"Hello and welcome back to the second half of the Henderson hour, I'm Jill Henderson. Upon the discovery that the dragons are humans who have transformed, a heated debate has been sparked within America. On one side of the debate we have those who feel we should welcome them with open arms. On the other side are those who are calling for retribution against the dragons who ate human beings." A fair looking woman wearing a blue pantsuit evenly intoned to the camera.
Behind her ran various videos from thousands of people protesting on the streets of Washington. Their signs showing various graphic depictions of the dragons as monsters. Other signs spoke of asking for vengeance against them. Some even called for any removal of the rights that the dragons had before transforming.
Then the video showed other people, some in debates, hearings, and a few shots from the dragons themselves. All showed reasoned debate and even discussion.
While even more showed politicians from across the political spectrum pontificating on the situation. Some were calling for a careful response that respects the fact that these dragons had once been human. Others were calling for the outright banishment and even some sort of imprisonment. Though, those who called for confinement couldn't articulate how they would achieve it.
"Today with me in the studio we have two guests representing each side of the issue," Jill spoke to the camera as it panned over to the two people. One was an academic looking man wearing what looked like a tweed sports coat and a white buttoned shirt underneath. The other was a woman who wore A purple jacket over a simple white t-shirt. "With me we have Mike O'Clark, a fellow at the Winter Institute, and Wendy Grell, a human rights advocate from the Transhuman Protection League. Thank you both for joining me today," Jill introduced the two people to the viewers.
Both thanked Jill before waiting for her first question, "now there has been a long debate about whether human rights still apply to the dragons?"
Mike took the lead, "thank you Jill, I feel that when these people transformed into dragons, they lost all the rights afforded to American citizens. That their choice to kill and eat humans show they cannot be treated as normal human beings afforded any sort of rights or protection under human laws."
Wendy slightly shook her head in disagreement, "I disagree Mike. These people, and yes I call them people, had no choice in their transformation. Let me restate this, they had no choice in becoming dragons. Many had to leave their past lives and families behind and now they have to live in a world that sees them as monsters. Because of all that, they are the very people our founding fathers wanted the civil rights and protections applied too. Think about it, if we are willing to remove their rights, who else's rights could we remove," Wendy rebutted Mike's argument with passion.
"But here's the reverse for you, sure they were transformed against their wills. However once they did transform, they chose to eat people. That they saw us as food. If we are willing to extend our civil rights to them, why not extend those same rights to the bears, tigers, lions, and many other animals that see us as food? If you find that a silly comparison and won't extend those rights to the animals, then why should we do that with these dragons. I say when they became dragons, they lost all access to the rights we humans enjoy." Mike pontificated to both Wendy and Jill, but also to the camera.
Wendy had to chime back in, "if you are willing to just arbitrarily take away their rights, what else would you do to them? Wall them off, execute them, banish them from the very country they were born in? I say the best thing to do is not to treat them like animals. That we need to extend them every human courtesy they had before they transformed. I also suggest we wait and learn more about their transformations. About why they feel the need to live around our mountains."
Mike chuckled at Wendy's suggestions, "no, that's all just foolish thinking. We know they are capable of eating us. That at any moment they could swarm out of those peaks and destroy our society. Destroy what our founding fathers worked so hard to create. No I say we need to stop them. To bar them from being able to harm us. Then after that, we bring justice to those who ate people. To be called into account for their actions."
"'Calling them to account' suggests they have rights," Jill chimed in.
"No, when a dog hurts someone we take care of the dog. We take it away from its owner and put it down. But doing that doesn't extend the dog any human rights. No, we need to get rid of any foolish suggestion that they have access to our justice system. Heck, they couldn't even fit inside a court room in the first place!"
"But isn't that a bit extreme," Jill proposed to him. Wendy's face showed her utter distain for what Mike had proposed.
"When these people transformed into man eating monsters, any sort of pity or fairness went out the window. No, they ate people, they terrorized us, they need to be reminded that they are not human anymore. That while they might still talk like humans, they're not human anymore," Mike replied resolutely.
"I've got to say what you just said is downright disgusting. They are all still human at heart. They want to reconnect with society and try to assume some sort of contact with their families. What you just said is outright abhorrent." Wendy quickly replied trying to summarize all her feelings and thoughts in a short moment.
"You say they want to reconnect with their families, but what about the families of the people they ate? Those people want to reconnect with their lost loved ones, but can't anymore. So why should these dragons have any contact with their families either," Mike angry shot back.
"Well this conversation won't end any time soon. Thank you both for coming on air to debate this issue," Jill commented ending the conversation. Both guests thanked her for letting them come on air.
****
"Ouch, I think my kidneys are never going to recover after this," complained Jill while she rode in the back seat of the large off road truck.
"Sorry maam, this is still a rather new trail. It will be some time before we fix it into an actual road." Apologized the driver as he fought to navigate the truck over the bumpy ground. Around him sat a rather excited and nervous television crew.
"That's alright Bill, I am enjoying the scenery," Jill graciously replied as she briefly peered out at the wide open rolling land around them.
For a short bit the group rode in silence. At least as much silence as a powerful diesel engine thrumming in front of them, the truck's suspension flexing with every bump, and the crewing being jostled around. Yet, everyone was eager to get to their destination as quickly as they could.
"You should be able to see the camp coming up to your right in a few moments," Bill narrated while he continued to steer the truck along the path.
Everyone not driving quickly turned their heads towards where Bill mentioned. At first no one could see much of anything over the rolling hills other then the distant mountains. Mountains that were teaming with all sorts of multicolored dragons.
Then as they began to take a graceful turn around one swooping hill, the group began to make out what looked like large colorful objects just over the hill on the other side. As they made their way through a valley they found it hard to make out what those colorful objects were. Coming around another turn, they all saw that those objects were in fact the backs and wings of a variety of dragons. Dragons that seemed to be huddled around more than one thing. Beyond the dragons, the group could see a myriad of large army tents scattered about the area next to the dragons.
"Welcome to Dragonville," Bill introduced the group to the encampment that had sprouted out from the original camp.
There seemed to be over six large tents. Two had numerous dragons bent low sticking their heads into them. A third tent seemed to be a kind of an open sided cantina with both humans and dragons with their human torsos out, enjoying various food cooked on a portable grill. While another tent had a myriad of humans coming and going. A few of those people walked over to a silver dragon that seemed to be lazily relaxing on the open grassy ground out beyond the camp. While off to the side of the encampment was a large satellite dish and a couple giant white power generating windmills with their three long blades lazily turning in the constant wind.
Carefully Bill navigated the truck into line with other off road vehicles. Once the truck came to a groaning stop, everyone took a moment to gather themselves after the long and bumpy ride. Finally, all four doors opened up with everyone in a hurry to get out.
Briefly everyone took in the sight of those huge dragons. Each one the size of a house with their menacing looking heads, huge plane spanning wings, and multitudes of long dangerous looking spikes. Yet as dangerous as their bodies looked, all of their actions bespoke of a relaxed calm. That they were having a good time and enjoying being around the human settlement.
"Let me introduce you to the woman who first made contact with the dragons and now runs this camp," Bill spoke to Jill. The others began to pull out large black plastic shipping boxes full of equipment from the back of the truck. One of those people mentioned they would wait there until they knew where they were going to shoot.
With that, Bill led Jill through the teeming camp. She peered at all the sights and sound surrounding her. As she walked, she briefly noticed that a few dragons had leapt up into the air and were now lazily gliding over the campus.
Then she glanced at one dragon off in the distance laying on the ground. It's scales had a rather green hue. Yet, what struck her the most was that this huge dragon had two giant
menacing heads. Heads that each had a nude human torso coming out of them. These two torsos were being held closely together in front of a man and a woman.
Something about that scene struck Jill as odd. Then she grasped it, that dragon had two human torsos, not one like what she had learned earlier. "Um, Bill I've got to ask, what's up with that dragon? Why does it have two human torsos instead of one like all the other dragons?"
Bill chuckled inwardly a bit, "caught you off guard didn't they? Yea, that dragon is actually two people. Fraternal twins to be exact. They both turned into dragons at the same time then merged together. Those two people standing in front of them are their parents."
"But why haven't other people merged together like those two," Jill asked as they moved away from the family scene.
"Well Regan can explain this better, but from what heard the dragons figured that if twins, no matter if they are fraternal or identical, all merge into one dragon. That they are the only ones to have that happen to them. At least that's what the community's guess is."
"So are they one person now?"
"No, they still have separate minds that share the same body. But like I said, Regan knows more." While the two walked, Jill spied a woman who looked to be in her late twenties wearing jeans, green t-shirt, and thick boots, which was striding up to them. "Speak of the devil, Jill let me introduce you to Regan."
Regan held out her hand to grasp Jill's, "it's great to meet you," Regan said with a bit of awe in her voice. "We don't get too many celebrities out this way."
Jill was used to this sort of greeting, "thanks, so this is Dragonville camp?"
Gesturing around her, "yep, Julie and I put it together once we knew that more people wanted to meet the dragons. Along with that, the dragons themselves wanted to get back in touch with the society they left behind. Here let me show you around."
With that they began to wander the camp. Regan showed Jill the myriad of support tents where researchers were working on their various projects. Then they came to the tents that had the dragons huddled around them. Jill found out that each dragon had extended its torso into the tent and were intently using computers in front of them. Regan explained that Julie had hooked up the computers to the internet for the dragon's use. Once they learned of this, most of them came flocking down to use the computers. Each wanting to get back in touch with their friends.
Then Regan steered them away from the computer tents, "let me introduce you to a dragon. The one you came to interview." Regan led Jill towards the silver dragon she had seen earlier. Jill was so overwhelmed by the situation that she had barely paid attention to the silver dragon before then.
Now that she was looking at it, Jill realized that what she was looking at had to be one of the most bizarre scenes before her. For in an wide open field off to the side of the camp lay the silver dragon. The being was so huge that it was larger than a mansion. It's four legs were splayed out to one side, like a dog sleeping under the sun. It's wings were lazily crossed over its back. While its three heads were splayed out. Each head had two mouths and the few that were open, Jill could see were filled with razor sharp teeth. The outer two heads, with their scaly horny appearance, lay on top of each other looking at nothing in particular. While the dragon's center head was curved away from the body.
Walking closer, Jill could see that the dragon had a female torso sticking out of its center head as if it was sticking out it's tongue. A torso that the dragon was using to talk with a woman who was sitting cross legged and relaxed on the grassy ground next to the dragon. The other thing that struck Jill was the brazen nudity of that torso, how she cared very little about being so exposed in front of another person.
"So I said to her, if you are going to fly up to the very tops of the peaks, then you're going to need a scarf to stay warm," joked the silver dragon's human torso to the crossed legged woman.
"What'd she say to that," asked the older woman expectantly.
"She couldn't stop laughing. Where would she find one large enough," the silver dragon broke out in laughter so hard that her entire enormous dragon body was shaking with mirth. "Can you see it, one of us dragons wearing a scarf!"
The woman pictured it for a moment before a grin graced her fair face, "yea that would be funny, even better, you'd need three!"
It was about then that the dragon noticed Jill and Regan approaching. Gathering herself, the dragon shifted her body around into a different laying position with her four legs tucked underneath her and her wings pulled tightly against her body. Her other two heads moved closer to her body away from the center head.
"Jill, let me introduce you to Lucy," Regan introduced the silver dragon. "And this here is Julie. Her son transformed into one of the dragons. Since then she's done a lot to help set up the camp."
"It's nice to meet you," Julie pleasantly spoke holding out her hand.
"Same here," abashedly spoke Lucy. She had become a little more reserved around the news anchor then before
"Likewise," Jill replied with a soft smile as she shook Julie's hand and then took Lucy's hand in both of hers. Jill was amazed at how human the dragon's hand felt. How she could easily forget that this nude female in front of her is attached to the huge three headed silver dragon behind her. "I have been wanting to meet a dragon for a very long time. When I heard of the idea of interviewing you, I couldn't pass up the chance." Jill rambled as she peered at Lucy's huge silver body.
"May I," Jill asked Lucy gesturing to Lucy's main body.
"Sure," Lucy readily agreed.
Jill hesitantly walked past the center head towards the right side of Lucy's body. There she came up to one of her large dragon hands. A hand that had black talons, each as large as a desk. Lucy sort of followed Jill with her center head and torso as if she was walking beside Jill.
Carefully as if she was going to touch something dangerous, Jill reached out a hand to touch Lucy's scales. "This is all you?"
"Yep, this is my body," Lucy confirmed.
"Can you feel my touch?"
"A little bit," She admitted to Jill. "My scales are not as sensitive as my human skin is though."
Jill then walked over to Lucy's enormous right head. Jill peered at Lucy's double jawed visage, her mean looking green eyes, and her huge long curving horns.
Lucy had continually followed Jill's movements around her body as best as she could with her center head. Yet when Jill examined her right head, Lucy chose to move it a bit to give her center head a better view. When Jill saw the movement of Lucy's huge appendage, she leapt back briefly in fright before she realized Lucy meant her no harm.
Lucy moved her torso so as to seem like she was standing beside Jill. Both appeared to be appraising the dragon head in front of them.
"So you can see out of that head at this very moment," Jill asked marveling at the thought as she peered at Lucy's huge dragon eyes.
"Yep."
"Can you breath out of both of those mouths?"
To confirm Jill's suspicions, Lucy raised her head up off the ground far enough to allow her to open both mouths. There she let each mouth's tongue lazily loll out past their sharp
jagged looking teeth. Lucy then took a couple large gusty breaths with each mouth simultaneously.
"What's it like to be like this," Jill blurted out.
"Different and disorienting at first. Growing this large and with as many heads changes your perspective on many things," Lucy summarized to Jill solemnly.
It was then that both women noticed Jill's camera crew staring blankly in amazement at Lucy. "Ready to be interviewed," Jill asked Lucy breaking the moment.
"Sure," Lucy calmly replied as the two moved back towards the spot where Lucy and Julie had been relaxing before. Julie had been helping the film crew get set up. The director tried to set up his cameras to allow them to focus on Lucy's torso, but also to get a wide shot of her huge body behind her. They were about to start filming when someone realized that Lucy would need a shirt to cover herself up for the camera.
Everyone tried to find a shirt before one of the camera men gave up his. The breeze was warm enough for him to go shirtless for a bit. When Lucy accepted the shirt, she took a moment to appreciate it. She had been living long enough without clothes that to get a piece of clothing caused her to pause. That the act of putting on the shirt made her feel just a little bit more human.
Finally with the shirt on and a small microphone attached to the shirt's round collar, the interview commenced. The first thing was introductions in front of the camera. Then the conversation turned to what it was like to be a dragon.
"Freedom like you've never felt before. To be able to fly without any sort of mechanical assistance. To be able to see the world from such a different viewpoint, that changes your perception." Lucy calmly summarized for Jill and the camera.
"What do you mean?"
"Well being this big obviously makes everything from my old life looks rather small and delicate. Like I could, with one sweep of my hand, take away any of these tents or smash that communications dish. Though, I and the others would never do that," she hastily added.
"How did it feel to transform into a dragon."
"Painful and alien."
"Care to elaborate?"
"Well, it first starts like a painful cold. One of the worst in my life. Then the cold goes away before itching erupted all over my body. That the itching was my scales growing in. After that I began to feel all sorts of strange feelings as new body parts, like my wings and tail, grew in. But at that time, and throughout my transformation, the biggest thing was my never ending hunger. That I never felt full. That
as soon as I ate something it would disappear into my body to be used by my transformation."
Jill paused before asking the one question she really wanted to ask, "was it that gnawing hunger that forced you to eat a human being?"
At first Lucy was taken aback at such a direct question. Then as she thought back to the moment in her transformation when she killed and ate her roommate, fear and guilt came to the forefront of her mind. "Yes it was," she slowly responded.
"Can you elaborate on it please?"
Lucy paused, "well at the time I felt as if I hadn't eaten in a very long time, like well over a couple weeks. Plus, due to my transformation I had gotten larger and more powerful. My roommate had seen me transform and was frozen in fear. She was screaming," Lucy again paused as she dredged up those shameful memories. "Something in my mind clicked. I don't know if it was a feral need or stray thought, but at one moment I saw the screaming woman as my friend and the next she looked like food."
"Go on."
"I just acted on instinct and pounced on her," Lucy admitted finally.
"I'm sorry to have asked you these tough questions. But the world is worried about you and the other dragons. That at any moment all of you could act on those instincts and eat us?" Jill surmised to Lucy as she gestured to one of Lucy's gigantic heads.
At first Lucy was unsure how to reply to that. She didn't know how to assure Jill and the public that they meant no harm. Finally, she decided to just say it, "I can understand that. We all understand that. During the transformation, we were hit by all sorts of new feelings, emotions, and instincts. Our continual hunger during that period drove us to do whatever it took to feed our transformation. Many of us mistakenly ate people. Yet once we finished transformation, we conquered those feelings, those instincts." Lucy paused and wondered if she should admit something the dragons had been talking about for a while.
Finally she decided it was best to admit it to the world, "and to be quite honest, as huge as we are now, we would need to eat a whole lot of people just to fill our stomachs. That it is just easier to hunt larger animals like horses, bison and such to feed ourselves. Along with that, we see humans as our friends and we would never want to eat our friends." Lucy earnestly spoke to Jill. She hoped that the reporter was convinced by her frankness.
Jill was taken a back at what Lucy said. That eating humans wouldn't fill them up. That they saw them as friends not
something to eat. She was both horrified but also gladdened by what Lucy said. Then something popped in her mind. The comments made by other dragons and eye witnesses of some dragon's actions after transforming. How some liked to play vicious games with humans. To toy with humans like a cat would with a mouse.
"Then how do you explain the few dragons that still eat humans," Jill proposed to Lucy.
Lucy had been dreading yet expecting this question. "Well it's kind of hard to explain. I guess the best way to explain it would be to ask this: there are people in the world who are maladjusted. Who reject society and commit crimes, right," Lucy asked Jill.
"Yes, I suppose so," Jill admitted.
"Well it's fair to say that some of those people could transform into dragons?"
"Sure..."
"Its these few people who are the ones toying with and killing people even after they've fully transformed. These are the ones who actually enjoy killing people. It is like a game to them."
"So you just let them run amok?"
Lucy shook all her heads resolutely, "no, once we find one of these dragons, we do everything we can to keep them from harming humans. We stay on their tails until they give it up in frustration. So far we have been able to control them and even isolate them until they give it up."
"But what if those few malcontents get out of hand?"
"So far we have been able to correct their problems and give them new much safer outlets. One example is our new sport," Lucy revealed.
"New sport?"
"Yea, it a kind of mish mosh of Frisbee and touch football. Someone was able to find a bunch of plywood that they were able to carve into a disk. We then set up goals on either end of a large wide open space and divided ourselves up into teams of six. Like Frisbee, we toss the disk to each member of the team trying to get the disk over the opposing teams goal. Yet, if the opposing team is able to touch the dragon with the disk, then they get the disk. Whichever team reaches the score of five first, wins," Lucy summarized to Jill.
"At first we wanted to use some sort of timing system at first, but then we realized we didn't have any sizable clocks or timers we could see. So instead we chose to use five goals as the limit. That's made the game much more fast pace and interesting. Heck, because we all have wings, These games usually evolve into flying acrobatic shows as each dragon tries
to outmaneuver the other. Yet to make it even more interesting, if you are flying and you get the disk, you have to stop mid flight until you throw the disk. So if you're up in the air, you're going have to hover." Lucy added remembering some of the more memorable games.
"So I can assume you've played this game," Jill asked with a grin, she forgot the more grim track of questions she had been asking before.
Lucy beamed, "yep I have! My team, the Screaming Banshees, has a one and one record this season!"
"I'd like to see one of those games," Jill earnestly admitted.
"I think that could be arranged. Whatever danger some of the dragons posed in the past has gotten a lot better," Lucy responded before a thought hit her. "You know, getting you and your crew up there would be rather cumbersome. Plus, the last few games we've played up in the mountains have been rather confining." Lucy lifted one of her other heads high up off the ground to peer at the grassy lands around her. "Maybe we could bring the games here to you. There is enough space here for us to spread out and it would also allow you and everyone else around the world to enjoy the games along with us," Lucy proposed.
"I think everyone might like that. Who knows, with many people around the world transforming into dragons, it might become a very popular sport." Jill replied as she began to finish up the interview. She thanked Lucy for taking the time let her interview Lucy. Once the cameras had been turned off and the t-shirt returned, the two broke into a deep conversation about game. Jill revealed how she used to be an avid soccer player and used to dream of going into a professional league. Lucy informed Jill how she used to play basketball back in medical school.
As she got to know more about Lucy, Jill couldn't help feeling a friendship forming with the dragon. That these dragons aren't monsters that some of the other groups are trying to paint them as. Heck, she even admitted to herself that if they broadcasted one of those games, it might even help their image overall.
