Here there be dragons!
source
Dragons, especially the oxymoronic "benevolent" kind,
are a most excellent subject for a freewrite prompt or a philosphical discussion over a pitcher of beer. How did people ever acquire the notion that reptiles could exhale fire? If ancestral memory is a thing, I'd imagine that giant pteradacytls fed the imagination with flying dragons. Anatomically or physiologically, though, unless dragons smoked tobacco like humans do, I don't see how they would breathe out smoke - let alone flames.
But if it used to happen, what a loss that was, suppressing in our gene pool the potential to breathe fire!
Not-so-Benevolent Dragons
may be in my very blood. My mom is Rh-negative, and I was the only type O-positive of her five daughters, so I was regarded as an alien invader and attacked in utero by mother's own blood. But that's a factoid I'll come back to later--if I think of it again.
So many, many books about dragons posing as humans (magically, to be sure) and living among us have been spawned in contemporary fiction, I caught the bug and started freewriting a dragon-boy of my own. Erik was already a misfit,and in the throes of adolescence, he starts growing scales. After five days in a row of trying to write from a prompt, I set the story aside and never looked back, but now thanks to today's prompt, Erik the benevolent and beautiful Ennis are on my mind again.
Here are some links to Erik and Ennis of the Dragon Line (little did they know!), but that story needs so much work, I can see why #INKubator advises Steemians not to publish their freewrites. Mine can make me wince and cringe. Even though I cheat and take way more than 5 minutes PLUS time to proofread.
"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 1
Day 326: 5 Minute Freewrite: Monday - Prompt: Dirty Feet
"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 2
Day 327 : 5 Minute Freewrite: Tuesday - Prompt: describe a clock
"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 3
Day 328: 5 Minute Freewrite: Wednesday - Prompt: screening
"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 4
Day 329: 5 Minute Freewrite: Thursday - Prompt: runny
"Soon and Very Soon" - Part 5
Day 330: 5 Minute Freewrite: Friday - Prompt: You walk through a door - what do you see?
As a people, we do have a universal love of all things dragon-ish
and dinosauric, I think, but I would not spend thousands of dollars on invasive surgical procedures to achieve what natural selection didn't deliver. E.g.,
source: Woman Transforms Herself Into 'Blue Eyes White Dragon' With Fangs
Tattooed Eyeballs
is so far out there, it doesn't even sound like a good name for a rock band. Or a heavy metal band. That girl with the fangs and whites-of-her-eyes tattooed blue (How Many Needles?) is not alone:
A male-to-female transgender woman who prefers the pronoun “it” has been undergoing a human-to-dragon transition procedures
... it believes it was born not only the wrong sex, but also the wrong species, and has been undergoing human-to-dragon transition procedures to fix the problem.
Some humans actually go to plastic surgeons for horns. I have seen photos. These guys look more than a little creepy and diabolical.
Some people grow their own horns naturally (and quite unexpectedly):
... In 2010, a 101-year-old Chinese grandmother named Zhang Ruifang gained fifteen minutes of fame for having two horns sprouting from her forehead. The first horn had measured nearly 2 ½ inches, while the second had just begun to grow. While most would be less than pleased with such a development, she was reportedly thrilled about it and refused offers to have the horns removed.
In 2015, 87-year-old Liang Xiuzhen from Sichuan, China, visited doctors with a five-inch horn growing from the top of her head.... determined to be a cutaneous horn, which is composed of the same substance as fingernails, called keratin.
source: Human Oddities, ScienceA Brief and Rather Unpleasant History of Human Horns
If I ever grew a horn, heaven forbid, I'd rather have it someplace useful--as opposed to "text horn," a useless bone spur, of sorts, on the rise among humans thanks to texting. I kid you not. Thanks to epigenetics, future generations could be born with horns in this useless location at the back of the head.
Being on our phones too much is making people grow horns
Have you heard of text neck? Doctors say spending too much time looking down at our phones is causing major body changes, like growing horns at the base of our skull.
In my childhood, we were all intrigued by the girl with
(no, not a dragoon tatoo) - a girl with a "finger" growing out of her cheek. In later years, she had it surgically removed. (We also had a girl who'd pop out her glass eye in the cafeteria just to see everyone's reaction --You'll shoot your eye out, kid!)
Epigenetics is a modern field of science with phenomenal facts. I'd long ago learned in Biology class that embryos start out looking like tadpoles, equipped with a tail. As the nine months progress, the "tail" gets incorporated beneath our surface, into the tailbone, and only rare genetic flukes lead to humans with weird tail-like growths. (Or girls with fingers growing out of the face.)
For years I've lamented to loss of our prehensile tail. How useful even an ordinary tail would be, like a cow's for swatting flies. How expressive a tail can be--the cat ready to pounce gives a swish swish swish. Bobinski the Bad watches birds through the window, ears pinned, tail twtiching. I want a tail. I'd really like a prehensile tail, the kind that allows monkeys to hang from a tree, or to pick things up if both hands are occupied (holding babies: come on moms, you know what we mean when we wish for a third hand. We're missing that tail!)
I don't know why every human species had to lose the fur coat. Our collies have such beautiful velvet protecting the face from sunburn, with black eyeliner as well. Why don't humans get the eye liner? Why do men grow those useless beards that trap more bacteria and detritus than the germs of a dog's mouth? For that matter, what's up with the bare feet? Paw pads would awesome. No shoes. How I would love no shoes. And hooves, for kicking things in, would be like X-Man superpowers.
Never mind our missing prehensile tail:
Some scholars actually believe that Rh Negative blood types in humans arose from alien origins. Some even say dragons. The science behind that is more than a little sketchy.
RH negative blood - (type 'O') is the purest blood known to mankind...
... it is not known from where the negative factor originates. The majority of people, especially the native people of the Americas have type 'O' blood, except the Blackfoot Indians who have 82% type A blood. These native people are the only tribe to have this high concentration of A blood - most other American Indians have 80% type 'O'. It is the rh negative factor that makes the blood 'pure'. Pure enough to be the universal blood of the world. Everyone on the face of the earth can receive rh negative type 'O' blood, but these very same 'O' negative people cannot receive blood from any other type except their own type. The three types are 'O', 'B', 'A' and a fourth - a combination of 'AB'.
source
The Rh-negative Factor: "Reptilian Traits
R. Frank, a scholar at the University of Iowa, suggest that the Basques were far-advanced in navigational skills and other aspects of technology long before the rise of the Roman Empire. The Basques, she believes, are the last remnants of the megalith builders, who left behind dolmens, standing stones, and other rock structures all across Europe and perhaps even in eastern North America.
So, the minority of humans with RhNegative blood are allegedly superior to me in many ways.
Two facts set the Basque peoples apart from the other Europeans who have dominated the continent the past 3,000 years: (1) The Basque language is distinctly different; and (2) The Basques have the highest recorded level of Rh-negative blood (roughly twice that of most Europeans), as well as substantially lower levels of Type B blood and a higher incidence of Type O blood.
Some probable technological feats of the Basques or their ancestors are:
Stonehenge and similar megalithic structures....A unique system of measurement based on the number 7, instead of 10, 12, or 60 Regular visits to North America long before Columbus to fish and to trade for beaver skins. Recently unearthed British customs records show large Basque imports of beaver pelts from 1380-1433. The invention of a sophisticated navigational device called an "abacus." (No relation to the common abacus.)
(Haddingham, Evan; "Europe's Mystery People," World Monitor, p. 34, September 1992. Cr. A. Rothovius.)
From Science Frontiers #85, JAN-FEB 1993. A9 1997 William R. Corliss
Your Rh status describes whether or not you have a protein on the surface of red blood cells. If you don't have the Rh factor, you're considered Rh-negative; if you have it, you're Rh-positive.
Rh-Negatives are not only rare, but the Rh-Negative Factor is considered a mutation of unknown origin which took place in Europe approximately 25,000-35,000 years ago. This unusual group of people then spread heavily into the area of what is now Spain, England, Ireland, etc.
Rh-negative women with a Rh-positive partners are at RISK of spontaneous miscarriage and other fetus REJECTION events.
Rh-negative women and men display Reptilian Traits:
An EXTRA-Vertebra (a "Tail Bone"). Some are born with an actual tail (called a "Cauda"). In Sanskrit, Ketuu = The south Lunar Node, also known as Cauda/Draconis, in latin, "dragon's tail" in English.
Lower than normal Body Temperature
Lower than normal Blood Pressure
Higher mental analytical abilities
Higher Negative-ion shielding (from positive "charged" virus/bacteria) around the body
High Sensitivity to EM and ELF Fields
source: ThomasJB at mingle2.com, "Descendants of Dragons"
I have suffered enough!
My mom's blood tried to kill me. I was born buttter-yellow with jaundice. Other babies have died of this. But we in the 21t Century have ways to anticipate and prevent that. Back then, it was just luck (or lack of it).
Until next time,
Keangaroo
because Kean sounds like Kane (not keen, hint, hint)
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Only a year and a half old, but fearless, she is...I do not know her blood type. My daughter is O Negative. I have spawned a benevolent dragon!
@carolkean I am rh negative and had to have some kind of injection after childbirth. But I do not have a tail, it would be cool if I did but I think it would be hard to sit with one.
How do our cats and dogs sit? They curl the tail around the hips.
I want my prehensile tail back!
And maybe a velvet fur coat (no lion's mane, please and thanks), no hooves, but claws for grasping tree branches would be fun. And, oooh, kangaroo hops! I wanna be a roo!!!!
@carolkean I did not think of how dogs and cats sit, great thinking. There was an old B-rated movie called when women had tails maybe they were RH-negative.
That is awesome - When Women Had Tails!
You're a member of the elite - the superb minority - you're Rh Neg! I was the only one who wasn't, of the five daughters, and if they were descended from dragons, they never mad dragons look benevolent.
Sounds like you had a baby with positive blood, hence the injections, which came into place after too many babies were spontaneously aborted or born sick. I'm not a total waste of space, though: I donate blood. On my second gallon. I'm in the majority. Two of those dragon-blood sisters can't donate--unable to check the box about being out of the country--and the other had leukemia and can't donate. Oddly, I was a 99% match to her as a bone marrow donor, but after the transplant, her negative blood turned into my O-positive. That was one side effect I hadn't thought of. Well, she's still alive 24 years later, so there's that. Now the chicken/egg question: is she a survivor because she's a superb Dragon-descended Rh Neg, or is she a survivor because being O-Positive is an asset too? No matter. I'm wasting your time. And I did a terrible job of highlighting, summarizing, and condensing the nitty-gritty on dragon ancestry in Rh Negs. You can dream, guys, and I won't rain on your parade. Bwa ha ha!
Inferiority complex? Me? I did indeed grow up with one of those!
@carolkean It is amazing you changed your sisters blood type, you are a true hero, not only her life you have helped many people who will never know it was you. I do not know my kids blood types but I had to get the shot after each one so maybe they are all positive. btw I loved your rambling not wasting my time.
Thank you for reading and commenting!!! This is what makes it so much fun to publish our freewrites - and to follow the prompts - and to get to know each other not just as fellow writers but fellow moms and boaters and goat herders, gardeners and travelers... #GottaLoveFreewritehouse!!!
I am also Rh negative, and had an injection after my son was born. He wasn't born yellow, but he did develop jaundice after a few days and had to go back to the hospital for treatment. I was never told that the Rh issue could be at fault! Sometimes I feel like a dragon, but I think that's more of a bad attitude thing than anything physical. I certainly could find a tail useful if biology wants to hurry up with giving those back!
That is the cutest dragon baby I have ever seen.
And I say publish your freewrite - work on it later and show the world how things can be improved - or take them off when You are ready to publish the revised edition.... Hardly anyone will go back in the old blocks and look for the originals.
Thank you! I love the way you think. It's fun to see the freewrites evolve into larger stories - @kaelci, @felt.buzz, @honeydue, and so many others! All an inspiration!
I've started reading your stories from nine months ago (don't even try to stop me) and I definitely want to hear much more about Erie and Erik. And thanks for the refresher class on blood types. I had forgotten all of that. What was done to keep your mother's blood from rejecting you unto death? I'm so glad it didn't.
Thank you so much -- you're actually reading my old freewrites - bless you!!!
Nothing was done: Mom delivered a butter-yellow baby, and I survived.
These days, there are antigens are something....
It's a strange and unexpected twist to parenting, that a mother's blood could try to kill the baby. Apparently it's the explanation for a lot of spontaneous abortions.
Talk about a mother's guilt, taking "always the mother's fault" to a new level.
I love your old freewrites, the five minutes you adhered to back then gave a sparser language that works for me. I like the bones of stories to show, and I can see your bones in those from 9 months ago. The fairy tales.
And I realized your Amazon reviews must have been deleted just before I met you here. I had no idea that was such a current trauma. How did you find out? Just go to put a new one in and nothing? They never told you any reason why?
Oh dear, the shorter, less-re-written, freewrites were more free-flowing (better)...
THANK YOU for reading!
Yeah, I wasted a couple hours writing my last review, hit "post," and was told I had no more posting privileges. I contacted Amazon, got a link to a list of Guidelines, and indication which of them I had "violated," and the Wall was there, nd it was tall, and insurmountable, and nothing could get through it. To this day I don't know what my sin was. But authors continue to ask me to post y nice NetGalley review at Amazon too. Sorry Charllie, Amazon erased me....
That sounds awful! I would have been nauseous. So sorry it happened to you. And the authors lost them too! I hadn't considered that.
Ohhhh yes, the authors. One of them felt that loss to the point that he kept asking Amazon to restore the review. When a book only has a half-dozen reviews, the loss of a 5-star rave from a Vine Voice reviewer does matter. Ratings get affected. Book sales. Quotable quotes from the reviewer. My credibility was annihilated, and authors were punished by association with me. This is why one author friend spent $3,000 on legal fees to sue and get her reviews restored. (Thank you. Yes. It was traumatizing, to see so many years get flushed, and so many authors affected as well; I carry the guilt of my crimes, such as they were, doing harm to others, not just to myself.)
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Would you swing around if you had a tail?
I'd be such a swinger, if I only had a tail!
Lol so lack of tail is stopping you? Hahaha
Carol, you can edit the old stuff now. Or take it down. It is technically still stored in the blockchain after doing that but not easily accessible. Nice for removing the "real" stuff and being able to have better shot at reprintings (or to places that don't consider blogged published, sadly few and far between).
But the best thing if you want to grow as a writer is to do the freewriting exercise to completion, not sharing them publicly, and end up with some real solid stories out of all of it that you can actually do something real with.
All this does is build a steem account worth barely anything....
I hear you, Bex!
I'll be pulling stuff down, eventually. It's nice that they expanded the seven-day window of opportunity for that.
LOLOL!!! Love the hat, @carolkean . . . Marek wants one, as we speak!
Needless to say, I'm rH negative, and a genetic sport, as both of my parents were rH positive.
rH factor is also known as Rhesus factor, as in rhesus monkeys, as it is the same factor found in their blood. So rH positive blood types have an ancestor in common with rhesus monkeys, whereas rH negatives do not, or so the theory goes.
And yeah, I've been accused of being an alien more than once. ;-)
I was also told by one doctor that I have an extra protein in my blood that he had never seen before, and after conferring with his professors, neither had they. And my sisters and mom (all O positive) all had oddities in their blood as well, as did my grandmother (rH negative), so my family has made the medical books, though I was never given enough information to ascertain exactly why.
And my maternal grandfather was AB negative, the rarest blood type of all, which led to him being asked to give blood well into his senior years.
Ah well. I guess I'll just ride off into the sunset (or at least back to Tennessee) and await the arrival of my own benevolent dragon. ;-)
Of course you're not only RhNeg, but you also have a mysterious protein in your blood - you are a "breed apart," so to speak about, an old soul, and science has yet to discern if reincarnation has anything to do with it, or if it's all genetic trickery. Suffice to say, you are extraordinary!
My sister (she of the Cold Case) was AB negative but didn't live long enough to donate blood.
Did I leave out the Rhesus factor? I was hurrying, trying to get that post finished, and doing the usual injustice to the "Five Minute" Freewrite. I love, love, LOVE your haiku and post on your own benevolent dragon, and McAffrey and LeGuin dragons with their strong warrior-heroines.
I've got to make the next block party where so many of us get to meet face to face!