never gone through the trouble of learning the tongues spell, or buying an item with the right enchantment. He had never had the need. For the most part, he had remained in his home country. Sure, he had been in almost ever part of the country, but had always found someone who spoke common. That was probably the reason that it was called common.
"Do you understand what I am saying?" His voice was deep, fizzling and made one think of the sound of grinding sand. Once again the woman blinked, but didn't show any signs of understanding his words. The big reptile frowned, or tried to. It was much harder to show human-like expressions as a dragon. "I didn't really expect anything else." Still, he had really hoped that common was a known quantity here.
Maybe he should try another language?
Alice looked at the brown dragon and felt way over her head. The creature had woken up quite a bit faster then expected. She had believed it would sleep at least for half a day longer. But the most surprising part was the dragon's action upon awakening.
"Are you talking?" She asked shakily. Of course, the question was rather rhetorical. After all, the sounds the draconic beast produced were way too elaborate for anything else then an actual language. In fact, she had already heard three different languages. The first had sounded vaguely like the tongue of Germania. Unfortunately, a vague similarity was all there was to it and she didn't understand a single word. The next language sounded rather melodious to her ears and very foreign. The last one had an intonation very similar to Tristanian, but was still useless for their communication.
"Oh dear, languages are not really my expertise." Her voice was more controlled now. Sure, she knew a few languages from her travels, but she never really learned the depths behind them. All she needed was to understand and be understood in return. This was incredible. The dragon was speaking in an understandable language. Or at least it would be understandable if she knew what language he was using. How was he speaking? She had dissected a few dragons, mainly to find out what was the cause of death, but the vocal cords of a dragon were very different from these of a human. There should be no way for him to form the sounds necessary for human speech.
What to do, what to do? Should she call Miss de La Valliere, the headmaster? It was certainly a hard choice, but what about the familiar? As ludicrous as the idea sounded, it was possible that the dragon would leave if left alone for too long. If Alice could just explain everything to him.... oh, why didn't she think of that at first? The best thing to do was to use a translation spell. She scolded herself mentally and turned back to her working desk. There, she just needed to get her wand. Her fingers curled with accustomed ease around the small piece of wood and she pointed it at the familiar. "Now then, with this our conversation should work much better."
Duran was starting to get frustrated. After seeing that common was useless in this situation, he had decided to try using English. That had also ended up with nothing. His next choice had been French. He was not very good, but it was better then nothing. Again, nothing happened. He had to suppress a growl from escaping his snout. It would not do to scare the woman. Not that she was acting very worried. Maybe the people in this plane were used to talking dragons?
Curiously he observed as the female turned around and grabbed something. Wasn't that a...
"Shit! She has a rod. Dammit, what kind is it?" He cursed silently and tried to take a step back. Unfortunately, his back was to a wall, literally. This was bad. He knew a number of rods and not many of them had nice effects to anyone but the user. He ducked and didn't hear when the women started an incarnation.
"Can you understand me now?" Duran made a very surprised noise, but he didn't squeak, he absolutely didn't squeak. Slightly embarrassed at his mistake, he turned to the women.
"Ah! Yes, I can understand you now." The analytical part of his mind wanted to ask how she had managed to create a rod of tongues, but he decided to hold this off for later. "I am very thankful that you have patched me up, but could you tell me where we are and maybe what happened to me?"
Duran tried to sound as friendly as possible. It was not everyday that he ended up in a fully foreign place. Yet, the women seemed to shrink a bit at the question.
"Oh yes, maybe I am not the right person to tell you that, but you were summoned as a familiar. We are here at the Tristain Academy of Magic" The dragon tilted his head. This was not the answer he had expected. Of course he knew that Wizards could summon a familiar. Most Wizards did such when they reached a certain level of power. Sure, he didn't do it, but he was a goddamned dragon. There were just not that many little animals that would be of any use to a dragon. Still, he had never heard of anyone summoning a dragon as a familiar.
Wait! This was the Tristain Academy of Magic? Well, Tristain was obviously a location. Whether it was a town, country, or continent was unsure. At least this proved his theory of magic being involved in his appearance here. He wondered if they had planned to summon a dragon.
"I see...." this was a very unusual situation indeed. What was the right reaction right now? Before he could continue, his stomach growled loudly. His right claw moved up in his face and he displayed a sheepish expression. "Ah! I am sorry to trouble you, but would you have something to eat for me by any chance? It seems like I haven't had anything in quite some time."
When Alice heard the question, her expression brightened. This was something she could help with. And when the dragon was eating, she could go and talk to the headmaster. This was the discovery of the century if not millennium. She wondered if the dragon's species would be named after her or Miss de La Valliere.
Professor Erskine had been so kind to give him a whole cow, dead and slightly roasted, to eat. A part of him had felt a great disgust upon seeing the half-raw meat, but that part was quickly silenced by a primeval hunger. He moved with great speed and skill when cutting apart the animal. The bones were detached from the rest of the body with surprising ease. It was not that he could not eat them, but they got in the way sometimes. Maybe he would eat them later.
"Ahem! Mister Duran, I am going to inform the necessary person of your awakening. Please do not leave this place if you can. It would be troublesome if we had to find you." The women turned to the door and left immediately.
"Hmmmm..." Duran didn't listen to the mage at all. He was almost in a dream like state and clearly savouring the unknown beef. He had never before eaten this race. His mind already wandered around and started to compare it to other types of flesh. How would it taste with salt, with sauce, or maybe some more unusual spices? Oh! There were so many possibilities.
(Posted Sat, 09 Feb 2013 20:01)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.