Ataraxia 平静 | Gojo Satoru

-'๑'-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑𝟔-'๑'-

Blinking slowly, I pushed myself up from the dusty ground, shielding my eyes from the relentless assault of sunlight. The air was unseasonably warm—too warm for winter. Once my vision adjusted, a sinking feeling settled in the pit of my stomach as I surveyed my surroundings.

I found myself in my childhood village.

The familiar aroma of spices and fragrant herbs wafted through the air as I passed by the small hut where my mother used to shop for sweets and pastries. Despite the wave of nostalgia, a sense of unease gnawed at my senses. The silence enveloping the place became heavy enough to burden my shoulders, making my palms clammy.

Minutes slipped away as I rounded a corner, my breath catching softly as the foreign landscape unfolded before me—a ravine, cleaving the earth in two. Thatched houses teetered dangerously on the edge, clinging desperately to the steep ground. Despite the unease tightening my chest, I pressed on.

The wind whipped fiercely as I drew nearer to the chasm, tendrils of my hair flailing in its icy grasp.

A sudden gust stole the breath from my lungs as I stumbled to the edge, eyes widening in disbelief. Gasping for air, my chest heaved erratically. I clawed at the frozen grass beneath me desperately, knuckles whitening as my throat constricted, parched and raw.

Deep down in the heart of the chasm, a swirling maelstrom of snow and ice churned. And from within a form emerged, sleek and sinuous, like a shard of purest winter.

Its scales, white as freshly fallen snow and polished silver, caught the sunlight in a dazzling display, refracting it into a thousand prismatic hues. With each beat of its wings, the air around it shimmered and danced, as if enchanted by its mere presence.

I felt the weight of its gaze upon me, piercing and ancient, as if it could see through the very fabric of my being. Time seemed to slow, the world fading into insignificance beside the mighty presence of the dragon.

As it soared higher into the sky, I could only watch in stunned silence, my mind struggling to comprehend the enormity of the creature. The moment stretched into infinity as it halted its flight, its golden eyes locking with mine in a gaze that seemed to pierce through flesh and bone to the very soul beneath. My heart hammered in my chest, deafening to my own ears.

With unmatched grace and swiftness the dragon descended, its massive form alighting on the ground with a gentle thud, sending tremors rippling through the earth beneath me. It moved closer, flaring its wings, each step deliberate and measured.

I dared not move, held captive by the intensity of its gaze, my muscles frozen in place as if bound by invisible chains. The dragon drew nearer, its presence overwhelming, a primal force of nature made flesh.

I kept no track of how much time passed—seconds, minutes, hours—slipping through my grasp like grains of sand.

As I mustered the courage to sit up, the dragon paused, its head tilting to the side, studying me with a mixture of curiosity and calculation. And then, in a fluid motion, it prowled around me, its movements sinuous and fluid, like a feline stalking its prey.

But as I attempted to rise, it halted abruptly, its eyes narrowing in a silent warning. A surge of primal instinct gripped me, urging me to hold my ground. Its pupils dilated imperceptibly, followed by a soft huff of air.

I felt ensnared under the dragon's sun-bathed gaze, caught in a swirling vortex of fire and molten gold. The velvety, elongated horns atop its head shimmered with hues of violet and cerulean as it observed me, its own muscles coiled with tension.