“Hey, Bill,
wait up!” John ran to catch up to Bill, who was already speeding along the
trail. “You’re going to miss things by going so fast. I saw a ring-necked
pheasant near here the other day.”
Bill
smirked. “A ring-necked pheasant? That’s small potatoes compared to the birds
that I want to see.”
“What is it
that you’re looking for?” John had caught up to his friend and was breathing
heavily.
“Oh,
something much more interesting.” With no further explanation, Bill walked at a
breakneck pace until they reached a small clearing surrounded by towering oak
trees.
John craned
his neck to look up into the treetops with his binoculars. “Is this the place
you were looking for?”
Bill wasn’t
listening. Counting trees under his breath, he stopped when he reached seven.
“This way.” He strode in between two of the oak giants and John hurried to
follow.
Plunging
into darkness, the two young men pushed aside branches as they followed a very
faint trail. With all of his attention focused on keeping his face free of
scratches, John didn’t notice when Bill stopped and he bumped right into him.
Annoyed, he wanted to yell, but he saw the excitement on his friend’s face and
he paused.
In a hushed
whisper, Bill said, “Okay, this is it. Got your binoculars ready? I don’t know
how close we’ll be able to get.” He slowly moved forward to what John could now
see was an opening through the trees to a large clearing.
Binoculars
in hand, John felt his excitement growing. This had to be a truly spectacular
bird. What could it be? An owl perhaps? It was certainly dark enough in these
woods. He strained his ears to hear the telltale hoot-hoot of an owl, but what
he heard instead made him stop dead in his tracks.
A
screeching roar rang out of the stillness ahead. Feeling the blood drain out of
his face, John’s voice came out as little more than a whisper. “W-what was
that?”
To his surprise, Bill had a
triumphant smile on his face. “It’s what we’ve been looking for. Come on!
There’s a great spot to watch just up here.”
With more
than a little trepidation, John followed his friend to a small rise which had
an unobstructed view of the entire clearing in front of them. He had to rub his
eyes several times before he realized what he was seeing. “Are those… dragons?”
Three
giant, lizard-like beasts were lounging in the clearing. All of them were
different colors, but they still seemed to manage to match their surroundings.
Blue, green, and yellow shades ran together over diamond-hard scales and were
only detectable once they moved. The massive creatures seemed to be slowly
rousing from a nap. Translucent wings spread out as the dragons stretched, each
one of them as big as a house.
Words left
John as his throat grew too dry to swallow.
Bill,
however, was beaming. “Told you this was better than spotting pheasants!” He
pulled his own binoculars up to his face. “When they’re on the ground like
this, it’s much easier to get a good look at them.”
A
yellow-green dragon displayed all of its lethal-looking teeth as it yawned.
Images of getting caught and trapped with those teeth flashed through John’s
mind. With effort, he whispered, “Are we safe up here?”
“Oh, sure.
I’ve been here lots of times. Just don’t make any sudden moves.”
John didn’t
think he could move if he tried. He could only stare as fear paralyzed him.
After a few minutes, one of the dragons, a blue-green one, gave a few
experimental flaps of its wings. The entire clearing was blasted with a wind
that nearly knocked the two friends over. Suddenly, the dragon crouched and
sprang directly up into the air and started to fly away. More wingbeats followed
as the other two dragons took off and flew away as well.
The sudden
stillness in the clearing was deafening. Finally convincing himself to move,
John sat down in the dirt with his head in his hands. “How?” was all he said.
Sitting at
ease beside him, Bill answered. “You know we’ve been friends for a long time,
right? Well, I thought it was finally time to show you where I came from.”
John stared
hard at his friend. “What are you talking about?”
With a
smile, Bill wrapped his arm around John. “I’ve just brought you to a magical
land where legendary creatures from your world actually exist. My family and I
were sent to live in your world to see how you live without magic.” Sadness spread
across his face for a moment. “It’s like living without color. I wanted to show
you how things can really be.”
John looked
into Bill’s face and saw that he was more animated than he’d ever seen him. As
his fear started to dissipate, he began to understand what Bill meant. After
seeing dragons, he couldn’t imagine anything else looking as majestic and full
of life as they had been. He gave a small smile. “You know, you’re right. But
maybe you could warn me next time you show me something like that. Those were
definitely not birds.”
