LET THERE BE DRAGONS (COMPLETED)

Chapter Three: The Seamstress

"You are lucky to be alive."

Shivam woke up to the melodious voice of a woman. A merciless headache assaulted him immediately, and his eyes teared up, blurring his vision. He seemed to be lying above a cold, damp place, but he couldn't remember where he was or how he got there. He was most certainly not in his bedroom...but then, where, exactly, was he?

"Does it still hurt?" The melodious, almost sonorous voice of the woman asked. With some effort, Shivam opened his eyes again, but his vision was still blurred. The dark shape of a human face hovered above him...and beyond that face...was that the moon? Could it be? Had he fallen asleep on an open field, not shaded from the sky? But why would he do that? It had been raining for some time...

Then Shivam remembered it all. The lake. Aparajita's fever. And the dragon. God help him now, he remembered the dragon all too clearly, perhaps more clearly than he actually wanted to.

As soon as Shivam remembered the impossible but all too real transformation of his girlfriend into a freaking mythic monster, he tried to bolt up from the ground, but couldn't. A ripping, clawing sensation burned through his chest, and seemed to beat with his very heart. "Oh fuck," he moaned.

"Don't try to move so fast!" The woman's voice warned. "That wound will take time to heal. As I said, you're lucky to be alive."

The pain seemed to have cleared both Shivam's mind, and vision. This time, he sat up slowly, and took in his surroundings. He was still beside the lake along which he and Aparajita had been walking. The place still seemed to be deserted, apart from the woman standing in front of him. He looked up at the sky and saw the glowing red moon. Thick black clouds passed below it with some speed. The redness of the moon had something unnatural about it. It made him feel haunted.

Shivam looked carefully at the woman: her face seemed to be familiar, and she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her dark hair flowed down to her waist, and moved mysteriously, as Shivam didn't feel any breeze passing them by. The eyes of the woman were deep and dark, eyes that have seen much, eyes that hide secrets. Her chin was long and pointed, adding gravity and maturity to her kind expression. She was wearing some strange kind of greenish black garment, an apparel that seemed to be a cross between a summer dress and a winter robe. Around her apparel, there seemed to be a cloak, but the cloak had been cut into long, narrow slices, and thus the fabric of the cloak moved gently about her, reminding Shivam of tentacles. He was frightened. What the hell was happening to him?

"Who are you?" Shivam asked nervously, his voice shaken.

"Don't you recognise me?" The woman said. "I have been following you for the last two weeks. We met today as well."

"Your face seems to be familiar...but I don't remember right now..." Shivam began.

"I'm the begger, young man. I tried to warn you that your life is in danger, because the girl you love is an Imoogi," the woman said.

"The begger! You? Impossible!" Shivam was shocked.

"I understand your surprise, but you must trust me on this. You see...I don't live in your world, nor am I a begger in reality. I disguised myself to cross over into your world, because in your world no one pays any attention to the poor. I thought I would be able to communicate my message and go back to my duties. But my plan backfired...you didn't pay any attention to me, either. You of all people, whom I thought must be kind!"

"I don't understand anything that you're saying," Shivam mumbled. "You said my girlfriend is a Gimooki. What in hell's name is Gimooki?"

"Not a gimooki, an Imoogi. An Imoogi is a dragon that resides in the deepest of all oceans. But unlike other dragons, an Imoogi does not begin her life as one. In fact, an Imoogi is conceived as a human child, and she is born as a girl. Then, when she comes of age, she turns into a dragon and goes to her real home--the oceans. According to legend, an Imoogi's life is a gift from the Sun-God himself. Usually an Imoogi is born as the result of praying to the Sun-God for a child, from a couple unable to get one. Of course, this is all mythical, and I cannot tell you whether it's the absolute truth or not. But I do know one thing--the birth of an Imoogi is very, very rare. And an Imoogi has never been born in your world before," the woman explained.

"That's lunatic. I mean...dragons exist only in fairy tales..." Shivam was desperately trying to disbelieve all of it.

"But the wound in your chest is not a fairy tale," the woman said.

And that was that, wasn't it? No matter how insane the event seemed, no matter how fucking crazy this woman's blabberings appeared, Shivam had no choice but to believe, because the wound and the blood on his chest was not a fairytale, the transformation of Aparajita into a dragon was NOT a fairy tale. These things had happened...and now, he feared, he FELT that his life was about to change.

"Tell me more," Shivam said. "I guess I have no other choice but to believe you."

"I am a Seamstress, young man. You see, your world is not the only world there is. There are numerous worlds. The basic elements of these worlds are not so different from each other, but some things differ drastically. For example, in your world, magic and magical creatures exist in folklore and fairytales only. But in Heart, they are realities. My profession is to see that these worlds don't interfere with each other--because if they do, it'll be complete chaos. But the Fabric between these worlds is delicate...and sometimes, it is broken...and the worlds exchange their elements through these breaks. I am a Seamstress...my job is to seal up the broken places of the Fabric."

Shivam's head buzzed uncomfortably. He felt overloaded with impossible information. Worlds? Heart? Fabric? Seamstress? Fuck all that!

"So...you said in 'Heart' dragons exist, and so does magic. May I know what Heart is? I mean...you make it sound like the name of a place," Shivam said.

"It's not the name of a place, it's the name of a world. You call your world Earth...well, bring the H in front of E in that spelling, and it becomes Heart. Is it really so difficult to digest?"

"Yes, because I don't see why anyone would name a world after a body part," Shivam said stubbornly.

"Well I don't know...but you know there is a saying...where your heart is, there your home shall be...and anyway, what this world is called is hardly important. What is more important is how you shall go there," the Seamstress said.

"Yeah, tell me." Shivam sort of knew that this was coming. His girlfriend, now a dragon, had travelled to a parallel world. Obviously, it was upto him to bring her back. Because once you are in love, your destiny is set. So is your journey.

Shivam only hoped he was ready for it.