by Paul Cude
"Erm... hello," he shouted, mindful of the danger all around him.
"HELLO," he shouted once again. "Could we possibly talk? I mean you no harm, quite the opposite in fact. I'm here to help."
"Get lost!" shouted Flash's mind, loud enough to startle all the vultures into flight.
Cautiously edging backwards, the healer half expected another volley of arrows. Fortunately, they never arrived. Buoyed ever so slightly, he decided to try again.
"I don't know who you are, but you need help. Let me help you please... I'm a healer."
A wavering, "Just leave," echoed down from somewhere up high.
A tiny glimmer of hope sparked within the healer, helping him to press on and save this very unusual individual.
"Your body is in bad shape you know. I can help... honest. But you need to come out... now. Every second you delay puts you in more danger."
Silence enveloped the whole vista; even the returning vultures resembled statues. Waiting patiently, the healer noted that whatever lurked in the moat, had for the first time stopped splashing and biting at nothing, while the clouds above were definitely changing from menacing dark, to a much fluffier shade of white.
Out of the blue a sickly looking dragon figure popped his head up from beneath one of the battlements about halfway down one side of the keep.
"Why should I trust you?" croaked Flash.
"Do you know where you are?" asked the healer softly.
Flash leant against the wall of the keep, exhausted, and shook his head in reply.
"Your body's in the dragon world beneath Perth, Australia. I was on my way to a medical conference, walking along a little used path, when I saw you crash into a pool of lava from one of the emergency entrances above. I've dragged you out of the pool and removed all the lava in and around you. But you've got this... this... wound, on your back. It's like nothing I've ever seen before, but I've read about something that it... resembles." He knew then that he had Flash's full attention, and could see that he was in a seriously bad shape. Having no idea what would happen if he lost consciousness here, in his mind, would the dragon die? Would they both die? It was impossible to know, and all the more important to persuade him to lower the barricades so that he could be helped. Quickly he decided to continue on, hoping to gain the dragon's trust.
"Your wound looks like it was inflicted by a... naga."
Flash's exhausted dragon shape leaning against the keep wall immediately became alert, looking suspiciously across the castle walls and moat, towards the healer.
"How would you know that?" demanded Flash.
"We really don't have time for all of this," replied the healer.
"Humour me," declared Flash.
"I study history... in my spare time."
"Really?"
"Look, everything I've told you here is the truth. I don't know who you are, but judging from the defences you've erected around yourself, you're anything but an ordinary dragon. If I had to guess, I'd say you were one of the King's Guards, or perhaps even a Councillor or something. Either way, you're in a bad shape, not just here, but back on the walkway where both our bodies reside. You need to lower your defences and let me guide you back to where you can take control of your own body and wake up in the real world. Then we can think about doing something with the wound. Nothing I've told you here is a lie. You need to act now. Time is running out."
Flash considered the stranger's words. It did all kind of ring true. Vaguely he remembered something about entering an emergency entrance of some sort, but the details eluded him at present. A pressing need to... go somewhere... to tell someone something, continually exerted itself on him. It weighed down on his mind as if he were deep below the ocean, with the pressure of all that water above him. Barely able to stand now, Flash knew that he really had no choice but to trust this stranger. As he started to lower the mental defences that years of training in the Crimson Guards had taught him, he hoped he was doing the right thing.
Standing stock still, the healer watched in amazement as the scene before him started to change. Arrow shafts protruding from the muddy ground around him shimmered briefly and then abruptly disappeared. The moat's water receded, its inhabitants vanished and the keep shrunk, slowly at first, but picking up speed as it got closer to the ground. Eventually the giant castle, vultures and everything else within, wrapped itself all into one, and transformed into a beautifully thatched cottage, wild flowers surrounding the bright white walls, with a wonderfully engraved oak door at its centre.
Suddenly the wooden door swung silently open, revealing Flash, doubled over, looking like hell. Sprinting over, the healer wrapped his consciousness around him, catching hold before he fell on the neatly mown front lawn of the cottage. Flash smiled gratefully, knowing that he'd made the right decision and cursing himself for having wasted so much valuable time. With the healer as his guide, he hung on as he was taken on what seemed like a whirlwind journey through parts of his mind he didn't even know existed. Very much like a mental maze, with the healer turning this way and that, sifting his way through Flash's memories, occasionally heading down a dead end and having to turn round, all sense of time was lost. The journey could have taken seconds or hours. Nothing made sense, which was odd considering they were inside his own head. Eventually they arrived at the centre of the mental maze. There, in the middle of another freshly mown lawn, underneath a swaying weeping willow, was a ten foot wide hole with smooth sides and absolutely no sign of how deep it was. It could have been eight feet, it could have been eight miles.
"There it is," ventured the healer. "Your way back."
Flash stepped forward, reluctantly peering over the edge.
"You're sure?" he asked, swaying gently back and forth.
"I'm sure it will return you to your body. What we'll find when we get there, I'm afraid I have no idea. Because I've been here so long, I've lost all track of time."
Flash nodded.
"Well... if it turns out badly, thanks for trying anyway."
The healer nodded in return.
"It'll be okay. I'll meet you back by the lava pool."
With that, the healer's consciousness gathered itself up and shot off back through the maze, disappearing almost immediately. Flash stood alone, gazing down into the gaping hole. Sweat flooded down his gigantic dragon head, rolled off his scaled jaw and dripped down onto the identical blades of grass beneath his feet. More than anything he didn't want to jump. He felt safe here. Still, the never ending pressure hovered all around him, a constant reminder that he was supposed to do... something, something important, something... in the other world, back where his body resided. Finding the centre of calm that had so often saved him, he closed his eyes and jumped feet first into the hole in front of him. Cloying darkness surrounded him.
Elsewhere, the healer had managed, with a great deal of difficulty, to find his way out of the maze that was Flash's mind, and was just waking up in his own body.
'No matter how many times I do that,' he thought, 'I don't think I'll ever get used to it.' Lifting his whole body up off the path beside Flash, the healer leant over the naked, raggedy human form, looking for any indication that he was about to wake up. While he waited anxiously, he tried to work out how long he'd been inside Flash's head. Concentrating furiously for a few seconds and reaching out telepathically into his surroundings, he eventually settled on minutes rather than hours. If he'd had to take a guess, he'd have said about twenty, but it was impossible to be any more accurate than that.
Flash landed with more of a splash than a bump. Just when he thought things couldn't get any weirder, he gradually started to sink into whatever it was he'd landed in. Struggling with as much strength as he could muster, he tried to escape, but the more he struggled, the more he sank into whatever it was. Moments later, a familiar feeling overtook him. It was only then that he recognised what he'd fallen into. It was his body, and he'd been gradually seeping back into it. As he sank deeper and deeper into the stic
ky goo that had broken his fall, he started to feel all the different aspects of it, not really caring very much for the sensation. It was a little like putting on a rubber glove to do the washing up: lots of fiddling and stretching, with it never really feeling quite right: the odd loose bit here, a bit too tight there.
Reaching out in the rubber glove that was his body, he opened his eyes, taking in a deep breath as he did so. At least, that was the idea. Instead, he found himself coughing violently, the fumes from the nearby lava pool burning his lungs. Panicked, he slapped at the burning sensation eating away at his face, but to no avail. Immediately a soothing presence was beside him, the same one he'd heard from beyond the walls of the castle in his mind only a short time ago.
"It's okay son, I'm here, just relax."
Flash fought hard to push away the pain, but it only made things worse. Then everything came flooding back in high definition. Automatically, he sat up, almost like a human jack-in-the-box, instantly wishing he hadn't. The healer wrapped his giant wings around him.
"Go steady little one. We need to get you to a med centre."
"No... no... no... no you don't understand. I have to get to London... NOW!"
"I don't think there's any chance of that at the moment. You urgently need medical attention. I'm sorry."
Burying his head in his hands, Flash tried to think over the pain that ran through his body.
'It's no good, I'm going to have to tell him,' he thought. 'There's simply no other way.'
Turning and looking at the healer for the very first time, he felt in awe of the impressive dragon that knelt beside him. With his vast experience and training, he knew a thing or two about dragons: ordinary ones, devious ones, powerful ones and extraordinary ones. This one, he knew without a doubt, came into the latter category. Wisdom and a kind demeanour positively radiated off him, and although he looked slightly frail around the edges, Flash sensed more than a little steel inside him.
'He would be much harder to fight than he looks,' he thought.
With no other option left open to him, Flash told the healer who he was, and a little about the mission he'd been on, leaving most of the important bits out, as they were only really for the king's ears. When he'd finished, he sat on the cool stone path, head in hands, waiting to hear what the healer would say, and if he'd help him get to the monorail, and then onto London.
Well, well, well," repeated the healer. "A Crimson Guard, whatever next? I thought I'd seen it all, but apparently not yet."
"Will you help me?" Flash asked urgently from beneath his hands.
"Of course," boomed the healer. "Who on earth wouldn't help you?"
Flash looked up at the huge dragon face smiling back down at him.
"Thank you so much, you have no idea what it me... aaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"
Crying out in agony, before blacking out, the healer caught his head before it hit the ground. Pulsing with evil, the wound on Flash's back oozed a sickly white pus that dribbled down the length of his spine. Watching for a few seconds, knowing full well that what he was seeing was almost certainly going to prove fatal to the young dragon, the healer knew there and then that there was nothing more important than getting this courageous Crimson Guard back to the monarch in London. Scooping up the naked human body, careful not to touch the deadly wound on his back, the healer felt a pang of regret. Every atom in his body screamed at him to head for a med centre, in case there was just the outside chance that a cure could be found. But he knew the information this dragon carried was not just vital, but critical, and had to be brought to the king as soon as possible. Everything he'd heard had convinced him of that, and he knew full well that the brave young dragon had left the most important, and sensitive bits out. Plodding off down the walkway in the direction of the nearest monorail station, part of him hoped not just to get the dragon to the king, but to save his life as well. Over the years he'd seen so much pain and suffering, and he just wanted it all to stop. Somehow he couldn't quite believe that it was just fate that their paths had crossed, here today. It was going to be a very interesting day.
* * *
Flash awoke to excruciating pain racing around inside him. Cursing in his mind, unwilling to open his eyes just yet, one thought dominated all others inside his confused and befuddled head: he must tell the king what he knew, immediately. As he willed the pain away with a view to opening his eyes, the slightest hint of vibration caught his attention. He was lying down, that much he knew, on something comfortable, which made a pleasant change, but there was something familiar, something... Opening his eyes, he sat up swiftly. Hope jumped up and down within him, as he realised where he was. It was almost too good to be true. He was on the monorail. Looking up from his paper from across the carriage, was the healer who'd rescued him from the lava pool.
"How are you feeling, son?"
Flash was about to describe the pain and writhing agony that seemed to go on forever, when he stopped to think about it for just a second. Something was different, different inside his body. Pushing the fuzziness that surrounded his brain to one side, he concentrated on what was going on inside him. While the pain from the wound echoed around in the background, in just about every other part of his body, he felt... okay. Not good, or great, but okay. There were no bruises, broken bones, aches or pains. Raising his hands, he felt around his mouth and nose, remembering that they had been chargrilled by the lava. Nothing... it was all back to normal. Looking across at the healer who straight away smiled back at him, he asked,
"Your doing?"
Folding the paper up in his lap, the healer nodded.
"I'm really sorry," uttered Flash, "but I have to ask. What is it that you're reading?"
"The Daily Telepath of course," replied the healer, a big grin spreading across his face.
"In paper form?"
"You have to know where to get it from, but yes."
"But why?" asked Flash. "What's the point when you can just download it to your mind and read it whenever you like?"
With a look much the same as an experienced adult would give a child when they asked a question that made little or no sense, the healer smiled before replying.
"Do you spend much time on the surface?"
"A little, usually when I have to."
"Next time you do, and you have a little free time, go and visit a book shop. Any one you like, but something small and private would be ideal. Spend an hour in there browsing, just look at all the books, take everything in. Even buy some if you're keen, but you don't have to. Think about that experience for a couple of days afterwards, and then use that internet of theirs to download a book and read it, if at all possible, one of the ones you bought. If you do all of that, you'll understand immediately why I choose to have a physical copy," he said, waving the paper in his hand.
Flash thought about what he'd just been told for a few moments, before agreeing to do exactly as suggested, providing he ever had the chance again.
About to ask another question, the darkened carriage started to brighten up. It was then that he realised they were pulling into a station. Gazing out of the crystal clear window, he was pleasantly surprised to see that they'd just arrived at Bali. As the monorail drew to a complete halt, the only other dragon in the carriage stood up, moved over to the doors and stepped through them as soon as they slid open with their customary whoosh. Seconds after the dragon had left, others came streaming through the open doors, some in human form, some not, but all, for some reason that he couldn't fathom, looking strangely at him. It was all the healer sitting opposite Flash could do, not to laugh. It was only when the monorail started moving again that Flash realised what was going on. There he was lying across one of the dragon form seats, wearing nothing but a fluorescent pink and yellow dragon cloak. Quickly he turned to the healer who by now was guffawing away, tiny clouds of smoke rising from in and around his nostrils.
Normally something like this would have set off Flash's mighty temper, but instead of getting upset
or feisty, he just joined the healer in seeing the funny side, and it wasn't long before tears were running down both their faces. Now both were getting strange looks from the other passengers, but neither cared very much. This was very much a new experience for the Crimson Guard, both laughing, and having someone to share that laughter with. Once the fit of fun had died down, Flash turned in the healer's direction, opened his arms wide out in front of him to show off the cloak, and asked,
"Why?"
Shrugging his scaly shoulders, the healer answered,
"It was all I could find at short notice. I thought you said you had to get to London as a matter of urgency. If you're that bothered we can stop off at Hong Kong and get you something tailor made."
Flash pretended to think about it before replying.
"No, it's fine. Gets a lot of air to all the important bits that need airing."
Sitting up, careful not to put any pressure on his back, he leant over towards the healer, although he didn't really know why (however low he whispered, the other dragons in and around would still be able to hear him if they so wished) he said a sincere,
"Thank you."
"You're welcome youngster. I'm just sorry I'm not able to do more. If not for the injury to your back, you would be in perfect health. I really don't know any more that can be done I'm afraid."
Flash looked on stoically. Part of him had accepted that he would die, sooner rather than later, but as long as he delivered the information into the hands of the king, it wouldn't matter, knowing he'd done well to get this far, and all would have been lost but for this very kind, very intriguing healer sitting opposite him.
"I'm extremely grateful for everything you've done, and I'm sure the king will be as well."
"Let's just hope it's enough, and with the resources available to him, hope that he has something that can rid you of that ailment," ventured the healer, sitting back in his chair, turning to watch the rock face outside, whizz by.