LET ME LIVE THAT FANTASY


♕

Boldness sunk into her bones and daring breathed fire in her lungs, and that sense of dauntlessness seared over her as she waltzed outside the Dragon’s Throat without her mother or her sister. To a child of only a few months, this felt like rebellion, like sedition, like splendor and apprehension all at once, and it sizzled down into her spine as she careened across the outer lands, courting chaos and bedlam by the length of her dainty strides and the sweeping motions of her valor. She could do anything and no one would be there to scold her, to follow her, to court her back into safety, to ensure she was secure, sound, and for some notion this made her outrageously giddy and sneaky, and she giggled a multitude of times as she skirted along dust and dirt, soil and loam. The youth waited a couple more seconds for someone to come rushing out to meet her, to lure her back into the depths of the kingdom, but when she glanced behind her and saw not a soul, she laughed, whooped out loud, and rushed further into the grasp of the unknown.

Her explorations were minimal at first. She lowered her head and sniffed the ground, tried to gain any familiarity with the creatures nearby; but it was a heady mix of so many variables and strangers that she ceased it altogether with a wrinkled nose and irritated disposition, glancing back over the sky, extending her wings, flapping them along in near boredom – the flames already fading, extinguished in her rush and zeal. So she plodded along again, dipping and twirling and extending her head into every nook and cranny, or back towards the heavens, watching birds fly by, witnessing animals fluttering in their own daily pledges, pausing to buzz with the bees, or to slink with the crows. Then she huffed and puffed out her cheeks, suddenly going back on her earlier theories and yearning for someone to talk to – so she could exclaim in her wild abandon “Look at this!” or “Clem, isn’t this great?” and even “I wish I could do that!”, but Melita had strung up her own quandary, her own muddled warren, and there wasn’t much else to do but go onward until monotony drew her back into the sands, or something else caught her attention.

Not an instant later, her gilded stare rested on a large, gaping maw coming out of the earth. She approached it cautiously, tipping her head within the wide aperture slowly, glancing into the shadows, pondering over the nature of this strange, unmoving beast. It looked like some grand monster, a beast who could swallow beings whole, crunch and gnaw on their bones without a forethought; but then she felt heat poised from within, a mixture of dazzling sights and sounds curling, coiling, along the walls, and temptation, enticement, reared its brutish head once more. Would it hurt to take a peek into the mouth of a giant? Would it ensnare her, just as it had likely done to so many others? The inquiries, the enticements, the allures were all fascinating, imploring, devout and irreverent at the same pulsing beats, so she ended up spellbound there, right along the threshold of the cavern, attempting to make up her mind.