Dreamscape Fairytale

The forest was thick; every shade of green was splattered everywhere as exasperated beams of sunlight fell down through tree branches in soft dappled patterns and splashed chaotically across the floor below. On a large rock beside the path that meandered lazily by sat an iridescent young dragon, positively glowing as it preened itself quietly amid a chorus of birdsong. But when the singing stopped, the dragon looked away from its creature comfort and observed a young boy staring at it intently.

“Can you breathe fire?” the boy asked earnestly. He looked like a ragamuffin, bedraggled in an almost perfect way.

“Do you see me?” The dragon asked. “You shouldn’t see me, and you certainly should not talk to me.” He went back to his ablutions distractedly as the boy stared some more.

“Of course, I see you,” he replied, “I’m not blind, and I bet you can’t even breathe fire, bet you can’t!”

“This is the invisible world,” huffed the dragon between licks. “Humans don’t see in the invisible world, and they definitely don’t talk.”

The boy considered this for a moment, before discounting it. “I’m going to see pig,” he said positively, “he’s expecting me.”

At that moment the birds, who were tired of waiting, began their songs again. “I don’t hear anything and I don’t see anything,” the dragon began, “I am in the invisible world.”

“So am I,” the boy began, when the bag he was carrying over his shoulder began to wriggle around.

“Where are we?” the bag said, rolling its r’s in a peculiarly Spanish way. “Woke up, not tired now, hungry, yes hungry, must get food.”

Dragon stopped everything it was doing and stared deeply. “Whatever do you have in that bag?”

The boy smiled, pulled the bag open and a small black and white furry head popped out with pointy up ears, whiskers and a button nose. “This is cat,” the boy said, he wanted to see pig too!”

Dragon sighed deeply in and out. “None of this is happening.” He murmured, “this is your reality, not mine.” Then he went back to primping a hypnotically shimmering iridescent paw.

As if by some incredibly strange magic the boy produced food and water in small bowls, and placed them on a tree stump as the cat leapt down and began consuming them voraciously.

“Why on earth did you bring a cat with you?” Dragon inquired.

“Because I wanted to see pig,” the cat said looking up from the bowl and chewing. “But now I’ve met you, and I can’t believe it. You’re very beautiful,” the cat said, voicing a hint of a meow before returning to the meal.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before, a human performing magic! Something just doesn’t fit.” The dragon stood and began stretching its formidable wings and neck slowly and decisively.

At exactly that moment around the bend in the path a sauntering pig appeared, singing to itself. “I’m a pig, I’m a pig, I’ve got everything to give, but I’m always pretty hungry so watch out. I’m coming for your food and my table manners are crude, but I can clean off every single plate.”

“Pig!” The boy and the cat shouted in glee.

“Hello boy, hello cat, I see you have a new friend. “Hello dragon.”

“Hello pig, you’re just in time.”

“Just in time for what?” Pig asked, hoping something soft, sloppy and edible was involved.

“Well, none of this fits, especially not you, and we’re all talking to one another which we would never do ever and yet everything is just moving along the line of time like normal.”

“Ah yes!” Pig snorted, “Indeed, indeed, it’s happened to me many times. It’s called hallucination, and it always seems so real.”

“But I don’t feel like I’m having a hallucination,” dragon offered. “I’m wondering if it’s possible to be in somebody else’s hallucination. You see, I live in the invisible world. None of you should be in my head.”

“Wow, bummer,” said the cat.

“That’s the way it goes,” the boy chimed in.

“Wicked audience,” the pig prompted.

“Not really,” dragon smiled, “I’ve never personally seen a human perform magic, so there’s unconsciousness involved here. I wonder if we’ve all walked into the same dream?”

“Hmmm,” pig pondered.

“It isn’t making a lot of sense to me either now,” boy revealed.

“Well, I was hungry, at least I got something to eat,” cat smiled while licking a paw.

“As far as I can make out,” dragon said, “I think we just had a traffic accident in our dreams.”

“Are you saying we had an illusionary collision, we have no secrets to reveal, and none of us felt a thing?” Boy guffawed.

“Yes…and I missed all the food, but that’s typical,” added pig.

“We all looked good, though,” cat posited, “very dreamlike.”

“Nothing to learn,” the boy laughed as he scooped the cat up and placed it back in the bag on his shoulder, “and no time to waste, have to find a new dream.”

“Mind if I come with you?” pig asked the boy, “Maybe you could conjure up some more snacks.”

Everybody laughed as boy, pig, and cat disappeared down the path, and dragon went back to his gleaming iridescent paw.

Which just goes to show; life is often simpler than we think, so whenever it gets incomprehensible and not what we are looking for, move on… just move on.