TBTT#39 The Affairs of Dragons ~ 4/30/2018

I dreamed I learned I was a member of a secret magical order. There was a hidden world of lush, emerald mossy rock and ghostly pale marble ruins, a land of mist and silence and hidden depth. There was a certain pool, at the top of a rocky hill, surrounded by marble columns supporting an arched roof. Broad marble steps descended in concentric rings down into the dark, still water. If members of my order came under the shadow of this temple roof and bent to drink the water, most would become black-robed warriors, but a rare few, maybe one in a thousand, would become dragons.

I found myself in this world for the first time, having slipped in sideways somehow while running from some men who were trying to attack me. One moment I was pelting down a grimy sidewalk, and dodging into a dark alley, when suddenly I was in a valley like a shallow jade bowl filled with cloud. The light was like silver and pearls, and I was drawn into the mist until I found the pool. Seven other people were there, all looking just as bemused as I felt, we felt compelled to drink, and then we changed.

My companions drew weapons and charged off down the hill and up out of the valley to combat invaders that were menacing villages and markets in the American Southwest, and I… I spread vast crimson wings and rose into the air above them. We burst out of a cave into a desert canyon lined with stalls of daub and wattle and thatch. Dark haired villagers were running for cover as armored attackers tore down their stalls, upturned their tables, scattered and trampled their goods.

Then they saw me, and began to shout. I inhaled deeply, then sent a blast of blazing golden flame across their ranks. I dove down, bent my head down, and skimmed my jaws along the narrow streets, smashing them into stony cliffs, scooping them up and throwing them down into rocky ravines, and the ones that escaped me still had to face my shadowy companions.

When the invaders were routed, we melted into the darkness of night, and faded back into our normal human selves. From that day, we answered to the call, soundless but profound, impossible to ignore. We moved among the members of our order in a hidden cavern compound. I found a place in the vast library, became steeped in the ancient lore of our order. And when we were needed, we knew, and when it was our turn to fight evil, we were called back to the pool.