The dragon arrived at my door at dawn as always and, even though it was still dark out, I hopped on its back and we rode towards the forest, as always.
It was nice to be out that early with no one else around.
Just me and the dragon: we rode all the way to the mountains and back, rolling down the coast, up and around the hill, on the path with the sea on one side and the first light of day on our faces—that was always my favorite part.
Me and the dragon didn’t have to talk, everything between us was spoken a long time ago—two old friends riding through life.
It was such a charmed encounter, how me and the dragon first met. For half of my life I was alone and then one day the dragon showed up at my door at dawn and it was friendship at first ride.
We used to talk a lot, back in those early days. We had a lot of catching up to do because even though it felt like it, we didn’t grow up together so we had a lot of stories to share. First loves, first heartbreaks, long lists of dreams and complaints about everything. Enemies and heroes and favorite foods. Descriptions of moments long past, with colors and sounds and smells that didn’t always translate well from human to dragon. Hopes for a future that was still wide open and mysterious and pliable. We agreed on so many things and held on to that, all our disagreements fading away day after day. There was of course always the issue of time—dragons lived in the infinite, and humans in the constrained, but we tried not to think of that too much; although sometimes it made me cry when I thought about how the dragon was there when the forests were still young. The dragon thought the opposite was sad: that at least I would not make it to see the forests end, and the dragon would. I was the lucky one, the dragon said. But I thought the dragon was what brought me luck.
“You must have heard all the stories about me,” said the dragon, that morning, as we were on our way back, following the path that bent around the mountain, the sea and sky in soft pinks and blues. “You’ve never asked me if any of them were true. Or if I was sent to steal you away from the world.”
The dragon lived forever but it didn’t know I already knew our meeting wasn’t random. That I was the one who sent for it, all those years ago. That I took a chance because I needed a magical life and a best friend that belonged to the world in a way I could never hope to. A dragon to belong to.
“See you tomorrow morning, friend,” I said to the dragon as it dropped me off at home. And tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. Until the end of my world.
