Universe of Time - Final Draft

[Blueroan]

HERE THERE BE DRAGONS 

(okay yes that was totally an excuse to use that emoji)

I was a bit surprised on the edits and had to think of how to use them well. I added more thoughts from my character and sectioned out into more paragraphs and added a bit here and a bit there lol. And without further ado:

It didn't matter if I never returned to my own people. I was an old man by now. I had nothing left but the sun and the rain, the stars and the earth beneath my feet. My trek to the old shack in the mountains had taken much labour, much soul searching, much questing over the years. I clutched my battered journal in my hands as I made my way to the lowly shack. This book had magically appeared at my door when I was but a lad. It had been a constant companion through the years to my journey's end here.

I gazed at my surroundings. The hut was nestled high above civilization where vistas stretched further than I could see. The wind carried the scent of flowers, haunting and sweet. It sighed among the granite tors and rustled along the tall grass. A small bird perched on a dancing  flower sang a bewitching love song to his hidden mate. For a brief moment, I desperately missed mine, but she was long since gone into the past, though I carried part of her forever in my heart.

To my surprise, the weathered door of its own accord. I peered in. The place was bare, save for a bed and chair. There was no food, nowhere to draw water, no tables. I puzzled over this. From everything my studies showed me, everything was provided. All the notes in my worn journal pointed to this fact. I checked the worn pages once more though I knew what it would say: I needed nothing but the clothes on my back and faith.

Clearly faith was what I needed. I went inside when the golden sun was ribboning across the sky with the promise of tomorrow in its arms. I drifted to sleep as the moonbeams danced a ghostly waltz across the hard wooden floor.

And I dreamed of dragons.

A black dragon appeared, glittering with stars, whose tail drew the Milky way with him. 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 endless space.

There can be no Shadows without Light. There can be no Light without Darkness.

After the dragon spoke, I plummeted 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 kaleidoscope of fish followed him. I nestled in his forearms and found I could not drown. He took me down to the depths where whales sang their eerie music to the watery void. Silvery sharks zoomed on past, but I was not afraid. I felt his voice rippling through my body and my very bones.

Water is fluid 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. The blue dragon faded away as a new landscape opened before me.

Snow glittered as diamonds all around me. Shades of blues and greys and whites met my eyes wherever I looked.

A hill nearby shuddered, manifested into a great ice dragon, his scales whiter than the cleanest snow, his eyes blazing turquoise. Eternity rested in his face. I laid my hand on his snout. He drew the storms with him, for hail and blizzards and sleet swirled around us but did not harm us. His voice crackled in my head like a river freezing in a cold snap.

The storm in one's soul does not subside until one sees the beauty of the snow and ice within.

Everything melted around me, sweeping away the cold vision. A flaming 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. He showed 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. 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.

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 strive to reach the light.

I opened my eyes. I was once again in the hut, feeling as if I had travelled all eternity.

I sat up, panting. My body was covered in a sheen of sweat, and my hands trembled. I stood shakily and gazed out the window.

One thing I knew: I could not have made this journey earlier. I would not have understood the lessons. In fact, I had lived all these lessons. 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 into the pages.

Once they were chronicled, my journal came alive. The freshly inked pages ripped out and circled around my head like small white birds.

The book dropped from my hands, and the pages became 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 by the Time dragon herself. My book would be found by the next worthy man, some young lad not yet grown. He?d find it at his own door and his journey would begin. I pressed my forehead against her snout and listened for her words. 

Come. The past is a road to the future, and the future is past. We will be nothing and everything. Come.

I smiled. I was ready.