Dragons' Truth

Chapter 6 – The Second Meeting

Permalink for this paragraph 0 Ghadshyk lofted down beside Merle, came to a comfortable position and tried to keep his voice at a level that would not be too loud for such a small creature as Merle now was.  “You look tired, Merle.  Was your journey here harder than before?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “No, but I am not the man I was a year ago.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You do not look well.  What has happened to you in so short a time as to have so great a manifestation on your body?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I did as you instructed me, and I went back to the library to really study the dragon texts again, this time with the careful focus and intensity you spoke of.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Excellent.  Did you find ‘Why We Breathe’?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Yes.  And you were right.  Although with just the straight-forward style of reading I had once learned as a human, I was able to get through the entire text in only a matter of days, once I began to see the nuances, the way the words were put together, to really see what the meaning of the book was, not just on the surface, but in the larger context of dragon life, I saw that I could not have made it through more than one chapter in a year.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I’m glad you could see it as I do.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “But again, I decided to use magic to help me out of my impatience.  I used a magic that allowed me to effectively stop time in the world around me while I studied the text.  This way, I could spend a year studying the first chapter in its true depth, but only an instant of time would pass for the rest of the world.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Magics that fool time itself are very powerful and very dangerous indeed.  You were not wise to try to use such tricks, when there is time aplenty for such study without them.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Human life spans are not like yours, Ghadshyk.  Most do not live even one hundred years, let alone twelve hundred years.  We do not take the time it takes to truly understand things, because we do not have the time to do so.  Or… so we believe.  And so I believed a year ago when I began to study ‘Why We Breathe’.”  Merle took a deep breath and continued.  “I didn’t want to overdo it, so I paced myself, studying  a week’s worth of time in a day, then a month’s worth as I began to get drawn into the wisdom that I was acquiring beyond what my magic had given me before.  By the time three months had passed, I had spent over a decade studying this single text.  As you can see, I certainly paid the price for my foolishness, as I aged ten years in those three months.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I see that your skin seems paler and looser, and that your face has lines in it that were not there before.  Is this how you age?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “These things and more.  There is a soreness in my joints when I move, and pain at unexpected times.  I did not become a powerful wizard overnight, and this extra decade studying but one work had taken my body to the edge.  Beyond this point, my body will only slowly decay and fall apart, and no matter the magics I have, I will only become weaker with time.  At least, that is what I had come to believe after three months of the year were up.  Knowing that if I continued to study as I had been I would not survive to meet you here today, I did not use magic any further.  I studied as slowly as it took, and in the last nine months I have begun to understand the next text, ‘Why We Burn’.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You chose the perfect follow-up.  After that, you will get to a truly life-altering text, ‘Why We Fly’.  These three texts, once you have mastered them, will have truly given you the understanding you need to venture the remaining distance to the enclave.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You do not sound worried that I will not survive to see that day.  I have a guess as to why, but would you care to inform me?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You are studying ‘Why We Burn’, and you have mastered ‘Why We Breathe’.  Your body has very likely already begun to undergo the transformation that your soul demands, freeing itself from the limitations of decay and drawing on your spiritual energy to continue on in the physical plane.  I have not yet studied the true sight, so I cannot for myself see whether the change has begun in you, but in another ten or fifty decades, I may begin my apprenticeship with the fabled Tyllym.  He is one of only a few dragons who has truly mastered the ability to see beyond the physical plane to the entirety of existence.  After I study with him, if my spirit is ready for it, I would be able to see not just your body, but your mind, your spirit, and with enough sensitivity and openness, your past and your future, all at once, as you truly are instead of as you appear through the thick filter of this physical shell.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “That sounds amazing.  I had begun to see glimpses of that greater existence as I studied, but only in the way the author referred to things, the way they put their words together on the page.  And your answer, that I will undergo a change, from my spirit to my flesh as I understand these texts more fully and strengthen the true connections that make me a whole being, that was beginning to become clear to me.  I very nearly did not leave my workbench to come to see you, but as you know from my understanding of the first text, I have gained a new appreciation for commitments to others and the value of the relationships that form between two beings.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I do not doubt that you will see and hear more of these truths reflected even in your experiences with other humans as time goes on.  In fact, as long as you remain dedicated to studying these texts and strengthening these connections within yourself and without, I do not see any problem with you continuing to use your magic to study faster than time allows.  I admit that it does seem to imply an impatience, but I realize that inside of your seemingly impatient frozen bubble of time, you are spending real, personal time studying these things.  For a dragon, this sort of education would be mostly impossible, because so much of what we learn involves direct interaction with other, more experienced and wise dragons, who must also spend their time working with all the other young dragons in need of their assistance.  In this way, during the time I am spending by myself in devoted study of a particular text, my teacher is working with another dragon on what they have already read, or what cannot be expressed easily on a page.  And when I come to a point where I need clarification or further instruction, the other dragons who my teacher is working with have reading to be doing.  It all balances out.  Each student gets equal time with the teacher, and we all gain the patient, devoted understanding that only such extensive and detailed study of the texts can provide.  Them at appropriate intervals, or outside of the context of the class entirely, we all get together and discuss and work on what we have been studying.  Though some students will be ahead of others due to our own unique perspectives, there is no real disparity between us, and we can all feel comfortable discussing whatever our current understanding of the subject is.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I believe I can understand that environment.  If you had tried to describe it to me last year, I am not sure I would have grasped the concept properly.  Among humans at this time, most do not get any education at all, and among those who do, there is a fierce competition between the students to prove that they are the better student or that they more deeply understand the subject.  It is as though their success rests on the failure of those around them.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “That does not sound like it is a very productive system of education, Merle.  How can humans expect to have progress if they do not make education freely available to all, and to do so in a spirit of openness and cooperation?  What you describe would surely lead to humans carefully guarding any new ideas they came up with, it seems.  But what would be the positive result of that?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I don’t know.”  Merle sighed.  “The wizard who began teaching me about magic in the first place was doing it because he wanted to see me succeed where he had failed.  He had not been able to master the ways of magic until he was very late in life, and was too old to make any positive use of it.  He basically bought me away from my parents by offering them a single acre of land he had enchanted to always produce a bounty, regardless of weather or the work put into it, and since it made them land owners and promised them food and wealth for life, they were more than happy to give up their newborn son.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Why didn’t he just keep the land for himself, settle down and try to enjoy his waning years?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “He had no interest in a simple life.  He wanted to make a mark on the world.  He had been born the third son of royalty.  In this time, among humans, the royalty are the most privileged people, supported by all the other workers in the region, living a life of luxury.  The first-born son is always the descendant who is rewarded with leadership upon the death of the current king, and while a second son always has the hope that his older brother may die before producing an heir of his own, the third son of royalty has a much slimmer chance of ever being more than a hanger-on to the royal family, a drain on the local economy, and an afterthought of the people.  He knew this from his early childhood, and is shaped him forever.  He knew he could get away with anything, could do as he please when and where he pleased, and that he would never face repercussions.  He knew he would always have food to eat and riches to spend, and that he would basically never be faced with the trouble of actually having to rule.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “He gambled and drank and idled his days and nights away as only the youth of royalty can.  He tried being rebellious, but didn’t much care for court politics, which was the only thing his royal parents were interested in, so he was at a loss for how to get their attention.  He eventually turned to the study of magic, but it was so late in his life that, as I said, he couldn’t put it to the uses he wanted to.  His brother now sat on the throne, and he had no grudge against his brother, or against his brother’s enemies, so he could not wage a magical war against one side or the other in good conscience.  He was not evil, he just wanted to make his mark on the world.  He tried learning powerful magics to make his land prosperous, but people put their appreciation for increased crop output and fair weather on his brother, the one they had been trained to believe was their direct connection with God.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “You see, in a twisted version of the tradition of Julius and Augustus of Rome, royalty had instituted that they had been chosen by God to rule, and that the king had the ear of God.  This way, if a citizen tried to question something the king said or did, they were questioning God’s selection of a king.  And every good thing that happened in the land, whether it was possible for the king to have had an influence over it or not, was because of the righteousness of the king.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “What a strange set of beliefs you humans have.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “It isn’t this way all over.  Here in this land, it is … a totally different version that boils down to the same relationship.  Basically, the people in power do whatever it takes to stay in power, and the people without power are raised from birth to believe that that is the way of the world and there is nothing they could do to change it if they wanted to.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Could it be changed?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Not easily.  I suspect that it will only be with further education that humans will begin to realize what a sad situation they are in.  I also suspect that that is the reason that education is not given out freely to anyone, but restricted instead to people who are already in power.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “And their children, it seems, even when bought instead of birthed.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Exactly.  When I was bought, he immediately began to teach me what he could, not just of magic, but of languages, math, history, and every other subject he considered relevant.  He named me after himself, and tried to get me to believe that I was meant to do something great, so that when I finally did, it would be in his name.  In fact, as soon as he had worked it out himself, he began to use a magic for changing his appearance so that he gradually looked younger and younger, and more and more like me.  When he was on the brink of death and I had learned every last bit of knowledge he had to offer me, I took over his life and identity.

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “By this time, as Merle, the third son of royalty, I was younger than made sense, except that everyone in the land knew I used sorcery to regain ‘my’ youth.  Fortunately for me, the laws of ascension said that the son of ‘my’ brother the king became king instead of me when the king finally died, and I remained free not to face a life as a false king I had never been prepared to be.  I quickly left that land and sought out others who could extend my magical training.  If not for Merle’s attempts to make a name for himself through me, I would never have been educated at all.  And if not for the education he gave me and the resources his switch set me up with, I would never have been able to crawl from one end of the earth to another, seeking out knowledge as I have.  Frankly, I would not say the current systems of education work in humans’ favor overall.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Perhaps someday they will see the errors of their ways and they will begin to take education more seriously.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I very much doubt that will happen as long as the current class structure remains.  The scenario I have described to you is nothing compared to the class structure used in a region neighboring this one to the South and West.  There, they teach that the only way to get ahead is to do whatever it is you have been born into, as best you can, from birth until death, and hope that your soul comes back in the next life at a higher level, born to a more noble task.  They do not even consider trying to get ahead, to do better for themselves, they only try to do what it is they have been born to do, what their parents did and their grandparents, never striving for more or following their dreams.  Since they are taught from early on not even to dream of seeking more in their lifetime, how could anyone ever become free of such a system?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Perhaps only through the act of someone rebellious and high up, as has allowed you to reach the point you have, Merle.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Perhaps.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Now, I must say goodbye to you, Merle.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Already?  We have only spoken for the briefest of moments.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Yes, I am not yet old enough to travel this far out, so being here is still just as improper now as it was last year.  I must return before anyone suspects.  I am glad you were here, and that you have learned so much.  If you decide to use your magics to advance faster than seems right, I believe that your advancement will revitalize your body, and that when next I see you, you may be more alive than you have ever been.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I will certainly consider it, Ghadshyk.  Your guidance has changed my life already.  Shall we meet here again in a year, then?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “It seems so.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Until then, friend.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Until then, Merle.”  And Ghadshyk lifted up again from the earth and flew into the heavens and far away.

• • • • • • • •

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Is that it?  You got together after a year and just talked?  No fire breathing or shape changing or anything?”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “That is correct.  But consider our conversation tonight, and this weekend.  I think you may see that more happened that day than at first it would seem.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I will certainly think about it.  Of course, I’ll also be thinking about everything else you taught me today.  My head has never felt this full before.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I hope it is not too much for you, Larry.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “No, no.  Ghadshyk, it’s good.  I’ve never had so much going on in my head before, and every day before this one is as though it was wasted.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “I’m glad.  I thought perhaps that you might instead decide that your time here today had been a waste.”

Permalink for this paragraph 0 “Far from it.  What else would I have been doing?  Playing kick-ball with the guys?  This has been much more fun than kick-ball.”