I find myself in the most unlikely of places.
This Rhydin, this land of the strange dual moons. (That kicks ass, if you think about it, particularly if you worship moons, but it does make for a very strange sky, even I must admit that!)
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/sun-and-moon_1024x768_26660.jpg
Usually, when I find myself there, in an unlikely place, its because of what I am. I am what is commonly called a dragon, a golden one, although there are many names for my kind that have been used throughout history, and even before. If I were to choose the one with the most class, I think it would have to be what the Holy Book calls me. Leviathan. I don't know, to me that has just a bit of classic ring to it. Elegant. Refined. Sounds a bit like I am some grand creature in a ten-book, 10,000 page fantasy novel series, I'm thinking. And while I don't really crave fame enough to go seeking it, I'll admit, as anyone should if they are being truly honest, to wanting my allotted fifteen minutes, maybe even being remembered some day, by folks that never even met me, who lived eons after I did! Stellar!!
Uh, sorry. I do tend to digress. Where were we" Oh. Discussing me. I chuckle at that, really, I do have some modesty, but....not much....and not often! Well, you know, who doesn't like to talk about self" Don't lie! We know when you do!
Anyway. Yeah. Leviathan. Now, I know how most people take it, but really. Look at that word! What a word! Its got real meat, its substantial, you know, like if you were one, you could really make something big out of this life you've been given. Besides, I mean, your own gigantica size. I wish I could have written a more attractive synopsis of just what we are, then perhaps the word itself would not have received such a dismal connotation. Really, we are not all bad. (That does kind of depend upon our color, our genetic make-up you scientists would say, and our environment, too, during our formative years. Let's just say some of us were more fortunate to inherit good genes and good communities than others!) We just haven't been given much of a chance to show our better side! I suppose its understandable, given our huge bulk of size and that one little thing we can do that causes mass hysteria, that breathing fire thing. Well. It is unfortunate that so many of my brethern opened their mouths to simply and merely breathe before they realized how careful they should have been in doing so. Its a difficult thing to realize that such an involuntary action of the sympathetic nervous system, and such a necessary phenomenon for life might be so...ah....disasterous to other life forms on the planet! But people are always trying to kill us first, and ask about our alliegence later. Thats a bit too much behind the 8 ball, isn't it' I mean, we can be a tolerant as the next guy, but when all these knights and crusaders are coming at us with everything they've got, well it gets a little bothersome, and let's face it, some of us are just a bit less tolerant that others of us about that sort of thing. Its like a gnat always swirling around your face, you are constantly swatting it to go away and its just down-right annoying when it won't, and next think you know.....squish!!! So, you know, I mean, think about it. And, too.....do we always have to be the bad guy in the books and movies and stuff" You wouldn't like it much either. It does get old.
Ah, I digress. I apologize. I can get sidetracked easily, there is so much in my mind to speak of, and, well, until lately, no one with which to speak! That has changed, though.
I met this chick, ok, elf really. OK, not met exactly, she saved my life. Yeah, its a bit hard to admit a thing like that, to owe your life to such a puny little female, but....well, we've been talking, and really....she's kind of neat. I like her! I know, I know, surprise, but I do! Really!!! Anyway, the story of how she saved my life is really rather boring. It was she doing all the heroics, after all. And really, it was not my best foot forward of a night. I don't usually get that careless, to not pay attention to where I'm diving and such. OK, its a bit embarrassing, ok" Happy now? But the part thats important anyway is what happened next. I took off when I realized I was free, I was so happy I just could not contain those feelings of exhuberant joy, and she hitched along for a ride. That was fine, I didn't mind that, and that's not the part thats important either. What's important was, somehow, that stupid whirlpool changed our world. It gobbled us right out of the one we knew and spit us out here in this place. Rhydin.
And I thought, ok, no big deal, really. I'd just fly about and find my kin here, make friends, cozy on up to them, get on with life. I'm a friendly sort, despite the rumours that I once was charged with the task of murdering my own brother, who happened to be King but he'd eaten this bad salad that made him progressively crazy in the head, and everybody was scared of him and asked me to take over. That wasn't really my thing, like I said, I don't want a whole lifetime of fame, just my due diligence fifteen minutes. So, I took on the task, for the good of everybody else, and I did kill him, but I just didn't want to have to put up with the title of King and all that you have to do when you are one!! You think you want power when you don't have it, you think it will give you all kinds of freedom, so you do something to get it, something that is usually illegal or immoral or both, and thenyou find out that you have more restrictions placed on you than if you had never gotten it and just gone on in your simple little existence anyway. Its so depressing in the final analysis, this pattern of grabbing what you think will make you happy no matter the cost, because if you live long enough (and we do!) you end up discovering it didn't work and you actually only made the outhouse hole a lot deeper. See, there I go again, digressing! Its a bad, bad habit, just about my only vice, unless you count vanity. I do like mirrors, and shiny things that I can catch a glimpse of my own reflection within. Not that I am all that handsome, but I am somewhat of a rarity. Dragons, no. Golden ones, yes.
Which is what I found out here!! Yeah boy, flying around, I could find not a single other golden dragon in this place! I was stunned, and a bit disappointed, to think I might have to go through life from now on with no one to talk to, because you know, we do have a penchant for lifelong learning and we do love to carry on intelligent and thought-provoking conversations!
Which is why I started talking to Rande. Ok, it was partly why, I did tell her I owed her for saving my life. Any dragon worth his scales would acknowledge a debt like that, to her, and to her mate, and to her children, and so on and so forth. And I did, I did. I told her I'd be at her beck and call, gave her a couple of pendants she could wear and use whenever she needed me, too.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/firedragonnecklace.jpg
Told her anytime she could ride me, I would submit always to her will. I meant that too! I am after all a leviathan of my word!!!!
It was pretty neat to hear her say she already knew how to ride a dragon, that she had been a dragon rider back in her last place of inhabiting. Almost like fate, or god or something....could be Rande's goddess, she worships the moon, whom she calls Elune....but I didn't think to ask her what about here, when there are two goddesses she had to pay homage to!!....anyway, almost like the guy who controls everything pulled some strings and let us be stranded together here. She's a good friend. Has become a good friend.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/DragonRider.jpg
She even lets me live underneath her house, this great monstrousity of a tree she calls Aear Alda that shortly after she got here, started growing right out of the sea just south of the island where the lighthouse stands guard over the harbor mouth. Its big enough for me, which is usually a problem. And its secluded. Private. I like that, I have always liked to hollow out caves and places under the sea for my dwelling. Hardly anyone can find you there, they just don't think to look! I do enjoy my privacy!!
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/treeoflifefour.jpg
(to be continued)
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/sun-and-moon_1024x768_26660.jpg
Usually, when I find myself there, in an unlikely place, its because of what I am. I am what is commonly called a dragon, a golden one, although there are many names for my kind that have been used throughout history, and even before. If I were to choose the one with the most class, I think it would have to be what the Holy Book calls me. Leviathan. I don't know, to me that has just a bit of classic ring to it. Elegant. Refined. Sounds a bit like I am some grand creature in a ten-book, 10,000 page fantasy novel series, I'm thinking. And while I don't really crave fame enough to go seeking it, I'll admit, as anyone should if they are being truly honest, to wanting my allotted fifteen minutes, maybe even being remembered some day, by folks that never even met me, who lived eons after I did! Stellar!!
Uh, sorry. I do tend to digress. Where were we" Oh. Discussing me. I chuckle at that, really, I do have some modesty, but....not much....and not often! Well, you know, who doesn't like to talk about self" Don't lie! We know when you do!
Anyway. Yeah. Leviathan. Now, I know how most people take it, but really. Look at that word! What a word! Its got real meat, its substantial, you know, like if you were one, you could really make something big out of this life you've been given. Besides, I mean, your own gigantica size. I wish I could have written a more attractive synopsis of just what we are, then perhaps the word itself would not have received such a dismal connotation. Really, we are not all bad. (That does kind of depend upon our color, our genetic make-up you scientists would say, and our environment, too, during our formative years. Let's just say some of us were more fortunate to inherit good genes and good communities than others!) We just haven't been given much of a chance to show our better side! I suppose its understandable, given our huge bulk of size and that one little thing we can do that causes mass hysteria, that breathing fire thing. Well. It is unfortunate that so many of my brethern opened their mouths to simply and merely breathe before they realized how careful they should have been in doing so. Its a difficult thing to realize that such an involuntary action of the sympathetic nervous system, and such a necessary phenomenon for life might be so...ah....disasterous to other life forms on the planet! But people are always trying to kill us first, and ask about our alliegence later. Thats a bit too much behind the 8 ball, isn't it' I mean, we can be a tolerant as the next guy, but when all these knights and crusaders are coming at us with everything they've got, well it gets a little bothersome, and let's face it, some of us are just a bit less tolerant that others of us about that sort of thing. Its like a gnat always swirling around your face, you are constantly swatting it to go away and its just down-right annoying when it won't, and next think you know.....squish!!! So, you know, I mean, think about it. And, too.....do we always have to be the bad guy in the books and movies and stuff" You wouldn't like it much either. It does get old.
Ah, I digress. I apologize. I can get sidetracked easily, there is so much in my mind to speak of, and, well, until lately, no one with which to speak! That has changed, though.
I met this chick, ok, elf really. OK, not met exactly, she saved my life. Yeah, its a bit hard to admit a thing like that, to owe your life to such a puny little female, but....well, we've been talking, and really....she's kind of neat. I like her! I know, I know, surprise, but I do! Really!!! Anyway, the story of how she saved my life is really rather boring. It was she doing all the heroics, after all. And really, it was not my best foot forward of a night. I don't usually get that careless, to not pay attention to where I'm diving and such. OK, its a bit embarrassing, ok" Happy now? But the part thats important anyway is what happened next. I took off when I realized I was free, I was so happy I just could not contain those feelings of exhuberant joy, and she hitched along for a ride. That was fine, I didn't mind that, and that's not the part thats important either. What's important was, somehow, that stupid whirlpool changed our world. It gobbled us right out of the one we knew and spit us out here in this place. Rhydin.
And I thought, ok, no big deal, really. I'd just fly about and find my kin here, make friends, cozy on up to them, get on with life. I'm a friendly sort, despite the rumours that I once was charged with the task of murdering my own brother, who happened to be King but he'd eaten this bad salad that made him progressively crazy in the head, and everybody was scared of him and asked me to take over. That wasn't really my thing, like I said, I don't want a whole lifetime of fame, just my due diligence fifteen minutes. So, I took on the task, for the good of everybody else, and I did kill him, but I just didn't want to have to put up with the title of King and all that you have to do when you are one!! You think you want power when you don't have it, you think it will give you all kinds of freedom, so you do something to get it, something that is usually illegal or immoral or both, and thenyou find out that you have more restrictions placed on you than if you had never gotten it and just gone on in your simple little existence anyway. Its so depressing in the final analysis, this pattern of grabbing what you think will make you happy no matter the cost, because if you live long enough (and we do!) you end up discovering it didn't work and you actually only made the outhouse hole a lot deeper. See, there I go again, digressing! Its a bad, bad habit, just about my only vice, unless you count vanity. I do like mirrors, and shiny things that I can catch a glimpse of my own reflection within. Not that I am all that handsome, but I am somewhat of a rarity. Dragons, no. Golden ones, yes.
Which is what I found out here!! Yeah boy, flying around, I could find not a single other golden dragon in this place! I was stunned, and a bit disappointed, to think I might have to go through life from now on with no one to talk to, because you know, we do have a penchant for lifelong learning and we do love to carry on intelligent and thought-provoking conversations!
Which is why I started talking to Rande. Ok, it was partly why, I did tell her I owed her for saving my life. Any dragon worth his scales would acknowledge a debt like that, to her, and to her mate, and to her children, and so on and so forth. And I did, I did. I told her I'd be at her beck and call, gave her a couple of pendants she could wear and use whenever she needed me, too.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/firedragonnecklace.jpg
Told her anytime she could ride me, I would submit always to her will. I meant that too! I am after all a leviathan of my word!!!!
It was pretty neat to hear her say she already knew how to ride a dragon, that she had been a dragon rider back in her last place of inhabiting. Almost like fate, or god or something....could be Rande's goddess, she worships the moon, whom she calls Elune....but I didn't think to ask her what about here, when there are two goddesses she had to pay homage to!!....anyway, almost like the guy who controls everything pulled some strings and let us be stranded together here. She's a good friend. Has become a good friend.
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/DragonRider.jpg
She even lets me live underneath her house, this great monstrousity of a tree she calls Aear Alda that shortly after she got here, started growing right out of the sea just south of the island where the lighthouse stands guard over the harbor mouth. Its big enough for me, which is usually a problem. And its secluded. Private. I like that, I have always liked to hollow out caves and places under the sea for my dwelling. Hardly anyone can find you there, they just don't think to look! I do enjoy my privacy!!
http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac67/WindWhisperR/treeoflifefour.jpg
(to be continued)