Dragons Return

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. The day they returned, magic returned too.

A warm summers evening sat silently, waiting to be enjoyed. Birds and bees floated in the night air, soft with a scent of flowers blooming.

Resting beside the lake, I drifted off to a place of long before, a forgotten memory being resisted.

While at a cabin in the woods owned by our family’s friends, I accepted a ride on the back of a dirt bike with one of the sons. The breeze tousled my light-colored hair. Mid-day sun cooked my bare back, clad in my red-bandana top. I could feel tiny pebbles bounce up off the dirt road to prick my legs and toes. I had kicked off my flip flops before we took off, I rode bare foot in a pair of tiny blue shorts and my skimpy summer top.

I held on tight to the boy driving, my slender arms wrapped around his white t-shirted torso. He was my friend, I had thought. I was seven, without much worldly experience, no real understanding of what friendship bore. Something happened out there, memory obscured.

Mom’s bright crystal blue eyes, opened too wide in shock and surprise as we returned. Covered in blood, road rash and pebbles disfigured my body. I no longer held onto the boys body, I weakly held onto the bar behind the seat.

My Mom scooped me up and rushed to the cabins bathroom. With a silver pair of tweezers she gently began picking pebbles out of my skin. I don’t remember feeling anything, I only remember my eyes locked on hers as she diligently worked to undo the harm that had found me. I held my left arm like a baby, tucked to my chest, I rocked back and forth rhythmically. Mom worked to bring me back to the way I was before.

The water rushing from the tap in the sink became the waterfall trapped in my mind. I painted it over and over again that year I spent home from school healing. I fell into creating memory, reminding myself to keep breathing.

I woke when Bastion called out to me. “Do you see that Sam?”

Lazily I opened my eyes and saw Bastion twirling a dandelion between his thumb and fingers. “What?” I inquired.

The ocean-blue sky rippled above us with light wispy clouds, creating an impression of the top crust on mom’s apple pie. Golden tendrils touched the edges of each rippling cloud, they wove in and out of each other.

“That growing dark area on the mountain, looks like a door opening.” Bastion sat up and squinted his soft brown eyes towards the mountain where the bright rays of the setting sun appeared to be a crown.

“It’s probably just a shadow, a mirage caused by the sun going down.” The tired behind my eyes forced my lids to close and the image of the waterfall returned.

“No Sam, look!” Bastion grabbed my arm and began shaking me. Then he stood up looking like he wanted to run without a direction in mind.

Stubbornly I began to see the darkness rising out of the mountain, first like black smoke or a dense cloud, then the wings took shape as the mass dispersed and spread out into the night sky. I blinked several times, trying to clear my focus.

“This must be some sort of waking dream, it’s too unreal to be seen.” I whispered as I stood up next to my friend.

We both had just finished our exams the day before, mine in philosophy and Bastion’s in engineering, grueling work for the mind. A day at the lake basking in the sun felt like just the right medicine for us at the time.

Bastion pinched me, hard. “It’s not a dream.”

“Owe!” The sound erupted out of me.

“Sam, this is happening, for real, right in front of our eyes. I’ve never seen anything like this.” Bastion’s breath was catching in his throat, made choking sounds as he spoke. His light brown hair lifted in a breeze.

Stunned we watched as the inky blackness moved away exposing a ragged hole in the mountain. In the soft light of dusk, I saw the water falling, seemed like miles of it, vertically cascading inside the mountain. Bright green orbs covered the ground. A picture window to a different world.

“This is my dream.” I stammered, attempting to understand how this could be happening.

Bastion pulled at me and we began walking, barefoot, fresh from swimming in the lake all afternoon. We walked across the meadow, the grass tickling our toes.

“Bastion, this is weird.” Not sure I spoke out loud.

“I know.” was his response, as the opening before us glowed, pulsing slowly in the rhythm of a heart beat.

We kept moving, the green glow bounced off Bastions bare chest, inviting me into the memories of my youth. The bright green orbs and my trying to create the vision that haunted me.

The falling water from the faucet in the bathtub represented the waterfall, I used a whole bottle of green eucalyptus bath beads, floating all around me, my Mom threw a fit when she found me, covered in sticky green bath beads, the smell of eucalyptus overwhelmed the room. Something I painted on the wall upset my Mom, I’ve never been able to remember what it was. She never would tell me.

Our swim clothes dry from the cold lake waters, still felt chilled in the evening air. We walked for what felt like a long time, then we reached where the mountain had opened. Bastion put his hands in his swim trunk pockets, confusion filled his face.

A beautiful young deer with a wide beak owl sitting upon it’s back and a grey long-eared bunny sitting between its horns greeted us at the opening. The three of them silently littered green crystals at our feet.

A hum rose up out of the glowing orbs as the deer, owl, bunny thing pulled us down a path, into a little stream made by the water fall. Once my feet touched the water I had the feeling of floating.

I lost sight of Bastion as I was guided deeper and deeper through the stream into a small lake rippling under a purple moon. I could see Bastion being guided away from me, to a cave behind the waterfall. I could not see who guided him, the deer, owl, bunny thing remained with me.

An upside-down top hat was carried towards me, across the blue-green waters. As it came closer I could see little windows and inside sat me, conversing with a dragon.

My eyes blurred in complete surprise and something I can only describe as being high enveloped me. My vision came and went some things appeared as smoke, existing in a realm I struggled to be a part of.

My heart felt like rough sand paper, images of red and orange jewels filled my vision, flashing in and out as tears poured from me, my sorrow becomming water.

I heard a bullfrog croak, and someone speaking quietly in my head. The waves lapping at my feet and the hum of the glowing orbs made sounds of a symphony, with a roar obscuring my hearing.

I became that little girl, painting ferociously, trying to pull from my mind an event I’d left behind. My healing had been so slow, my body felt and looked like raw hamburger. My arm broken, my youth disrupted. No longer the same person, marred by scars, I tried hard to cary on and make sense of what was missing, this time I was not alone.