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Part V - A Man Reborn
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In his final moments of human thought, Claudius thought of Athena. Before everything turned black and red, he thought of pink and blue.
Small glowing orbs clouded his vision, and black butterflies fluttered around in his eyes. The pink and blue faded away to the red of dying embers and the black of stone.
He knew he was succumbing to death. And that it was his fault Athena would grieve. Perhaps she would find love again someday. Someone who loved her just as much or more than him.
But it was his fault she had to find love again. His fault for not taking one light stroll out of the castle to terrorize some commoners. His fault for not mating with Heart of the Flame just one time.
An image peeked out of the blackness, all fuzzy. It was the long black snout of his father, the Patriarch. It bore into his mind, touching him, nuzzling him, loving him. Was it his father's long black snout, or Athena's soft rose petal lips?
He saw his long black snout but felt her lips. Dragon snouts never loved the way human lips loved. And so it must have been Athena, but where was her face?
And then the long black snout turned around, a mirror image. His father's red eyes dipped in cold, clear water. Everything melted away, and it was him. Sir Claudius. In dragon form, staring at himself. Black scaly skin, with red embers surrounding his ghostly blue eyes. Those blue eyes, contained something that was not a dragon. Contained the sea waves that crashed, the moon dust that sprinkled down on the earth every night, the forest music comprised of birds and leaves rustling and wind, someone singing in the distance without a face, a library with a universe on each shelf and a planet in each book, lovely men and women wearing draping clothes that hung over their bodies like sea foam, looking like they had just popped out of the ocean.
There was love in those lips. Those white fangs weren't made of bone and calcium but of pearls. Those scales weren't made of embers and ashes but of onyxes and rubies. But no one would ever know unless they came close to his long black snout and took another look. The long black snout. Like his father's. Those skin-shredding, bone-crushing fangs. Like his father's.
His father who knew this would happen and told him it would happen and yet Claudius never believed. Knew that life would end this way. He would find love with a woman, trade his scales for precious stones, read books and learn all those things dragons can't even begin to conceive… and to pay for this knowledge, this life experience, this humanity and love and joy and acceptance he had always wanted… Athena would grieve him. She could never enjoy life with him, and he could never enjoy life with her.
The first time ever Claudius transformed, a meteor struck the earth. The earth had to be reborn, out of whiteness and fire from the impact. There was a pulling-in and a pushing-out as his body shifted. And then there was a great release as the impact and shock of the meteor took hold: winds knocked over three-hundred-year-old trees and enormous waves crashed onto the rocky shore. An ecstasy and the feeling of watching a star burst open, as he tumbled over his black hairy legs for the very first time.
Those ghostly blue eyes had somewhere to take hold. A soul with someone to take root in.
And now he was dying. The blue ghosts of his eyes weakened with each blink. He lay at the edge of the universe, where snow fell all over his beautiful books. He wanted to get up and dust the snow off of them, so he could read the precious titles. But whenever he stretched his arm out, there was no pale skin, no thick black arm hair, no fingernails nor fingerprints, no palm with an "M" etched across it… so how could he be sure it was him and not something else reaching its arm out?
Someone knocking at the door. Death, surely.
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Author's Note
I know this part opener was pretty different style-wise, compared to the rest of the novel, but I really wanted to try something different for Claudius's dying thoughts. First drafts are for experimenting, right? I feel like it's in character for him anyhow. Let me know what you thought of the change and if you have any suggestions/critiques for this chapter. This will be the final part opener and I really wanted it to stand out.