It is dusk, you have been traveling so very long and are
much in need of shelter for the night. Your muscles ache from climbing through
the steep hills of this place and your clothes and soiled with sweat and dirt.
If only you could find a cave, even a grove of trees, something by a stream
where you can wash and drink. As you stand, surveying the area, you think you
can make out the faint babble of water, though none is anywhere to be seen, nor
can you determine which direction the sound may be coming from. You see nothing
around the clearing you are in but the thick woods from which you came and that
continue to stretch all around. There is a small mound to your left, behind a
tree, but no shelter anywhere to be found. You stop to ponder your predicament.
You know the mountain ahead is your destination, but there is no way you can
reach it now. To travel through these woods at night would be foolhardy. You
search around in the small amount of light left, which is itself quickly
disappearing, for a suitable place to make camp for the night. You must find
shelter from those things lurking out there unimaginable to even you. As you
clumsily search the area you stumble across what appears to be a tree root
creeping out of the mound you noticed upon arrival. As you fall to the
ground you hear a low rumbling sound from behind you.
You turn, slowly, not really wanting to know what made that eerie sound,
and there before you, you can barely make out a doorway in the mound. Why
you didn't notice this doorway before you don't know, but you are almost out
of light and it seems to be the only shelter you will find. You decide to
enter and take your chances with whatever you may find there, rather than
stay out here in the open, in the dark, like a lone tree in a filed during a
light storm.
You get up brushing yourself off and begin to walk cautiously toward the
open doorway, still half waiting for something horrible to jump out and have
you as a snack. You stop for a moment, looking around one last time to be
sure this is your only option, but it has gotten far to dark to even make
out the path you were traveling on. Through the doorway you see a dim light
and hear the babbling of water once again. This time louder and distinctly
coming from inside the mound.
You look down at your dirty clothes, feel your empty canteen slung across
your shoulder, and check for you blade tucked in your belt. It is gone. You
must have lost it when you fell. You try hard to see in the darkness where
the root was that you tripped to no avail. Taking a deep breath, you
continue slowly, ragged, dirty, thirsty and hungry, and unarmed.
As you pass through the doorway you see a small stairway seeming to lead
down deep into the earth. By the top of the stairs there is a torch that you
had not noticed before, just like the root, and the mound, as if they were
placed there by someone. You take up the torch and begin slowly, cautiously
descending the winding earthen stairs. There is the smell of fresh turned
dirt and crisp rainwater in the air, as if this place were just made, just
before you stepped through the door.
You can see the bottom of the stairway up ahead, and there seems to be
another door, this one closed. As you continue to the door you decide you
will have to knock since you have come this far. But when you reach the
bottom step the doors opens slowly, quietly, as if it knew you were there.
You pass through the doorway looking around for whomever it was that allowed
you to enter but you see no one. Then something catches your eye. To your
right there is a wondrous crystal clear pool at the bottom of a waterfall.
Everything is bright as if the sun were shining in mid day, but you see no
torches or the source of this light. To your left is a grand garden with
many fresh fruits and vegetables, and strait ahead a small campfire upon
which sits a cooking pot.
You look again at your clothes, and feel the dryness in your mouth, and
looking around once more for any sign of host, you follow a small stone path
to the pool. As you get closer you notice the wonderful rainbow colors from
the mist of the falls catching the unknown source of light and acting as a
prism. Around the pool are many flat very smooth stones that look as if they
we tediously hand polished. You kneel on one of the stones and bend down to
the water. Cupping your hands, you take water from the pool to wash your
face and drink. This is the most wonderful water you have ever tasted, and
it seems just the right temperature, not too cold on the face, not too warm
in the mouth. You decide to fill your canteen and as you do so you glimpse
something out of the corner of your eye. You turn sharply to see what is
there, but there is nothing.
You are very hungry, and you think about the garden you saw when you came
in. You decide you will clean up your clothes and maybe bathe after a bit to
eat so you go back to the garden by the door. When you get to the garden, to
your bewilderment, the door seems to be gone. You look around to be sure you
didn't get confused somewhere, but there is the pool, and the campfire. Too
tired and hungry to try and figure this all out, you pick a few vegetables,
only what you need, and take an apple from a small apple tree on the side of
the garden.
Taking these you head to the campfire. Still there is no one around but you
now notice a small bed of, what looks to be, very soft straw, with a
hand-woven blanket folded up at one end. Still puzzled you begin to make
your dinner in the pot upon the fire, which had water already in it, at this
point not to your surprise.
The food is indeed the best most flavorful you have ever tasted and seems to
not only fill your stomach but renew your weary soul as well. You decide you
are now far too full and tired to bath or wash your clothes so you take off
your outer garments placing them beside the bed of straw and lay down with
the blanket to sleep.
Some time later, you are unsure how long as it seems to be always light
here, you awake to find the fire still burning. In the pot there seems to be
something cooking, and you notice your clothes have been cleaned, a tear
from a bramble patch has been repaired, and placed neatly folded back where
you had placed them before sleep. Feeling very refreshed you get up and
dressed and move to the pot on the fire. Whatever it is it smells
delightful. Again you see something out of the corner of your eye.
This time though spinning fast enough to see a very small white dragon, only
about 5 feet tall, scurrying quickly away.
"Please wait!" you call out.
The dragon turn slowly to face you, obviously very shy and more scared of
you then you are of it. Slowly, softly, the dragon speaks.
"I did not mean to disturb you, I was only checking to be sure you would
have a good breakfast. I saw you in the clearing last night looking so
tired and lost and much in need of help. I was afraid if I showed myself you
would run screaming away. Most do, or try to capture or kill me. Please
forgive the way I have brought you here and know you may leave any time you
wish. I do so love the company though; just having someone else here with me
is so nice. I mostly spend my time alone. Other than a few small children
who get lost in the woods from time to time I have no visitors."
You stare in shock at the small dragon and blinking unbelievingly you
answer, "you, you, uhh, you are a dragon!"
The dragon laughs softly.
"I am that yes. We do exist, not just myth. We had to make it seem that way
to preserve ourselves. There are so very few of us left, and we are so
spread out over the world it is very difficult for us to see one another. We
must stay far apart, if we were to gather in one place, well, it could be
the end of us all."
You slowly come out of your state of shock and disbelief, only after being
sure to pinch yourself several times to be sure you aren't dreaming. Again
you speak to the dragon, this time in a bit more friendly casual tone.
" I thank you very much for your hospitality, this place is the most
wonderful thing I have ever seen. How did it get here?"
"Dragons have magic" she answers. "Though only the magic to create what
comes from YOUR imagination. All of this came from within you. Why is it
that you travel so far to find the things you love? All that you really need
is there inside you," she says pointing to your heart.
You shake your head disbelieving what she says. "This could not come from
me, my soul is gone, I have nothing but a big empty space inside me, all
that I have loved I have lost."
Shaking her head she takes a softer tone "you are wrong, it is all still
there, you have buried you so not to be hurt, so not to lose again. That is
why you feel empty. You will not allow yourself to see what is really there,
to appreciate the many talents you have. Stay here a while with me, I will
help you to see. There is everything here you need and I ask nothing in
return. Your company is enough."
"I will" you say. "I will stay in this wondrous place, although I still do
not think this came from me. I will try to see what you see.
"One more thing" she says, walking closer to you, so close you can see the
rainbow glint off her almost translucent white scales, the sparkle in her
soft blue eyes so bright it was if she held the heavens there. "You must
remember only you can tear down the walls you have built. And at any time
you choose you are free to leave, but you may never find this place again,
if you leave with locked doors built in giant walls." She smiles softly and
turns toward the pool. "Come, come bath in your crystal pool" |
