Organization: University of Maine System
Date: Tuesday, 8 Sep 1992 16:28:15 EDT
From: <BANNON@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [R] A Hazy Outlook on Life
 <92252.133337ASG102@psuvm.psu.edu>



Upon arriving at their lodgings Hazy and Karl chatted for
a bit and then he left her to her own devices.  She wandered
the gardens as the sun went down.  She stayed until the
moon was high so she could see the fountain water glitter
against the night sky like diamonds flung carelessly onto
black velvet.  Then she went inside and wandered the quiet
halls.  She came to her own room and slipped inside.  She
had left the door out onto the balcony open and a delightful
breeze meet her as she entered her chamber.  There was a
pool of silvery moonlight on the floor and the curtains at
the sides of the balcony doorway rustled and whispered.

Nights were sometimes long for Hazy.  She didn't sleep like
most organic creatures.  She received both her rest and sustanance
by disolving to her evaporated form and rocketing through layers
of air to maintain and restore the electrical charge of her body.
What she usually did to entertain herself during the empty hours
was simply play.  There was something of the dolphin or the otter
about her.  She had virtually no cares, no need to toil, no
schedules to keep.  Of course, unlike dolphins or otters, she
had no playmates like herself.  Fortunately, however, she was
equipped with a very vivid imagination.  The lack of playmates was
a small matter and easily dealt with.

As she looked over her moonlit room she noticed the delicate white
chiffon bed curtains off in the far right-hand corner waiving
and twisting in the breeze.  She cried happily, "Ah, look!  A cloud
come to play with me!"  She trotted over to the bed and lifted
the hem of one of the long, fine curtains.  She lifted it over her
head and then stepped back to watch it waft slowly downwards.
She made a tiny bow to the curtain after it had more or less settled
and said, "How do you do?"  She draped a piece of the soft, smooth
material over one arm and said, "You shall be...uh...You are, ah,
called Drizzle,-- yes, Drizzle Fogbank the Third.  I am Hazy.  QUEEN
Hazy, queen of all the clouds.  If you are good I shall make of you
a knight."  She spread the material and let her hands slip down the
length of it, until she held the hem waist-high.  "Say, that has a
a ring to it, don't you think?  Sir Drizzle.  Yes, I like that.  I
dub you Sir Drizzle!"  She tossed the curtain up into the air above
her head once more to conclude the ceremony and suddenly noticed a
small lumpy bag sitting in the middle of the bed.  She lunged forward
and flopped down on the bed.  The curtain drifted down, sweeping
over her feet, which dangled off the edge of the bed, like a breath
of air.  She tried lifting the bag and had to darken her substance and
become as dense as she could to even move it.  She backed onto
her knees and slid off the bed dragging the bag with her.  It landed
on the floor with a solid thud and Hazy continued to drag it accross
the floor and over into the pool of moonlight.  She sat cross-legged
next to the bag in the silver shaft of light.  She faded back to her
usual pearly gray color and the light from the sky seemed to reflect
and scatter inside her making her glow and shimmer.  She loosened
the cord on the bag and dumped its contents, gasping at the glittering
treasure that tumbled and scattered out in front of her.   A heap of
gold coins gleamed like stars on the dark tasseled carpet where she
sat.  "Oh, how lovely!" she cried, admiring the accidental work of
art.  "I know Drizzle!" she giggled, raising her head suddenly and
looking at the blowing film of silk again, "Let's play catch with
the stars!"  She sprang to her feet, ran over to the curtain, lifted
the end of the material from the floor and stretched it over to the
side of a window where she tied it up tightly with a twisted cord
that had been holding back the drapes.  She dashed back to the
jumble of riches and began to pitch the coins into her makeshift
chiffon hammock.

It was rather an amusing game.  Every time she landed one in the
dainty hammock it was a personal triumph and every time she missed
it was Drizzle's fault.  By this time there were thirty or forty
pieces of gold weighing down the bed curtain and at least ten coins
had rolled along the floor into the dark corners of the chamber.
There were a couple of coins left for her to toss but the game
ended when the fragile material finally ripped down from the
bed canopy and the load of treasure crashed to the ground, bouncing
in all different directions.

She went over to where she had tied the curtain up with the drapery
cord and released it, gathering up the material into her arms like
a silky froth.  She put her face into the pillowed fabric and
murmured, "Sorry Drizzle, old friend.  Guess I got carried away."
She moved over toward the balcony and said, "Why don't we go
fly for a while?"  She stepped outside and her voice carried back
into the room slightly more faintly, "Have you ever done a loop
the loop?  It's a lot of fun.  I'll show you how."

Anyone looking out of their window a moment later would have seen
what seemed to be the ghost of a crazed flying carpet doing aerial
acrobatics in the night sky.  At the height of the up-sweep ending
the loop Hazy's voice could just be heard to say, "Hey, I bet with
your help I could catch a thug or two down by the water front.
What say you, Sir Drizzle, up for an adventure?"  She released
the length of material suddenly and it began to sift slowly through
the air to earth until it was punched in the center by a hard moving
ball of atmospheric energy that was Hazy, and it soared over the
city toward the waterfront like a gossamer comet.

The curtains around the balcony door that she had just exited still
rustled and whispered.  Except for the patch of moonlight, the room
was dark and except for the curtains the room was still.  Here and
there on the floor glinted coins of pure gold.


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