One
You know how a fairy tale usually ends, yes? Usually it’s where the righteous prince slays the evil witch, and gets the girl, marries her, and they lived… and it’s those three words that you’ve heard of, so much times, until you want to vomit and throw your book across the room, hoping the next tale you read won’t be as hard on the eyes. Not that ‘happily ever after’ is a bad thing- in this case, we despise it just because we’ve heard it so many times and we know somewhere in that head of ours that it’s not very much possible. No one gets a happy ending. Never. The girl will never appreciate you, and the villain always gets their way somewhat.
At least, it wasn’t possible.
Now I want you to close your eyes- go on, do it, I don’t care if you’re in somewhere public and I don’t care if people will see you and look at you like you’re crazy; once you close your eyes you won’t see them anyway- and I want you to picture a world where villains came in more ways than one. Sometimes they don’t even have to be human.
Done? That fast? No, no, you’re not getting it yet. Try again. Now try to picture a monster, a large dragon that was so gobsmackingly and strikingly and utterly and mightily huge that it could bend the seas around it just by being there. And picture that this giant dragon was called the Kistala, and in a language much more ancient than civilization that name meant ‘titan’.
Now picture that this dragon attracted the worst of storms, storms that would shake the waters and tremble ships that were thousands of miles away. Storms with thunder and lightning that would whip against the surface of the seas with a force so fueled that it could momentarily evaporate the water it touched. And this monster was forced by its own storms to retreat to a place so far away, a sea where not even the gods and heroes would go willingly, and that this sea of myth and endless storms it lived in was called the Hagaji, the River of Oblivion. The world ends there, and when everything on Earth dies out, only this will remain.
Have you pictured it? I told you this wouldn’t be easy. Oh wait, I don’t think I did.
Now clear your mind. To Hagaji with the Kistala.
Imagine another dragon, one that resided in the valleys of mountains that formed the great East. This dragon had golden scales for its skin, scales so shiny that your reflection could be seen clear as day when you stared into it. Whiskers as long as the corridors of an apartment hung limp from its jaw, and two antlers, brown as bronze, stood proudly on the top of its head. Along the line of its spine were fins, large flat fins that swayed side to side from the gentle urge of the winds. Its belly was made of even rougher skin, a golden beige that could be seen as it performed spins and stunts through the water.
Imagine that this dragon was called Yuan, and it meant ‘wish’. On the very first day of every year, Yuan would show up at the docks of the village of Wu, and it would grant the wish of one person, and one only. But because of this, everyone wanted their wish granted. So the wishes became more and more ludicrous every time. People became kings of countries that hadn’t even existed the second before. Others chose to possess so many riches, they bathed and wore pure gold. As the magic of Yuan withered away, it chose to fulfill its own wish. It was so that Yuan used the measly remainders of its power to reverse the effects of every wish it had granted before. The kings were dethroned; the made-up countries faded away into dust; the riches crumbled into ashes and worms; the rich died as they were buried alive in their own choices. Yuan, realising what it had done, retreated into the deepest mountain, Liangji, and was never seen again.
Can you imagine that? Can you?
I told you it would be hard.
But once upon a time, in a world that is and isn’t ours, such things of mystery and wonder did exist. They just aren’t here. Neither is anything in this particular story. Is it the way a story is portrayed that makes it good or bad? Or is it the way the writer puts their characters to life, moving and talking and living by the stroke of every word?
Here’s the thing. Long after you’ve closed the book, those characters are still living. The places and buildings still stand. And within those pages, the future isn’t for you to picture, no. The future is for you to write out yourself. You control your own life, and that book is part of it.
Or rather, it was. Because in every book is a world that was and wasn’t ours, that IS and isn’t ours.
Enjoy.
