From:	Louis Barrera <lbarrera@****.NASA.GOV>
Subject:	Re: DRAGONS AS NEXT NERPS? -Reply
Date:	Mon, 13 Mar 1995 11:31:06 -0700

Yea, verily, it does end up liqufied, and you know why? It's under
pressure. And it conserves space. So your gas bags in the dragon
would not be under enough pressure to liquify it, but enough pressure to
store it and provide buoyancy to a 2000 key citter? I think you've just
increased their size tenfold. If you filled the external tank with gaseous
hydrogen it still wouldn't float, and it weighs a drekload less than 2k kilos.
If the dragon is going to rely on flight and breathe from the same source,
then it can't fly if it has breathed too much? Not in my system. They are
not related. Along with the fact that hydrogen is one of the most difficult
things to isolate. There is no such thing as a seal. They only minimize
loss. True, 3000 years isn't much in the way of evolution, but how long
did it take for US to kill off the dodo, the buffalo, and a few other species,
let alone one that detonates with the slightest spark?

How doesn't magic work. There are levitate spells. (Meta)humans can
access the magic to draw fire from where ever. If (meta)humans could
not caste spells prior to the turning of the circle, perhaps dragons were
a sleep until their energy level was raised. The dragon's magical abilities
are different than those humanity uses. Some effects are similar, some
are different.

My reference for their reason for being is somewhat analogous to the
Arthurian belief in the Dragon of England. The dragon was the land. In
this context, it is the manifestation of the needs or desires or drives that
the land has. Shamanistic spirits are manifestations of a small local.
Greater spirits are embodiments of larger portions of their environments.
I suppose the question is are dragons merely critters who ebb and wane
with the magic cycles, which are increases and decreases of the spirit
of life essense, or are they a completely separate, alien species that
evolved in the distant past, and require mana for consciousness. Why
do they wish to aquire power? Maybe they're just used to being in
control, and the current state of the world requires it.

I don't think that having a large Bic lighter a dragon's mouth was what the
Dark Lord had in mind when the critters were conceived. I think I'll ask.

- Still skeptical