Meeting One Val Salr: The Answer to the Problem
#4 of Meeting One Val Salr
Jason and Val Salr part ways.
Jason woke some time later, sore of body and throat, and he stretched, then looked around confused. He was in some kind of a stone room-how had he gotten here? Wait, there was a dragon and...
Everything came back to him. He stood and looked over himself, glad to see his body had returned to usual shape. No tail. Other than a strange feeling of disappointment and an even stranger tingling in the tail he no longer had, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
Looking over at the dragon, he could see that she was sleeping peacefully, a blissful look on her face. He stepped over to where she was laying and, careful not to step on any of her limbs, reached over her head and scratched at the base of her horns.
He no longer had any trace of the nervousness that he'd felt previously. Instead he felt some sorrow for the individual who had found true love and been unable to obtain it. He had trouble imagining what it would be like to watch the one he loved, not only marry someone else, but for that to turn out to be bad choice, and such a bad one at that.
But what could he do about it? Surely anything he could do Val Salr could have done just as well; as far as he knew she wasn't some poverty stricken beggar, after all.
He sat next to the dragon as he considered, absently rubbing the base of her horns. Well, he thought, lets see. What could he do that Val Salr couldn't? Certainly nothing physical; she was far stronger than he; her forelimbs were quite bulky. Perhaps he could do some detail work, but how would that solve the problem?
He looked over his sleeping companion, then the old stones that comprised the walls. What could he do for someone from a culture that changed so slowly that a thousand year old city was the same as one being built today? He just couldn't see what he could do for a dragon that'd lived far longer than he, and would be alive long after him.
Jason stood and started to walk outside. Although the cracked paving stones outside were wet, it was no longer actually raining. He stopped in the entrance corridor, realizing that he hadn't put his clothes back on yet.
Returning to the room he'd left his clothes (and a sleeping dragon) in, he dug out his camera to take one last picture of the ruins before he prepared to make his way home. As he dug through the pile, Val Salr stirred.
"Looking for something?" she asked.
"My camera. I'm going to have to start home before long if I don't want to be late. I was going to take a couple last pictures before I had to go."
Val Salr nodded wisely. "Mind if I watch?"
Jason glanced at her. "Sure, I suppose." She followed him back out into the hallway and watched him snap a few photos. The camera ejected each picture after he took it and he handed them to Val Salr to look at. She sat on her haunches and held them delicately with her fore claws.
"My father had a camera," she said. "It took it several hours to take a single photo and the subject had to stay absolutely still or the picture would be ruined. He didn't use it much," she added after a pause.
"They've come a long way since then." He took a snapshot of Val Salr looking at the photos and handed it to her. She stared at it for a moment, her face seeming to undergo contortions as he watched.
"Its that simple?" she asked at long last.
Jason held the camera out. "Here, you try it. Just point the camera and press this button here. It does all the rest." He suppressed a wince as she took the camera, trying not to think how much damage her powerful claws could do to the technological marvel.
It looked funny, the large dragon holding the tiny camera in her claws. It was such a incongruity; big dragon, small camera. He couldn't help but laugh. She photographed him.
Grabbing the picture as it feed out of the camera, she stared at it once more. Then, carefully setting the camera aside, she grabbed a hold of Jason and clutched him tightly against her chest with one forelimb for a moment.
"Oh thank you!" she said. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Jason squirmed in her grasp, finally managing to get himself into a position where he could breath. "Um, okay. For what?" Jason asked.
"All I need to do is buy one of these little things, than I can take hundreds of photos of Val Weth. That should be more than enough to convince the councils and the priests that something most be done. Can I have your camera?"
She was right, Jason realized. Photographs could quite possibly be enough to at least cause further investigation. But his camera was noisy and old. It'd be hard to take good photos with it and not be noticed.
"How about this," he began.
"Don't tell me you're going to say no," Val Salr said.
"Could you spare the time to return to the Trade Center? There we could buy a newer, quieter camera. You'd be less likely to be noticed that way."
"Quieter? They come quieter?"
"Very much so; this camera's quite old now. I really should've replaced it before my vacation."
"Definitely then." Val Salr barely allowed Jason to time get dressed before taking him on a hell-ride through the forest on her back. Despite this, she had him pack the photo of him naked. No amount of arguing on his part could dissuade her from that.
They stopped only for a few hours in the dead of the night. He slept pressed up against the dragon's belly, kept warm from her body heat. Late the next day they arrived at the trade center. It was too late at that point to buy a camera, so he lead her to his apartment where she curled up in the main (and only if one discounted the bathroom and kitchen) room.
The next morning they were shopping for a camera almost before the store opened. The camera that Val Salr bought was both larger and quieter. She also bought a knapsack she could carry on her back in flight to carry it home in.
After a final stop at his apartment, were she collected the photo of him at the ruins and several new ones of him, both with and without his clothes, she left. Jason watched as she flew off to rescue the love of her life, knowing that he'd probably never see her again.
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