Human Hallucinations
I woke up in my cave. My whole body hurt down to my spiked tail as I stretched the soreness out.
That’s the last time I’ll go to a faerie party. I wonder how long I’ve been asleep?
My stomach roared, demanding food.
I stepped outside my cave. Squinting in the sunlight. Things had changed since I had been out.
The air smelled worse than an ogres lair. Everything was duller than I remember, the sky, the plants, everything.
Smoke rose from the trees in the distance.
Another dragon. Maybe they’ll know how long I’ve been out?
I struggled to fly towards the smoke. My wings were already tired for their efforts.
I landed by a fire, but there was no dragon.
“Ahhhh! Dragon!” the tiny creature yelled.
It was small, stood on two legs, had two arms, and hair on the top of their head. It couldn’t be…
“What are you?” I asked.
“You talk?” it said. “Maybe I got stung by something with hallucinating venom in my sleep?” It muttered to itself.
I hesitated. Maybe the faeries were still tricking me?
“I’m sorry, are you supposed to be a human?”
“Okay, I’ll play along. Yes, I’m a human. You’re a dragon?” it asked.
“You can’t be a human. Human’s aren’t real.”
“Dude, dragons aren’t real.”
“What? The world is filled with different kinds of dragons.”
“No, you’re the first dragon I’ve ever seen that’s not in a movie.”
“What’s a movie?”
“People act out stories on a picture box.”
“Where are my dragons? All my family and friends can’t be gone. Stupid faeries.”
The human stared at me a long time with a squinched up face before it moved. “Okay, we’re not going to focus on the fact that faeries are also real. We’re going to focus on helping you. Where’s the last place you saw the faeries?”
I had to think. It had been at the spring, at the tree stump entrance. I grabbed the human and flew.
“Give me a little warning next time! Not cool,” it said shaky.
I walked over to the stump. Nothing. “Human, use your magic to open a portal.”
“There’s no magic here.”
“There’s always magic,” I said. I inhaled the dense air and exhaled flames on the old portal site. The air rippled spitting out a faerie. The human’s jaw was on the floor. “Where’s my family? What happened?”
“Serran! You’re awake. We told you not to overdo it. Three thousand year nap,” the faerie said, giggling. It glanced at the human, stopping mid giggle. “You! Why would you bring a human?”
“The human is helping me find my family.”
“No. Human’s locked all the magic out of this world. Those that survived, moved to a different plain.”
“It’s okay, I’ll go.”
“No!” Serran and the faerie yelled at the same time.
“The human can’t leave. It will tell other people about us. We’ll be hunted again. Eat it and let’s go.”
“What?” the human said, gulping.
“No, we don’t eat our friends. Can the human come with us?”
“Fine you can keep a pet. Let’s go. Everyone will be excited you survived,” the faerie said, raising it’s hands expanding the portal.
“I can’t go with you,” the human said.
“Die or come with us, I don’t care,” the faerie said, shimmering into nothing.
Serran grabbed the human.
The human yelled, “We just talked about the grabbing!” They dissipated into a world of magic.
