Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Aaron Humphrey)
Subject: [MI] [DQ] Alfvaen[Inn]: Conversation With Lancos
Message-ID: <1992Sep9.230953.3333@kakwa.ucs.ualberta.ca>
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 23:09:53 GMT

ADMIN: Apologies to William for the first two paragraphs of the post--feel
free to rewrite it if necessary from William's point of view...I just put
what I thought was reasonable.  The conversation with Lancos, however, has
been thoroughly cleared with Mike Sander...


Finally the sculptor seemed to be finishing his piece.  His hands slowed,
and Alfvaen could almost make out what the object was, although his mind
refused to grasp it for moment...

The sculptor's hands stopped moving and he looked up blearily at those
watching him.  He opened his mouth as if to speak and then suddenly his
eyes closed, his head fell to the table, and he started to snore in a
drunken sleep.

Alfvaen was struck dumb as his eyes focused on part of the sculpture.
It seemed to be a fusion of woman and dragon.  And the woman looked
exactly like Elstree.  Questions flew wildly about in his mind.  Did
the sculptor know Elstree?  Who was the dragon?  Was it involved with
Elstree somehow?

Then he saw a fellow spectator also standing mouth agape, looking at
the sculpture.  He almost laughed at the silliness of the expression.
Then he thought, 'I must look like that too,' and did burst out
laughing.  The other man did the same thing, breaking the tension.
They continued to laugh for several minutes, verging on hysterical at
some point, drawing strange glances from the other man's companions
at a nearby table, not to mention Delmara and Little Rat.  Finally
they sobered up.

Delmara looked at him in total confusion--she hadn't noticed the
resemblance in the sculpture, and it struck Alfvaen that Elstree
might not even look the same in this incarnation.  Then it occurred
to him to wonder why the other man had looked surprised.  "Do you
know her?" he said.

At nearly the same moment, the other man said, "You recognize the
dragon?"  Then they both shook their heads, and this almost set
Alfvaen off again, but he reined himself in in time.  Then the other
man stuck out his hand and said, "Lancos Erredan."

"Alfvaen."  They shook hands.  "Do you know anything about this
sculptor?  That woman in the sculpture is a dead ringer for the woman
I'm looking for right now."

Lancos smiled. "Not really, except that he tried to help us out. That's
weird, because we're looking for a dragon right now, name of TrueSilver.
I never got close enough to TrueSilver to know his full features, but
--despite the clay being basically color-free -- somehow I feel it's him."

"How did you manage to lose a dragon?  Or are you trying to slay it
or something, and you have to find it?"

"Hmm. I'll give the shortened version. Slay it--quite the opposite! It's
SunStorm's friend, who was shrunken and kidnapped, and we're trying to
rescue it."

Alfvaen shrugged.  "Well, the girl I'm looking for was taken by a Low City
gang, who may be getting a bit daring, but I doubt they're up to dragons
yet."

"Yeah, our dragon was taken by someone a BIT more powerful than just
a gang.", Lancos said, unintentionally being somewhat sarcastic. "Still,
strange that this fellow --William-- put them both into his sculpture.
They don't SEEM connected --the only woman I've met is Alita over there,"
he said, pointing towards his table "and I doubt a Low City gang could
control ANY dragon. We'll have to ask him when he wakes."

--
---Alfvaen(Canadian SF Quasi-Activist)
"What have I done to piss the gods off?"  ---Terence Trent D'Arby
Current Album--Pink Floyd:A Nice Pair
Current Read--John Updike:Rabbit, Run