Flight of the Floon
Summary
It tells the tale of a hungry travelling savant who is lost and is plummeting towards Qornoom, when he finds a sleeping Floon which he assumes can help bring him back - like him, the Floon is starving. Thus he uses what is left of his levium bladder to gather as many flivulbs to feed it, and then it begins to lift up - and in gratitude, it snags him with a tentacle and tosses him in what seems to be a mouth. Instead of being digested he finds himself in the interiors of a palace of transparent gelatinous tissue. In its domain he learns how to talk with it, and brings it to his home city and explains civilization, and the Floon divulges its own knowledge, about how they were not made by the gods, but another race of mortals just like them who wanted to use them as a means of transport. The savant explains to him the Flatbacked Floons and it laughs its head off, and tells him a metaphor about incorrect usage.
The Floon goes faster than any could before, and explains that all the other ones are only sleeping. Everything they do is done in a stupor, like sleepwalking, except with the processes of dormant life. Also he tells him of the 49th gender and how he is doomed to never seek a mate, but there is only one member of the 50th gender. The savant, who has no motivation other than the gaining of knowledge, follows along.
Historical Basis
This is an honest-to-god account of an anonymous Gieloskan discovering the vestigial "control room" of a Floon of the 49th gender, and spending many years piloting it around and going on adventures. He learned many things which he included as metaphor during the story, and suggests of vast reserves of knowledge that are linked to the Floon, and the people who created them for Jhaeloe. Since he could not explain the concept and intricacies of a biomechanical vehicle he used many poetic terms to teach the simpleminded people of Jhaeloe about them, with little success - though it was so damn good that it was distorted minimally, and the tale was distributed far and wide.
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