Rhiannon - Dragonrider

Chapter Thirteen - On Matters Cerebral

"Your caution is judicious, however, in my presence, you need have no such concerns. I am more than capable of shielding the two of us."

So I flipped into the cloud world... and I was just amazed by what I saw.

Psion's cloud was a brilliant sky blue colour.

"It's beautiful," I gasped.

"Why thank you," he replied. He sent golden sparkles and bubbles dancing through his cloud as he basked in my compliment.

"How come your cloud is like that when everyone else's is so dull?"

"As I may have mentioned, I do have certain talents in this area," he said with enormous false modesty, "and while it is not quite fair to say that I am the only one to take a pride in my appearance, it cannot be denied that standards have slipped lamentably since the Year of Flame and Sword."

"You were going to show me how to sort out this thing in my head."

"Yes, of course," he replied, gently guiding me into his mind. "All you have to do is wrap the node in your will, so, and squeeze it, so." He placed a simple picture in my head, showing me how to do it. Squeeze hard and the implanted node will be destroyed."

He thought a little and then added, "If you are cautious, then, by applying more judicious pressure, you may be able to release a mere fraction of your pent up rage. I would, however, advise you to exercise extreme caution when doing so in the presence of others, particularly Rhiannas."

I stood in silence for a moment, I was sort of itching to rid myself of the horrible grey lump but I knew I couldn't. At last I made a decision.

"Right, if we're not going to deal with the horrible node thing right now, I've got a couple of questions to ask."

"Ask away! I will answer as best I can," his gold sparkling blue cloud responded. "Should we revert to the base domain?"

I flipped back into the plain world then asked, "How are you talking to me?"

"It is termed cerebral communication and it is performed by implanting ideas directly into your counterpart's mind. We dragons lack the basic vocal equipment to mimic human speech and our attempts to do so make us appear ridiculous. As you will soon discover, dragons will go to extreme lengths to maintain their dignity."

"And how much can you do with this cerebral thingy?"

"I take it you are asking how much can be done. As you might infer from my current wretched condition, my own cerebral potential is, at this time, distinctly lacking. For a more potent party, however, their capability is determined by two factors: the raw power of the individual and the subtlety with which they are able to bring said power to bear."

"And what sort of things can you do?"

I watched as he drew himself up to his full height whilst balanced on his tree stump. It was as if the bedraggled vagrant had vanished to be replaced by a wise and experienced professor. His tail was mostly wrapped around his body apart from the very tip which he was waving around for emphasis.

"Firstly, there are the straightforward cerebral attacks. It is not necessary for me to describe those for your mind still bears the bruises from the ones you experienced last night. They can, however, be used to influence an individual with more delicacy. Did you, for example, appreciate the storm you encountered when you first approached the island?"

"It was pretty wild," I answered cautiously, "but, for some reason, I wasn't quite as scared of it as I ought to have been. I got the impression that there was something not quite right about it."