I really do hate AI. It's not here to make our lives easier. It's causing our very destruction as we watch (creating a deeper and deeper rift between countries and peoples, putting some deeper into poverty and others richer beyond measure). But, there's literally nothing any singular one of us can do anything about it (I hope that we have a Dune style rebellion and add as a testament from the divine "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind") so, here I am with that infamous "almost, not quite, sorta, close enough" that AI is so good at. The pictures added in this chapter are in the likeness of Roan and Cylthan, but not exact. You folks still have plenty of space for your own mental images. No matter what I tried, the AI would not make the ears go UP! Why are elves drawn with ears that stick straight out? I've never liked that style, but it's everywhere, and it's what the AI is trained on. So, her ears are a lot longer than shown and go straight up like human ears. As for Roan's picture, well, I'm just glad the scar is on the correct side. It doesn't look the same, and his silver eye is supposed to be SILVER, like there's mercury that swirls around, and a white pinpoint that isn't always so visible, but it's definitely his pupil in the artifact. Oh well, "close enough." Should it ever, by some luck, become a movie, it would be animated in this style. I added the images in this chapter so that current readers don't have to go back, and so I didn't have to repost the first chapter again. Enjoy!
Now, as for the Draago... In the previous draft over on Woofajuana, I had the "Drago" (yeah, I just added an extra 'a' so it's pronounced correctly) listed as a "dragon-kin" who were born of dragons breeding with elves. And before that, it wasn't a species, it was just Shidu. Well, I've had a few years between versions, and the Draago are definitely dragons. They are just dragons who evolved to look like people for the sole purpose of eating more people. If they look like an elf, the elves trust them more and then they become dinner. I saw something similar in Frieren (an anime about a 1,000 year old elf living among humans and fighting demons, check it out!) where the demons only learned to speak to trick humans into trusting them. It's fun how we all seem to pull from a similar creative Source. But, in this version, the Draago are full-blooded dragons that just look like people. Some like elves, some like humans, but they all have lots of dragon qualities. I have a full species sheet for them that I'm working on, and I will post for you guys next time. I don't feel like describing everything about them in story because there is a lot that is actually kind of important to know. In this chapter is a copper Draago, which look like giant humans (with wings, tails, scales, horns...), and have spent so long pretending to be humans that they've basically become humans and rarely eat people anymore. Since we'll be getting to know a few more later, I'll make sure to have that species sheet. Mostly, I just don't want to spend a paragraph to describe how they look while I'm in the middle of the story. Totally knocks me out of the moment and it's a jolt I don't like so I just make a separate sheet for it.
With summer break, out of town trips, more funerals, and my health, finding time to write has been difficult. I'm so sorry about Dragon Tamers. Trust me, I want to finish what I picked apart, but Roscrow has been so pissed about Higzashi trying to come into my head that I can't get him to talk straight. He hates Higzashi. Soooo much. Listen, saipaki, the dude can't hear you. I'm hearing you and it's annoying me! What does he hate so much? Well, because Higzashi is not a good guy. He never was, but I made him way too sweet in the original rough draft. It actually upset people when Shime left him, which was not supposed to happen. Readers were supposed to be happy about it. Higzashi's only desire is to breed an army to take over the Ha'trin, and he does that by doing to other young women as what he does with Shime: pretend to love her. He's the soft kind of abusive, not the hard kind that she came from, which is why she falls for him at all. And Roscrow can't stand that. Tarnrax is a bad guy with his hard abuse. There's nothing redeeming about him. But Higzashi? He's cunning and ancient, and he uses that to manipulate and twist up his prey while being the leader of a group that generally stands against exactly what he's doing. That's what pisses Roscrow off. When a bad man acts good and gets away with it. A predator who so perfectly hides among its own prey. And, oh boy! Roscrow's got lots of elvish insults I've never heard before.
So, while I rage against the machine, he's raging against... other fictional characters. Yeah, that's right, my fictional characters are pissed off at fictional characters and only the one of them even knows any of the rest of them exist. I'm clearly crazy. That's okay, at least I have fun. I can't remember what being bored is like. It's been decades. But, I absolutely know how frustrating it can be. I am reading a Korean manga and they took a hiatus, and I was devastated. My Friday was ruined. What do I even do with myself without anime smut of an estranged couple fucking younger people? T.T And all I could think was "this is how my readers must feel." So trust when I say, I'm not happy to leave it there. Not about Roscrow, and not about Kupper. Both of you big, bad, black-eyed jerks! Get back to work! Ugh! It'll happen. If nothing else, it'll happen in August. Schooooooooooool. The bane of children, the savior of parents.
Anyhow, here is the next chapter of "The Rat and the Dragon." I slid into home base at the last second with this chapter. Finished today, so it may not be properly edited. Rough draft things! Kind of like how Cylthan is supposed to use magic with intention instead of spoken spells, which I will fix later. Just know that that particular conversation about her magic is coming up in a few chapters, so it will clash with the start.