Heir of the Dragon

Invisible

Everything I had lived for, everything I would have given my life for, gone, devoured by beasts of shadows. I had become a nugatory heap, a wisp of life, invisible; no reason to live except for the fear of dying that pounded through me.  

Tears had become empty, a vain attempt to release the senseless whirring of thought and emotion within me. Everything had slowed to a shallow drone. The cold damp earth seemed to swallow me, hurling me into a silent, empty consciousness.  

The dense forest roof threw a twisted green light through my eyelids that swelled and faded with every beat of my shattered heart. I could no longer differentiate physical and mental pain. It was all a dull throbbing.  

I had no Idea how long I'd lain there. Hours, weeks; they meant nothing. I had every plan to die there, sprawled out on the damp earth. Yet I doubted lying there and letting myself go out like a dying little flame could really be called a plan. It was resignation. Surrender. They had won. 

Who would care how much longer this dreary state was drawn out? I was completely and utterly alone. The only hope I could afford was the hope that some horrid beast of darkness would chance upon me and bring my low existence to a sweet end. I had no intention of moving, of even thinking, so ending me would be an effortless task. I'd be an easy meal; though maybe a rancid one. It felt as though my skin absorbed my pain, like a sponge left to sink and drown in murky water. Pain has a foul taste. I should know.  

Every moment I had had to endure outside the walls had been an utter nightmare; a foul, rancid nightmare. A nightmare of fear; of loss; of gore. How could we have been so blind? How could we have believed ourselves safe? We'd just let them feed us lies. Lie after lie. Blindfold after blindfold.  

Images began to race like slashing knives through my skull. The memories heaped upon me in terrible torrents. All the moments I would have given anything not to relive flashed across my minds eye, piercing me, like a thousand staves.  

My head pounded and a moan escaped my parched lips. I was breathing hard, taking in air by the lungful.  

Suddenly, above the sound of the pounding of my frail, hollow heart, I heard something press into the mud by my head.  

The realization took a moment to drown out all the horrors in my head. My mind became suddenly clear. Fear was a startling thing; a bright contrast amid my wallowing hopelessly in misery. My eyes flicked open in a feeble panic and I struggled to raise myself. Unable to recall the strength, I let myself slump back onto the wet earth.  

As the world spun and began to fade, I glimpsed the shape of a large fury forepaw pressed into the earth a few inches from my face. 

My last thoughts were ones of relief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

I slowly opened my eyes and the warm light flooded over me. I tried to understand the sights and sounds that poured around me, but I felt as if I were looking through bent, foggy glass.  

I couldn't possibly be dead --- my head was pounding with a roaring headache, unless the afterlife were a thing very different from what I believed it to be... but how could I have lived? I saw the beast... had it moved on?  

The dancing light around me was not the twisted green light of leaves overhead...it was the flickering light of a fire. I was warm. I'd forgotten how it felt to be warm. I began to adjust my position to observe my surroundings at a better vantage point, but sharp, sudden pain shot through me, freezing my lungs mid-breath. Immediately, the warped glass over my vision shattered and I was abruptly, fully awake.