To the Unknown

I’ve been debating your future. Or more specifically, when my past affects your future.

I think you know enough of my memories to get at least some idea of who I was. Am. I am not what I was, but my thoughts are still my own. Mostly. I’m sure most of my memories are somewhere in the ether, void, or wherever they may be stored when I’m not in my natural form. Or whatever form I took when my story in Drak Bar’s Boulders ended.

I know I didn’t have legs, arms, or even a head. Just me floating around, interacting with just a few people, but only those that knew how to reach out to me. You wouldn’t have seen me, felt me, or known I existed.

You may have felt a strange sensation, a sudden chill, or a brief gust of wind. But, you’d likely think that was just a feeling, a ghost, or weird weather. One of those may be close, depending on your definitions.

This memory isn’t fully intact, there are definitely gaps, but I’ll just write down what I know. I may remember some details as I write, but they could also be fantoms.

I had been spending more and more time around my castle. My leather bag was more of a leather parchment by this time, but it still provided a place to be from time to time. I was growing weary of fighting. Not that it was difficult, possibly more the opposite.

The weariness was more about the end result, which really wasn’t changing. Evil and the dead still ran throughout the Boulders, seemingly to no end. Most of the gods were on my side, wanting to clean up the planet.

I’ll mix those two pretty much at random, planet and Drak Bar Boulders. In my younger memories, I thought there was more to the world than the Boulders, but I was wrong. The map I told you about is based on those younger memories. I left out the size of the area on purpose. Mainly because I don’t remember how big of an area it was. I don’t think it was the size of Earth, but it may have been. Maybe Mars. Certainly larger than the moon, but I could be mistaken.

I do know it took some time to traverse the land in search of whatever my bag said I needed. We didn’t have airplanes, but we did have ways to travel a slight bit slower than airplanes. Maybe car speeds. Of course, that was me. Most of my army relied on animals and feet. And most of those feet had bad shoes, just like me when I was younger. I can’t really say I ever found a pair of shoes or boots that I would have been happy to have, but they were definitely better than a piece of wood with leather straps. At least a little.

It was one of these journeys to the edge of the land that wound up being my last. I was sitting comfortably in my castle when my parchment started yelling. Whispering may be more accurate, but the rest of my sentient equipment was bored, and echoed loudly to me it was time to go somewhere. Anywhere.

Some may have thought my age slowed me down, but it was more my mind. My body worked fine, thanks to magic healing. I didn’t have hair of a single color, but that wasn’t really new. When you see things, hair color goes away. I guess.

To say this journey was a single destination would be a bit misleading. It started over the ocean and crisscrossed the land a few times. This is where my memory fades. I know there were many stops and many battles, but they blurred together quite a bit. It seemed the parchment was just leading us in circles.

That’s what we thought. There was definitely a pattern. Or at least a sequence. Alarm clock would be more accurate.

I think you already know Drak Bar woke up, what you don’t know is why and his state of mind.

The latter is very similar to a toddler being woken up. I was going to say early, but I’ve yet to see a toddler wake up happy. Much like teenagers, most adults, and seniors. I just think humans don’t like waking up, but certainly are happy they are awake. Happy asleep, happy awake. Not happy between those states.

Dragons are no different. It just takes them longer to wake up, in your reference frame.

I wouldn’t say he was intolerable, but unhappy isn’t really the right word either.

The final place I went was supposedly the cave my mother visited to ask Drak Bar for a child. Full circle. Even though I’d been there before, this time was much different.

The cave was completely empty. There was the requisite dirt and rocks, but nothing living. Or nothing small and living.

We followed the paths to the rear chambers, but the paths were different. The chambers were different. As we went deeper, crystals began to show in the ceiling. We were able to turn off our mage’s torches.

If you were curious, we didn’t have flashlights like you have on Earth. Not even torches or lanterns, really. What we had came from magic and resembled a floating ball of light. I may have described these somewhere else on this site. They were definitely useful, but someone had to think about them all the time or they’d disappear.

And when you see a bunch of crystals that look like they’re on fire, concentration wanes just a little. The fires were all sorts of colors. Green, red, yellow, blue, white, any color you can think of. Even black. You may be wondering what black fire looks like, but it’s just that. You wouldn’t really see it in the dark, but when the other colors are glowing, it’s easy to see. And the flame edges are bright silver or white or blue or green or, you get the idea.

When we reached what seemed like the last chamber, the crystals were flowing onto the walls as well. The shadows were dazzling. But the dirt was even more interesting.

Or it looked more interesting. You’d expect just brown, crumbly stuff. All those dancing colors will change that. And the dirt was very soft. It was almost like walking on a thin layer of memory foam, if I bring some Earthly substance into my memory.

It was also as disconcerting as you might think. Why would dirt feel like that. Wet dirt maybe. Or just dirt filled with magic.

Take your guess. And we’ll see if you’re right next time. It’s a bit late and my eyes are droopy. I guess it’s time to be grumpy. Maybe.