Chapter 28

"Christopher. Christopher!"

He walks right straight into a wall made of stone and falls on his ass. "That's weird, the wall is red."

"Christopher."

Christopher freezes. The wall is talking to him. He gets up, back tracks fifteen feet and brushes himself off.

"King Christopher."

Christopher slowly follows the red wall up and up until a great big pair of piercing red eyes are staring at him. He swallows hard.

"Uh ... hello."

"We have been looking all over for you."

"Really? Why?" Christopher says, tilting his head to the right.

"I heard about what happened."

"Really, what happened?"

"About Gabby and your baby."

"Who is Gabby, and I have a baby?"

"Christopher, do you know me?

"No, should I?"

"We just fought a war together"

"I was in a war? No way! Did we win?"

"Of course, and you are to become king."

"Me, a king? Yeah, right, if I don't get home for supper mom is going to be mad. But Sarah will be excited to know that I saw a dragon today. You are a dragon, are you not?"

"Yes."

"Well it has been nice talking with you dragon, goodbye." Christopher says happily, and starts walking around him.

"Sarah is dead, Christopher."

"What?"

"Sarah is dead. I was there, Christopher. I saw the whole thing. I tried to stop her, but it was too late. It wasn't your fault."

"Well, that's good. Wait until I tell Sarah that I saw a dragon with compassion in his eyes. Okay, well thank you and have a nice day."

"Damn it. Christopher, wait right here, I'm going to get some help."

"Okay." he replies, as he keeps walking off. "What was that all about?"

As Christopher keeps walking, bright flashes of horrible images are flashing across his mind causing a searing pain each and every time. War? Death? Loss? That was a dream, wasn't it? That can't be right.

"Gabby. Gabby. Where are you, Gabby?" Christopher is searching frantically for her.

"I'm here, Christopher. I'm over here, Christopher."

The faster he runs towards her voice the further away she becomes. Faster, boy, faster, or you'll never reach her. Christopher runs and runs and runs, his throat is hurting and his air is coming in gulps. Shooting stars start to fly before his eyes.

"I can't breathe. Why can't I breathe?"

Christopher stumbles on the trail. "What am I doing outside? I can't catch my breath." He falls to the ground.

Horrible images flood his mind. He tries to shake them away, but they won't go.

"I see beautiful women and girls everywhere. There are magical creatures of all kinds. Dead bodies piled high. Fighting side by side. Fighting on and on. What is going on? The pain behind my eyes is blinding me.

"Mom? Sarah? Gabby? NO. NOOO. NOOOO. The dragon lied. It was my fault. It is all my fault!"

Christopher's breath comes a little steadier now. He gets to his feet and continues stumbling towards his village. With the light of day he begins to recognize more and more land features.

"I'm close. I'm almost home. I'll be there in an hour."

"Oh, shootings stars, there's a little girl on the trail in front of me and she has her hands out like she wants me to stop."

Christopher trips and falls into her. No, he falls through her. As Christopher lay on the ground he starts tasting blood that is coming from his lip. He doesn't want to look, but he does. She isn't there.

Christopher takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. He can taste the blood freely now. It engulfs his senses and reminds him of a time when ... when ... Remembering the rage and the hatred. It is all coming back to him.

The world takes on a surreal glow to it. He stands up strong and tall. He brushes himself off and rests his hand on his sword.

"That's right, you son-of-abysses, I'm coming home."

The very world itself begins to cry.

"Where are my soldiers? Where are these people who call me their friend? I AM ALONE! Destined to die covered in blood, with the pain of memories that are my own."

Christopher is jogging now. It is as if some deep part of him is trying to burn his rage out by running it into the ground. He has a chorus of voices in his head pleading with him to stop.

Christopher comes upon a group of travelers sitting on the side of the road about a hundred paces ahead. Christopher draws his sword and charges them. They jump up and run off in a northwesterly direction.

Christopher screams at their backs. He calls them cowards and he insults their lineage, but he does not chase them.

"I was so close to home now that a feeling inside of me was building to something that even though I didn't really know what it was, it was scaring me."

Christopher is running now. His sword is still in his hand.

"Control your breathing, boy, or you won't have the strength left to fight."

Christopher doesn't know where that came from, but it starts to help. He slows his pace back to a jog.

"There it was, the hill that leads up to my village."

Christopher slows his pace back to a casual walk and he sheaths his sword. The low sloping but long walk up the hill has his thighs burning by the time he reaches the top.

At the top Christopher stops and bends over to catch his breath and to let his thighs cool down. He looks up and all he sees is utter destruction.

"I saw desolation on a scale that matched my own soul. All the buildings were burned to the ground. The ground was scorched by what could only be dragon fire. You could see the leveled out portions of the ground, and the charred outline of what used to be the homes."

No one was about. No more room for memories. Every thing that Christopher had was now gone.

"Everyone I loved dead."

It is hard to get his bearings within the village at first, but eventually he finds his family's cottage. He walks around it. There in the back is the garden, which still has some things growing wild in it. For some reason it brings back to light the fact that he again has not eaten or drank anything in some time.

"I felt me dying, and that was okay."

Christopher goes back to where the front door would have been. He draws his sword and shoves it into the ground. Christopher leaves it there, weaving back and forth as a warning to all. He then goes into the middle of the ashes and lays down and sleeps.

"Christopher. Christopher, come and see what I found." It is Sarah and she is all excited again.

"What is it, baby sister?" Christopher says, looking down into those great big beautiful soft brown eyes.

"A black and yellow striped snake." She holds it up for him to see.