The Dragon at the waterfall

There weren’t always dragons in the valley. But love changed that, the night I saw her through the enchanted waterfall.

Our vast valley of the Charmed is hidden deep in the Azktarian Forrest, the only way into our valley is hidden behind an enchanted waterfall that protects us from the Jynxed. Only the Charmed can leave if they dare, and in order to come back home, they use an encrypted spell that will reveal the entrance into the valley. If the Jynxed stumbles upon the waterfall they would just see the simplicity of the waterfall cascading over the wet rocks behind it. The Charmed went into hiding over 200 years ago to escape the dark magic that was plaguing the minds and souls of every living creature throughout the kingdom of Azktarian, this is the reason we call the lost souls still trapped out there, the Jynxed. The Azktarian Forest remained untouched until about a year ago when one of our Antecedents discovered the edge of the forest was starting to turn gray and die. Antecedents are the bravest of the Charmed, they leave to go find lost souls to bring them back here to help relieve them of the dark magic, but since the discovery of the dying Forrest everyone has been so panicked, they have been working on spells and charms to try to stop the plague from spreading any further that no one has left since. In my 20 years of life, I have never witnessed our valley in distress. Our valley has always been peaceful, happy, and a strong community of unity, and now my heart had felt something foreign for the first time watching my valley fall apart.

As I watched the Guardian’s peaceful discussions turn into enraged arguments concerning the future of the Charmed, the feeling in my heart became more intense, I started to lose hope. The Guardians are a council made up of chiefs from each of the 20 tribes of creatures that create the Charmed race as a whole. What will come of us if the Guardians who have been guiding us and unifying us for the past 200 years fall apart? I have always been curious as to what is on the other side of that waterfall, especially when my father would return home with stories of his adventures being an Antecedent. That is until one day, about 10 years ago, my father never returned, and my mom forbade me from becoming an Antecedent. I understood the fear my mother had, but I have never stopped yearning to become who I felt I was destined to be. Since the day the Charmed escaped and created this valley and decided to have Antecedents, the men in my family have always stepped up to become one. That is generations of men I feel like I am letting down. I have had enough of this intense unknown feeling I was trying to fight off, I just needed to run, run fast, and far away from the valley. I ran until my legs became weak and my stomach hurt. I fell to the ground, landed on my back, and looked up to the night sky. As I stared at the deep dark blue cloudless sky, I started to recognize the constellations of the stars, and the frame of trees that surrounded them. I had been here before, with my father. We only came to this spot a handful of times, but those are times I will forever cherish. I remember laying there with him looking up at this same exact sky, he told me that the stars were a map, and this is how the Antecedents were able to find their ways. I played there in the dead of silence, I started to pick up the sound of water in the distance. My heart started to race as I sat up and got to my feet. This was the way to the waterfall.

I was nervous and excited, I felt guilty for what I was about to do, what my heart was telling me to do, all I could think of was my mother, but I couldn’t stop my feet from continuing to the sound of the waterfall. The closer I got to the roaring sound of water, the sky slowly disappeared from above, I was inside of the mountain, and the crash of the waterfall echoed through my body as it bounced off the walls of the mountain. The huge mountain that I’ve looked up to my entire life, that surrounded our valley, the giant that protected us from all around, I was inside of it. I felt honored to be there, I felt nervous about what I would encounter on the other side of my protected home and then I realized, I was there. It was as if I was looking through a window, a crystal-clear picture of the lush dark green Azktarian forest was right in front of my face, and the sound of the waterfall had become silent. I could hear the crickets of the forest and the owls, but they sounded a little different from ours in the valley. As I got the courage to step into the forest, my foot ready to penetrate the barrier, I heard a scream so high pitched I fell backward as I grasped my ears tightly to stop hearing the sound. The roaring of the waterfall was back, I sat there for what felt like a second, and I couldn't help but be curious as to what that sound was, who or what was screaming, I had to know. I gathered myself, stepped forward again into the silence, and towards the barrier, I found a rock ledge to sit down on so that I could observe the other side safely and discreetly. Instantly the silence was broken by another scream, I covered my ears and watched intently. I needed to know who was screaming, and then I saw her. She was so beautiful. As fast as I became hypnotized by her beauty, I became freighted by what I just witnessed.

I’ve never seen a creature like this before, and even more so I’ve never seen someone look as if they were at war with themselves. All I knew was she was in some type of pain. As I sat and watched her transform from a small crying creature to a huge, winged creature that was destroying the trees around her, she stopped and blew fire straight into the night sky. At that instant I remembered what both of these creatures were, I read about them in books before, and in stories told generations before mine. She was a human and a dragon, but that didn’t seem right. How was she a human and a dragon? In the midst of my confusion, my foot slipped, and I scrambled trying to grab onto any part of the mountain that would stop me from falling. Every rock I tried to grab broke off and fell and then I fell, as I hit the ground all I saw was a cloud of sand. I slowly stood up brushing myself off, as the sand cloud dissipated and I turned around towards the barrier, to my surprise the dragon was face to face with me. She slowly backed away I started to sweat as I held my breath. She started looking around while angrily yelling “Who is there!!” “Show your face!!!”. At first, I wanted to stay quiet, but something inside me just shouted back in the loudest deepest voice I had, “I am the Great and powerful waterfall, why do you insist on destroying my trees!!” She transformed back into a human as she stood in the middle of the small body of water looking up at the waterfall on her side of the barrier as hypnotized as I was when I first saw her.

She slowly walked towards the waterfall, my heart started to race as I stood perfectly still watching her. She went through the water, and I watched her touch the barrier as if she was grasping rocks and sliding her hand across them. She then said in a soft voice, “You have a heartbeat, I can hear it” I responded, “You are hearing the echo of the waterfall crashing.” It was as if she could see me, she stared directly at my face. I couldn’t help but examine her as she stood in front of me, it was as if time had stopped so that I could. Her skin was the color of caramel, her lips were as red as an apple, she had freckles on her nose, and her eyes were stunning; it was as if I was looking into the night sky, silver specks and all. Her hair was white as snow, falling past her hips in braids. Then, her voice started time again, she asked, “Why do you choose to speak to me tonight, when I’ve been coming here every night for the past 5 years, not once have you spoken to me!” She fell to her knees in tears, I fell with her, so badly I wanted to reach through to hold her. What was this feeling, I know nothing of this creature except that she is in pain and all I want to do is help console her. I whispered “I’m sorry” to her. She looked up and said, “all my secrets, my whole life story I have told to you, I screamed to you, cried to you, and never have you spoken to me!” she was trying to catch her breath, and she said through the cracking of her voice, “Why now, it’s too late, I can’t live this life anymore” I panicked, I wasn’t sure what to say or do, this beautiful creature wanted to end her life, she only had to be my age, what do I do?, what do I say? That’s it I thought to myself! I responded to her in an excited voice, “what if I can help you? What if I can give you a new life? Please don’t give up!” She stopped crying, stood up, and said “How?” “Why would you want to help me?” I took a deep breath and said, “You seem lost, and I want to help you find your way, come back tomorrow night and I will help you, I promise!” She agreed with a nod of her head and no words, she turned around slowly but looked back at me with an uneasy look and walked through the body of water and disappeared into the forest.