Cautionary Tales by Piers Anthony

and we can’t escape them because our limited world isn’t real to them. We have been spreading across their habitat, building cities in their hunting grounds, but they don’t care because as long as we are unaware of them, we are harmless to them. But they know that we could cause them mischief, if we saw them. So they kill those of us who see them. Unless we fool them into thinking that we remain oblivious. So that is what we have to do. Always. Or else.”
    â€œAre you saying that these pictures I’m seeing—that there are dragons in them? But since I can’t go into those pictures, nothing in them can hurt me. So why should I worry about dragons?”
    â€œBecause they aren’t limited the way we are. They can see us and hear us all the time, though they don’t seem to have bothered to learn to understand our language. If they decide to, they can chomp us, and when they do, we feel it. It’s one-sided: we can’t hurt them, but they can hurt us. They’ve been aware of full reality longer than we have, ever since about sixty five million years ago when they moved into it, and they have learned ways to handle it that we haven’t. Maybe some year we’ll learn too—but only if they don’t realize that we’re doing it. That’s why we have to be excruciatingly careful. That’s really why I’m helping you: because if I let you blunder and attract their attention to yourself, they will kill you, and perhaps realize that more of us are seeing them. Then they will be more careful, and more of us will die. So we have to educate you quickly.”
    â€œSo it’s not that you care about me as a person,” I said dryly. “You just don’t want me to mess it up for the rest of you.”
    â€œExactly.” Her emphatic agreement set me back. I had thought I was speaking at least halfway humorously. Evidently not.
    â€œSo if I don’t see a dragon, I can do what I want,” I suggested.
    â€œNo,” Chloris said. “You never know when a dragon is watching. So you tune out the larger world as well as you can. After a while it becomes second nature. When you get so that others who can see don’t realize that you are one of us, then you’re safe. As safe as it gets, for us; we can never rest as easy as we did in ignorance.”
    I would have thought she was crazy, but I did see what she called the larger world, and she knew I saw it. So if she was crazy, so was I. “Where are we going?” I inquired.
    â€œThat’s right,” she agreed. “We can’t just walk aimlessly. We’ve already gone too far together to be strangers. We’ll have to be dating.”
    â€œI’d love it,” I said gallantly. “But aren’t I a little old for you?”
    â€œNot for real,” Chloris said impatiently. “Just until we can separate without arousing suspicion. You’ll have to see me to my apartment, I suppose.”
    Who was I to object? So I took her hand, and we walked on like a middle aged fool with a young thing, which was as accurate a description as any.
    Then I saw something. It was walking through an intersection. Maybe through a building too; our world seemed to be insubstantial to it. It looked like a monstrous dinosaur—or a dragon. I turned my head to get a better look at it.
    â€œDon’t do that!” Chloris whispered. “Ignore it!”
    It really was a dragon--and she saw it too.
    The dragon turned its head, and caught me staring at it. Its ears perked up.
    â€œOh, the fat’s in the fire now!” Chloris whispered. “Our only hope is to fake the dragon out. Play along—and don’t look at the dragon!” She hauled on my arm until I turned to her, then put her arms around me.
    All right. I was shaken by the sight of the dragon, but I could hardly think of a nicer way to reassure it that my attention was elsewhere. I embraced her. Her