The Dragon Immortal

Glittery orbs of tin foil stacked to the rocky ceiling tumble down in a shower of shine when the sorceress moon pushes the waves, filling the cave. Frothy tendrils reached into the darkness, pulling her collection out to sea. Even swiftly moving scales and monstrous tail cannot retrieve them all. Some are lost, adrift on the shimmering, opal bay, bobbing in the surf. Memories floating away. Perhaps it’s better that way.

Yesterday’s prizes were stacked neatly in the sandstone nooks, just above the high water mark. All the goodly trinkets collected in a lifetime of an endless being. An imaginary life created by the loneliness of a friendless boy. Chocolate scales and cotton candy wings living in a dank, dark cave by the sea. Sleepy eyes of copper glowing in the moonlight, counting the precious trove and wishing for more delights that will never arrive.

Hearing the lilt of seashell chimes stirs soft wistfulness in the immortal's memory. Garden gnomes, fancy strings, and fountain pens from years long gone. Golden jewels and goblets line the sandstone shelves. Paper airplanes, now wilted by the mist, memories of days best forgotten. Toy boats moored to the lichen-covered wall of her rookery. Wooden boats built with bent nails and scraps by a little boy with a freckled face and scraped knees.

The boy. Her friend. The provider of all that glitters in her cold, rocky home by the sea. His silent offerings she accepted with dignity, giving each a grand spot on her walls, and thanking him with a silent midnight ride to the stars and back upon her chocolate-covered tail. She sighs and regrets the memories as she is alone now, left only with his offerings of sundry trinkets. Fancy doorknobs from every castle they explored together. Candlesticks and fantastical shared secrets from days long ago.

She silently pulls the collections down from the fragile shelves and inspects them for water damage, shining and lovingly stroking each treasure. Finding the wooden swords from their fencing matches brings tears to her coppery eyes, dripping into delicious rivers which run down her chocolate scales. Will he ever return to her? Has he forgotten her in exchange for his grown-up world? Skinned knees and toy boats were exchanged for suits and ties and nine-to-fives.

With the spyglasses he brought to her she keeps watch over the bay, scanning, always searching for signs of his return. They were so close- best of friends. He was too shy to speak. She was the only one who understood him. An ethereal friendship that suited them both. Silent exchanges in the foggy seashore.

Rather than sadness and regrets she wishes all she had was lonely days without the boy. Lonely days have no regrets. Lonely days were preferable to anguished memories of joy from days now dead.

Fingering the waxy impressions on the parapet of her rookery, made lovingly with the melting colors of sealing waxes and stamps from kingdoms far away, she wishes for mortality. But, for dragons, there is no such thing. Her life in the watery cave, visited only by the ocean's watery wisps is all she has left. Over and over every day, soul-crushing emptiness.

Visit me, tiny, bubbling waves. Stay with me, but please, don’t take away my treasures. Tell your frothy fronds to leave my prizes be. They are all I have left from my boy. My boy. So changed. I’ve been forgotten and left behind in his childhood. Sentenced to these sweet memories forever. My cotton candy wings will never melt away in the mist. My chocolate scales will never fall away for I am the Dragon Immortal.

Desolate rain falls from my coppery eyes and joins the high tide as it is swept out to a dappled sea.