（外文电子版资料）Gregory Benford - A Hiss of Dragon.pdf

A HISS OF DRAGON By Gregory Benford Marc Laidlaw Incoming Dragon! Leopold yelled, and ducked to the left. I went right. Dragons come in slow and easy. A blimp with wings, this one settled down like a wrinkled brown sky falling. I scrambled over boulders, trying to be inconspicuous and fast at the same time. It didnt seem like a promising beginning for a new job. Leopold and I had been working on the ledge in front of the Dragons Lair, stacking berry pods. This Dragon must have flown toward its Lair from the other side of the mountain spire, so our radio tag on him didnt transmit through all the rock. Usually theyre not so direct. Most Dragons circle their Lairs a few times, checking for scavengers and egg stealers. If they dont circle, theyre usually too tired. And when theyre tired, theyre irritable. Something told me I didnt want to be within reach of this ones throat flame. I dropped my berrybag rig and went down the rocks feet first. The boulders were slippery with green moss for about 20 meters below the ledge, so I slid down on them. I tried to keep the falls to under four meters and banged my butt when I missed. I could hear Leopold knocking loose rocks on the other side, moving down toward where our skimmer was parked. A shadow fell over me, blotting out Betas big yellow disk. The brown bag above thrashed its wings and gave a trumpeting shriek. It had caught sight of the berry bags and knew something was up. Most likely, with its weak eyes, the Dragon thought the bags were eggers-off season, but what do Dragons know about seasons? -and would attack them. That was the optimistic theory. The pessimistic one was that the Dragon had seen one of us. I smacked painfully into a splintered boulder and glanced up. Its underbelly was heaving, turning purple: anger. Not a reassuring sign. Eggers dont bother Dragons that much. Then its wings fanned the air, backwards. It drifted off the ledge, hovering. The long neck snaked around, and two