Journal mcgrew's Journal: Terry and the Nac Mac Feegle 10
Terry opened his bleary eyes wondering what he was doing at a desk. Then he remembered -- he'd been doing his homework, and must have fallen asleep at the boring drudge. "Dumb teachers," he thought. She'd marked a paper of his down for spelling. "G olo G" and "Jee ogre fee" weren't acceptable ways of using those words, it seemed. He got a little cross at that -- she should have given him an A for creativity. What would she know, anyway? Never trust anybody older than ten!
"Oi there, laddy." Terry jumped, fully awake now. "Who..." he started, "What are you?"
"Oim a Nac Mac Feegle. An' yer Terry, oincha?"
Terry stared. A little red haired man no more than six inches high, wearing a kilt, was talking to him. "You sound Irish," he said, "are you a leprechaun?"
"WHAT?!?" the little man exclaimed angrily. "Leprechauns are Oirish, Oim Scoottish. Doon't ya noo the differ'nce between a Oirish kilt and a Scootish kilt? Doon' they teach yer anything in yer schools?"
"Um, maybe a fairy?"
This just made the little man angrier. "Noo! Leprechauns are pixies. We're pictsies. We're Nac Mac Feegles, noo 'leprechauns'. Noo listen, laddy, there's somethin' important yer gotta do when yer a bit oolder. Quite a bit oolder in fact."
"Oolder? You mean older?"
"Doon sass me, boy, oov course oi mean oolder. Doon' they teach ye kids anythn' anymore?"
"Well, I have stupid teachers who mark my papers down because I don't like the way some words are spelled and spell them any way I want to."
"Noo wonder yeer ignorant. Eenyway, what yer gotta do is just remember tonight."
"Why?"
"Yer just do. An' remember the magic!" he exclaimed as the pencil changed into a snake and slithered away.
Rority giggled as his Nac Mac Feegle, made of nobots of course, ran away from Terry. "Man I love his books!" Rority said. Lets see, the next protohuman on his list was a fellow named Jay Are Are. He'd have to be introduced to... Rority checked the list... Dwarves? Why dwarves?
Oh well. He started his timeship and flew off, giggling some more, and took another toke off his stratodoober.
Rority loved his work.
Of course you know who this is dedicated to (Score:2)
Jees, the guy's only five years older than me. Either he's really old looking, or I'm holding my age really well.
The heck is this? (Score:2)
Is this some sort of disturbed pratchett fanfic?
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Of course it is, but it's a continuation of some other non-fanfic fiction; I have a series going. Asimov was referred to in another story [slashdot.org].
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Other authors in SF works is a time-honored tradition. In Pournelle/Niven's Footfall, there is a character who is never named but if you know anything at all about him, is obviously Robert A. Heinlein.
I liked it, but I have to confess I have never actually read any of Terry Pratchett's work. Yes, yes, turn in your geek card... blah blah blah.
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Pratchett is a great writer, really has a way with words ("He decided he not only wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, he might even be a spoon"). Even funnier than Adams.
Nice Pratchett reference (Score:1)
Hi,
Read your journal often but rarely comment, just wanted to say your pratchett reference is noted and well received.
Greetings from rainy London :)
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Thank you! Pratchett is one of my favorite authors, so I couldn't resist.
And greetings from hot sunny Springfield (supposed to be 100 degrees tomorrow, that would be almost 38 in Britain). We could use some rain.
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Need rain? You can have all of ours!
Oh, by the way I;m not a Brit.... Just a Greek guy born in Oak Park Il, not too far from you:)
Cheers!
I love it (Score:2)
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I see you've missed a few of the time travel stories. One of them even had "stratodoober" in the title. Here's the list if you want more:
Hadron Destroyers [slashdot.org]
Little Green Men [slashdot.org] (first use of the newly coined word "stratodoober")
The Death of Two Protohumans [slashdot.org]
It's the end of the world (but I feel fine) [slashdot.org]
Stratodoober Madness [slashdot.org]
I'm not sure they're all listed. When I do enough of them I'm turing it into a novel. A few stories will probably have to change since each story doesn't always jibe with others.