[YANS] (aka Yet Another New Story!) NaNoWriMo 2017 (COMPLETE)

Day 16 - A Sudden Jump to the Right

"So, do the dragons actually have names?" The Muse looked over the notes as the Writer organized the writing desk in preparation for some word sprints. The story was building up quite a nice collection of doodles, mind maps, and other fancy stuff.

"I'm not sure." The Writer admitted. "They had human names at one point, but that was a long time ago and I'd expect people would simply refer to them as 'the dragon' locally. Maybe they call them by the cities or regions they occupy?"

"So I'd be the Dragon of the City by the Sea?" asked Jashn, he'd wandered in from the story mists with the evil plot bunny hopping along at his heels. "That's a mouthful. I mean it makes sense that we don't keep out human names, we don't want people figuring out the dragon are 'just' humans."

"Why not? It's not like a random human can just turn into a dragon on their own... can they?" The Muse asked.

There was a long pause.

The Muse and Writer exchanged concerned looks.

"No wait, I suppose they can." The Writer said after a moment. "If all a dragon is is a human who has soaked in powerful magics for long enough... then yeah, anyone with the right magical ability could become a dragon."

"Which makes an obvious origin story for the first dragon, but doesn't that mean you could end up with all sorts of random monsters as well?" The Muse pointed out. "If the only reason these guys are dragons is because they are unintentional copying the person who trained them... an untrained person would become whatever their subconscious wanted."

"We are shapeshifters after all," Jashn agreed. "I'm only limited by the magic, not size or shape or anything logical."

"I think we might need some actual constraints on that," said the Writer who was suddenly picturing godzilla-sized dragons.

"But it's magic," Jashn said. "It's the ultimate black box and lampshade all in one!"

"I'm trying to keep the magic realistic!" The Writer had many many notes on what counted as 'realistic'. "It can't be this all powerful thing, otherwise the world breaks in crazy ways. Magic is a incredibly warping thing to loose on societies. I need this kept under wraps and minimalized. Which having the dragons be secretive about is a good thing."

"Anywho, wasn't there a story we were working on?" The Muse watched the word sprint countdown clock pop-up in the corner. "Time flies when you're worldbuilding, but words fly when you're story'ing!"

"Not a verb," said the Writer, but got down to work.

~*~*~*~*~

"Because I've spent enough time in the scrying pools to learn the rules," said Jashn firmly. "We don't keep them hidden away like you do here, anyone who wants to use them can."

"And it never occurred to you that the pools might work differently in other towns?" The dragon was dismissively amused. "Do not think to tell me what I know or how my magic works. You may have dabbled in these waters, but you are only human."

"If your pools work differently, then I'm sure they will have no problems giving me the answers I need." Jashn squashed his anger, he needed the dragon's cooperation in his plan, even if it wasn't enthusiastic.

"At the very least it will be amusing to see you try." The dragon turned and led them back down the tunnel to the pools.

~*~*~*~*~

The dragon stepped back and let Jashn work and Khany reluctantly followed his lead. She wasn't sure what the dragon was up to, but she was also curious to see what sort of methods Jashn would use to seek out the answers he needed.