She Wakes Once More

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

They slept as mountains all around us. The silent sentinels of our valley.

The Amaranth Valley.

Sometimes they slept for thousands of years, waking only when people fell out of balance with nature.

They were waking.

Mine was the fourth generation born away, in our Eden, our Heaven, the Amaranth Mountain Range.

The legends and lore were still told as bedtime stories. Stories of morality and right vibration. Stories many had forgotten to tell their children.

Or dismissed as fantasy.

My people had re-connected with the natural world generations before I was born. It did not take long once they came to Amaranth. As a result, my peers and I were born of great sensitivity, and innate understanding.

The Dreams began as rustling leaves on wind. Movement, breath, warmth...a curious sensation of flight...

I had gone to sleep by the hearth, as I often would...My prayers and greetings to the dream time, always lovingly offered...

Wind Blows,

Water Flows,

Fire Transforms,

& The Earth, She Knows.

“Everly! Wake up!.....Everly!”

Someone was shaking me, much too vigorously for my liking.

It was my little brother Wisp, he was always adamant about something or other. Impatiently, I shoved him a bit to give myself room to stand.

“Everly, who were you talking too?”

“It sounded like you were arguing with someone!”

“You said, "I don't want to go up the mountain by myself”

“You were crying, and upset”

“Wisp go play in the fields!”

Shouting a little too aggressively. For which I felt immediately ashamed...

I wanted to connect with the dream, and his busy, wispy ways were interfering.

I needed to go see Audra right away.

I ran as quickly as my feet would carry me, to her cottage at the edges of Amaranth.

“Audra! Audra! Where are you?

Calling, as I burst through the doors of her always fragrant cottage.

Aromas of lavender and mint, invading my olfactory senses, brought a immediate wave of calm.

Scanning the one room cottage, I quickly realized she was not home. Running through the back gardens, I found her, barefoot, and arms raised singing to the mountain.

I froze, realizing I was interrupting an important moment. She turned to me, and in the same moment, we said in unison,

"She wakes”

The Amaranth dragons, who many thought of as myth, were known in the hearts of those of us who had left the city. The city we had fled in an attempt to restore balance to our planet.

It was a bittersweet realization, as it meant we had been unsuccessful. It also meant that support was on the way. What kind of support would depend on those of us who had the awareness to speak for ourselves. Those in Amaranth, and those in the city...

The people of the other place, did not know. They did not love, or revere life any longer.

We always grieved for them. Our lost brothers and sisters. We stayed away, hidden...hoping, as did occasionally occur, one or two would flee the cold pallor of the distant city...

Those who had fallen in love, or hoped to.

We had become some what of a myth. Like the sleeping Dragons of the Amaranth Mountains.

“Audra, I was flying over the mountains in my dream, I saw the trees turn to feathers, and enormous wings begin to unfold.”

“I Know Everly, we must prepare you. It is you who has been selected as the Dragon Speaker.”

“Grab that basket and follow me”

We carried the freshly harvested herbs and roots back towards her cottage.

I could barely dare to ask the questions that pounded in my heart. My breath was stuck in my throat. My thoughts raced like a runaway horse.

Untying the drying racks pully rope, she lowered the wooden frame to shoulder height. Holding it there, I began to tie the various bundles to the hooks upon it, now a reflex of muscle memory from my time spent in Audra's cottage.

When I had slowly, and carefully tied the last bundle, she directed me to the root section.

“Everly, do you see that purple root at the center?”

“Please take one of them down for us”

I made slow, deliberate movements towards the task requested of me. Anything to prolong the inevitable conversation I knew was about to take place....

What was waiting for me, just a few short days from this moment..I could never have been prepared for.....