"Immortality" by K. Anne Snell

In the bowels of the mountain, the dragon lay sleeping.

Atop a mound of hoarded gold and jewels, shining armor and studded crowns, the centuries-old beast lay stretched on her back, snoring quietly. Her tail twitched as she was caught up in a dream, remembering the thrill of some escapade long past.

She awoke suddenly with a snort and rolled onto her stomach, glaring around her cavernous lair to see what had disturbed her, but all seemed normal. Raising her head, she sniffed the air and then froze. A grin spread across her face, revealing two rows of white dagger-like teeth.

Someone was coming…

Ignoring the ache that ran down her spine and reached across her tattered wings, the dragon rose from her belly and turned to face the cave’s entrance. She sat up on her hind legs and puffed a little smoke out of her nostrils to warm her interior furnace.

She could hear the human before she could see it. The intruder was whistling an obnoxiously happy tune, seemingly unaware of the imminent danger waiting just a few yards ahead.

This will be too easy, the dragon thought ruefully, the edges of her mouth curling up in a smoky grin as she was filled with an excitement she hadn’t felt in years. The thing probably doesn’t even have a sword. She could see the flickering reflection of a torch against the wall of the tunnel entrance, and a moment later a man’s tall shadow appeared on the floor of the cave. She inhaled deeply and lowered her head to release her flaming breath on the man.

“Hey – whoa there, Abigail! Watch where you’re pointing that thing!”

The dragon took a step back in surprise and snapped her mouth shut, gagging on the sudden buildup of flame and smoke in her throat. She coughed a few times, emitting a large cloud of ash in the process, and turned to glare at the man, who was stomping on his flaming hat. The torch had been engulfed in dragon fire and lay smoldering on the ground.

“Honestly, Abigail, you must take more care to identify your visitors before you proceed to torch them. You nearly burned me to a crisp just now.” The man picked up his once elaborately plumed hat, brushed off the dirt, and dropped back onto his head with much more flare than the charred thing deserved. He looked up at the dragon with a mischievous smile.

“You do remember me, don’t you, Abigail?”

The creature settled back down onto her throne of treasure and peered at the intruder with flaming gold eyes that had narrowed to slits.

“How could I forget,” she said in a voice as dry as ash. “Eric the Brave – the most heroic fool of a warrior never to die this side of the Sea. And still unable to defeat the oldest, fiercest dragon in the kingdom. How long has it been since the king last sent you up here, Eric? Ten – no, it’s been fifteen years, hasn’t it? Funny how the start to blend together. I was beginning to think even you’d stopped believing in me.”

“Honestly, Abigail, you underestimate yourself. How could I stop believing in a dragon who once torched the clothes straight off my back and was still laughing about it when I came back a year later?”

Abigail chuckled. “Oh, that was quite memorable. You should have seen the look on your face before turning tail and running back down the mountain with nothing on but your belt and sword sheath. You never did tell me how you explained that one to the king.”

“I told him you tried to eat me alive, which was true enough. They threw a feast in honor of my bravery and told me I’d get you for sure next time.” He gave a crooked grin. “It’s been 75 years now, and you’re still chasing me down that mountainside in my underwear.”

Abigail sighed and stretched her wings to the full span of 150 feet, then settled back down on her stomach. “We have had some good times, haven’t we? After not seeing you once in the past fifteen years, I was beginning to think it was all over. It’s nice to know the world hasn’t completely forgotten about me.”

“Oh no, they haven’t forgotten about you. But that little invisibility trick you pulled on me the last time I was here did more damage than you realize. After I told the king I hadn’t even caught sight of you, he declared the Dragon of Quinn Mountain an official old wives’ tale. They haven’t forgotten about you, but they certainly don’t believe you exist anymore.”

The dragon coughed up a cloud of black smoke and closed her eyes. “No wonder I’ve been falling apart so quickly. That’s the problem with the immortality that comes with fame – it feeds on belief. People stop believing in you, and you wither up and die.”

Beast and man sat in contemplative silence for a moment, pondering those words. Finally Eric responded. “I still believe in you, Abby,” he said gently.

Without looking up, Abigail retrieved a jeweled crown from her massive pile of loot and spun it absently around the tip of one dulled claw. “And that’s probably the only reason I’m even still breathing. Without your belief in me, I would have lost my ability to breather fire years ago, at the very least. You have a lot of faith for one man, you know.”

“Well, you hardly left any room for doubt.”

The two old adversaries again fell into silence, lost in their own separate worlds of thought. Abigail stopped spinning the crown and held it in her scaly palm, gazing at it contemplatively as she spoke.

“For centuries, I was the most feared beast in the North. After one fifteen-year break from terrorizing the countryside, I’m suddenly nothing more than a story to tell children around the hearth on stormy nights.

 “It’s funny how people lose faith so easily. It seems that physical proof is the only proof nowadays – without that one simply doesn’t exist. I can feel myself fading more every day now. Soon I’ll be nothing more than a breath of wind.”

Eric opened his mouth to protest, but Abigail cut him off.

“I’m sorry, Eric. You can’t keep me going by yourself. Immortality depends on more than one person, and I’ve lived long past my natural expiration date.”

“Then what good am I?” Eric despaired. “First I can’t kill you, and now I can’t keep you alive. People are losing belief in me as well – I can feel it. By all rights I should have died a good 30 years ago. Look at this -” he tore off his blackened hat, threw it to the ground, and pointed at his head. “I’m even beginning to get gray hairs. Don’t tell me all these unnatural extra years of waiting to die have been for nothing.”

Abigail smiled at her old friend. “You’re not dead yet, Eric. I don’t even have the strength to leave my lair and fly anymore. You can still walk down this mountain. And other people will listen to you – that’s one gift I never had in abundance.”

Eric stared at her, uncomprehending. “What are you getting at?”

“Well, you can tell stories, can’t you? You said yourself you’re beginning  to age; how much longer do you think you’ll be able to travel across the countryside battling evil with your sword? You may as well start looking into a second occupation.” Abigail gave a crooked grin. “You always did have a knack for talking.”

“You seem far too accepting of this situation, Abigail.”

“And why shouldn’t I? It’s only natural, after all. We all pass on eventually.”

“Well, don’t expect me to embrace death with such vigor.”

“I’m not expecting anything. But – will you promise me something?”

“What?”

“Don’t let the world forget me.”

Momentarily speechless, Eric turned to look into the dragon’s fathomless gold eyes. The first time he had met her 75 years ago, her eyes had shone like the sun dancing upon the waves of the ocean. Those eyes had caught him off guard more than any other feature of the magnificent creature, and he’d grown to love staring into the mysterious depths, wondering what was hidden beneath the surface. But those oceans had been drained, and Eric found that the gold was now nothing more that and orange haze reflected in shallow pools.

Eric felt the tears welling under his own eyelids, and quickly turned away. “I promise, Abigail.”

How could he not?

Abigail nodded and laid her head back down on her pillow of jewels and precious metal. “Just one other thing, please, if it’s not too much to ask.”

“Yes?” Eric responded. Abigail coughed, and a thick cloud of black smoke rose from her mouth to pool at the top of the cavern before dissipating.

“Will you stay with me, please? I don’t think it will be much longer.”

Once again, Eric could only stare at her. When at last he found his voice, it was barely above a whisper. “I would be honored.”

Abigail smiled and closed her eyes. Eric stood before her for a moment, watching the slow, steady rise and fall of her chest. He approached her and ran his hand across the side of her body, cherishing the smooth texture of the cool metallic scales that seemed to meld together to form one solid hide. He sat down and lay his head against her foreleg, closed his eyes and concentrated on matching the rhythm of his breath to her own. Within moments he was fast asleep.

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With her eyes closed, Abigail focused on the slow beat of her heart. The rhythm that had once been so sure and strong had faded to a weak, unsteady pulse.

A moment, maybe two, passed in dark silence. Suddenly Abigail realized she could no longer sense her heartbeat, nor could she feel Eric’s head resting against her. She could, in fact, feel nothing. The dragon opened her eyes and slowly looked around in wonder.

Abigail was no longer in her body. She stood instead on the far end of the cavern. And, as if in a dream, she could see herself still lying on her mound of precious treasure with Eric fast asleep against her foreleg.

So this is what dying is like, Abigail thought as she watched herself. So peaceful…

It was completely silent. No heartbeat, no steady inhale and exhale of breath, no sound of Eric’s high-pitched snoring. The smoky haze that had been eating away at the edges of her vision for months was gone as well, and she could see everything with a vibrant clarity that she had never before experienced.

But more than that, she could suddenly feel, as if every nerve end in her body had been renewed. The cold rock of the cave floor beneath her, a cool breeze flowing in through the wide entrance, the warmth from a lone beam of sunlight breaking through a hole in the cavernous ceiling…

The sun. How long had it been since she’d been warmed by its rays? Her ability to feel warmth had been one of the first things she’d lost in her fading, making life as a cold-blooded reptile quite miserable. But now, even in the shadowed cavern, she felt warmer than she’d been in centuries.

The warmth coursed through her body, giving her strength she had never expected to have again. Her wings tingled, itching to be exercised, to be close to the sun and feel the rush of the wind high above the mountaintops. It was an ecstasy she hadn’t had in years.

She looked down at her nearly transparent spirit form. Except for the way the light was reflected off where Abigail knew her body was, she was completely invisible. She looked up at her now lifeless physical body, resting atop a pile of treasure that she had hoarded for centuries, and was now utterly useless to her. Still fast asleep, Eric readjusted himself so that he lay next to her body with his head by one giant claw. His eyelids didn’t even twitch.

Abigail smiled fondly at her friend. How much harder would her passage have been if he had not been there to support her, even in his sleep? She had no doubt her spirit was much stronger than it would have been otherwise.

Thank you, dear friend. Never stop believing.

She inhaled a deep breath and blew out strongly, but no fire came. Instead it was only a mild gust of warm air that rustled the gray hairs on Eric’s head. The dragon chuckled silently. The silver looks good on you, Eric. Perhaps one day you might look wise for your incredible age.

Abigail turned away and moved down the long, dark passageway to emerge into the sunlight of late afternoon. For a moment she stood still in the small clearing before the cave entrance, letting her spirit soak up the warmth and light. It had been far too long since she’d last had communion with the sky and been lifted above the earth in a gust of wind. To have that closeness again…

She spread her wings and vaulted off the ground with a natural ease. Once she hit a strong air current, Abigail found she didn’t even have to pump her wings any more. She no longer had the mass or weight she’d had in life. The wind wrapped around her spirit, holding her close in a protective cocoon while merging with her so that soon she really was nothing more than an eternal gust of wind, carrying the sun’s warmth on her strong back as she flew.

The Dragon of Quinn Mountain would live on through Eric and the stories he would tell. But up here, she was independent even of him. Perhaps she might not have gotten there without his belief, but no matter what might happen in the future, she would forever be at home with the sky and the sun, flying above the ground as a guardian of the earth.

She was immortal.