Act 1
Scene: The
boy named Tom Solomon, is fishing along the river, only a few feet from the
nose of an old female French Swimming Dragon (the ones that lay eggs that are
elongated. These dragons are green and reflective and well camouflaged when
they hold still). Female dragon is peacefully occupied looking for large prime
numbers in her head and spearing an occasional passing fish with her tongue.
Nearby a young female dragon, daughter of the older female, plays in a field.
Her name is “Esque”- as in ‘statuesque’, ‘arabesque’, and ‘picturesque’ but not
as in ‘grotesque’ or ‘Kafkaesque’. The boy
is glad it is Sunday and he can play outside.
Scene: the
King’s advisors talk of how the King’s authority is being eroded by a strong
middle class and powerful merchants. Originally the King’s family was famous
for slaying dragons. “Too bad there aren’t any dragons left, or we could have
the King defeat one… What, that old fart? We’d have to fake the fight…..hey why
not fake the dragon….can we do that? Let’s ask the magicians and special
effects department….” Eventually they come up with a fake dragon and launch it:
a Red Fire Dragon, swooping back and forth over the town and countryside
breathing fire and terrorizing everyone. Among all the advisors, one (The
Naysayer) says: “No, you should not fool around with dragons…”
Scene: everyone
cowers under the swooping presence of the Fire Dragon. The boy scrambles out of
his boat and runs to hide under a nearby bridge. The old dragon shows no signs
of even noticing the disturbance overhead. The young female, Esque, cowers for
a moment in the field. She is too young to realize how well hidden she is in
the grass, and she runs to hide under the same bridge – back to back with the
boy. They meet and converse.
Scene: The
mother dragon is called “Llel” as in ‘parallel’ and ‘Low Level Energy Laser’*.
Esque talks to her mother about the scarey dragon overhead and the Lell says:
“Oh! That? You can tell it is fake – see how it keeps repeating the same
pattern – three flaps, a swoop and a turn to the left; then three flaps, a
fireball, two flaps and a turn to the right…what a piece of junk….it’s a wonder
the thing hasn’t crashed.” “But mother, it is frightening, can you make it
stop?”
Reluctantly
the mother agrees, shakes herself off, and jumps into the air. These French
Swimming Dragons are graceful and delicate. Once airborne the mother becomes
quite hard to see, reflecting the color of the sky and clouds. Occasionally a
metallic glint is visible but never an outline. She flies alongside of the fake
dragon – matching it flap for flap, swoop for swoop, and then shreds it with her
claws and extinguishes the fire with a well-placed spout of water. She shakes
herself off and glides to a landing on a distant lake a few miles away.
Act 2
Scene: The
Naysayer and Merchants sit discussing events. One argues that the military is
loyal to the King, another argues that a few select generals control the army’s
loyalty.
Scene: the
King’s advisors are only confused briefly by the destruction of the fake red
dragon; then they see their chance. They call up the generals to send out the
troops looking for a “green dragon”. Most of the troops don’t believe there is
any such thing.
Scene:
mother dragon swims back up the river, past the town, back to her quiet spot by
the river. The troops ride up and down.
The troops
capture Esque. The boy Tom gets into the castle and gets her out of her cage. As
a young dragon Esque does not have ability to fly or shoot water. Somehow the
stresses of capture initiate the maturation process. In a desperate moment, Tom
climbs on her back and she is able to fly out with Tom on her back.
Update: Esque's flying ability is minimal and, with Tom on her back, she can barely glide out of there. They end up landing in swift flowing water. "Can you swim?" Tom asks. "Well...duh...I am swimming Dragon". Before he can respond, Tom is swept away like an inflated goat bladder, and all that Esque can do, is help him not be drowned. They are only able to get out of the water later...leading to the forest where they might meet some white Dragons.
Act 3
Llel is worried and cannot find Esque. She gets angry, trashes some of the kings troops. Later she sees some red Dragons headed towards the town and thinks: "So there are still red Dragons around."
Much
confusion ensues, possible dethroning of the King. In the end the Naysayer
says: “I told you so”.
*Senior
Dragon’s occasionally are allowed to claim an acronym for their name. It is not
common.
I was considering a back story about the mother Llel and how she came to be named both for the word "parallel" and for the acronym "Low Level Energey Laser". This includes some boring details about dragon naming conventions and how getting to claim an acronym as a name source is a high honor only awarded to the most famous dragons. But of course LLel did much of the work the went into the theory of lasers (writing under an assumed name) in the first place, so she deserved the usage. Writing papers as an annonymous author was difficult in the old days but was much easier now on the internet. Because on the internet no one knows you are a dragon.
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