Dragon Meetup (Part 1)
A patriotic holiday for myths and legends
July 2, 2011
Being the Dragon setting up new ways of doing things has some positives and some negatives. Relevant to today, I’m not living in some hut in the woods somewhere. Positives: I get to keep living with my parents until I have the money for a house of my own. I also get to still be friends with people close to my real age. Negatives: I don’t get a home gifted to me by an older Dragon, and everyone knows where I live.
The signal that a person visiting our home is there for myself specifically is just standing outside without knocking. After all, it’s not like I don’t know they’re there. I wait a few seconds to be sure the visitor isn’t just nervous or something, then head down and open the door. “Oh, it’s you,” I say to the teleportation lab messenger.
“Ah, yeah,” the skinny young man says while scratching the back of his head. He gathers himself before explaining his presence. “We got a special visitor today and the vote said to let you know. Two visitors, actually.”
“‘Vote’?”
“Shannon disagreed.”
Ah. “Another mythical, then.”
He nods. “Got it in one. Fraternal twins, but both the same kind. They look kind of like their world’s lizard hybrids, but with huge ears. They should be over in the square, if they’re like most other visitors.”
It’s good to hear that they weren’t so unusual the scientists decided to detain them, but that’s a strange description for a creature. “Mythical” means it’s based on some legend or other, and while a lot of our legends have become types of real monsters, the legends do persist. I’ve heard a number of them. “Are they… goblins?” I ask. Here that’s just a summon type, but it is still named for legends.
The messenger smiles. “Not according to them.” Oh, he already knows and is just playing with me.
“Simon!”
He holds up his hands. “Alright, alright. They said they’re ‘dragons’.”
I raise my eyebrows. “Their world’s legends must be really different from ours.” Dayan and his kids have big wolf ears, but they don’t look like lizards of any sort. No other dragon form I know about, nor even any monster I’ve seen, has that sort of appearance. I look back up at Simon. “Another reason Shannon opposed, I see. Well, I’ll look for them, anyway. From the ground.”
“Saving magic?”
“That, and I can’t land in a crowded space.” Especially among tourists.
While Kai and Kaya had had plenty of exposure to magic things since the cross-universe portal first opened, almost all of it had been from their friendship with the now-local botanist Wizard and his floral dragon child. They’d simply never had an excuse to visit the strange other world that had managed to break through the very fabric of reality by accident.
Then again, chocolate chip cookies and microwave ovens were also accidents. Maybe it wasn’t so strange.
Anyway, both sides of the portal opened into a United States of America, which shared a few key dates even if some details about those dates were a little different. And somehow the day of the week managed to align, and even (most of the time) the day of the year, even though the actual year numbers did not. And for that reason, Independence Day was a massive tourism date in both directions, as groups traveled to see celebrations that simply never occurred in their own worlds. Magical illusions on a massive scale in one; drone and fireworks displays in the other.
While most technology from the twins’ world was now approved to move to the other side for personal use (not for selling!), a lot of the more modern technologies didn’t really work well. There wasn’t a network for anything wireless set up; people just used magic for that kind of thing. If you wanted to get anything done, it honestly just felt better to bring a film camera and a notepad. At least they could process film.
That is, that last part was what Kaya said. Kai thought she just wanted an excuse to bring along her fancy film camera. He did have to admit that the photos turned out better than those on his phone. Although now, she also had a second, even fancier camera that Cleo had gotten her for her birthday, which would be especially useful for this trip: it used magic to capture a snapshot of what the user could see. Their Wizard friend said something about illusion magic “not really using light” and since the magic world used illusions for their light shows, they’d need a local device to actually record anything. The illusions he’d showed them just didn’t appear on film or digital. Kaya figured that camera was really expensive, especially for tourists. Kai guessed they sold like hotcakes before holidays anyway.
“… and you’re aware that mythical hybrids have had strange effects upon travel, right?” the travel agent said. While travel agents weren’t often required domestically, it was quite different attempting to book a hotel in a place with no internet.
“Wait, what?” Kai said, coming out of the daze of too much legal talk.
“Strange how?” Kaya asked.
The agent went back to reading over her paperwork, though on a different form than before. Actually, standing on her toes, Kaya could almost swear it was just notes printed out. “Some are able to use the magic of the other world in strange ways, one seemed to passively alter probability… it’s different in every case.”
While it didn’t sound harmful, Kai wanted something clarified: “Are these permanent effects?”
“As far as their scientists say, it would be something that is already affecting you. It just ‘manifests more strongly’ there.”
“Think we’ll grow wings?” Kaya teased her brother.
“It hasn’t ever been quite so drastic, but there’s no way to know,” the agent said, apparently missing the target of the comment.
Kai, a little slower, answered, “Probably not. Although as long as I can still leave afterwards, I’m fine with whatever.”
“Legally, while the agency has no insurance against permanent effects or relocations, the culture on the other side has proven remarkably willing to accompany new residents, should you stay. On a personal level, I am confident that you could return no matter what happens over there.”
A few weeks later, with their plans set and space reserved for the holiday, the twins got in line for their travel. As attempts to relocate or resize the portal at either end had yet to succeed, it was still in a bit of an awkward spot for both sides. The lab people had moved most of their personnel and equipment to other parts of their building, though they still kept tabs on any hybrids that came through. And of course, this side was still operating out of an alleyway. The government bought the buildings on either side, so it was a little more secure, but you still had to walk down an alley for the trip.
“Why can’t we just walk through it like a normal door?” Kaya complained from the back of the line, because of course there was one even after security.
Someone nearby answered her. “They don’t know what happens if people are trying to go through each way at the same time and probably don’t want to know.”
“Then just have people walk through like a plane entrance!”
“How many times do you see someone drop something and try to go back for it?”
Kaya fell silent. She had to admit it at least happened a few times. And there were bound to be people in even more of a panic about this sort of thing, since there was only one portal so you just had a few hours each day for your transit. This had to be something you were sure about.
One long line later, the twins were next to step through. “Ready to go, bro?” Despite all the waiting time, Kaya actually looked a little nervous.
“Certainly, sis,” Kai answered. He wasn’t feeling terribly confident, either. This was the first time they’d be completely unable to contact their parents for an extended time, but it was only three days. They’d certainly manage, one way or another.
“Next!” called the agent, and the two stepped forward.
By this time, basically nobody from the lab was required to attend to the portal. It wasn’t self-sustaining—actually, it was pretty expensive and they had to set up a generator to help out—but the security personnel did almost everything. And since some “hybrids” had moved to this world, even the biologists were close to unnecessary. Still, they liked to have someone present if an interesting person showed up, and today, they got just that.
“Hold up!” Cameron called out. “You two look different.” Lizard hybrids were almost as common as lizarkin, but neither of those sported enormous fox ears or hair lines down their tails. The 25-year-old information Mage with common blue hair walked up from his desk to the platform with the portal above it, holding up his hand in a “stop” gesture.
“Yeah, and?” the female of the two challenged him.
“I’d like to chat. Just some demographics. Off the platform, though.” The almost pure white room had originally been constructed to house the explosions of drastic spell failure and so had plenty of empty space. Security was outside of the room to give people space to reorient themselves, so the only things in here were Cameron’s shared desk (shared with a kitsune that had kindly not shared his chair) and some monster-friendly chairs for the hybrids that might speak with him.
“… Okay.” The woman lowered her fists and followed him, her male counterpart attending as well.
Once all three were seated, Cameron pulled out a questionnaire and got to work. “Now, for introductions, my name is Cameron, and I’m a biologist here at the lab. My post right now is to help out any mythical hybrids that come through, as well as take down some information so that we can do some pattern-finding. You two don’t look like any animals I know about, so I sort of assumed, but you are mythical, right?”
The two looked at each other for a second before the boy not much younger than Cameron responded, “Uh, yeah. I’m Kai, and she’s Kaya. We’re just, uh, here for the holiday.”
“Oh, of course!” He didn’t really care why they were here and just wrote down their names. “Foreign names? Where are you from?”
“New York.”
“Dad’s Italian,” Kaya clarified, “but Mom’s American. And we grew up in a small town a few hours from Hybrid City.”
Now these were useful details. He took more notes, then asked the obvious question. “And… your classification?” The questionnaire was careful to use words the hybrids should understand.
“Class three,” duh, “dragons,” Kai said.
At that last word, Cameron flinched. These two looked nothing like Dragons. Or even small-D dragons. Lizardy, yes, but no horns, wings (or even hint of wings), and their ears were even larger than Shufen’s, proportionally. Also, they were shorter than average even for lizarkin.
“Hello?” Kaya waved a hand in front of his face.
Cameron shook himself. “Ah, yes, sorry. It’s just, I’ve met dragons before, and you don’t remind me of them at all.”
“We can breathe fire.”
“They can’t. But that’s certainly an ability that would flag you as mythical.” Probably their magic ability, too, but he’d ask when they left if they’d figured out something else. Not all of the special abilities of mythicals were immediately perceptible. “Maybe your legends are just really different from ours.”
Kai raised a hand. “Do you think we’ll get to see a dragon while we’re here? There’s a floral dragon back home, but he’s really young.”
Cameron chuckled. “If you’re here for the holiday? Definitely.”
I’ve wanted to write this event for a while, but couldn’t figure out what occasion to use for the visit. Given when this is being posted, I think you can tell how I finally got the inspiration I was looking for.