The knight wakes startled. He had no recollection of what had happened, only the faint memory of a soothing voice speaking to him, lulling him to sleep. The voice was so low he couldn’t make out what was being said. All he knew was there was a lapse in time from that moment to this.
His vision was blurred and it slowly returned bringing the details around him into focus. The floor was made of irregularly shaped black marble tiles. Looking up he saw stars all around, yet he knew he wasn’t outside. There was a pale light like one would see from a half-moon, but there was no moon to be seen.
As his senses continued to awaken, he became aware of movement all around him. Slowly, he got to his feet. He tried to make out where the movement was coming from, but it was like a thought moving on the fringe of his consciousness, he couldn’t quite make it out. Whatever it was was circling him counter-clockwise.
Suddenly, he saw it. A blood-red eye with an irregular slit-like pupil starting at him. He now knew what he was looking at.
“Dragon,” he whispered breathlessly.
“Yes I am,” came the hard reply.
The inflection was distinctly feminine. It was smooth, sultry, and soothing like the voice he heard earlier. Yet there was something behind that voice… something that reminded him of molten lava.
Having been recognized he began to see her more clearly. She was enormous. Her scales were black and sparkled lightly in the light like the stars above. Massive spikes and horns adorned her head like a wicked crown. Circling him on four impossibly muscled pillars for legs, her sleek wings held loosely against her body. Her spiked tail swayed gently with her gait. Her movements were sinuous, sensuous, but betrayed all the raw power, that for now, lay dormant within. She was at once beautiful and terrifying.
He also realized why the movement seemed continuous. She had circled her body around him as she walked. As soon as her tail ended her mighty head began. It gave her the appearance that she was endless. And it made him feel like he was being stalked.
Despite his dry mouth he managed to ask, “Where am I?”
Her eyes never leaving him she said, “You are Nowhere. What you should be asking is why you are here.”
Despite the smooth calmness of her voice, he sensed a menace in her. Anger. The potency of it and that she didn’t let it spill over frightened him more than her appearance.
Her large eyes came into view again as she made another pass. He found he couldn’t look her in her eyes. He who had fought on countless battlefields. He who had witnessed and committed many terrible things to protect others. He was scared.
Eyes cast downward he asked, “Why am I here?”
“We brought you here so we could express our displeasure.”
He didn’t understand her use of “We”, weren’t they alone? Wherever here was… he thought better of asking about it. The knight tried to swallow but found he couldn’t. Instead, he asked, “Displeasure at what?”
“At what you are doing,” she said. “Or, perhaps, better said what you are not doing.”
“I… I don’t understand,” he stammered. “I strive to be honorable, do the right thing. To protect others…”
“How wonderful for you,” she interrupted smoothly. “And do you feel that is enough?”
The knight knew it was a baited question, so he dared ask one of his own in response. “I don’t understand, what more can I do?”
Abruptly, she stopped moving her head stopping right in front of him. He had gotten so used to the movement the sudden lack of it unsettled him and made him dizzy. Her two glowing eyes bored into him.
“Where should We start?” she asked. “Perhaps you can tell Us why you see fit to abuse your Mother? She gives freely of her gifts, yet you take recklessly, take advantage of Her, and without any thought of consequence. You ravage Her and give so little in return.”
It took a moment for the knight to comprehend, “but I do what I can to harvest gently, take only what I need, to take care of our lands…”
“And many of you do not,” she interrupted again.
He started to protest “I can’t be held accountable for the actions of others…”
“Oh yes you can,” she said simply. “You may be one man standing in front of us, but you represent the entirety of humanity, just as each of you does. No matter how small the ripple, what you do affects the rest. You are One, you merely choose to ignore that simple fact. Your ignorance and arrogance as a species know no bounds. It is… disgusting.”
This was the first time her inflection changed, it became harsher. The derision in her voice and the sneer on her face cut deeper than any blade ever could. For reasons unknown to him he cared about what she said… what she felt. He knew in his heart she was right. He said nothing.
“I thought as much,” she said. “Oh and do not think for a moment that the only Mother I am referring to is the Earth Mother.”
“The masculine,” she snorted. “How far you have fallen. Most of you have forgotten your Sacred Charge.” She looked down on him, “The depth at which the feminine and Mothers feel would stagger you.”
“But what am I to do?” the knight pleaded.
“Do… MORE!!!” she snapped, her words hit the knight like a thunderclap. Her front claws dug into the marble like it was sand, and she whipped her tail in irritation. The concussion of the sonic boom it created smacked him in the chest causing him to stagger.
“But how!?” he asked again desperate.
“That is the worst part of it all. You already know what needs to be done, you merely choose not too. You choose to ignore your conscience and connection with one another. Your complacency allows others who are more harmful to thrive. Your own inaction is killing you.”
“But it’s so difficult…” he started.
“DIFFICULT!?” she roared, her anger coming to the surface. The space rumbled and bristled with her barely contained rage. A red glow appeared between her scales. It looked like red lightning arcing through her body. “Let me show you what difficult is…”
In a heartbeat, she changed from corporeal to etheric. She raised her mighty wings and with a powerful stroke shot into the sky. Gliding effortlessly she executed a single backward loop gaining speed. As she streaked towards him she grew smaller and smaller until she was no bigger than an arrow. With a deafening roar, she flew into his chest.
The impact knocked the knight into the air, propelling him hard across the floor.
He could feel her writhing inside his chest. She opened up her emotions to him and in a blink of an eye, he felt it all. He screamed, squirming on the floor, clawing at the invisible thing in his chest. He couldn’t bear it. The anger, the rage, the underlying ocean of pain and sorrow. It slowly overwhelmed him causing him to dance on the edge of his sanity.
Then, it all became clear…
She had seen this exact same sequence of events on a thousand different worlds with a thousand different civilizations. So many species and hopes gone, so many different cultures and peoples eradicated because of their own hubris, their own folly, their own arrogance.
He gasped in the realization that all of what she felt stemmed from love. The depth of her love was the final straw it took to push him over the edge. There was only so much she could do. At some point, the children need to learn for themselves even if it means their own destruction.
He barely felt it as she left his body. He couldn’t see the form of the beautiful weeping maiden now kneeling beside him.
He was slipping into darkness as he felt her take his hand in hers and speak softly, “We are here for you, but we can only do so much…”
“Please… you know what needs to be done,” she begged. “Please… do more.”
“Please… we don’t want to lose you too…” she sobbed and he finally faded into oblivion.
Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay