096

The flame made it's way toward earth with something that suggested animosity. Call it moxy, or mojo or any 4 letter m-word you can think of, there was a deffinitive sense about its chosen course and the audacity with which it carried itself on the way down.
Fire is a tricky form of reality, it doesn't really think much, just burns. If you look deeply enough though, you'll find a minute spark of intelligence. You don't want to get it started, not if you don't have to, because once it gets going mentally just like when it gets going physically, if you let fire get enough momentum you're in big trouble.
***
"Two days ago an angry piece of sentient fire collided with a small town, Aspiere, it incinerated all inhabitants upon impact. 2 humanoid, and one reptile-like creature, possibly dragon, were witnessed at the origin point of the flame. Their current where abouts are unknown. What shall we do?"
Dr Esteval looked at his servant robot, Imov, with a cocked eyebrow and middling levels of contempt."We find them of course, there's possibly a dragon flying around out there."

80.

Somewhere in the ether, Simon thinks ... FF where are you? I need some help here, I've just walked into Monty Python's quest for the holy grail. I'm concerned. Wait, that's selfish of me isn't it. How are you doing? Oh man, what about Daly and C , I think they where supposed to come over yesterday evening. They would not believe this. I don't believe this. OK, this vomit stinks. How can I win them over. A dragon, a real life dragon. Dragon's have stars. All right I've got to look around here, there's got to be something about dragons and Galahad. Ah, here we go...

49.

Simon sat, or rather floated deep in the belly of the beast, deep in thought. Only a foot or so away from the miniature star that the dragon probably used to power its pyrotechnic breath. Simon was surrounded by a wave of seemingly anthropomorphic fire, forged in a thousand suns, the residual embers of that ancient antecedental (and impressively powerful) explosion. Simon's single point focus pushed all these eclectic facts and sensory stimuli to the periphery of his mind. He was trying to connect with the universe, through fire, and make sense of how he had contributed to what appeared to his eyes to be a nuclear explosion, far less grand than the Big Bang, but destructive rather than creative. This was never his intention.

As he continued to reflect, he could find no sense of reconciliation, something kept creeping into his mind in spite of his usual knack for impenetrable concentration. Strange words and phrases similar to a dream which he recently had, kept manifesting themselves: Simon, love is death, crude oil is not the answer, genocide is the only sure solution. Live once for a thousand years. Die in half the time. Don't worry, you are crazy. Slightly disappointed he broke out of his trance, just in time to see the dragon's star go out and his Friendly Fire dissipate into the void that was left.

Simon stopped floating.

43.

Dragons are rarely happy, and almost never dead. There is a possible correlation between these two indignities. Contrary to popular belief these creatures aren't immortal but rather false-immrotals, which is to say there are no recorded instances of dragons actually dying from natural causes, which is to say that dragons live for an inordinately, unfathomably, inconcievabley long length of time. What is natural or unnatural is a matter of debate, but old age seems not to adversely effect these creatures. Humans and all other life on earth have an infinite number of permutations by which they can suffer the negation of life. Dragons however are unique in this respect given that the only known method by which any have been sent to the great beyond was by the sword and strictly speaking only by a piercing of (one or more of) their great hearts. Dagons thus were one of the most prolific pests known to the ancient world. Which begs the question, where did they all go? -- exerpts from the work of Dr Malcom "Crazy Pants" Esteval

36.

Galahad, Tommy, Simon and Friendly Fire looked down on a mini-Hiroshima.

"Now, look at what you've done. That can't be at all healthy." said Galahad. The group managed to avoid the explosion proper, but were quickly inundated with mushroom smoke.

Simon seemed to completely ignore Galahad's chiding remarks as he eased into an uncomfortable looking Buddha pose and no doubt began contemplating the mysteries of the universe while floating in the radioactive stratosphere.

on the fireside...

"Any idea what just happened? I've never seen fire so willfully aggressive before. Did you upset him? I realise that you're a very nice person, er thing. But sometimes people, um, stuff is confused when you start forming coherent sentences. I think we've got to ease people into this paradigm otherwise their brains might explode or just they themselves might explode. Like your friend. Wow, reality is really weirder than fiction, a Dragon and Knight combo are attacking us, OK I guess this could happen in fiction so reality is at least equally as weird as fiction, but I'm willing to bet that if it tried really hard. I'm sorry I get carried away sometimes, what do you think?" said Simon.

Friendly Fire twinkled serenely around Simon's person in the midst of the nuclear fallout. "Once you get used to it, reality isn't really that strange, it is mostly empty in fact and quite beautiful. We think you're right though, We opened Dragon Fire up to enlightenment before he was ready to receive it. A foolish mistake on our part. It has now transferred its energy to another form and has moved on to another part of the Samsara."

"I think a lot of other people who were down there have to."

"Very regrettable. Friendly fire hasn't ever harmed anyone, perhaps We should speak to the arrow of time and see if we can't come to some sort of an arrangement."

"That might be an idea."

Back in reality...

"He's just sitting there Tommy, the rascal. He dare mock a Knight of the royal order, not to mention an exemplary reptile such as your self. I have a mind to extricate him of his insolence via our traditional manner (i.e. torture), but your attacks seem pitifully innocuous today. Oh, dear Mary sweet mother of mercy, a beast of your caliber, bested by a floating faery boy. Ha! "

Tommy turned toward the knight with a glance that was probably supposed to communicate anger, animosity and ^%$@ you. His face perpetually poised in this cheerless state, any intimidation that it once held was now lost to the centuries. It barely registered with Galahad. "Very well this is what we'll do then, swallow him whole if you can stomach him. You can regurgitate the boy when we reach the moon. Quickly old friend, our freedom awaits."

30.

"This is the day that fire stood still. How are you doing that?" said Galahad.

"I'm not doing much of any thing other than enjoying the night sky, what an amazing view. I'm also not sure why you're attacking me." said Simon.

"Well, it's not much of an attack now is it, Tommy doesn't usually fire blanks, but I'm afraid our offence has pulled up rather lame in this instance. In any case, if I were you, I'd come along quietly. We have other more persuasive ways of influencing you if need be." Galahad, during times of extreme pressure, was prone to extreme exageration.


On the fire side of things...

"These humans and other anthropomorphic creatures, once they get a taste of consciousness almost always some form of nastiness follows." said Friendly Fire.

"I want to be nasty too, why wont you let me?"said Dragon Fire.

"You can do whatever you please, it's completely up to you."

Dragon fire began burning intensely until it blazed white hot, it then shot toward the earth, breaking terminal velocity, approaching the speed of light, exploding atomically.

24.

It's funny how people meet. Simon could hardly believe his eyes when a Knight in shimmering silver armour riding what looked to be a black hole descended upon him. The strange phenom announced it's presence by bellowing a lung full of flames at our intrepid flyer, most improper; a knight riding a black fire breathing dragon: totally ridiculous. Simon made a mental exception for his own otherworldly abilities on the grounds that he used them frequently and on that level they were rooted in his conception of reality, but these characters were the stuff of pure fantasy and he couldn't abide that sort of nonsense especially not if they continued in their unprovoked hostility.

22.

I better make this sound good.

"Behold the mighty moon! Who giveth light to those who would not walk in darkness, hear my words!"

"Oh dear, here we go Tommy, he or she or whatever it is, is at it again. I hoped it'd forgotten we were here. I'll handle this." said Galahad.

If anything was going through Tommy's head at that moment, you would not have known it to look at him. He would have made an amazing poker player.

"Yes, mighty moon, what is it you wish to inflict upon us now?"

"I have given you solace, in your time of lamentation, be not flippant to your great deliverer."

"Of course, my apologies dear sir, it's just that we live in your left ear and it's not the most comfortable of spots. Not that I'm ungrateful, it's just that I can't take you seriously when you adopt that quasi-God complex and begin jabbering like some one's inserted a 40 mile pole-axe up your arse. What I mean to say is that you're a rock, not that there's anything wrong with that, but where I come from that doesn't count for much. In fact the only thing rocks were good for really were to be tossed about, and I must say you've continued the tossing tradition quite nicely. I'm sorry you were saying."

Damn he's onto me. "Silence mortal."

"Well, strictly speaking that's something of a misnomer."

"SILENCE!! The equinox" Yeah that sounds like it could maybe be believable. "draweth near and I have it on good authority that as surely as I circle the earth, when the time cometh I shall loose control of my bodily functions and my ears shall overflow with my righteous indignation--"

"Cheese puss? you cold hearted son of a --"

"I AM A PATIENT LOVING MERCIFUL BEING, BUT FOR THE FINAL TIME SHUT THE **** UP. YOU WILL GO TO EARTH AND BRING ME THE FLYING ONE."

"The who?"

"LOOK!" The moon directed a few of the suns rays down through a series of channels and internal holes, when the light reached Tommy and Galahad it formed an image which looked very much like Simon flying through the night sky. It was a skill that he'd mastered over the eons and one that he was thoroughly impressed with.

"Most impressive, Mr. moon."

"INDEED. YOU WILL BE SPARED THE WRATH OF MY FURY WRUNG OUT, TINY WARRIOR & UGLY LIZARD, IF YOU GIVE HEED UNTO MY WORDS. THE CHEESE WILL HAVE RECEDED BY THE TIME OF YOUR RETURN AND IF YOU ARE FAITHFUL IN FULFILLING MY COMMAND YOU SHALL OBTAIN THAT WHICH YOU HAVE SOUGHT THESE LONG YEARS."

"More cheese?"

"THINK HARDER FOOLISH KNIGHT."

Galahad looked over at his Dragon friend. Tommy began to smile.

16.

The earth has a long, proud and storied history of Dragons [The Moon, not so much so.] Dragons famously dispatched by the likes of Sigfried and Bilbo and Bilbo's helper and probably many of the Knights of the Round Table live on now only in legend. It seems that possibly Dragons have been unfairly represented traditionally as gold hoarding man-killing whore mongering misanthropic reprobates. Nothing could be further from the truth. This archaic antipathy unfairly held by pre-modern hominids has largely been replaced by a progressive tolerant view of these ancient creatures, a position made possible probably because the idea of a fire breathing monster exists only in the abstract, the reification of which in the present with the resultant inevitable increase in accidental human combustions [sic] would probably reinforce the long held backward view of this leviathan of the sky and set back dragon/human relations at least 2000 years. Unfortunately, there are no known dragons on earth to give voice to this gentle (but unintentionally dangerous) creature's side of the relational equation in question. So, we are left to anecdotal - most of which are spurious - reports of their existence. Dragons are thought now to be completely wiped out by intolerant and ignorant humans/hobbits, however new evidence indicates that the last verifiable dragon siting occurred May 19, 1963 (I have pictures). It was black and silver, current whereabouts: unknown. -- Dr Malcom "Crazy Pants" Esteval, taken from his final journal entry.

15.

The night sky was clear as far as the eye could see,which wasn't very far in the dark. The moon wanted to try and use its own luminousness to its advantage before the sun came up. The engine room of its mind was still burning through coal at an impressive rate, creating a lot of smoke, but not really going anywhere. Thinking was not one of the moons favourite things.

Shards of memory began to retroactively reform. There's nothing in here? What have I been doing out here all this time? He cursed himself, which seemed to do the trick, finally the brain train started rolling...

That's right I remember now: Here be dragons .