Garlan: We're outside today, waiting for our guest, Jill Hammond, to arrive. Are you ready, Ferune?
Ferune: I didn't put on barbacue sauce flavored perfume, if that's what you mean.
Garlan: Do you even have any?
Ferune: Sure, I spritz it on whoever's leading us into the dungeon so monsters find them irresistable, instead of me.
Garlan: (sighs) At least it's a beautiful sunny day in the meadow. Our guest today, for those who don't know, is a dragon. The first to join us on our show.
Ferune: I'm not sure I like the implications of that - are there going to be more?
Garlan: I wouldn't say it's outside the realm of possibility. Dang, where'd the sunlight go?
Ferune: Look up, moron.
Garlan: Oh, our guest is arriving.
Ferune: It looks more like she's power diving us. Crap!
Garlan: She's coming in fast. Brace yourself!
Ferune: Now you're just being nasty - oof! Damn!
Garlan: Welcome to the show, Jill. You'll have to pardon my sister, Ferune, the wind from your landing knocked her down.
Jill: Oh, I'm sorry. I wanted to give your viewers an impressive show.
Ferune: (dusting the seat of her pants) we have readers, not viewers - this is a blog show.
Garlan: You still got some grass stains back there, Ferune. Are you okay? I told you to brace yourself.
Ferune: Yes, and that's something no girl should ever hear their own brother tell them. Welcome to the show, Jill!
Jill: Glad to be here. It's nice to visit Vorallon too.
Garlan: That's right, you're native to the Earth universe aren't you? Let me say you are very impressive. For our readers: I am standing where my gut is telling me is way too close to an almost ninety foot long predator. She's covered in thick scales the color of a deep blue sky, and looks like she could easily pluck a mammoth from the ground.
Jill: Oh, no. A mammoth is too heavy for me to lift. I'd have to just pounce on it an eat it where it fell.
Ferune: You're not hungry right now by any chance? We're fresh out of mammoths.
Jill: That's a shame. (Jill laughs - a deep booming sound that echoes across the meadow) It's okay, I ate before coming.
Ferune: And that's another subject I don't want to get into at the moment. Tell us, Jill, you are from the Terminals books, but you didn't begin life as a dragon, did you?
Jill: I was a human woman, well a teenaged girl, before my transformation. I was one of the Terminals, though we prefer the term 'special'.
Garlan: But you are the only special who underwent such a drastic transformation. What can you tell us about that?
Jill: Yes, the other specials on the team remained quite human looking after their treatment. I didn't even know what I was becoming at first. I was just scared about turning into a monster. I brought some pictures that Thomas graciously painted of me through the process. This first image shows the beginning, while I still looked a bit human.
Ferune: That's wild. I bet you thought you were turning into a werewolf or something. Did this transformation hurt?
Jill: No, I'd endured enough pain with my cancer before getting the mutagen treatment. My transformation was completely painless, though it had it's mental hurdles.
Garlan: It must have been frightening. I read the Terminals books, the monsters described in there were horrifying, and very nasty.
Jill: I was fit to be tied more than a few times. I was more afraid of becoming a monster on the inside than on the outside. The world was full of villains already, and I thought I was becoming another one. None of us knew at the time just what was behind it all.
Garlan: Don't get into spoiler territory.
Jill: I won't. Finding out what was behind the lucky ones, and the Red Event that made them, is a crucial plot of the story. Suffice to say, I am quite happy with how I turned out.
Ferune: Is there any of that teenaged girl left in there at all?
Jill: Yes, I have all her memories, and I retain her name, but I am not that girl any more. I am fully a dragon. Actually, wrestling with the new instincts and desires of a dragon were the most challenging part of my transformation. Up to the point shown here, I was still a girl in a dragon's body.
Garlan: Did you know here that you were becoming a dragon?
Jill: Yes, this is the point where none of us could deny what I was changing into. The dragon instincts where harder to deal with until the girl I was became one with the dragon.
Ferune: How would you describe being a dragon?
Jill: It's wonderful. I relish doing dragon things. I am fast and strong, and I can fly which is freedom itself.
Garlan: You are a superhero as well as a dragon though.
Jill: I am a bit tougher than a normal dragon, and I grew to the size I am now much much faster, but that's about all the difference between me and a great dragon of my size.
Ferune: A great dragon? Is that something special?
Jill: I suppose it is. Dragons come in many varieties. Some grow to be no bigger than your arm, and they aren't terribly smart. The ancestral dragons, the first of us, were no larger than twelve to fourteen feet in length. I am really enjoying reading about them in The Allero Genesis. Thomas is letting people read it for free on Writeon while he's working on it.
Garlan: I am enjoying it too.
Jill: A great dragon grows throughout their life. One I have met, Rizjar, is over five hundred feet long, and massive, but he's also over twenty thousand years old. Great dragons just get stronger and bigger as they age. From here on out, I am going to age as a normal dragon. I'd say right now I am about the size of a sixty or seventy year old, though I only just turned eighteen. My transformation came with this boost in size.
Ferune: Don't be in any rush to get bigger. Why in the multiverse would dragons need to grow so large?
Jill: Well, great dragons are a special case; they were bred for war on the world of Dakkar. War with each other. Very few survived what happened there.
Garlan: Dakkar? Wait, that's the world whose spirit became the God of Undeath.
Jill: Sadly, that's true. Rizjar is one of the few who survived that - I can't say more without spoiling upcoming stories. The story I am in next will be about our journey to find those survivors, or other great dragons that may have evolved in other universes. It's going to be a major exploration of the multiverse.
Ferune: Do you have any idea when we can expect to see that?
Jill: No. only that Thomas plans on working on that as soon as The Fire of Falraan and Behind the Stars are complete - the ideas are still percolating, he says.
Garlan: He's already gone a hundred years into into the future of the Red Event with Another Day in the Forces - which is also free to read on Writeon.
Jill: I know. I am going to keep up with that, looking for clues. Already caught one regarding another dragon. I can't wait till he makes an appearance. Thomas is weaving a lot of stories together, but they stand on their own. It's beyond me.
Ferune: Can you tell us anything about the dragons who appear in Tales of Vorallon?
Jill: Oh, Kacheena? She's a dragon like no other, insanely clever. There's definitely some huge clues in those stories. Many tidbits of things to come within the pages of Thomas' stories. Kacheena has a very big role to play on Vorallon. Read it for free, I'm not going to give anything away.
Garlan: We will find out more next week when Kacheena and Caprilla are here together to introduce themselves.
Jill: Are we done already?
Ferune: We don't have to be. We can go as long as you want. Is there anything you miss about being human?
Jill: I suppose I miss the little things a bit, picking out clothes to wear, wearing them, boys, that sort of thing.
Garlan: That's right, you're trying to find a mate, not just more great dragons.
Ferune: ...And you're naked. I didn't even think about that.
Jill: (laughing again) Dragons are nudists. I got used to that surprisingly quick. Our naughty bits are pretty well hidden.
Ferune: Did you really just say that?
Garlan: I think being a dragon means getting to say whatever you want.
Jill: Too true! To address your question, Garlan, yes, my quest for a mate is going to be another big part of my next book. I am really looking forward to it.
Ferune: I bet, you at least have the memories of a teenaged girl in there. I look for mates on a regular basis.
Jill: You haven't found Mister Right, yet?
Ferune: No, I am really good at finding Mister Right-Now, though.
Jill: I think I am going to take off now.
Garlan: Hold on to something, she means it literally.
Ferune: Crap! Oof!
Garlan: And Ferune is down again. Please join us next week for our pair of special guests, and read their story now for free on Writeon in the pages of Tales of Vorallon!
Garlan and Ferune can be seen in the humorous, adult, choose-a-path adventure Damned in the Illmire Swamp - Read for free on WriteOn
Be sure to check out Terminals: The Complete Saga - click below for a free sample!
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