Mountain Journeys (by Dravaena)

This is my first blog post, so let me come right out and say that no, I don't always speak/write in verse.  I am the lyrical Dragon-Muse on this team, but I'm not Dr. Seuss.  He was a genius and all, but geniuses often slip into annoying madmen, and Dr. Seuss slipped this way a little too often for my taste.  Now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can continue.

(Jerry will post his own version of this trip later.  I think it will include pictures.  This is my version, and I prefer to paint pictures with my words.)

Ruth (I refuse to call her "the human," or "Mom"...Ruth is her name) took a ten hour drive back to the land of her origin this past weekend.  For some reason, she wanted some of us Dragons to accompany her.  Apparently, this is what she does.  She's taken Pneuman on an airplane, which led to the breaking of one of his horns.  He had it reattached through a major surgical procedure.  I'm not sure why he was so whiny about it.  When my horn broke off in the midst of glorious battle, it stayed off. 

She also took Bion on a car trip.  When I first heard of this, I thought it must have been frightfully boring for poor Bion, but then, he's pretty dull most of the time anyway.  He doesn't like too much excitement.  I figured he probably slept most of the trip. 

As Dragons, we can fly.  I could travel from here to the other side of the world overnight.  There's no reason for all of this human travel, or so I thought.

But then Ruth suggested I come on this latest car trip.

At first, I was tempted to decline.  I didn't like the idea of traveling like a human.  Also, Ruth wanted to bring Jerry, and while I like him quite a bit, I wasn't sure I wanted to spend 10 hours in the car with him...and then another 10 hours back.  But Ruth and I were still in that awkward getting to know each other stage.  Neither of us really knew what to do with the other one.  She was able to see the beauty in me beyond all my battle scars and often brash personality, and I was able to see beyond her obvious lack of poetic talent, but other than that, we really didn't have any kind of connection--at least not like the one she had with the other Dragons.  I thought it was because we're both females.  And we're both the type of females that either really get along with another female, or we just don't.

So I agreed to go on this journey to see if Ruth and I could really make any kind of friendship connection, or if we were just destined only for a professional Dragon-Muse/Writer relationship. 

The first four hours of our trip were quiet.  Too quiet.  For one thing, I had drugged Jerry.  Even though Tai had agreed to go along with us to help keep the peace, it was obvious that Jerry was far too excited to be trusted to behave himself.  So I took some of the expired Dramamine that Ruth had lying in the bottom of her dresser drawer, and I gave about five pills to Jerry.  I figured that would knock him out for a while, and it did.  So for the first four hours of our trip, it was quiet...but uncomfortable.  Even though Tai kept making jokes and stealing sips of Ruth's vanilla chai tea, it was awkward.  I was bored.  Turns out, driving four hours through NC is just not all that much fun.

...that is, until you get to the mountains. 

I've seen mountains before.  I've seen the harsh, rocky, jagged mountains that look like they're guarding something.  Of course, they are guarding something, and I don't care to try to find out what it is.  I don't mind fighting, but I'm not a male--I don't go picking fights for the sake of picking fights.  So I'm just fine letting those rocky, jagged mountains guard whatever it is they want to guard.  I guess I've never really paid attention to the mountains in NC, though.  They're softer, gentler--more like secret keepers than guards.  And I think I might actually want to know their secrets.  I have a feeling that if I listen closely, they're going to tell me...but only in gentle whispers and still, small voices.

And the sun broke through the clouds just as we reached these wondrous mountains.  The silence that came during that part of the drive wasn't awkward--it was reverent.  I was shoved down in Ruth's purse, and up to that point, I didn't mind it.  But now I wanted to see.  I uttered the only words I dared, asking Ruth to hold me up so I could experience the view she could see from her driver's seat. 

While Jerry slept and Tai sipped on chai, Ruth and I watched the sun melt into the mountain mist.  We basked in pure beauty.  We sang along with the music of the mountains.  It was then that Ruth and I really came to understand one another.  Though neither of us were born in those hills, we both understood that we belonged there.  We were daughters of the mountains. 

Of course, we were past those mountains much quicker than either of us wanted to be.  I eventually fluttered back down into Ruth's purse.  I huddled down beneath Jerry's blanket-like wing and went to sleep for the rest of the trip.  But before I drifted off, I told Ruth that one day, I'd really like to live nearer to those mountains.  And she agreed.

The time in KY was restful.  Ruth had a lot to do, spending time with her family, so I basically spent my time chatting with Jerry and Tai.  Tai, being an Asian-style Dragon, told me that some of the mountains in Asia are very similar to the mountains in NC.  I might fly over there some day to see for myself. 

The one major cause for excitement in KY came when Ruth's nephew discovered that we were there.  He's four, so he gets excited about as easily as Jerry does.  I heard his little voice exclaim, "DRAGONS!" and I knew we were in for it.  Suddenly, I found myself being manhandled by children--a terrifying experience.  But then I noticed that Ruth's nephew is a redhead.  I kind of like redheads, so I let him swoop me around pretending to eat and/or stomp on things until Ruth rescued me.  However, I didn't go back in my bag before giving that cute little redheaded boy a little kiss on the cheek.  Ruth told me to back off.  I growled at her.  It was all in good fun.

The trip back was just as amazing.  The sun didn't break through the clouds like before, but the mist hung around us like a veil.  And one day I know that veil will disappear, that those mountains like great sleeping Dragons are going to rise up.  Their voices will shake the ground.  Their smoke will fill the air.  Their tears will fall like rain.  And all will be made new.

In the meantime, I'm here with Ruth, who I finally understand.  We are daughters of the mountain, and we will write and sing and live and love. 

My Human ROCKS (by Jerund M Frasier)

Okay, okay, okay, so the funniest thing happened this afternoon. My human got off her writing break thing today, which was a really good thing, because all us Dragon muses were getting kind of bored. I mean, I entertained myself pretty well by stealing Bion's tail cap and hiding it in random places. Yeah, the best place to hide Bion's tail cap is on top of the happy magic box of pictures that my human calls the television machine. Bion never watches the television machine, so he forgets it exists. Then he's all like "Jerry, where's my tail!?" And I just laugh because I know he's NEVER going to find it. Then my human or Pneuman will take pity on him and find his tail cap for him and put it back on his tail. Then Bion gets pouty and tells me I'm a silly Dragon who will never amount to anything.

What was I talking about?

Oh. Oh yeah. So okay, okay, okay, so this afternoon my human was writing with the laptop on her lap and she had all us Dragon Muses around her because we're awesome. I was sitting about a foot away from her. I'd rather have been hugging her because I really REALLY like hugs. Hugs are the greatest things ever, except for elephants. I love me some elephants. Once I tried hugging an elephant, but elephants aren't for hugging; they're for breakfast.

Okay, okay, okay, so my human put me a good foot or so away from her because she said that while she needed a little silliness, she really wanted to focus more on seriously editing and rewriting one of her books. So she put Bion behind her ear. Then she put Pneuman on her shoulder. And she was typing away happily until her laptop got overheated and shut itself off. That's when the hilarity happened.

My human leaned down to unplug the laptop so it could cool down properly. She so totally forgot that Pneuman was perched on her shoulder and SHE DEFINITELY DROPPED PNEUMAN ON THE FLOOR. Pneuman's horn (which had only been fixed a few days ago) broke off AGAIN. Wait for it. Wait for it. Wait for it.

When my human picked Pneuman up, she realized that she couldn't find the piece of his horn that had broken off. SHE TOTALLY LOST PNEUMAN'S HORN! My human looked horrified, and Pneuman was beyond angry. Bion was already packing his bags so we could start looking for a new writer to Muse for. But I thought it was the funniest thing in the world.

My human leapt up and started searching everywhere for Pneuman's missing horn. She tried to pick Bion up and move him to a safer spot so HE wouldn't get broken, but he hissed at her and flew out of her reach. She looked for Pneuman's horn for like ten minutes while all the while he was shouting at her, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS? WHAT KIND OF WRITER BREAKS HER MUSE'S HORN OFF TWICE IN TWO WEEKS? YOU ARE THE MOST PATHETIC HUMAN I'VE EVER SEEN." And my human was nearly in tears exclaiming, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Pneuman! I'll find it!" And he was like, "YOU'D BETTER BELIEVE YOU'RE GOING TO FIND IT!" I just laughed and laughed and laughed.

My human sat down to take a rest after a while. She picked up a cup that she'd gotten at a coffee house earlier today. Pneuman was like, "STOP DRINKING YOUR MOCHA LATTE AND FIND MY HORN YOU WRETCHED HUMAN!" And my human started screaming back, "IT'S NOT A MOCHA LATTE, IT'S A GINGER SUN DECAF GREEN TEA, YOU HORRIBLE DRAGON BEAST!" And Bion kept flying around the room asking for a sedative. It was pretty much the most awesome thing ever.

Well, eventually, I brought back Pneuman's broken horn (which I'd cleverly hidden on top of the television machine) and everyone calmed down. My human scolded me for hiding Pneuman's horn, but she can't stay mad at me very long. She rocks in that way--and in other ways--in absolutely hilarious ways.

Pneuman has already forgiven my human, although he's still a little put off about the fact that he's having a second reconstructive surgery this week. I think my human is going to have to get really good at Dragon Muse surgery. Maybe she could put it on her resume--A. R. Campbell, Dragon Surgeon, M.D.

The M. D. stands for Mostly Disturbed.

The Accident (by Pneuman)

My human is slightly obsessed with a fictional donkey named Eeyore. I'm not sure what her bizarre fascination with a depressed donkey, but she loves him. One of her favorite quotes is by Eeyore. "Accidents. You never have them until you're having them."

Recently, my human insisted on taking me with her when she went to visit her family. She traveled by air. Rather than letting me fly by myself (I'M A DRAGON) or letting me stay home (which is what I would have preferred), she packed me in bubble wrap (oh the humility!) and stuffed me inside her carry on. I was reluctant, but she told me it would be fine. I told her I thought I would get broken, but she said it would be fine.

There was an accident. I didn't have the accident until I had it.

It could have been worse. One of my beautiful golden and blue horns snapped off my beautiful golden and blue head. I'm not in very much pain, but I am incomplete. I am humiliated. I have adamantly refused to do any musing until my human arranges for my horn to be fixed. She has agreed to arrange for an operation, which she believes will be quite simple and successful. She believes that when the operation is completed, no one will be able to tell my horn was ever broken. I have my reservations. She says it involves some kind of unusual compound known as "super glue."



I am hesitant.



The operation will be performed shortly. I hope to be restored to my former self. One thing is certain: I will not be stuffed in anymore carry ons unless my human arranges for me to have a custom-made traveling case.

No more accidents for this Dragon.