copyright © 2002, all rights reserved.
first performed 9/2002
Sit quietly for a moment allowing all of the stress of the day to sink into the floor and seep back into the earth where it will be broken down and renewed. Feel your body letting go of every external influence on your natural peace. You began to focus on your breathing drawing in a long slow breath and letting it out. Slowly, you begin to draw the air back in and regulate your breathing it a steady medative pace until you come to the balancing point, your center. Once your mind and body are calm, your breathing regular, you begain to focus your mind on the journey ahead. Miles spread out over the rough rocky landscape of this trip but step by step you tread carefully over the broken ground, moving steadily upward.
It is dusk and you have been traveling so very long. The landscape here is rugged, harsh stones bruise your feet, the winds blow particles of dust into your eyes, but there is no place to stop. You are much in need of rest and shelter for the night. Your muscles ache from climbing. The trail turns and you begin traveling through steep hills as twilight shadows deepen. Your clothes and soiled with sweat and dirt. You begin to cast about for some sign of shelter, a cave, a ledge, even a grove of trees, something by a stream where you can wash and drink.
As you stand, surveying the area, you think you can make out the faint babble of water, though none is anywhere to be seen, nor can you determine which direction the sound may be coming from. You see nothing around the clearing you are in but the barren landscape from which you came and that continues to stretch all around. There is a small mound to your left, behind a gnarled tree, but no shelter anywhere to be found. You stand there for a while thinking about what you should do.
Ahead of you is the mountain you are traveling to, and you can see thick woodlands, rich and green around it, but there is no way you can reach your destination before nightfall. Besides in the distance you hear the rumble of thunder and a sudden flash of lightening shatters the twilight sky with cracks of brilliant blue. To travel through these rugged lands at night would be foolhardy, even if it were not threatening to storm.
The already dim light is quickly fading into blackness and you search desperately around in the disappearing light for a suitable place to make camp for the night. These are strange lands and you do not know what manner of beasts may roam these desolate foothills at night. There is another flash of lightening and you hear the roar of a wildcat in the distance. No doubt the flash of light frightened the beast.
Closer to where you are, you can hear the noise of something moving and know you must find shelter from those creatures lurking out there. Your mind conjures up images of the animals you know from your own lands--bear, panther, snake, these give you reason enough to fear, but what of those unimaginable to even you? As you clumsily search the area you stumble across what appears to be a tree root creeping out of the mound you noticed upon arrival. As you fall to the ground you hear a low rumbling sound from behind you.
You turnover, slowly, not really wanting to know what made that eerie sound, and from the ground where you fell you can barely make out a narrow opening in the side of the mound. Why you didn't notice this opening before you don't know, but you are almost out of light and it seems to be the only shelter you will find. You decide to squeeze through and take your chances with whatever you may find there, rather than stay out here in the open, in the dark, like this lone twisted tree in the field during a lightening storm. Standing starkly as it is, the tree might even attract a bolt of lightening.
You get up brushing yourself off and begin to walk cautiously toward the opening, still half-waiting for something horrible to jump out and have you as a snack. You stop for a moment, looking around one last time to be sure this is your only option, but it has gotten far to dark to even make out the path you were traveling on. Through the cave entrance you see a dim light and hear the babbling of water once again. This time, the sound louder and distinctly coming from inside the mound. You look down at your dirty clothes, feel your empty canteen slung across your shoulder, and check for you blade tucked in your belt. It is gone. You must have lost it when you fell. You try hard to see in the darkness where the root was that you tripped to no avail. Taking a deep breath, you continue slowly, ragged, dirty, thirsty and hungry, and unarmed.
As you pass through the stone entrance you see a small stairway seeming to lead down deep into the earth. By the top of the stairs there is a torch that you had not noticed before, just like the root, and the mound, as if someone placed them there. You take up the torch and begin slowly, cautiously descending the winding earthen stairs. There is the smell of fresh turned dirt and crisp rainwater in the air, as if this place were just made, just before you stepped through the entrance.
You can see the bottom of the stairway up ahead, and there seems to be a closed door. As you continue to the door you decide you will have to knock since you have come this far. But when you reach the bottom step the doors opens slowly, quietly, as if it knew you were there.
You pass through the doorway looking around for whomever it was that allowed you to enter but you see no one. Then something catches your eye. To your right there is a beautiful crystal clear pool of water at the bottom of a waterfall. As you get closer you notice the wonderful rainbow colors from the mist of the falls catching the light of your torch and acting as a prism. The light of your torch reflects off the crystal around the waterfall and the rainbow colors bounce from every wall and drips pool of color over the floor of the room. Everything is bright as if the sun were shining in middle of the day, but you see no torches or the source of light except the torch you carried with you.
To your left is a magnificent garden with many fresh fruits and vegetables. The bounty of the garden looks inviting after the emptiness of the land you traveled through today. On the other side of the pool a small fire has been laid and upon it sits a cooking pot.
You look again at your clothes, and feel the dryness in your mouth, and looking around once more for any sign of host, you follow a small stone path to the pool. Around the pool are many flat very smooth stones that look as if they we tediously hand polished. You kneel on one of the stones and bend down to the water. Cupping your hands, you take water from the pool to wash your face and drink. This is the most wonderful water you have ever tasted, and it seems just the right temperature, not too cold on the face, not too warm in the mouth. You decide to fill your canteen and as you do so you glimpse something out of the corner of your eye. You turn sharply to see what is there, but there is nothing.
You are very hungry, and you think about the garden you saw when you came in. You decide you will clean up your clothes and maybe bathe after a bit to eat so you go back to the garden by the door. When you get to the garden, to your bewilderment, the door seems to be gone. You look around to be sure you didn't get confused somewhere, but there is the pool, and the campfire. Too tired and hungry to try and figure this all out, you pick a few vegetables, only what you need, and take an apple from a small apple tree on the side of the garden.
Taking these you head to the campfire. Still there is no one around but you now notice a small bed of, what looks to be very soft straw, with a hand-woven blanket folded up at one end. Still puzzled you light the fire from your torch and begin to make your dinner in the pot upon the fire, which had water already in it, at this point not, to your surprise.
The food is indeed the best most flavorful you have ever tasted and seems to not only fill your stomach but renew your weary soul as well. You decide you are now far too full and tired to bath or wash your clothes so you take off your outer garments placing them beside the bed of straw and lay down with the blanket to sleep. You stretch out on the soft straw bed and sleep, dreaming often of journey’s made with a magnificent translucent dragon. The two of you are flying through turquoise skies and exploring forest rich in green mosses, ferns, and fragrant woods. You look so young in your dreams.
You see yourself growing and slowly the dreams become less colorful, less alive, you dream of growing up, and the future, of wealth and the things you want to have. Magic doesn't belong in these dreams and the dragon is less grand. Her wings cannot carry someone your size. The world begins to change, to shrink and become less magical with each step away.
Some time later, you are unsure how long as it seems to be always light here, you awake to find the fire still burning. In the pot there seems to be something cooking, and you notice your clothes have been cleaned, a tear from a bramble patch has been repaired, and placed neatly folded back where you had placed them before sleep. Feeling very refreshed you get up and dressed and move to the pot on the fire. Whatever it is it smells delightful. Again you see something out of the corner of your eye. This time though spinning fast enough to see a very small white dragon, only about 5 feet tall, scurrying quickly away.
“Please wait!" you call out.
The dragon turn slowly to face you, obviously very shy and more scared of you then you are of it. Slowly, softly, the dragon speaks. "I did not mean to disturb you, I was only checking to be sure you would have a good breakfast. I saw you in the clearing last night looking so tired and lost and much in need of help. I was afraid if I showed myself you would run screaming away. Most do, or try to capture or kill me. Please forgive the way I have brought you here and know you may leave any time you wish. I do so love the company though; just having someone else here with me is so nice. I mostly spend my time alone. You have not visited me since you were a child lost in the woods. I am have no other visitors."
You stare in shock at the small dragon and blinking unbelievingly you answer, "you, you, uhh, you are a dragon! The dragon! The one in my dreams."
The dragon laughs softly. “I am that yes. We do exist, not just in myth.”
You slowly come out of your state of shock and disbelief, only after being sure you are not dreaming. Again you speak to the dragon, this time in a bit more friendly casual tone.
"I thank you very much for your hospitality, this place is the most wonderful cave I have ever seen. How did all of this get here?"
"Dragons have magic" she answers. "Though only the magic to create what comes from YOUR imagination. All of this came from within you. Why is it that you travel so far to find the things you love? All that you really need is there inside you," she says pointing to your heart.
You shake your head disbelieving what she says. "This could not come from me, there is no magic inside of me. I am just a lost traveler in the woods. I have nothing but myself and what I carry.”
Shaking her head she takes a softer tone, "you are wrong, you have me. The landscape you walked through to come here may seemed strange to you, but you have been here before. You knew me once, and visited often, but you have forgotten. I am your dragon, the heart of your soul. I am that part of you that does not die, and it is all magic there,” she says as she points to your heart. “You have buried the magic deep inside you so not to be hurt, so not to lose again. That is why you feel empty, and hunger for something more than you have. You will not allow yourself to see what is really there, to appreciate the many talents you have.”
“Stay here a while with me,” she pleads, “I will help you to see. Around you is everything here you need and I ask nothing in return. Your company is enough."
"I will" you say. "I will stay in this wondrous place, although I still do not think this came from me. I will try to see what you see.”
"There is one thing you must remember" she says, walking closer to you, so close you can see the rainbow glint off her almost translucent white scales, the sparkle in her soft blue eyes so bright it was if she held the heavens there. "Only you can tear down the walls you have built. You are always free to leave, and may do so at any time, but you may never find this place again, if you leave with locked doors built in giant walls."
The warning is not repeated. Your Dragon looks at you with eyes full of kindness. She smiles softly and turns toward the pool. "Come, come bath in your crystal pool. You will find the waters healing."
You walk slowly toward the pool, treading over the cool smooth polished stones. You follow her toward the edge of pool where she waits for you. You remember how cool the water was when you drank from it, yet it did not seem so very cold when you had washed your face. Reluctantly you dip one toe into the water to test it, and discover it feels as warm as a bath. Soon you are splashing happily in the waters, enjoying the play of colors on the surface, and bathing as much in the colors of the waterfall and in the reflecting light as you are in the pool itself.
When you are done, and feel fully refreshed from the long journey, you find a thick soft towel waiting at the edge of the water. You climb out and wrap it around you as you make your way back to the bed that has been made for you. Neatly folded at the end of the bed you find the rest of your clothing, clean and repaired. You set down on the bed and begin to dress to leave this magical place.
As you stand to go, in your mind you can still hear the dragon’s quiet warning. "Only you can tear down the walls you have built. You are always free to leave, and may do so at any time, but you may never find this place again, if you leave with locked doors built in giant walls." Before you wake you make your choice; aware that is yours to decide what is to become of your dragon. She will always be at the heart of your soul, but only as much a part of your life as your imagination allows her to be. Dragons have magic, but only the magic to create what comes from your imagination.
Created by Guides Chandonn, Hypatia X, and Sophia X Pharou
Last modified: 06/20/2009