Serenity - A Journal Of Some Sort

dragons

There were legends he'd heard of a princess locked up in a tower with a fearsome dragon guarding its threshold.

Several had gone and never returned, at least not without their limbs gnarled or their sanity shriveled.

Many shrank away from the horrors that seemed to leech out of that tower like gurgling lava.

But not him. He was determined to be the brave knight. He was determined to be the right man for the job.

He was fearless. Unstoppable. And he rounded up his largest armies and noblest steeds to carry out the chase.

As they climbed the mountain they faced several obstacles. Many of them believed it to be part of the trials, the price to pay for such a daring endeavor.

But little did they know it was all part of the weather, the terrain, just the natural shape of things their mind warped to fit their storyline.

And when they arrived at the tower they found it standing empty, isolated, poking out of a cliff side shrouded in darkness and a blanket of heavy fog.

The man climbed up, eager to meet his bride and elated that the mission had become so mysteriously easy.

Perhaps fate had played a role in it, removed every hiccup in the trail so there would be nothing stopping him from claiming his lover.

He barged into her room, and there she was, cries-cross legged in the bed, her blonde hair tossed in front of her eyes like a heavenly veil and tears flowing down her face like the unholiest of falls.

"Oh, dear, why do you weep?" He asked triumphantly, "I've come to rescue you." He believed his mighty bravery might squash any amount of fear and doubt she may have about her impending emancipation.

"Is it true?" She asked, sniffling a bit, "Are you another one, here to steal me away from my beloved home?" She swept a hand over the ornate room, decorated with bouquets of flowers and delicate paintings.

"Steal you away?" He crinkled his nose in slight disgust. "No, honey, I've come to take I you as my lover. Now, come along, before we both get trapped in this place.

And she wordlessly followed him out. Through the trek back home, she remained a few paces behind him, refusing to meet him side by side. And he let her, knowing that they'd have time to make each other's acquaintance later, as soon as they were in the safety of his kingdom.

But at last the question in his mind could be pushed away no longer and he felt it slipping off his tongue before he had the moment to catch it. "Dear, I must ask, wasn't there supposed to be a dragon guarding you at the tower?"

The girl was silent for a moment. She gazed around the terrain, her golden eyes aglow with some curious, blazing spite. Then she turned back to him with a quip in her voice, "Hadn't you heard all the legends?"

"Yes, of course," he spluttered, "It's supposed to be the most vengeful creature in all the lands." His stomach now curled, wondering if he had yet to defeat all his adversaries.

The girl just chuckled. She gazed around again, refusing to meet his eye. She wrung her hands together and stopped in place in the trail. "Well my dear," she spat, her voice dripping with ivy, "What they clearly omitted was how the dragon is not a true dragon, in the way that you imagine it."

"I am the dragon. The dragon is me."