The Line

After falling into a trench, the boy blubbered for quite a distance while he searched for a way out. He went on for a while before slowing to a stop when a shadow seemingly bloomed from out of nothing. It sent a shiver down his spine as the sun had been entirely blotted out. His head craned further and further back until his neck could bend no more and he tumbled onto his rear.

“Curious,” a deep voice dragged out and the shadow about the boy grew as the figure drew in closer. “A being straddles the line between two nations. How daring. Tell me, which side did you reside on?”

The boy ducked between his shoulders. “Side? I want to go home.” the boy croaked.

“You look young, thus unwise, but also unbridled.” The dragon narrowed his eyes and then reeled back his head. “Do you at least know your name?”

“Rudy!” the boy belted in the same heartbeat and the dragon cocked his head in response. Had he yelled out of fear or had that been excitement? These days, yelling sounded all the same.

The child’s attention barely could keep in one place. Even in the midst of the grandest and most fearsome beast in his world, Rudy’s sights set back to the dirt walls he had fallen between. “You are still little,” the dragon continued, “you can barely even walk across the pieces of this shattered world. But I walk. I walk back and forth. I walk over and over again. I walk to gradually whittle into the land. If it hadn’t been for my walk, you would not be stuck here. Yet, here you are.”

Rudy pushed himself from off the ground, balled his hands into fists, and got himself all twisted up. “I am not so little,” he blurted, defiant to the creature that could so easily step down upon him. “Sean is littlerest than I!”

“Sean is? And where is this Sean?”

With a blank expression and somewhat jolted by the lack of a rebuttal, Rudy tapped his chin and then rubbed at the goose egg atop his head. “Ummm,” he shuffled between his feet before his eyes opened wide, and he thrust his hand to his right. “That way!”

“Ah,” the dragon breathed and turned his head in the same direction. “To the west is where you heed from. Those who pretend that all is fine even after they were the first to send soldiers. They trampled through villages, stole their slaves, and set blaze to their crops. The west, the just. Or, I suppose, that’s what they think they are.” The dragon lowered his head once more and aligned his large golden eye with Rudy. “Child, were your parents those saved slaves in the east, or were they the people born and raised in the west as you would have been?”

The child grabbed at the collar of his shirt and coiled the cloth around his fingers. His hair stood on end, as for this time, ebbs of alarm strung throughout him. “Me? I didn’t do anything wrong. I have friends on that side,” Rudy lifted his other arm and pointed to his left, “I would never hurt them.”

“I believe you. You would not be capable. Your arms cannot wield swords or carry a shield. You haven’t the ability to sprint alongside men coated in metal to defend what? Well, in the east, they fight for nothing besides a forest that is gradually being chopped down by your people. A forest filled with wildlife and plants. Food and herbs, torn to bits by those who want only land. They defend resources that both sides need, but used slaves to gather them.”

Rudy appeared all the more uncomfortable and finally said, “Sides? Slaves? I like the forest, but I want to go home.”

A low, growl quaked from the back of the dragon’s throat. “Ohhh,” his tail flicked from behind him and curled at the front. He took the tip of it, and lightly tapped at the back of the boy’s knees until Rudy fell upon it before lifting him high in the air. “But which side will I put you on? For I shall keep walking until none can pass my chasm. I will walk and tear into this land, and where I put you, you shall ever stay. Their feuding will end with my walk.”

The boy raised his head. Despite the height he had been raised up to, Rudy did not seem phased as he was far too engrossed in the familiar land from his new vantage point. Bobbing his head like a fishing lure, Rudy looked back and forth. “My home is,” he paused and scrunched his nose, “here.” His arms extended to either side of him and he gestured all about.

“Once of the east, now of the west. Unsure of where to roam. I am uncertain on where to put you. You. A child. You are like me. Somewhere in between. Not yet forced to take up one side. Not yet bridled by influence and doctrine. Not yet dipped in hate, nor steeped in love. You are you.” His tail hovered, only slightly leaning to one side and then the other, but it never fully left the trench he had created. “I cannot split you asunder. You will make this line with me.”