Why There Is Magic And Why There Is Change

Long ago, before you or I, danger seemingly did not exist.

Oh sure, danger had existed in the past, but history had reached that point--where the glorious golden age ends and the gap between two adventurous times basks in the light of life.

Every living thing of this particular gap was nothing but a ghost or shadow of itself. For without danger life isn’t worth living.

But the animals didn’t have a choice; all they could do was live by a strand. And so they did, shambling around a home that was the same thing repeated as far as the eye could see.

But right before that inevitable point where without a savior the enemy rises to take everything, the earth shook and the sky howled and two flashes seared the world. And deep inside the animals felt a spark they didn’t know they had begin to flicker.

And when the shaking and screaming stopped and everything seemed like it would never change, a single egg was found lying on the endless ground.

To you or I the egg may not have been much to look at. But the animals could sense magic, and to them it was the sole link they had to their spark--which of course it was.

And so the egg was never alone. The mysterious egg always had an animal with it, a ghostly body pressed against its shell waiting for the tide of time to change their way.

And inevitably it did. Out of nowhere, when it’s occupant knew it was needed in its moment, the entire egg exploded into shattered bits.

What came out was a dull yellow thing; with a wedge head and scaled hide, with great glowing eyes and two strange stumps on its back.

Yes, to one who only cares for show, despite all its magic and all its new-hatched glory, it wouldve been seen as useless.

But to the animals it was the incarceration of perfection.

And so the animals kept by the hatchling as it stumbled and squealed, tripping over the shattered shell, snapping its big head this way and that, teaching itself to stumble on its ungainly legs, straining for anything that could lead it to its calling.

And the animals did not help it, for they knew they could only be there for support and it must find its path on its own.

And it found it. Spotting a flaming streak in the sky over one animal, the tiny creature staggered up to it and suddenly clamped the strong jaws and needle teeth in a leg.

The animal screamed--but it was not the scream of just pain. It was a scream of wonder; it's something none of them had known for a very long time.

Releasing the leg, white blood dripping from its face, the baby roared as well and raised its shaking body to scream towards the sky.

It was the scream of touching another half of you you never knew you had. It was the magic of finding that one thing that makes you completely whole, that is never worth living without, and for the tiny hatchling, that thing was his fire.

Its dull scales turned a million gleaming scarlets, and its lumpy back stumps became something else. When the change was done it was no longer a fledgling challenger of fate but a fully grown history maker, and it swiveled its not at all ugly, gorgeous, bright red wedge head around to face the animals.

For a moment, the Dragon, the blood of the ghost-animal still fresh on his face, mottled red spots of babyhood still freckling his scales, met the eyes of the ones who had forgotten what to live for.

And then it screamed again and flung itself into a new element with a single beat of its body.

The Dragon’s eyes scaled the animals below and then with a single breath, the world was engulfed in fire.

And every manner of animal ran side by side to escape. The tiny and the enormous, the meek and the strong, pounding flank to flank and muzzle to muzzle in the way it will always come down to.

And many would never again feel anything but fire, for it is impossible for everything to survive the flames of change.

But soon, amidst the roaring fire and the flaming Dragon and the dying and the dead, another being, a gigantic feathered creature with the gold and orange flames countering the reds of its hatch-partner, appeared above them all with a scream. The animals barely had time to raise their eyes to meet the eyes of Phoenix when she dove, saving some creatures from the devouring flames and dooming others. It seemed that she alone knew what to do and who to save and who to kill, and when the two finally made the fires recede, the animals huddled together on the scarred land, the clever and the brave and the sly and the cowards. Uncountable pairs of eyes stared up at the living bringers of radical change that landed right in front of them.

“Why?” chirped one of the spirit-creatures, a pale figure that may have once been a Cardinal.

And the Dragon, the Dragon who’d accepted their love in his egg, met its eyes. “Change. We are both here to teach you.”

“What?” yelped Fox in the back.

“That the life you had before we were here, it’s not worth going back to, no matter the reward,” Phoenix said, her feathers titling.

“We are here because you need us and you are here because we need you.” Dragon’s wings arched toward the sky. “True life can never be a shambling walk in a shell of a body and no voice to call your own. True life is the danger and the happiness, the terror and release of every experience from birth to death.”

“You want to live,” Phoenix said. “But you trapped yourselves in a place of endless loops. You must never allow yourselves to go thy way again.”

“We can never leave,” Dragon said, “our sparks are intertwined. As long as both of us are here you will be able to seize your life.”

“So we run from the same fire over and over?” bellowed Bear. “What kind of great change can that be?”

“Look down,” Dragon said, and the animals were amazed to find what they had all forgotten--the sensation of a real body.

“Look up,” said Phoenix, and the pair leaned over and showered them all with sparks. The sparks were even more painful than the fire but each and every animal took them because they knew the sparks were giving them back their spirits.

And sure enough, when the sparks had all been absorbed into their souls, their souls came alive again, in the way only true life can do.

“Look around!” yapped Wolf.

And as the animals did so, they discovered that much to their delight, their scorched world was twisting and moving before them, shaping itself into something nobody had ever seen before.

“You got yourselves back because danger made you who you are. Danger IS life, and anything that is not an adventure is not worth doing it all.” Dragon’s somber growl was now a much happier rumble.

“And look around you! Your world is changed to suit you and itself. It is wild and different and no part of it is the same,” Phoenix cawed, her voice’s pitch lifting through pure joy.

And indeed, they all had a much different world now, both inside as well as out.

Dragon raised his wings and Phoenix’s rose to touch. “We and our powers will always be here, but we will not be the only ones. Others like us will change your lives too, in different ways then my sister and I.”

“The danger will never stop, and you must remember: the minute you stop welcoming it is the minute you find yourself back in lifelessness”.

Dragon and Phoenix touched noses as Dragon continued.

“You will not be seeing our faces again. But our magic will always continue. We know that you will embrace the danger in your lives until the time is come for you to leave this world. But your descendants eventually will not. And only in their hour of need will we reveal ourselves again.”

“One day the lives will lose their sparks again,” Phoenix said, her voice now a husky caw, “and when that day comes, I and my brother and my brethren will be ready.”

And the pair took off in a shower of fire magic as the animals reveled, every remembered quarrel forgotten for a day as they welcomed true life back into their hearts.

But Dragon and Phoenix were not the only two.

As the next day, new dangers were uncovered. And every time in those early days a new danger was found, the earth was split and the sky would scream all over again and a new egg would appear, and with help from the love of the animals around it, in its time out would stumble a bleary eyed baby pulsing with potential. Some with skin, some with claws, some with beaks and feathers and some with horns and scales and wings, each one completely different from all the rest. Some of the eggs are still hatching now, out of sight, waiting for the day when they will join the ranks of their parents' second debut. And every time a new egg hatches the animals rejoice knowing that life just got a little more interesting.

And the animals have never forgotten that sacred connection between themselves and true life.

Yet the time of forgetfulness is nearing once again--not for them--but for a species that wasn’t there to witness Dragon and Phoenixes’ gift, and had to be taught by other animals.

Every lesson that was not learned personally will be forgotten.

And so, if you have a wild spark in your soul and magic in your heart, and you look deep inside yourself and then turn your gaze to what’s out there, you will see.

Perhaps a slitted eye and a curved snout, perhaps a leathery wing or a flaming feather—our long-ago saviors are first to see you before you see them, and if you stare them eye to eye and ask the big questions, they will tell you their tales of fires engulfing the world, of massive quakes and raging floods, of everything happening and everything done. Of rallying their children and preparing, always preparing for the time when, all too soon, their appearance will be needed once again.