"Laura Resnick - Fluff the Tragic Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

sort of nostalgic. "But then he died, and no one else ever came to visit me
again."
"So you've been alone down here all that time?" I started to feel a
little sorry for him. When he nodded, I asked, "What do you do with your
time?"
He shrugged, making his wings quiver. "Sometimes I crawl through
tunnels and see if anything interesting is happening." He sighed again. "But
there's seldom anything new to see, and even if there is, who would I tell
about it? So, these days, I mostly just keep collecting treasure, since it's
sort of a biological imperative, and I sit around here and think about the old
days."
Now for the sixty-four thousand dollar question. "What do you eat?"
"Bok choy, onions, apples, snowpeas -- "
"Not people?" I asked hopefully.
"No, of course not!" His glowing, yellow eyes widened in shock. "Oh,
that Saint George!" he growled suddenly. "He's got a lot to answer for. He
decides to pick on some poor innocent dragon who's minding his own business.
And then, just to make himself look like a hero, he goes around telling
everyone that we're evil, voracious beasts who devour children and burn down
whole villages. And centuries later, we're still suffering because of that
bully! It's so _unfair_."
I actually thought he might start to cry. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't
mean to hurt your feelings."
He hid his eyes with a claw. "You just don't know what it's like to be
such an outcast. Sometimes I wish I'd never left China. Everyone there knew a
dragon's real worth."
"That's where you're from? China?"
He looked up again. "Well, of course. All dragons come from China.
Everyone knows that."
"I'm sorry I'm so ignorant." I frowned. "What was that dragon doing in
England, then?"
"He was a tourist. Naturally, when we found out what had happened, no
dragon ever went _there_ again."
"No, I suppose not. Tell me, why did you leave China? It sounds like
you miss it."




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 He scratched one pointy little ear and shifted his great bulk into a
more comfortable position. "It just wasn't the same anymore after 1949. The
Cultural Revolution left no room for dragons, not real ones anyhow. So, I
decided to come to America. But San Francisco had so many dragons that all the
good tunnels were taken. Anyhow, earthquakes make me hysterical. So I just got
right back in the water and swam all the way to New York. That Panama Canal of
yours is very handy, by the way."
"Aren't there any other dragons in New York for you to talk to?" Other
dragons? Oh, Esther, Esther, I thought, it's time to go back to Iowa.
"There's one in Queens and another in Brooklyn. To tell the truth,