It seem to take FOREVER to whittle this down to under 1k but I've finally done it! And without further ado:
My journey to the old shack in the mountains I'd aspired to all my life. It'd been much labour, much soul searching, much questing over the years. The hut was nondescript but nestled high above civilization, the vistas stretched further than I could see.
I breathed in the wind that carried the scent of flowers, haunting and sweet. I could hear it sighing among the granite tors, and a small bird singing a bewitching love song. It didn't matter if I never returned to my own. I was an old man. I had nothing left but the sun and the rain, the stars and the earth beneath my feet.
The weathered door opened and I peered in. I saw the place was bare, save for a bed and chair. There was no food, no place to draw water, no tables. This puzzled me. From my studies, everything was provided; I would need nothing but the clothes on my back and faith.
Clearly faith is what I needed. I went inside when the golden sun was ribboning across the sky with the promise of tomorrow in its arms. I was asleep as the moonbeams danced a ghostly waltz across the hard wooden floor.
And I dreamed of dragons.
A black dragon, glittering with stars, whose tail drew the Milky way with him, appeared. I grabbed onto a shining scale and he took me into the skies. He showed me without words the stories written across the galaxies, the despair of Mercury and the joy of Saturn. The stars twinkled, the comets passed, the bright planets glowed. There was no I, no me, just a being lost in the immenseness of space.
There can be no Shadows without Light. There can be no Light without Darkness.
After the dragon spoke, I plunged out of the heavens. Faster and faster I fell toward a blue expanse. The wrinkled sea crawled, then the waves crashed and rolled. A splash without pain, and I was in the water. But I was not alone. A blue dragon, all fins and shiny scales, caught me. A multitude of fish of all kinds and colours followed him. I nestled in his forearms and found I could not drown. He took me down to the depths. I saw whales, who sang their eerie music to the watery void. Silvery sharks zoomed on past but I was not afraid.
Water is soft and forgiving, yet it cuts through rock. The ocean depths are not to drown but to let us swim in the wonder of the world.
A coldness swept through the water and I rose to the surface. I found myself upon a white landscape. Snow glittered as diamonds all around me. Shades of blues and greys and whites met my eyes wherever I looked. A hill nearby shook and trembled and manifested into a great ice dragon, his scales whiter than the cleanest snow, his eyes blazing turquoise and eternity in his face. I put my hand on his snout. He drew the storms with him, for hail and blizzards and sleet fell around us but did not harm us.
The storm in one's soul does not subside until one sees the beauty of the snow and ice within.
Everything melted around me. A burning fiery dragon stood before me. His eyes were rubies and his body all the colours of fire: red and gold and orange and blue and purple. The desert air was stifling hot, yet he took me into his embrace. I saw before me belching volcanoes, the blue fire dancing in the marsh, St. Elmo's fire racing over ships, wildfire ripping over the shadow-haunted woods, the cold fire of the sea. The sand melted away to form brilliant gems and precious stones.
Fire is not an enemy but a friend. If you do not let it burn you, you will walk through the flames and emerge a gem that none can destroy.
The world turned green. Blades of grass grew high. Trees shivered out their leaves. Rich soil, damp and sweet to my nostrils, stretched as far as I could see. I laid my hand upon a nearby tree. The bark moved under my fingers and I saw it was no tree at all but a dragon, all green and brown, his eyes golden as the corn in tassel. When he unwrapped himself from his tree myriad flowers burst upon his scales. All manner of birds and beasts lay nearby. His footsteps shook the world itself.
The tiny seed knew in order to grow it must be dropped in dirt, buried, and struggle to reach the light.
I opened my eyes. I was once again in the hut, feeling as if I had travelled all eternity. I stood up shakily and gazed out the window. Now I knew I could not have made this journey earlier. I would not have understood. I took my battered journal and wrote. The sky dragon in the heavens, the water dragon in the seas, the ice dragon in the snows, the fire dragon in the burning desert, the earth dragon in the lush green land, all went down into the pages. Once they were chronicled, my book came alive. The freshly inked pages ripped out and circled around my head like small white birds. The journal dropped from my hands and the pages became tiny miniatures of the dragons. They merged together to form a new dragon. She was shadows and smoke and light and rain and grass and fire.
I knew then.
I was dying.
Nevermore would I walk the earth. My soul was bound for infinity. I had been graced with the Time dragon herself. I was ready. My book would be found by the next worthy man. I reached my hand and laid it on the dragon's snout.
Come. The past is a road to the future, and the future is past. We will be nothing and everything. Come.
I smiled.
Topic: Universe of Time - Draft 2 (Read 2125 times)