Date: Friday, 21 Aug 1992 10:49:28 EDT From: Message-ID: <92234.104928BANNON@MAINE.MAINE.EDU> Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn Subject: [R] Hazy sees a bit of Rameshan References: <1992Aug19.161855.6451@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca> Hazy exchanged a few polite words with Radan on board ship until Pashar was sighted. Members of the crew went to their stations and the passengers went to their respective cabins to ready their belongings for disembarking. Arrival in Rameshan was exciting. It was a city like Hazy had never seen before. Her first impression was of sand, silk and sun. The cityline was spiked with minarets and Byzantine onion domes. Torquoise blue mosaic patterns and the vivid gold, rose, and blues of swirling silk added color to the scene. Of course, there were the donkeys and dromedaries creating minor havoc for some comic relief. The sun was so intense everything seemed to be haloed with its light. That thought made her smile. Haloed donkeys, God bless'em. They were met with relatively little ceremony and shown to their rooms. Karl had plans for a nice siesta and retired immediately. The others in the group went off to their respective rooms to settle in. Hazy was at a bit of a loss. She had no belongings to be arranged in her room. She looked it over once and then went to the balcony to look out over the city once more. A very dry city. Not especially comfortable for a cloud-like being like herself. She would have to be sure not to stray too far from the waterfront. Later she would probably even make a short flight out over the water. A little restless, she decided to do some exploring around the city. The decision that faced her was whether to do it in her transparent form or in some other phase. She walked over to a full-length mirror and adjusted it so that she had a comprehensive view of herself. She'd been experimenting lately with her ability to turn specific parts of her body to mist while keeping the others in perfect focus. She had been making real progress lately, -- perhaps this was a time to put the skill to the test. She stood before the mirror and concentrated. The torso was fairly easy, she'd been misting that for a couple of years already. It wasn't too hard to make it appear as though she were swathed in layers of billowing, shapeless silk, -- just a matter of lengthening the body haze, letting it swirl a bit. The hemline was a bit of a challenge, it kept drifting upwards. "Rats," she thought, "No decent slave girl would be caught with a hem like this! I've got to get it under control." She finally got the effect she wanted and held it there. She felt like a ballet dancer, straining the muscles into place and maintaining the pose. She inspected the results in the mirror. Not bad. Next, the veil. Of course, this involved dissolving the lower half of her face and fuzzing the edges of her hair a bit. Very delicate. She took a step closer to the mirror, her own flat gray eyes looked back at her intently. She decided just then that a darker shade would be less conspicuous and darkened the appearance of her skin to a charcoal black. She kept the "silks" of her apparel a light gray. "Now, for the veil," she thought. It was awful. When she concentrated on the veil her hemline wandered. When she turned her attention to the hemline her veil became a moustache. When she managed the hemline and the veil for a bit her color began to fade and when she adjusted the color, --AAKKK! She looked like she was frothing at the mouth!! She gave up. Rather than subject the denizens of Rameshan to the sight of an apparently rabid slave girl, she would just travel about in her transparent form. She faded into insubstantiality and drifted over toward the balcony. She made a promise to herself to keep working on that trick and then sailed out into the air over Rameshan. Such a lovely feeling of freedom. This was really her favorite form anyways. So easy, so light. She didn't plan to be long, but, even if she was delayed or they did leave earlier than planned, she could always catch up with them in this form anyways. She snuggled the particles of her being into a friendly air current and did a playful loop around a minaret. Life was good. As wretched as her service to the vile magician had been, in a queer way, she was begrudgingly grateful to him for having created her. She glided on. Hazy ------------------------- Disclaimer: These are not really opinions and things that are not opinions do not represent anyone's opinions, so everything is fine.