Queen of Her Realm

by Dracona Dragillin (dracona@cybergal.com)

Delirium and Barnabus come from the Sandman comics. They belong to Neil Gaiman and not me. But the race of dragillins are mine. If anyone wants to use dragillins, just ask me. The some of the imagery is from the lyrics and the music video of the song "I'm Going Slightly Mad" by Queen. The song is attached to this story. And Delirium's jeans were inspired by my friend Mazikeen's painting jeans.

A streak of green, possibly grass, swirled across the purplish yellow sky. The streak zipped around like a confused shooting star. It's flight pattern had no purpose or destination. For a second, the streak seemed to have disappeared behind the horizon. But it boldly flew back and plunged itself downward into the earth. The earth absorbed the blue streak without objections or change.

A brownish black dog trotted along amiably, barely noticing his changing surroundings. Suddenly the earth beneath his feet began to tremble. A geyser of a strange mist erupted from the earth. The mist formed a blob-like cloud that twirled and spiraled around slowly. The dog gave the cloud an odd look and remarked that it had a strong sickly sweet floral scent, like cheap air fresher.

The cloud then started to break into many little blobs. A bit amused, the dog watched the cloud's further transformation, as the blobs began to solidify into shapes. The blobs shaped themselves even further, while still twirling and swirling around. The color of the blobs faded away till they were pale gray. In a sudden unison, the blobs burst into a bright sunny yellow color. The dog then noticed that the blobs had formed themselves into some sort of flower but only the bloom of the flower. The blobs didn't have stems. Yes, the dog then recognized the flower when the blobs stopped their transformation. It was a daffodil. The daffodil blooms stayed in the same area but they continuously kept swimming around the air.

The dog cocked his ear and listened to a strange whine that the daffodils started to give off. It sounded like feedback from a stereo. Slowly the whine became a more and more intelligible hum. The dog sat down and sighed to himself.

Abruptly, his thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash. The dog's head snapped around and saw nothing in the direction of the noise. He looked back and saw the daffodils smashing themselves together. There was a loud POP when the daffodils exploded leaving behind a human looking woman. She had a sweet childlike face. One eye was blue while the other was green. Her hair was a bright unnatural neon red, one half was shaved down and the other was long and wavy with streaks of orange, blue and other odd colors. She was wearing a cape of fake feathers whose colors were mostly yellow, orange and blue with some purple and red thrown in. She had on a pair of elbow length, black leather, fingerless gloves. She was wearing a bleached out pink T-shirt and the oddest pair of jeans.

The jeans had holes in the knees and were a bit worn. They were covered with several odd symbols: a silver ankh that glowed with warm light, a dark green helmet whose eyeholes were covered with round amber glass and had a small attachment that resembled a small dark green elephant trunk, an open brown leather book that was attached to a chain, a cold ice covered silver heart, a silver ring that had a slightly bloody fishhook attached to it, and a stick with a makeshift bag connected to it, like hobos use, which appeared randomly in different places on her jeans. There were also several blobs of paint on her jeans.

"oOh, ThErE's LoTs Of CrAsHiNgS aNd BaShInGs GoInG oN iN mY hEaD!" the woman exclaimed in an off-key singsong voice.

The dog looked up at her and shook its head. "That's not your head. It sounds like something or someone has crashed into this realm. But I can't seem to find out where," he said.

The woman twirled around and around giggling. She finally stopped and pointed in the opposite direction of the noise. "tHeN tHeRe'S wHeRe ThE cRaShInGs AnD bAsHiNgS aRe CoMiNg FrOm," she giggled. She then ran off, skipping, thin that direction.

"Nothing in this realm makes any sense," the dog muttered as he trotted on after the woman.

The woman skipped along a rainbow path that twisted and turned to reach a point that was right in front of them. She sang an odd song, /i'M gOiNg SlIgHtLy MaD. jUsT vErY sLiGhTlY mAd. It FiNaLlY hApPeNeD, hApPeNeD. iT fInAlLy HaPpEnEd. I'm SlIgHtLy MaD. jUsT vErY sLiGhTlY mAd./ As she skipped on and sang, the blobs on her jeans turned into pink musical notes that danced around to the beat of her offkey singing.

When she reached the end of the path, she stopped singing because right in front of her was a twenty foot high, dark green dragon. He seemed to be stuck in a pond. The dragon thrashed about angily but could not get free. "'Ere now! Where the 'ell am I?" he roared at the woman, in a bad Cockney accent.

"sIlLy WiLlY! yOu'Re In My ReAlm. AcTuAlLy, YoU'rE iN tHe PiG pOnD," the woman smiled and giggled. The dog finally caught up to the woman. He sat down and watched the dragon's efforts.

"Incoming!" they turned and saw a figure flying toward them. The figure landed and they all saw that it was a small pink pig with a pair of glorious angel white angel wings on its back. The pig looked over at the dragon, stuck in the pond.

"Oh dear," a female voice sighed from the pig's mouth, "I was hoping to take a quick swim." The pig turned to the woman and bobbed her head (the pig version of a curtsy). "Milady," she asked, "do you happen to know when the lake will be free?"

"i ThInK ThAt It MiGhT tAkE aWhIlE. hE's ReAlLy In A pIcKlE." As the woman scratched her head and thought, the paint spots on her jeans turned into purple question marks that quivered in contemplation. The pig shrugged and flew away.

Just then, a bunch of vines rose from the now magenta earth. They wrapped themselves around the dragon, trapping him even more. The dragon roared in fury. The vines then began to bear their green fruit that smelled oddly of brine.

"YOU! YOU DID THIS!" the dragon bellowed.

"sIlLy DrAgOn, I'm NoT a U. i'M a DeLiRiUm," she then pointed to the dog, "AnD tHiS iS a BaRnAbUs." To this the paint stain became yellow smiley faces that grinned at the dragon. Delirium's grin was even broader than the paint stains. "aNd WhAt'S yOuR nAmE?"

Barnabus sighed, "You keep forgetting to watch what you say. This is your realm and will mould itself to your whims."

The angry dragon burnt the vines away with his firey breath but he was still stuck in the pond.

"uGh! BuRnT pIcKlEs SuRe ArE sTiNkY!" Delirium jumped onto the dragon's back. She hopscotched from spike to spike. The paint stains turned to ballet slippers which paired off and danced around her jeans. She sang, /i'M gOiNg SlIgHtLy MaD. jUsT vErY sLiGhTlY mAd. It FiNaLlY hApPeNeD, hApPeNeD. iT fInAlLy HaPpEnEd. I'm SlIgHtLy MaD. jUsT vErY sLiGhTlY mAd./

She skipped onto the dragon's head, bent over and looked into his eyes, "tHaT's ThE sOnG i SiNg WhEn I hAvE tO tHiNk. I dOn'T rEmEmBeR tHe ReSt BuT iT's StIlL a PrEtTy SoNg." She skipped back onto it's back and continued to sing.

"i GoT iT!" the paint blobs turned into light bulbs that gave off real light. She jumped out off of the dragon's back and continued, "wE'lL gEt A gIaNt CrOwBaR tO pRy HiM oUt!"

"THAT'S THE STUPIDEST IDEA THAT I'VE EVER HEARD!" The dragon then started to yell out all of the profanities that he knew, and some of those he didn't know.

"iT wAs A VeRy GoOd IdEa!" the stains turned into orange exclaimation marks that twitched with indignation.

The dragon bellowed out and slashed Delirium to ribbons with his claws. The ribbons fell to the ground. Delirium's arm poked out of the pile of ribbons. She knitted herself together using one needle.

When she reassembled herself, Delirium stood in front of the dragon, the paint stains became little fires fuming with anger. "yOu CoMe In HeRe AsKiNg Me FoR hElP aNd I tRy To HeLp! I cAmE uP wItH a VeRy GoOd IdEa! AnD YoU yElLeD aNd SwOrE aT mE! tHeN yOu TrIeD tO hUrT mE!" As she yelled at dragon, he shrunk in size. He became smaller and smaller. "yOu MeAnIe! YoU bIg MeAnIe!" Delirium yelled angrily.

The dragon continued to shrink until it was only eighteen inches long. "Delirium, stop!" Barnabus shouted out.

"bUt He'S nIcEr ThIs SmAlL." She bent down to pet the dragon but it bit her. "hE's StIlL a MeAnIe!" Delirium stuck her hand into her pocket and pulled out a handful of confetti, glitter and lint. She tossed it onto the dragon. When it landed, the dragon sneezed and there was a loud POP! and a flash of light. When the light cleared, The dragon was now a soft shade of blue and had a pair of sunshine yellow wings. His features were much softened and very cute. He fluttered up and sat on her shoulder, chittering pleasantly. Delirium and the dragon looked at each other and smiled.

"But what is it?" Barnabus questioned with his head tilted and ears cocked.

"i DuNnO bUt I MaDe It!" Delirium skipped around, the paint stains where now white daisies that spun around happily.

"Great, you've created a new species. You at least have to name it." Barnabus told his mistress.

"tHeN i'Ll CaLl ThEm DrAgIlLiNs."

"Them! You're going to make more!?!" The dog was clearly surprised.

"oF cOuRsE! iF i DoN't MaKe MoRe, ThEn He'Ll GeT lOnElY. bEsIdEs, He'S cUtE aNd I wAnT mOrE aRoUnD." She smiled and the daisy-stains twirled even faster.

"As long as you take care of them."

"yEaH!" Delirium skipped off with the dragillin fluttering after her. The dog sighed and followed them.

The End

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