A World Beyond This

The Island of Crystal Lakes was the third island in the Sea, surrounded on all sides by water of the bluest sort.  Soft waves curled up onto the shore and left in a dancing little splash of bubbles, disappearing into the next wave, happily pushing its way onto the glittering white sands.  Glassy clear pools lay like mirrors amid tumbled grey-green rocks.  The sun beamed down, making the rocks hot and the water sparkle.

The forest was standing above the shoreline, dark and shadowy and still.  Deep blue green lakes sent greenish glimmers of reflected light on the trees.  Hidden lagoons green with algae, with sunrays slanting through the water, and vines trailing down into the water like spiderwebs, lay under the shadows of this great woods.  It was a quieter and darker place than the beach as though the forest was in awe of itself.  A solemn and wondering silence.

Up out of the forest rose the Castle of Crystal View, a tall and slender thing, not overly large, with bright shining towers pointing into the deep blue sky.  The seabirds circled it high above, their piercing calls heard faintly on the ground.  It was an interesting and wonderful place to be, and if you happened to look out one of the sparkling windows and see the great blue sea and the great blue sky and the air so clear and brilliant, you will not wonder why it was called Crystal View.

Then, one starry night on the middle of summer, with the breeze softly whispering to itself in the treetops and the tall castle shining with a strange starlit shimmer, the dragons came along.

First came a cold wind, brushing snake-like through the castle towers, and every bird awoke and wondered what it was. . . Perhaps the winter was setting in early.  It was the birds that saw them first; great winged shapes in the east, black against the stars, advancing slowly, in no great hurry, towards the Island of Crystal Lakes. There were five of them; their huge leathery wings making jagged silhouettes at each flap.

As they neared the Island, great waves began crashing up on the shore as if the air from the dragon's wings stirred up the sea itself.  Silver moonlight glimmered on their scales, and their great curving claws sank into the sand at each step.  Huge spikes stood out along their backs and on top of their heads.  Their eyes gleamed like live coals.

Princess Rainy was the first person to see the dragons.  She had been sitting at her bedroom window, taking some time to read before getting ready for bed.  Rainy was a tall, thin sort of princess, always wearing grey or black or brown.  Her hair was a reddish-brown and had the frustrating knack of lying flat when she wanted it to curl.  She was not, in her parent's opinion, old enough to wear a crown, and that was why she had none; however she could hardly wait until two years went by and she turned twenty, the right age to be allowed to pick out a good crown. (She had thought about it a lot already and was certain she wanted a silver one, with diamonds all around the edge like her mother's.)  A great regret of hers was that she did not look like her short, round, rosy mother in any way but her hair, and had instead inherited her father's thin, pale complexion.  She disliked reading unless the book was very exciting, got started quickly and had no long conversations, but her royal parents insisted on giving her deep, slow books with intricately woven and complicated plot structure, so as to enrich her strategic thinking.  Rainy yawned as the characters in the book she was currently reading began what promised to be a lengthy political debate.  If only they would do something. . . It seemed so obvious that they had to go to war, not talk endlessly about it.  She leaned her head against the cold window and closed her eyes.  After a minute she opened them and idly watched the shore below.

At first she thought they were shadows.  Then she thought they were imagination.  Then she caught sight of a glowing red eye tilted her way, and there was no mistaking that they were dragons.

Rainy sprang to her feet, feeling suddenly lightheaded as every terrifying scenario rushed through her mind.  Were they about to be eaten, burned, or otherwise destroyed?  Would it at least be relatively painless?  Was there any chance to flee and hide in the forest?

She seized a candle and pelted up the stairs, looking for a guard, a family member, a lady in waiting . . . anyone who could handle this.  Halfway up the stairway, however, she stopped, her momentary panic diminishing.  She never panicked for long.  Of course some guard would notify everyone of the dragons' presence.  As for her, this was a fine opportunity to see some real dragons up close.

Rainy hurried down the stairs and through several more hallways until she came to the front door, a large, thick, wooden thing that was too heavy for her to open alone.  She instead made her way around to a side door, which stood at the end of a narrow corridor.  Encouraged by the silence outside, she opened the door, her hands shaking with more nervousness than she had hoped.  The night air was cool on her skin as she stepped outside cautiously.  If she could just have one tiny look at the dragons, she would run back inside and go straight to bed.  The dragons needn't see her.

She was in a vegetable garden area, with an old wooden shelving unit full of pots and shovels leaning against the wall on her left.  A lower stone wall preceding a short distance out from the castle blocked her view of the shore.  She stepped slowly towards the end of it, her footsteps making no sound in the soft dirt.  Only a few more yards to go. . .

She stumbled over a cat, dozing peacefully near the wall, which let out a yowl of disapproval and darted into the shadows.  Rainy flattened herself against the wall and listened, heart thumping.  Maybe the dragons didn't hear.

She had just made up her mind that this was a bad idea and had begun edging back along the wall, when a booming, crunching sound made her freeze stock still with fear.  She felt the ground shake as though something very big was coming her way.  Rainy was certainly having definite misgivings about her expedition by this time.  

The great thudding footsteps stopped. She looked up.

A huge thorny shadow slid into view above the wall, between her and the stars.  The dragon was looking over the wall.  

Rainy stared, standing as still as possible and hoping that dragons had weak eyesight.  The dragon was much, much bigger than it had seemed from her bedroom window.  Its head alone must've been as big as a horse, covered in hard scales and terrible spikes.  Yet she was sure that she had never seen anything so beautiful, so wonderful and strange.  Fearsome and terrible, but so very, very interesting. . .

A deep, rumbling sound startled her, like the beginnings of a great clap of thunder.  It was coming from somewhere above her.  The dragon was speaking.

"I don't suppose that you would know where that cat went.  They are mysterious creatures."

Rainy trembled.  It wasn't talking to her, was it?

"Perhaps this is a friendly place, after all.  Hello, there, Keeper of Cats."

Did it mean her?  Maybe if she stayed perfectly still, the dragon would think she was a statue and go away.

Then, as things were quiet for a minute, she risked a glance upwards.

A huge glowing eye pointed down at her from over the wall.

Oh no.  

Would it eat her, or would she be roasted in a sudden blast of fiery breath?  Or perhaps it wanted a conversation first.

"Good evening, O great dragon," squeaked Rainy, "I hope--er, I hope you aren't edible. . . I mean--" 

A great sigh gusted forth from above her, sending leaves skipping away over the garden.  The potting shelf fell over with a tremendous clatter.  The dragon's voice came rumbling down. "I won't eat you, if that's what you mean, unless you are less friendly than your choice of pets suggest.  I hope I'm not the sort to be considered consumable, although you humans have strange ways sometimes, I admit. "

Great relief filled Rainy like air filling a balloon.  She suddenly felt like the idea I reading boring books was the most wonderfully relaxing thing to do.  "Thank goodness. . .er, 'choice of pets'?"  

The dragon's huge head nodded slightly. "Cats have long been known to be the friends of dragons; a sign of loyalty and understanding.  I and my comrades are here for discusions, not war.  My name is Obsidian."

"I am Princess Rainy," said Rainy, very formal and important.  Sometimes it was nice to have a title.

The red eye gleamed with interest. "Ah.  You are of royal rank, indeed."

Rainy nodded vigorously. "Yes."

"Perhaps you would be the right one to discuss things with, then."

Rainy didn't want to disagree, so she stayed silent and listened.

"The world is changing.  There are many rumors of strange things and strange happenings.  Flying towers of flame, stronger than any dragon, that fly higher than any dragon would dare to go.  Walls you cannot see but cannot be broken.  Great lights that need no wood to burn yet are brighter than any candle.

"Our land is no longer safe for dragons to live in isolation and peace.  We seek a new land, where our children will grow in prosperity, and where our lives are unthreatened by the inventions of mankind."

Obsidian dipped his head and rested it on the wall, and his voice was quieter than before.

"Sometimes I wonder if I will ever reach the land that we were directed to find.  We have searched for many years, but there are always people inhabitating the lands already.  We have come to believe that there is no such place of rest and quiet.  Not in this world."

Rainy hoped to offer some word of comfort at this, but she could think of nothing to say.

"There is another idea, though.  The flaming towers of the humans' making rise up into the skies, where they can no longer be seen.  Perhaps, in that realm beyond the sky, there are more lands and more worlds to explore and settle.  Perhaps there we will find some untouched place.  

"Before we leave on this endeavor, we ask that one of your people inform the other dragons that will come here after us where we have gone, that they may follow us into the unknown.  Hopefully, to a land of more peace than we have yet found on this world."

"Sure.  I can do that," said Rainy, eager to prove herself a friend.  

"Thank you, O princess!  You are the nice sort of royalty, after all," rumbled the dragon. "Well, we must leave now, for who knows how far we will fly before we reach the Land Beyond the Sky (if we reach it at all) and the sooner we get there the better!  Farewell, great princess!" 

The huge shadow over her head retracted out of sight behind the wall, quite before Rainy could say a thing.  The slow, thundering footsteps retreated down the beach.

The next second, Rainy recovered her wits and made a dash around the wall after the dragon, not entirely sure why she didn't just run to bed in a daze.  Something made her want to watch the dragons more.  Se didn't want them to leave. . . She only now realized that she didn't really want to go back to normality.  Long books. . . And school.  . .it all seemed unfortunately dull, after seeing real, living dragons and, not only that, but spoken to one, too! 

The silhouettes of the five massive beings stood on the shore.  They seemed to be talking to one another, though she could not hear the words, if they even spoke words.  A breeze blowing down the shoreline ruffled her dress and her hair as she watched.  Why did she feel so sad?

The largest dragon (was that Obsidian?) walked to the edge of the water where the waves curled up around his claws.  He looked up at the stars, into the deep, deep sky that seemed so endless.  Could there really be a Land Beyond that?

Rainy suddenly caught a feeling running through her.  I want to follow the ways of the flaming towers.  I want to discover the Land Beyond the Sky too. 

It was a longing to find out if another world existed.  To explore the unknown.

Maybe, if I ask them, they will take me with them.

It was an impulse.  She took a few hasty yet halting steps towards the group of dragons.  If she called out for them to wait. . . she would have to go through with it then. . .

There would be no more lessons, no more boring books.  But there would be no crown when she was twenty, no throne to inherit.

If I let them leave without me, I'll never know whether or not there is a Land Beyond.

I'll never know.

The mystery of it pulled at her heart.  But there was her parents. . . They would miss her

 . .

But if there was a Land Beyond, and if she went with the dragons, she could always come back.  Besides, she could always say goodbye to her parents before she left.

I don't know if they'd let me.

Her parents might not approve of the idea.  But they would understand when she got back.

She saw the dragon unfurl his huge wings, preparing for flight.

It'll have to be now.  

Rainy took another step forward, heart pounding in her ears.  Could she really ask to come along?  She would tell a guard or somebody to notify the other dragons that hadn't come along yet where they had gone.

How wonderful, to fly up and up, until the land below vanishes and perhaps, the Land Beyond comes into view?  The thrill of discovery, of adventure and exploration!

She filled her lungs with air, ready to call out.

"Rainy Elizabeth Maggsburg!" 

Rainy whirled around.  Lamplight nearly blinded her.  Through it she saw her mother come dashing towards her, arms outstretched for a hug. "Baby, what do you think you are doing?"

The next few minutes were a whirl of guards, ladies in waiting, and animated conversation.  No one noticed how quiet the princess had become, or how intently she watched the place where the dragons had for some reason flown up and up, finally to vanish into the unknown, winged shadows melding with the dark sky filled with so many stars.

At length, it is to be said the Rainy came to know that she could never really leave the Castle of Crystal View on such a mad escapade as a journey to the Land Beyond the Sky, and that she grew used to the responsibility of leadership and learning.  But, she never stopped wondering, when more dragons came and left, what happened to them after they vanished into the sky.  Years later, when the Island of Crystal Lakes was settled under her queenship, she began a project.

To build a flaming tower.