Scoured

Something pulled me up away from the ironghyll sea. I looked up and saw it was the moon. Surrounded by rock, I could still see the moon. It lifted me like a tide, back to freedom. Back to the place where it all began.

That’s where I am now, trying desperately to cling to my thoughts before they all leak away. It’s all so clear now. The bones in the ceiling – the giant skeleton belongs to my poor son, Fleogan. He escaped me, even to the end. Who knows – perhaps he’s running from me still. Bones aren’t all we are. And the faery skeleton is poor Kathy, of course. Tiny now. The tunnel of all ends has played its tricks, and slipped them through time, turning them into something they never were, but which my human friend always wished she might be. I watched her precious faery bones dance again, the way I watched them before. I watched Kathy dance.

And me? Have I achieved my dream? I achieved it a long time ago, I think: to search. That’s the desire the tunnel drew from my mind, long ago, when we first met. So that’s what I do, still. And have always done.

Time drifts, and makes its last critical jump.

My name is Monajjfyllena, and I am the last dragon left in all the turned world. That’s all I remember now. Soon even that will be gone. I’ll be scoured again, and chasing my dream once more.

I stretch my wings; they feel like stone. There's stone all round me. I can't move. But there’s light ahead. Perhaps there I will find the answers. But not today. Today I’ll rest.

Tomorrow, let the journey begin.