XXI 
Deeper Journeys
Such short time before there six thousand had been.
But now it was ended the battle-sung din,
And bodies and horses and armour and flags
Lay bloodied and wounded and scattered as rags.
Then Daask made a search through the last-standing souls
Who’d witnessed the battle from greenery knolls.
And soon he made stop at a youth he did see,
To focus his red-shining eyes into me.
His lumbering footfalls came crashing my way.
He wickedly smiled then deeply did say,
“I’ll tell you again to ensure that you hear:
The unified Dragon will always be near!”
Tho’ terror had gripped me, I needed to know
His motives for seeking me out in the throe.
“Say why you must haunt me!” I yelled to the beast.
“Say why you must slay me,” he answered apiece.
And as he did utter those words of dark force,
There came in his countenance signs of remorse,
And for but an instant I thought I did spy
The look of my lan’ret who’s flight went awry.
There followed that sacred and wonderful pause,
Which comes at the point wherein terror withdraws:
My fear, like the snow-caps, then melted away,
I knew in my heart I was no longer prey.
So into the Dragon I focused my sight,
To witness reflections of pulsing, red light.
Then slowly I sank to the darkening hues:
The scarlet came violet and mixed into blues,
Where currents of passion and feeling did swirl
O’er oysters of thought and convictions of pearl.
They flowed into oceans of grand enterprise,
With surfaces simple to fully disguise
The plans that conspired far down in the deep,
Where ancient dim mem’ries did silently creep.
These creatures that lurked in the monster’s wet soul
Had hideous features and limbs to control:
Cold scales and antennae, and crust-laden fins,
With slime-covered bodies and stick legs like pins.
What meaning, I wondered, did hold in each case?
These shadows of sea-things more ugly and base,
Like feelings dejected shared mis’ry with all,
Their pitied society lower did crawl.
Were these the emotions that governed Daask’s mind?
Were these the commanders his battle did find?
I reached out to touch one, to grab at a limb,
I found one, and pinched it before it could swim,
And pulling it closer, it struggled escape,
But still I could grasp its unusual shape.
Two black beaded eyes were its meaningless guides,
They lifelessly saw the world under Daask’s tides,
And served some odd purpose, some populous role
That ne’er could I fathom or have it console.
Right then with a claw I had reasoned inert,
It crunched at my finger a horrible hurt,
So quick I released it, and darting away,
It went for a region below me and grey.
This world was of water, yet strangely I breathed,
And sank me down still where unknowables seethed.
I reached the soft bottom, ‘twas muddy and grey,
A remnant, perhaps, of the colour that day
When there in my vision the Dragon was made,
Before he had ripened his emerald shade.
I walked o’er the ancient terrain undisturbed,
I sensed this was sediment aeons had served,
And as I trod through it, in clouds was it freed,
Awakened by action each mem’rable deed.
But then there did float past my dream-clouded sight
A new group of faces in eerie blue light:
Sharp teeth and eyes angry made hard out of stone,
My Lord - these were faces that I had once known!
I’d seen all before this carved stonework in grey,
On Canterbuild’s fortress - ‘twas God’s Judgment Day.
In panic I felt that I needed to find
Some course of escape from the Dragon’s vast mind.
I struggled to swim through his waters and tear
My way to his surface to breathe me some air.
My lungs were constricting, my heart growing weak,
With faculties fading his waters ‘came bleak.
But when it was done and I’d broken atop
The ocean’s broad surface of waves and their chop,
Directly in front and imposing on me,
A mighty green vessel did plough through the sea.
He hoisted high sails and was borne to the sun,
And of his proud sailors I wished I was one.
I watched then as Daask to the sunset made flight,
Back west to the heartland of Leighton and light.