DRAGON OF FIRE, MAIDEN OF WATER (working title)
(an original fantasy story by Angel Mercury. Begun on June 2, 1999)
THIS IS ONLY A DRAFT IDEA.
Chapter 1 - Ancient Dreams
Namida stood in a world of half-reality, eyes closed. She could only faintly hear the whispering ocean waves and feel a cool breeze.
Suddenly she felt a breath of fire ruffle her dark hair. Immediately, the eyes of the dragon man flared in her memory. Quickly opening her eyes, like a frightened deer, and looking around, she found herself standing on a lonely beach. The waves flowed gently to the shore then returned, much closer than she first thought. The waves were the only sound, the rest of the world seemed to be quietly awaiting something. The beach was silent, deserted, and surrounded in a strange glowing mist. Somehow she knew there was not a human soul for miles around.
Suddenly, her dark-blue eyes caught a few dots flying, circling above a shore near the horizon. Birds? Some strange whisper told her she had to reach them. She began walking, slowly at first, then running, her feet sinking in the damp sand. Time seemed to drag on forever. The world was silent, as if teasing her.
Finally, the dots began to take shape. She could see enormous, glowing bodies of reptile-like creatures, with gigantic wings to carry them higher and higher into the sky. They circled and glided in an endless, graceful dance.
Dragons - she realized.
One of them passed before a misty, uncertain sun, its golden skin glowing with its own light. Far below, Namida felt a warm wind, as the dragon looked straight down at her and into her soul. She simply stood, hypnotized with wonder, gazing forever into the dragon's fiery eyes...
"Nozomi." Only one word rang through the world, aimed at her and only her.
‘Hope.’ How did the dragon know her real name? She thought she left it behind on the burning shore…
Suddenly she broke the trance - or did the dragon let her go? - and woke up alone in her dark, cold room washed in moonlight.
The dream seemed so real, like a surfacing memory...
"Tell me about my past life," Namida demanded in an urgently curious voice. "Uh...Please, Amari."
The old fortune-teller simply looked at her. Not at the little flame in the crystal ball in her ancient hands, or past her into the ages - but straight at her. Somehow, the expression of endless wisdom in the old woman's clear eyes resurfaced images from her dream - and she remained perfectly still, as if hypnotized.
After a long moment, the old woman said simply, "I can't. You don't have any."
"What?" Namida said, shocked. "But..."
"I know of your dream," the old woman said slowly. Mystical, almost chanting notes flowed through her slow, ancient voice, still full of expression. "But I also know your spirit is fresh, new. You've never walked on this Earth before."
"Never?"
Namida sat still in thought. Everyone was reincarnated from the dawn of time, and most people could remember at least one or two lifetimes besides their own. Those extremely gifted could remember up to ten of their human lives, and very rare people - like Amari, the old fortune-teller and island witch - could count, if not remember, all of their past incarnations, including animal ones. People could even keep any special abilities they had in a previous life - there were a few right on the island who had the power of telepathy from a past existence. Reincarnation was an accepted reality.
She had never heard of anyone without a past life.
Amari gave her a moment to reflect, then spoke, as if answering Namida's thoughts - "I've met a new soul only once before, and you know how long I've been on this world."
Namida nodded. No one knew exactly how old Amari was in this life - but she was well over a century old, perhaps more. No one knew how many times she was reborn either, and no one knew her true name. She was a favorite person for historians to talk to - if they had a question about an event in the past, Amari probably remembered it first-hand. The island's children as well, when they just began remembering their past incarnations, came to the wise old witch for explanations - and often ended up staying at her little house full of herbs, ancient books and boiling cauldrons for hours on end as she regaled them with stories of her own past, which often connected with the past of the children themselves. Amari had something to say about everyone on the island where she lived, and, despite the negative connotation of the word "witch", she was always welcomed in every corner of the island. Thinking about it, Namida found it odd that Amari never mentioned previous lives to her before...
"Believe me," Amari continued, "if you had ever made a footprint on the earth before, I would know where it was and what it was about. But no, you must have waited so long in the Hall of Spirits in the sky for your chance..." she paused for a moment, looking distant. "Fresh souls like you are sent down here at a specific time for a specific purpose. You must have a great goal ahead of you..."
"Amari... who was the other 'new soul' that you met before?" Namida asked cautiously. Usually, if Amari did not at once start talking about a person she mentioned, she probably had a good reason not to.
"Eh? Oh... it was millions of sunlights ago. He was a dragon." Amari sighed, tilted her head and looked closer at Namida, as if watching her reaction.
The young woman was all attention when she heard 'dragon'. "Please, go on!"
"Dragons are always new souls," Amari leaned back into her chair, like she always did when telling a long story. "They live on the line between reality and dreams - and so, they are very rarely reincarnated. And if they are, they refuse to let go of their dragon life.
"Dragons were beautiful creatures that lived all over the planet - the sea, the air, the grass, the fire... They were half-fantasy, half-real, and always mystic. Their eyes are a doorway to their own reality, and what reality that is depended on the dragon itself. A dragon always tells the truth - but in the world of dreams, what is truth and what is fantasy? No one could talk to them and continue with an ordinary life..." Amari sighed and closed her eyes. "Sadly, because people ages ago were not wise enough yet to understand dragons, they hunted them and killed them. Yes, just like a dream is destroyed when you wake up, a creature from the world of dreams can be killed.
"The dragon I met, when I was called Naegi (and that means 'young tree', by the way) was Me-tsuki-no-oki. His name... his name roughly meant 'eyes to the open sea of the moon'. Or you could say it was 'the moon's eyes are to the open sea', or something else completely. You can never tell with dragons' names... Anyhow, I was on a little fishing boat. Me-tsuki-no-oki wound up tangled in a net, along with other fish. He nearly tore the net! The sailors wanted to sell him, but I saved him from a painful and unjust death-life. That's just what it would have been - an existence between life and death, if he'd been sold. The poor creature is a water dragon, he can't live on land! He was just a young little thing, maybe fifty years old - dragons live lives many times longer than humans. I let him go back into the sea, but before that, he told me that one word - "me-tsuki-no-oki". It may have been his name, or something else, I'm still not sure... I never saw the dragon again, but my life was never the same after that. He gave me the gift of magic! I suddenly could read people's thoughts, their future, know their past lives even! That is what I was killed for in that life, when I was Naegi. Magic was not tolerated... the poor, stupid souls! They just weren't old enough yet. I've met a few of the people who killed me then, in this life. Of course, they apologized profusely... But why apologize to *Amari* now when you've killed *Naegi* then?..." Amari went on mumbling something incoherent.
"But you see, my dear Nozomi," the wise old witch said quietly when she calmed down, calling Namida by her real name. Namida flinched. "it doesn't matter how many lives you've lived before today. I've known some people with fifty-five past lives, but they were insects in them! Does being an ancient soul make you great? No, my dear. Perhaps a young soul like you will even be wiser and better than me. You're always curious about everything, even when the world became boring for others... it's still new to you.
"I can't tell you about your previous life. And I know about the dragon you are seeking. But I have a feeling..." Amari's ancient fingers grasped Namida's young hand. "No, I can't spoil it for you. The sky will not let me. You must understand it yourself."
Namida thanked Amari and left the witch's home, her head flooded with strange new information. She loved visiting Amari, the old witch treated her especially kindly, as if Namida was her pupil. But she often gave answers that confounded the wonderer even more.
How was she supposed to know what to do with this life, if she didn't have a past to learn from? – she wondered. Had she lived before, she might have even inherited some special abilities, but... no, she was still just a child.
‘Nozomi’… the dragon in her dream knew, and so did Amari. She was never called by that name ever since her childhood was burned away. It seemed amost like ‘Nozomi’ was no longer her name. ‘Hope.’ To her, such a painful word, a word of the scorched past. Why? Why bring it up now?
How could a fresh drop of water affect an ancient fire?
