I washed up on a shore of soft sands from warm waters. I looked around lost and confused. Instead of a beach I was on the floor of a library that was like a structure that had towering shelves of books lining everywhere. I hauled my wet body off the ground and took a step into the place. Instantly I was awash with warm air and became dry as a bone. I patted my underclothes I wore at night and growing confusion wrapped my mind.
Walking around the shelves I noted that the spines had beautiful stamped titles inlaid with golden letters. Such things were stated, “The Tale of Two Countries, No County for Old Nobles,” and several of them labeled, “Weaver and the tale of the …” I ran my finger across them and found them to be covered in dust. The air was so dry here and I found my lips becoming chapped. I walked through the different aisles of this place and stumbled upon an old librarian hunched over and reading a tome while sitting at a table. Stacks of books surrounding them.
I approached and an overwhelming pressure was starting to surround me. Like the weight of all the books around me was pressing down upon my shoulders. I stood as tall and proud as possible as I approached the ancient being before me. I cleared my parched throat and tried to speak. Before a word could come out though the figure spoke.
“It has been a long time since we talked to my child. Your thoughts have been so dark lately that I figured you would appreciate a talk with your creator.” He both turned to look at me and kept reading his face splitting in two and mirroring one another. He stepped out splitting into two separate and identical versions of himself. As I watched a half dozen more of him split off and went about putting books in place in the infinite library.
“I… you can’t be. Gods don’t visit us anymore.” I could think of nothing else to say. I hadn’t felt a call to action in hundreds of years when they used to be so prevalent to the lands and especially to the dragons. Micro dangers that we had to attend to in between calamities.
The old man came to me and turned me around, looping his arm around my own with strength so undeniable and gentle that I couldn't even think to fight against him. I blinked as he lead me beyond the shelves and found ourselves in a great center room where the infinite shelves spread in all directions. The sheer knowledge that was contained here boggled my mind. “You are in my realm, where every person’s story, every one of note is written in these hallowed halls. The halls of legends. You have an entire shelf to yourself you know. You should be proud of that. Most people only get a single book. Here sit, you look a little overwhelmed.”
Before me was a grand chair that was fit for a king and I shook my head. “I can’t possibly. You sit, I cannot sit while you stand.”
So the god plucked something from the air and a plain chair was before him. He rested his old body into it and smiled at me. His hand gripped mine and he gently put me in the extravagant chair that felt like I was sitting on thin air of impossible softness. “You must wonder why I’ve brought you here after all this time.”
I could only nod in wonder as I was drowning in his eyes. They were the color of parchment with tiny words scripted on the whites of his eyes that moved as if scanning a page. His skin was wrinkled and told of a thousand stories that could have happened to him. Deep laugh lines, frown marks, and liver spots that could only be seen in the most ancient of people. “I do,” Was all I could say.
He patted my leg and nodded softly, “You are in danger from all sides and all us gods are too busy bickering amongst ourselves and what we need you to accomplish that none of us have allowed the others to give you a call from the divine. That answers your first question I think.”
“The gods are arguing with each other? Isn’t the world all having the same problems? Where are the other dragons? Am I truly alone?”
“Slow down, young one. Slow down. I can only reveal so much information to you before the other gods notice that I have plucked you from the world in your sleep. It is forbidden for me to do so and I might find that I am punished for it.” A phantom of the man brought forth a book and set it in his lap. “The gods each find problems in the world that they find most important right now for you to attend to. However all of us agree that your quest to find other dragons may be more important than our own. Terus is calling to rally behind Ragius to send you to war in your true form. For you to help conquer lands for a hundred years in preparation for the calamity. A solid nation all under one banner could be most useful.”
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The man flipped through the pages looking at all the words until he stopped staring at one page. “There are a thousand problems going on with the world and you are already embroiled in several of them. The war, the warlock that summoned a demon, the search for other dragons, and a few more that you don’t even know of that I can’t tell you of.”
“Why not call the other mortals to action. I’m sure there are some grand adventurers that can answer the call. I can’t be everywhere so why am I the only one that is being asked to do things?”
“It is not so simple. Only those that truly believe in us can hear our calls. No one outside the ancient beings truly believes in us with all their heart like you do. We can only see those that are by our shrines and praying to us. We have been trying to call anyone else to help solve the world's problems why things slowly fall to chaos.”
The pages of the book started to shuffle on their own as he looked upon them. “I’ve been sifting through all the stories of all time to see where I might be able to tell you to look for other dragons. I’ve been doing so for a hundred years but I have a terrible fear. The beings known as demons have an ability to mask things from even the god’s eyes. When you almost died to that last demon we had no idea it was happening until you disappeared from our sight. Some of us think that there is dark magic hiding other dragons from us. If they truly exist. So I cannot answer that question with the full truth.”
My heart sank at the revelation that they wouldn’t be able to answer the one question I wanted most. “The world is getting so heavy father. I am starting to lose faith in my quests. There is so much going on and the world will never be grateful for my actions. It hurts to know how alone I am.”
The man’s hand rested on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. Some of the weight of my burden lessened for a moment. “You can always ask for some of your sorrow to be taken away. All the stories here can be taken and wiped clean. Your mind would be cleaned off all those years you tried to live amongst the mortals and be a member of their lives.”
Sudden anger burned in my chest, “No, I have to know! Why do you smite my lineage?! Why do all my children die?!” I had nearly forgotten in his presence something that had raised my rage in me for so long.
“Some of the gods do not see it as wise for the dragons to be attached to specific mortal lines. You must understand that it would most likely root you in place for thousands of years. I wish so much that I would have let you have a few hundred years of happiness amongst all this but I would only be able to shield a generation at most before the influence of your blood would become known to all. I’m truly sorry it must be this way.”
My knuckles cracked as I squeezed them so hard they went white. I let loose my hold on my shape and roared into my full dragon self. I grew and grew and yet the world around me seemed to stay the same size around me. Confusion set in while the god looked at me with sorry glimmering in his eyes. I growled and took a deep breath to unleash upon him but found nothing building in my chest.
“I gave you that power, young one. You cannot use it against me. Stop being so foolish.”
I kicked the chair back and lashed out at him with a tooth and claw. I snapped and swung my tail around in a mighty arc but it didn’t even touch him. It just seemed that as soon as I got close the distance between us became impossibly far away. Soon I was exhausted and panting as I lay there in the great hall of a god’s library.
“Are you done with your tantrum now?” There was no condescension in his voice and only mercy and patience.
I slumped to the ground and wept for the first time in a thousand years. It was like a great dam bursting inside of me and I could not control it. I wailed like a newborn as my resolve crumbled from my impotent rage. The lives of a thousand mortals, of children, wives, and husbands all poured from my eyes as I curled into a ball, my tail wrapping around me as I let loose my anguish.
My father wrapped himself around me and stroked my scales slowly as I grew smaller and smaller inside this dream. “I’m sorry it must be this way. When I first created you I didn’t expect you to live so long amongst the mortals. We could never have known that they would turn against dragon kind and begin to slay you all. There was even speculation that you would fail and that mankind and the world would be wiped out from existence. You however prevailed against all that. I am proud that you seem to be the last free dragon.”
“Why aren’t there more than? Why does it have to be all on me?” I felt meek and could barely hold back the choking tears to speak. My throat was tight as if a serpent were wrapped about it.
“It has to do with the world not believing in us. We used that energy to make dragons and the ones we have tried to create seem to disappear quickly off the face of the world. We fear that they are being slain. In due time I ask that you wipe the scourge of the dragon hunters off the face of the earth. And with the next calamity spread it far and wide that the intervention of the gods was all that kept the world safe. Maybe then we would have the strength to bring back the dragons. I cannot promise this though. The mistress of fate has long since died and our ability to influence the mortal realm has diminished with her. Now our time is up. You have to go back to your own world. I wish I could keep you here longer but I cannot break the rules.”
I awoke in the early dawn light. My face was covered in tears my chest was tight with anguish. I would have to face the day. Instead of curling into a ball I wiped off my face and took a deep breath. I had to go on.