OK fellers, this is simply an original idea I'm toying with pursuing. All I 
want is some feedback as to whether or not it's any good, and if I should 
continue it.

<Mike looks at the people he promised Ch.3 of his Robotech fanfic to, 
takes three small steps backwards, turns slowly, and RUNS FOR HIS LIFE!!! ;)>

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				Wing Legends <tt>

				Michael White

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	The winds were not quite right.

	Waves crashed against a towering cliff, as they had for countless
millenia, wearing it down bit by bit. Perched on the edge of this cliff
was a blue dragon. 

	She looked out at the seemingly endless ocean, the reflected
sunlight making it look like a sea of fire. The winds shifted, but she
lingered a moment, taking in the view. Then her attention was demanded by
another feeling, the one which had prompted her to leave her cavern lair.
Hunger. 

	The dragon spread her wings, let out a piercing cry, and dove off
the cliff. She pulled out of her dive only meters above the jagged rocks,
soaring through the mist. She gained a little altitude, scanning the sky.
Nothing. 

	Banking a little, she turned her attention to the water below.
Also nothing. Well, perhaps all it would require was a little more effort.
The dragon inhaled a deep breath, then let out a short, high-pitched
shriek. Pausing for a moment, she listened intently. Nothing, save for
the small echo produced by the ocean surface. That was a bad sign. If
there were indeed fish anywhere nearby, the sky should have been swarming
with gulls. 

	Well, no matter. The dragon emitted another shrill cry, but with a
slight variation in pitch. This time there was a faint echo from beneath
the ocean surface. She dove at that echo, shrieking one more time. This
time, there were seven large, distinct echoes, close together and moving
the same general direction. 

	She had to make the first strike count. Pulling her wings in, the
dragon crashed into the ocean at a fearsome speed. It barely slowed her
down. Slicing through the water, she opened her mouth and angled her body
a little. Fortune smiled on the blue dragon, as she managed to catch not
one, but two fish. Instantly, she used her powerful jaws and small but
sharp teeth to crush their skulls, and she swallowed them whole. 

	The dragon was now motionless in the water. She looked over her
shoulder at the now startled school of fish. One of them had apparently
panicked, and was swimming around circles. Thrashing her long tail, she
propelled herself towards it. Too late, it tried to dart away. It took
her less then half a second to grab the fish, crush its' skull, and
swallow it. 

	She tried to grab another fish, but it escaped. Two more minutes
of chasing and snapping had netted nothing, so she decided to give up.
Upon reaching the surface, she began flapping her wings wildly. Gravity
fought, lost, and the dragon began to gain altitude. Water began
streaming out of what a moment ago functioned as gills on the dragons'
long neck. 

	She continued flapping her wings for fifteen minutes, stopping
only when she had pierced what thin cloud cover there was. Her hunger
satisfied, she wouldn't need to feed for another week. Besides, she felt
like simply flying for a while. With no real family, she occasionally
felt pangs of loneliness. Flight alleviated that somewhat, so she spent a
lot of time in the air. Although she lived in a deep series of caverns,
she considered the sky her real home. 

	As was her habit, she scanned the sky regularly. Long ago she had
learned to use the echoes created by her cries to judge the size,
distance, and altitude of objects both above and beneath the surface of
the ocean. She used this ability now. This time, she heard three echoes.
Flits, probably, stingray like animals that glided just above the surface.
Although 'animals' was probably not the best description for them. Or for
the dragon, for that matter. They were not a threat unless attacked, and
even then only a minor one. Still, she would avoid them today.

	Wait.

	A sound. Something... it was gone. It came from somewhere ahead,
and from somewhere on the ground. She dove, curious. 

	Again. A scream. One of... anger, hostility. Then a shout... of
_pain_. 

	Finally, she could see the source of those sounds. Two nintan -
large burrowing insect-like creatures - had cornered something on an
outcropping of rock at the edge of the cliff. Whatever it was, it had
collapsed and wasn't moving. When she had closed so me more, she saw the
nintans' intended prey. 

	A human.

	Suddenly determined, the dragon picked up speed and dived the
nintan and the hapless human. Nintan were ferocious, but not very bright.
As the dragon rocketed by, they turned, saw only a larger target, and leapt
at it, stinger-first. 

	It was a simple matter to bank left, leaving the nintan to fall to
their deaths on the rocks far below. 

	The dragon circled the fallen human, shedding the speed her long
dive had built up. When she had slowed down enough, she landed a short
distance away from the human. 

	Folding her wings against her body, she walked over to the human,
inspecting it. It was apparently male, and he was wearing some kind of
armor. The armor was white, blackened in areas from nintan
stinger-strikes. That was the only reason he was still alive. 

					*  *  *

	Twenty minutes later, the human began to come to. The dragon
backed away a little, well aware of the effect her appearance would cause.
She didn't save him from the nintan only to have him fall off the cliff to
his death. 

	She saw him open his eyes, then heard his sharp intake of breath.
It was almost amusing. 

	Things from the humans point of view were somewhat less humorous.
'Well,' he thought, 'at least I'm alive. But... what is that?' A... a
dragon?! No... they were only legends, myths. Long lost rumors founded in
a war that took place two thousand years ago. But how else to explain
what was standing before him? 

	Looking deep into the reddish eyes of this dragon-creature, he saw
not the eyes of a heartless killer, but the glimmer of intelligence, and
perhaps even compassion... 

					*  *  *

	In the year 7748, a hero and a creature of myth encountered one
another on the edge of a world gone mad. 

					*  *  *

								- MW

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       \\  /*MW*/*MW*/*MW*/  Michael White  \*MW*\*MW*\*MW*\  //
	\\/*MW*/*MW*/*MW*/aj331@ccn.cs.dal.ca\*MW*\*MW*\*MW*\//
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	 //      "Besides your looks, what have *you*	    \\
	//           contributed lately?" - Rand	     \\
       //     "Look beyond your eyes with your song..."       \\
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