if you yourself will pass this way

Tomorrow I'm off to London, and from there to Reading and to Ambercon UK, which will keep me busy till some time on Sunday. Therefore, do not expect lj entries for the next couple of days. (Oh, for a laptop; at least then I'd have something sensational to read on the train.)

Spent a couple of hours printing out, editing, and thinking about the characters submitted by the players for two games I'm running at ACUK. Things should definitely be interesting.

In order to clear my palate, then went and wrote a HP fanfic based on a thought I'd had earlier. (At http://homepages.tcp.co.uk/~maya/fanfic/hpvision.html . Call it in honour of Nimbus, if you like; something which has prompted hundreds (or even thousands?) of people across the net to write their socks off rather than just sit and spin should surely deserve a nod of recognition.)

---

A Small Dragon

I've found a small dragon in the woodshed.
Think it must have come from deep inside a forest
because it's damp and green and leaves
are still reflecting in its eyes.

I fed it on many things, tried grass,
the roots of stars, hazel-nut and dandelion,
but it stared up at me as if to say, I need
foods you can't provide.

It made a nest among the coal,
not unlike a bird's but larger,
it is out of place here
and is quite silent.

If you believed in it I would come
hurrying to your house to let you share my wonder,
but I want instead to see
if you yourself will pass this way.

-- Brian Patten