竜の復活
Log 3: Dragon's Rebirth
"My name is Keith...."
The boy climbed from the bed, gathering the lightest of the down blankets around his body. He pulled his hair from his face as he turned to face Jason. His caretaker, laying dazed on the floor, staggered to his feet, picking up the warmrocks that had fallen.
"Keith?" Jason stammered. "Interesting name. I'm Jason."
"Jason." Keith nodded, his face like ice. "I remember you."
Jason shook his head - he had never met a boy like Keith, not at school or the uminchu dock. Mêristanis were dark haired and slightly tanned, not fair like Keith.
"You were to find me ... as the god-angels planned."
How do I know this? Keith queried in his mind. I have never met this boy! How...?
"You must remember," a female voice echoed in his head. "I will make you remember...."
Images flashed in his head - Jason, taking him from the water - a staff in a glass case, silver engraved with archaic characters - a dragon wreathed in fire, emerging from the sea--
"The dragon ... is coming," Keith whispered. "I have to leave."
The boy walked from the room, the blanket falling to the ground in his wake.
Jason set down the pile of warmrocks on the bed. "What dragon?" He follwed Keith out of the room, out to the beach outside the cabin. "By the sleeping god-angel, what is he doing out there, anyway?"
The two boys stood outside, one looking at the sea, the other watching over the former. If they heard the sea split apart, they did not make any move. If they saw the dragon with fire for scales, they did not blink.
The dragon, its head crowned with a diadem of emerald, bend down its lithe neck to the level of Keith's face. It snorted, puffs of sulfur escaping to cloud Keith.
«Do you remember me?»
Keith nodded. "You chased me ... a long time ago."
"Remember farther," his inner voice begged. "You are not looking back far enough."
More images: the dragon chasing him - a blast of searing light - spheres of souls crying - the ocean--
«I was to kill you when you awoke....»
A claw arose from the ocean, sweeping over the land to catch Keith's side. The boy fell without a gasp, letting the wounds on his chest release his lifeblood.
«Silver blood ... so you are him....»
Him? keith asked, trying to keep awake as he held back the throbbing pain. What does he mean?
"Remember farther...."
The last image: a woman with the wings of a raven - violet eyes reflecting a man with three pairs of an eagle's wings bleached white--
"I remember now...."