In the building at the foot of our 'termite mound', which really wasn't to everyone's liking, Mum had transported me on a huge cushion and veterinary surgeons and doctors were at my bedside.
But it was Maxime who was the most specialised, while Zalar had sent his specialist doctors, but even if our physical appearance resembled a cross between a snake, a lizard and a pterodactyl, the comparison ended there.
Xaida and Etincelle examined me and I was strangely the same size I'd been when I was still a teenage Dragon: 5 metres.
I was flaccid, unresponsive and my pupils were dilated.
I was breathing but that was all.
Etincelle and xayda tried to astralise to see what was happening. But all they could see was a stairwell running up a wall whose patterns were repeated over and over again.
The base in bottomless darkness, absolute blackness and above, a thin infinite line, as if the staircase had no end.
At the far end, along the wall, wyverns hovered and each flight of stairs was like a photograph showing the phases of flight. It was insane.
A doctor looked at my limp body and then the verdict came.
"Mir is in a coma... he can't wake up, his waking system is paralysed. Sometimes people in the same situation wake up after 48 hours, but after that phase, he can stay like this for months, years or even never. His body will eventually break down, his muscles will start to melt and so will his fat reserves.
We may be able to keep him on a drip for a few years, provided his skin doesn't turn into bedsores, which would mean death in a few weeks, with the wounds spreading and turning into ulcers and then generalised infection. The kidneys usually fail first, and the rest follow within 3 days at most. Medicines for humans may be different for dragons, and we must pray that he wakes up".
In the meantime I fell and fell and finally ended up in the cold sea water.
The water was icy cold and I had no strength left. I moaned and cried like a wyvern, but the bottomless water pulled me down.
Only my snout was still showing, in a last effort to breathe.
I cried like a child, then my whole body was swallowed up by the abyss and I lost consciousness.
I saw myself forgetting, losing my knowledge, losing my family and as I lost consciousness, I knew that I would never wake up again and my struggle to stay conscious was lost.
Then the cold, salty water rushed into my nostrils and I wanted to breathe in, but it was only liquid death.
A final groan underwater, and a few tears...
Then the fall...
The loss of self
the silence.
and my senses disappeared, the last being my hearing.
Then... I felt bubbles and like a dull pain that didn't hurt, like pricking or cutting a sleeping limb.
An eternity later
I had a nasty feeling that I was going to vomit and spit out everything I'd swallowed, including my lungs.
A last reflex? but I was on the sand.
Paralysed, half-unconscious...
I could hear breathing.
I was breathing?
No.. it was something...
Something big, big and black... all black... like the abyss...
Then the pain... the head... my head was being smashed... and I could hear as if from the bottom of a swimming pool...
"YOU IDIOT... WAKE THE FUCK UP!"
My head and neck were shaking and I thought a monster was finishing me off and devouring me, but everything was coming back slowly, tingling by tingling.
And then...
"BLEUUAAARGHHHH!!!!" All the water in my lungs drained from my mouth and nostrils...
"IDIOT... Don't you know that dragons never drown!!!!!?????"
I looked for the sun but the only light I saw was 2 bright yellow eyes contrasting with deep matte black scales.
It was a beautiful dragoness. The most beautiful I'd ever seen... And she smelt good...
"Ahhhhhhhhh KEEEWWWWWW CRRRRIIII".
I squealed instinctively
Then "PANG! I swear I saw candles spinning... yes, yes. I assure you and the sea turned over! It's impossible, but I assure you it is!
The dragoness slapped me on the back
"Idiot! Have you finished your ceremonies? You're a sentient dragon and not a big beast! Otherwise, I'd have skinned and eaten you already!
"Gulp! "
Yes, come to think of it, animals slit each other's throats, dominate each other and rarely become friends. Instinct drives them to kill each other.
In my case, it would have punctured my lungs or seized my throat with its talons, then dug into my ribcage to devour my heart to kill me and then devoured my entrails like birds of prey cruelly do.
"AGAH AGAHH AAGAHHHH" I shouted, shaken by this dragoness' insane strength.
"MIR!!! MIRRR!!!"
"AHHHHHHHH PITIE!!!!!!!! Don't eat me!"
Darkia: "Ah! finally... a reaction!"
She pinched my thigh hard and I bled.
"GNNNNNNNhhhhh" I said, the pain, slight, not coming back impulses...
Darkia "Why aren't you saying anything?"
"HHHHH HHHHsais not moving......HHHHH", Out of breath.
Then she looked at my body, which was a constellation of stretch marks, wounds and dislocated scales, my arms dislodged and my legs too, twisted... and... skins hanging everywhere...
The black dragoness pulled me a little more out of the water and saw huge wounds on my belly and my wings were torn...
I was between life and death.
She turned me over and saw my guts almost ripped out.
She started to cry when she saw me like that.
Then she lay back and stroked my neck and licked my eyes and...my vision came back a little...
"Ahhhh. It hurts... why??? why...?"
Darkia: "This is my universe, my world...and here I see the real you. But I've never, ever seen a drake or a wyvern in your condition. You look like you've been blown up by a mine.
Who did this to you? I certainly didn't!
I lowered my head, becoming a bit animal again
"IIIIIIIIIII"
"MIR. Come on! Hold on...You're MIR... and you have to fight. If no one loves you or cares about you, I care about you... Because I'm your Nightmare! And you're... a beautiful dragon to haunt... "FORGET WHAT I TOLD YOU!!!! OK??"
"IIII OUIIIIII!!!!"
She then summoned black light and applied it to my wounds, which were closing very, very painfully with each application of darkness.
"NO NO STAY PUT!!! DON'T REAR!!!"
I was biting her paw but without strength
"YOU NAUGHTY BOY!!!"
Then she continued to mend my flesh and I trembled with fear and pain.
"YOU'RE FEARFUL??? IT'S GOOD!!! LIFE IS COMING BACK!!!"
Me: "ENKA....ENKA ....RAPED Me!"
Darkia : "WHAT?? did mommy rape you?
Then I was frightened by the terrible shadow that cauterised my bruised body.
It was the monster's daughter...
I was afraid of the monster
I was afraid of the dragoness.
I was afraid of everything...
Of everything that moves.
"HIIIIIII HIIIIIIII HIIIIIIIII"
She sighed. but then she took on a terrifying appearance with gigantic teeth all pointed like an abyssal fish. her teeth were transparent
You've got a choice... You fight and we're buddies or you let yourself go into the abyss... And I fish very well... I have no pity for those who reject life. and, frankly, I don't even know what you'll be reincarnated as. because you'll have rejected your humanity and you'll have rejected your dragon soul. All you'll be left with is emptiness or vermin at best.
I gasped, everything spinning around me, but fear was the constant.
Then Drakia pulled out a black letter with golden edges in a divine draconic script signed Enka.
Darkia resumed her form as a very dark black dragoness and continued to heal me.
Then she clicked her claws and the beach was transformed into a cave with a Neolithic-style palace.
The dragoness, bipedal like an allosaurus, held me like a princess and I shivered, frozen to the bone.
Then she deposited me in the hot spring.
"This is my divine spring. It's heated by the primordial fire and is used to heal even death."
Then, as soon as I was immersed, my wounds disappeared like aspirin in a glass of water, and all at once, the stress was lifted, like an immense weight.
And my limbs began to respond to me and I grabbed the dragoness's front legs and buried my head between her chest and her wings and began to cry like a dragoness.
"Thank you... Thank you Darkia...Black Goddess... Queen of Darkness..."
Then she put her paw on my neck and caressed me. and put her cheek against mine, like a bowl of birds together.
"Are you feeling better?
My breathing was better but I was still in shock and I fell asleep, half cuddled by the dragoness who was surprised by my sudden confidence.
I was rebuilding myself and at last I found a little peace, calm and serenity.
Darkia sang me a lullaby and I began to smile at the situation. Embarrassed to be cuddled by an entity that was normally my enemy.
My cheeks were rosy and I felt like a child again.
"Darkia...forgive my behaviour. It's unforgivable for a dragon..."
But then she looked down between my legs and laughed...
"Mir....I can understand Mum. If she jumped on you... I'd like you to jump on me too but... I've got my sweetheart sleeping in the crystal caves. He's a bit like you, a mad scientist but charming. And he's a hydra now. He's still a dragon and still human too, when he wants to be, but... frankly... between us... don't you think they're ugly? They don't even have tails and they stink of sweat and urine..."
I smile at the dragoness.
"Maybe... but I've been through so much that all I want is my rock in the sun..." I smile at the dragoness.
Darkia "And your harem..."
I was glad that someone understood me and I fell in love with the dragoness who was truly perfect, beautiful, proportionate, a beauty, a divinity...
"Chttt.. Mir... Sorry... but it's Hans I love and when I'm done with you, I'll have to leave for infinity.."
I was suddenly sad...
"So we won't be seeing each other again?"
"Oh yes... In your dreams... and when your time comes, you'll leave with us".
Me: "And why did Enka rape me?"
Darkia ripped off my loincloth and stuck her clawed finger into my penis sheath and shoved it in...
"Because you're a hermaphrodite like me, like Mum, and she wanted to please you, to show you other sides of yourself. Dragons can change sex, especially hydras... even if some remain male or female for the rest of their lives".
I pushed Darkia away in disgust.
"Sorry.. Darkia.. I.. I'm confused.."
Then she whirled around me her looong serpentine tail trailing behind and making the same path and She turned around.
"Mir... you are unique, a primo dragon. The primal source between the wild beast and the enlightened scientist.
If Mother hadn't loved you, even a little... she'd have let you die like Vidocq when you made your portal.
She admires you for your work, your knowledge and your discoveries and she has given you the gift of life..and the gift of having loving parents and not wild beasts.
She has given you the gift of evolutionary wisdom, so that your siblings and your tribe have become primordial beings. On the scale of infinite time, you are primordial gods because there was nothing before you, only beasts...
Enka, here, saves you a second time because she believes in you... that you are capable and that you remain true to yourself.
So you have to fight, for yourself, for your family and for your goddess and... also for me!
And Darkia jumped on me and gave me a tongue-lashing. Her tongue was so long that I thought it was coming out of my gills (ears).
Then she straightened me up and went to a corner of her palace, which was very, very dark, and she lay down looking at the darkness.
I followed her, but didn't dare climb on top of her.
I was still very scared. But she was scary.
Then I asked the question
"Darkia, why is it that when I look at you, I love you but I'm also very scared."
Darkia: "Oh... how cute you are....My body sleeps in the crystal dome... we've already left for our time and our dimension. But here, it's the world of dreams that reflects your soul and your inner self. If your soul is sick, then your body will be sick. You were dying here and dying in real life. and I.... actually... in real life, I'm also a dragoness but here... I'm....TON WORST CAUCHEMAR!!!!! AHAHAHAHA!"
I pulled my head back, expecting to have something sharp on me but the shadow rematerialised. No kidding, I'm the queen of nightmares and I torment dreamers. Frankly, I want to play with you and scare you, because I also feed on fears and you've got really good taste..."
Me "and what happens to me if you eat my fear?"
Darkia thinks. "Well, you're not scared any more, are you?
Then she patted me on the wings. "Come on, I'll give you a guided tour".
And we both flew off to the coast of storms in A'Arnateth, the immemorial city where all dreamers meet and then leave for their adventures or their... nightmares.
In the meantime... Mum tucked me in and... I was suddenly less tense and my muscles relaxed.
Then Xayda put her hand on my skull and cast divination spells.
"He's in A'arnateth, the city of sails where all the buildings are built on the ruins of old boats and ships. A place where dreamers meet and fail, but also a fantastic city, the starting point of many universes and possibilities, where the past and the future meet and where the possible and the impossible manage to coexist. But it was also the city of the Grand Vizier and the centre of the 'Table', a secret organisation that kept order in a world that seemed chaotic and free to do whatever it wanted.