When Dragons Sailed the Seven Seas

It was the Age of Steam for this society,and their serpent headed
iron hulled dragon boats had boilers,coal bunkers and steam engines much
like what we homo sapiens possess.

Their ships had one magical-machine technology our scientists and
engineers still have to discover,the dragons-egg boiler,which required the
hot fiery breath of a feral western dragon to make it operate.

The dragons-egg produced a
gelatinous/watery liquid the society's wizards
and engineers called controlled water,for the simple reason it could be
held in place without need of embankments or retaining walls.

This allowed the dragon boats to travel on land and sea alike,
much like the hovercraft homo sapiens have invented

+++++++++++++++

Frost Fang ,a feral,was burning off a months wages from his last
job on booze again.The pub was crowded with with his mates ,the Black Gang from the
SS Bernadika.His daughter Gertrude Fang had run away from home again and the
missus had driven Frost out of their cave with a series of healthy roaring curses,

So Mr Fang had gone to the Laidley Worm and Three Little
Pigs Tavern to inquire if
anyone knew where his daughter was.They didn't.Being polite honest
working ferals,they didn't want to suggest that perhaps Gertrude Fang
had turned to a life of prostitution or perhaps now lay senseless in a
snapdragon opium den.

The guys toasted another glass to the Lambton Worm,and then
turned to the matter of finding new employment .The Bernadika was in
dry dock for a refit of her dragons-egg's ,which were underpowered for the
shifting geography the land sailors had to overcome.

As we all know,a millenia earlier a asteroid had wiped out the dragons
kinfolk,the dinosaurs,and the oceans and lands were still in violent upheaval
from that cosmic collision.

It took a higher column of controlled water to flow onto the rougher surfaces,
and thus more powerful magic-machines had to be invented.

Frost had downed his glass of Boothe's Finest 68 and was
puffing on a fag,staring at the Laidley Worm's other patrons.
The cosmic collision a thousand years earlier had affected peoples
the dragons hadn't even been aware existed,

With all the upheavals overseas some of those landless
refugees had hitched rides on land sailor freighters back to
the dragon ports.

As usual,the government had fallen over backwards
to accommodate the Grimmsland folk

+++++++++++++

Maximillian Morgan,a upper level in-betweener ,had dragon
diabetes.
After he'd taken another combined shot of insulin and
a Homopure 3 from his medicine chest,Max got ready for his
lecture to the students of Icey Woo ,as the Institute was
nicknamed by the faculty and students.

Todays class was about “What Lies Beneath the
Surface? “ and the labs would be giving the newbies a
chance to walk on the surface of Controlled Water and the
lucky few would (with safety harness on) take a dip below
the materials calm surface,and into another dimension.

++++++++++++++++

Sloan's son was making the deliveries in the West Side
of the In-between quarter.His dad,Sloan the feral tough guy
crime boss,wanted his son to learn some more about the
family business.

A business that included the distribution and sale of
nerve burning nine hour and three day unlicensed magic,as well as
a franchised chain of Diabolique Relicque speakeasies where
various walks of dragon society came to unwind and be a little
daring.

+++++++++++++++++++

It was approaching evening when Frost Fang and the others
finally left the Laidley Worm and the Three Little Pigs.Frost
stood off in a corner and finished off his fag.

The rest of the Black Gang of the Bernadika,somewhat
more inebriated then their fellow feral,staggered off down the
street singing

“ what do you do with a drunken sailor,what do you do with
a drunken sailor,what do you do with a drunken sailor earrlie in the
morn-in?”

Whilst on the shoulder of one of the drunken dragons perched
a equally inebriated Big Bad Wolf,singing off key and out of sync

“Hie ho and up she rises.hie ho...”

The tavern's door opened and out came the three pig
brothers,happily oinking as they carried along a sack of gold,
silver and aluminum coins.