Lou
The dragons slept snuggled up close to each other. Even Harper y with them in dragon form. He slept next to Max. Lou leaned against his boyfriend's warm body. Sometimes, he had to dodge Max Dragon's Tail. (At least that's what he tried to do.) Harper's sister was a restless sleeper.
It was dark. Deepest night.
Yawning tiredly, Lou got up and crept out of the cave. By now he knew his way around well enough to find his way even in the dark. He walked until he reached the fence. Lou put his hands on the wood and looked up at the sky.
Louise had once told him that the stars and the moon were beautiful. Lou couldn't see it. But the thin, delicate boy was not here because of the stars.
He shivered a little in the cool night air.
"Why?" Looking up at the sky, Lou turned to the gods of the sand. "Why am I like this? Why did you make me suffer?"
No one answered him.
"Why? My parents didn't have to end up in the slum. My sisters could have grown up happily if it weren't for me. If I was normal! Normal! I can't see. I look strange. Differently. I’m feared! So why? Was it a lousy joke? Are you pying with us? Remy might still be here. He would never have had to turn against the Wise Men. Because of you! I've lost so much. My family has lost too much."
It was quiet around Lou. But a storm was raging inside him. "Do you really exist? Or did the Wise Men make you up? Do you not care about us? Do you not care about me? Why don't you intervene? Why don't you help? Why do you only talk to the priests? In pictures that don't give any answers? Just questions. Riddles. Pictures. So why do you talk to them at all? Are you making fun of us? About Louise? About me?"
Again he got no answer. Sighing, Lou sank to the floor. His feet dangled over the abyss, but Lou wouldn't fall. The fence protected him. Gave him security. "If you don't want to talk to me, then just don't do it. Who am I? A nobody."
Lou closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against the cool wood of the fence. His cheeks felt moist. He cried. "If only Harper hadn't saved me...", he whispered. Then I wouldn't know any of this." A lukewarm breeze came up. The wind seemed to caress his cheek.
Footsteps could be heard. Lou recognized the familiar sound of his boyfriend. He could now almost always recognize the siblings by the way they moved in human form. The tones, the sounds... Lou sighed. Had Harper heard him?
"Lou? Is something wrong?" The dragon had woken up after Lou's warmth had disappeared. Now, in human form, he also crept out of the cave. "It's dark. What are you doing here?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing?" The dragon sat down next to Lou and kissed his hair. He nudged Lou's nose, something Lou didn't like, and tugged at his fine, silky hair. "Vivi? I love you. I don't regret saving you. None of us does."
"Hm." So Harper had heard everything? Lou turned her face away from him.
"Vivi." The dragon threw his arms around him. "I know you were unhappy. I think I now understand why you ran into the sandstorm. But when I saw you by the river... Do you know what I saw?"
"What?" asked Lou. "A boy hiding in the reeds? A snack? There's not much on me. It's not worth it", he tried to joke. "I don't think I taste good."
"You're not a snack. Although... You smell delicious." Laughing, Harper kissed Lou's hair again. "A boy who is hiding? Yes, that too! But no. You sparkled. Shined. I had never seen anything so beautiful. You were like the sparkling stones in our caves. Attractive. Charming. Vivi? You are the first human who can move between dragons without magic. Easily. No spell is binding us to you. You have all the dragons wrapped around your finger. And you didn't have to do anything to do that. It was enough that you are simply you. You are special. And if the gods don't want to answer you, then they're stupid."
"How much did you hear?" Lou turned his head back to Harper. Again the warm wind teased him. "Stupid? The wise would accuse you of bsphemy!"
Still ughing, Harper shrugged his shoulders. "Gdly. I am a dragon. Their opinion is unimportant to me and my life. As long as they leave Sparklevivi alone, I don't care about them."
"Sparklevivi?" Smiling, Lou leaned against Harper. "Like my sparkling stone? I'm not that pretty."
"That's right. You're prettier. Come on, let's go back to sleep."
"Hm."
As the two walked back into the cave, it seemed as if the warm breeze was following them.
Lou looked around.
He didn't know where he was. Blinking, Lou looked at the bright lights around him. It took him a moment to recognize the lights as the stars. Round and beautiful. Then he became aware of something.
He saw.
Lou was standing on a milk-white, transparent floor. He saw tall columns. The stars twinkled. They were bright, huge. He saw a moon as big as the mountains themselves. Lou saw the sun. He saw shimmering clouds.
Lou didn't know where he was. Here, in the dazzling solitude.
Something moved across the floor, around him, into him. Golden grains, like sand.
"Huh?" Surprised, he took a step back. The grains of sand followed him. He saw a blue cloth moving like sluggish water. Lou was surprised to find that he was wearing a dark blue robe. It shimmered slightly as the strange sand flowed into the fabric. Like starlight. Everything sparkled.
Lou walked slowly to one of the pilrs. The white stone, or was it another material?, felt cool. Pictures of figures in long robes were painted at the foot of the column. The sand, no, the stardust, flowed slowly around the pilr and then further into the infinite starry sky.
At the same time, the magnificent sparks also moved in a different direction. Behind Lou. When Lou turned around, he saw a well. Round, beautifully decorated. A tree, a star, the moon, and the sun, the figures in their robes. The fountain had not been there before. Lou was sure of that.
He had been standing in the same pce.
Lou followed the stardust to the well where the sparks, the light, and the sand flowed until he stood in front of the well. A strange calm came over him. He felt safe in this luminous solitude.
"Why am I here?" Lou stroked the smooth stone of the fountain. No one answered him. "Am I dreaming?"
Stardust flowed around his hands. It seemed to him as if the sparks wanted to show him something. In the well. Lou looked inside. Infinite sparks, wonderful light moved in peaceful swirls within the fountain. The light shone endlessly. It flowed in and out. Infinite.
"Magic", he whispered when he realized what exactly he was seeing. Lou leaned over the edge of the fountain and ran his hand through the glittering magic. It felt warm and familiar. "Beautiful."
But then he suddenly lost his footing, he had bent too deep into the well and fell.
He was shocked to find that he began to float after a few seconds of a frightening fall. The magic gathered around him, teased him, caressed him. Lou smiled.
He smiled even as he watched his hands slowly dissolve in the light. He became part of the magic...
Lou opened his eyes. Warm, soft feathers tickled his cheek. He y under Harper's right wing, snuggled up to the dragon's rge body. They had fallen asleep like this. He saw nothing but the darkness. No colors. Nothing. It was still night.
"It was a dream?" Lou yawned. Unlike other dreams, he could remember everything. The fountain, the pilrs, the starry sky. Now he knew what the night sky looked like. Lou smiled. The stars were much more beautiful than he had imagined.
His whole body tingled. Warmth moved under his skin as if the stardust were still there. Then the feeling slowly disappeared.
A strange dream.
sasi