From noogie@onramp.net Fri Jul 10 06:19:06 1998
Newsgroups: alt.politics.jaffo,misc.misc,alt.slack
Subject: Technomancer Excerpt
From: noogie@onramp.net (Jaffo)
Date: Fri, 10 Jul 1998 08:19:06 -0500
Author's Note: This little speech popped into my head while I was
packing, so I thought I would jot it down to tide you over. I've got
3 books in mind for the Technomancer series. In the third book,
Timothy is befriended by a dragon named Elton Vanderhoff. I got tired
of cryptic, mysterious dragons in literature, so Elton is an OBVIOUS
dragon. He doesn't mind explaining the nature of the Universe and
he'll pontificate for hours at the drop of a hat. (Much like his
Creator.) In this excerpt, Elton is telling a little story about the
time before he came to Earth.
"In my 30th year, I was bound to a Wizard in Alvir-Taroth. I don't
remember his name. I was just a tadpole at 30, so he kept me chained
in his dungeon. They threw me scraps of meat every now and then and
they tried to feed me prisoners, but most of the time, I just lived on
rats.
"Every few days, they would let me out and take me to the courtyard,
so the Master could show me off. Every morning, they would bring in a
batch of new slaves to kneel before the Wizard. Most of the time,
this was uneventful. But every so often, one of them would refuse to
kneel. Not many. I would say about one in a hundred.
"All the others would bow down and there would be one lone figure in
the middle of the pack, standing there like a King, staring the Wizard
in the eye. Those men were cut down instantly, of course. The Wizard
created a fresh martyr once a month.
"Most men would call that heroic. To die on your feet rather than
fall to your knees before another man. Maybe that was the best option
for some. Quick death was more appealing to them than slavery. But
as King, those aren't the ones you have to worry about.
"The ones who grumble and complain. The ones who get whipped every
now and then for minor infractions. Those are the true slaves. They
talk and talk about freedom. They push the boundaries of the prison
to show the other prisoners how free they are. Those men are harmless
pups. Spiteful children who know their place.
"But the ones who drop to their knees first. The ones who shout the
loudest praises to the King -- the ones who kneel and scrape and never
give one word of offense -- the ones who stand there calmly as you
crack the whip and never give one word of complaint... The Wizard
thought of them as his best slaves, but I knew better.
"Men who bow meekly in the face of impossible odds -- men who smile
just a little when the barb rips into their backs -- men who are just
a little too quick to drop to their knees...those men aren't slaves at
all. Those are free men -- waiting."
Jaffo
--
"Great men do not make history and history does not make
great men. Great men invent themselves in response to
extreme situations." -- MBD^2
http://rampages.onramp.net/~noogie/