A wondrous, strange land

Arco’s tail flicks anxiously as he gazes into the mouth of the cave, the idea to enter beckoning him stronger than a siren that sings to the lost ships at sea.

Go, the idea said. Go.

Like two wolves—panting, hearing themselves panting, the idea drags on in his computer mind. Arco relents, and pokes his snout into the crevice of the grounded hematite and ocher-stained stone. A shapeless scent in the damp air grazes his nostrils. The dragon huffs, curling his nose, and his lip tremors when he slowly pulls away.

Instinct cried for the dragon not to, and yet, Arco wriggled his way inside the cave. It was a tight fit, and his artificial heart lurched when his hips got lodged halfway through, but with enough struggle, he popped out.

The ice dragon catches himself and cranes his slender neck high to admire this new-found world. Moonlight from outside the cave makes the walls glisten and ooze as if he stands in front of a huge mirror. Sharp rocks around the entrance swirl with teal vines and trapped behind those teeth are thousands of flush peaches, littered on the ground, like tiny bones. Clouds of serenity drift across the ceiling, trickling with rain, and Arco plunges into the hungry darkness.

It was his keen nose and ears that guided him. The night air smells of crystals and river water. Tiny pebbles crunch under his paws as thin streams of water lap against his talons. His breathing is like a roar in such a serene, quiet place.

As he plods further, under his paws the rock gives way to soft saxe soil. Glimmers of turquoise stars bounce off the walls. It intrigues him, how could there be stars where there was no sky? And when Arco gently prods his horn into the stars, they squeak in surprise. Arco snorts and swiftly jerks his head back, and comes to realize they’re not stars at all, they’re glow worms. The worms inch into their burrows, nearly as surprised as the dragon himself. Towards the back of the cave a narrow passage leads off into a benign light, and Arco progresses toward it. He squeezes himself to be as small as possible to avoid contact with the walls, which is pretty difficult when you’re a ten foot monster. His shoulder brushes something wet in the dark and his nostrils flare in disgust, but he keeps his attention fixated on the light that rolls out of the passage.

Darkness presses in on him until he begins to wonder if he only dreamed of light. His horn grazes to where the walls should be and touches something smooth and slightly damp. He runs his tail across it to find that it is the wall. He follows its curve to feel cool air on his face, meaning he has found a cavern.

His talon stubs something hard and he winces, but when his ears swivel up like satellite dishes, a great thundering that he feels in his bones greet him. Round a corner, he follows it to its source… A wonderful, cascading waterfall. It is a fall of diamonds and rainbows, tumbling from a gash in the wall, plunging into a river to race into an opening in the opposite side, disappearing into darkness. It seems to chime and tinkle, as well as pound and thunder in his ears, while flash and wink in his eyes. Spay falls across his face and he smells coldness.

After one more awed look, he cranes his head down below at the glimpse of something alive.

Below the dragon were more odd lifeforms squiggling in the soil. Beetles with metallic backs that reflected what little light there was, giant fungi with bioluminescent caps that kissed the rocky ceiling, and under them teeny lizards taking shelter from the downpour of water. Arco licks his chops hungrily and widens his wings, sending a frosty gust of wind to sweep over the cave, and dives down the cliff he stood upon.

The world around him blurs into a mesh of blues, purples, and blacks as he plummets like a cormorant into the lake below, and when he connects with the water, it turns into an icy slush immediately. When his onyx eyes adjusted, a catfish was staring at him blankly. Its whiskey tendrils drifted in the current. The expression on its face said, “Why is there a dragon on my river stones?”

Arco ate it, and that made him feel much better about being here. He sluggishly swims against the current, twisting his body the best he could to fight against the stream, thickening with frost. It was a struggle, the water beats against his wings and snarls in his ears like tundra-lurking gas mountain lions. But he persevered, furiously thrashing his tail upstream until the mechanical whirring of his heart was all he could hear, and finally like a salmon gracefully leaping from the water, he flings himself onto land. Droplets cascade from his wings and pellet the wet rocks below like rain and he falls with a tremendous SPLASH, and with that, he had made it to the other side.

In front of him was an opening, rays of sun gracing a small patch of moss like the carpet to freedom, and he sprinted out, a toothy grin spread across his scaly face. His paws slap against the wet geodes below, and he squeezes his eyes shut to embrace the flush of wind whipping against his face until dead grass and snow is weaving between his talons once more.